Preparing for AP Tests with iCivics

Posted on February 16, 2022July 30, 2024 by Luke O'Connor

As a former Advanced Placement History teacher, I can confidently say that one of the most essential skills for our students is comprehensive source analysis. The College Board AP History (U.S., World, European) exams in May require students to analyze sources for both the multiple choice and writing portions of the exam. In addition to being able to summarize a document, students in AP courses need to “HIPP” the document to analyze things like historical context, intended audience, point of view, and purpose. And iCivics is here to help make sure all students have the preparation to meet that rigorous demand!

Check out the highlighted resources below:

DBQuests

A great tool for the younger grades as well as the start of the AP year is the iCivics collection of DBQuests. DBQuests are already prepared with a big question and walk students through source analysis and summary skills. By starting with a review of the author and audience, the students practice those analysis skills in a structured way. If a student makes a mistake, the DBQuest redirects them to try again until they get it right. That in-the-moment formative feedback is a fantastic tool to support student mastery.

After analyzing the source, the DBQuest has students pull evidence from the document to answer comprehension questions using a drag-and-drop tool. After students select textual evidence to answer the questions, that evidence is presented and students use the textual evidence to summarize the main ideas. By scaffolding students through the analysis and summary of these primary and secondary source excerpts, teachers can foster development of this important skill using a ready-made and high-quality resource!

DBQuests are assigned using an iCivics teacher account and are Google Classroom and Clever compatible. The teacher materials also have printed copies of the documents, as well as enrichment and scaffolding activities, so teachers can differentiate to meet the needs of every student in their classroom. Using this ready-made resource will help free up your plan time, empower and engage your students, and can allow you to work in the role of facilitator. Coach and circulate the class to review student progress and provide formative feedback as students are engaged in the work.

Exploring Primary Sources

Another great resource to use when preparing for AP tests is iCivics’ Exploring Primary Sources mini-site. You’ll find even more tools and activities to help students practice working with sources, as well as some professional development for yourself.

In addition to our DBQuests, teachers can discover partner resources like Eagle Eye Citizen, KidCitizen, and Journalism in Action (and more!). Eagle Eye Citizen gets students practicing sequencing, contextualization, and close reading, while KidCitizen’s videos engage students with primary source photographs and develop their critical literacy skills. Journalism in Action is an interactive learning tool that helps middle and high school students examine the role of a free press in different moments in history using historical primary sources. We all share the support of the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Program.

Be sure to use these iCivics resources to help you reduce your planning and delivery work, so you can spend your classroom time facilitating high-quality source work and enjoy a fresh cup of coffee!

Written by Amanda Setters

Amanda Setters is a Curriculum Associate at iCivics. She is responsible for creating and revising curricular materials for teachers and students. Prior to joining the iCivics team, Amanda taught middle and high school social studies in Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition to reading and spending time with her family, Amanda enjoys learning from her favorite historians.

iCivics partners with Teacher Created Materials on new book, Teaching Civics Today

Posted on February 4, 2022July 30, 2024 by Luke O'Connor

Developed in partnership with Teacher Created Materials, Teaching Civics Today: The iCivics Approach to Classroom Innovation and Student Engagement is a professional resource that shows teachers how to bring civics into their social studies classrooms in an engaging, meaningful way.

“We don’t teach civics like we used to, and thank goodness for that! Our students now benefit from a renaissance in civics instruction – an innovative revitalization of the frameworks, methods, and materials we use to prepare students for their critical role in our constitutional democracy,” said Emma Humphries, Chief Education Officer of iCivics. “All of this and more is succinctly captured in Teaching Civics Today.”

This book, written by John Larmer, explores key civics topics and provides teaching strategies that build content knowledge, develop 21st century skills, and engage students in practice and action. The book:

Explains why civic education is important
Supports teachers by outlining best practices for civics instruction
Helps teachers integrate literacy and civics
Includes useful implementation tools such as project and lesson examples

Whether used with the exciting iCivics Readers or by itself, this resource is the perfect tool to help teachers develop tomorrow’s leaders today by guiding students to understand the value of civic engagement.

2 New Infographics on Congressional Leadership

Posted on December 14, 2021July 30, 2024 by Luke O'Connor

A picture is worth a thousand words which is why our infographics are so popular with students. Our newest set of Leadership & The Agenda infographics shows how party leaders shape the congressional agenda in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

These two infographics pair perfectly with our Congressional Leadership mini-lesson or can be used as a stand-alone lesson with the help of our downloadable Teacher’s Guide. The guide includes base knowledge, emphasizes visual literacy skills, and provides conversation starters and activities for students.

Looking for More Infographics to Spark Conversation?

We have a whole library of them! From how a bill becomes a law to ranked-choice voting and the roles of the president, our downloadable and printable infographics provide visually appealing, graphically concise, and substantive overviews of key civic concepts.

Find Support, Collaboration, and Inspiration with the iCivics Educator Network

Posted on December 13, 2021July 30, 2024 by Luke O'Connor

What a crazy time it is to be a teacher! The COVID-19 pandemic has created such uncertainty and much of what I thought I knew about teaching and learning has been upended. While trying to figure out how to handle this new environment, I’ve come to realize that my need for support, collaboration, and inspiration is greater than ever. I’ve found all that and more in the iCivics Educator Network.

I’ve been teaching ESOL and bilingual social studies in middle and high schools for more than two decades, but the past three school years have been unlike any in my experience. My students are among the most vulnerable to the economic, physical, and educational effects of this pandemic. As I approached the beginning of last school year, I felt such trepidation about going back into the classroom in-person. I worried about how safety protocols and hybrid scheduling would affect my ability to engage with my students and to share my love of all things government.

Fortunately, as a member of the iCivics Educator Network, I was able to connect with peers around the country and learn how they planned to deal with the same concerns. There was such camaraderie as we bounced ideas around and shared resources. During my five years in the Educator Network, I’ve always appreciated the passion and expertise of my fellow members, but now I more fully realize the exceptional nature of this group. Going back into the classroom was still scary, but thanks to this wonderful network, I felt more empowered to continue the work I love under trying circumstances.

Members of the iCivics Educator Network enjoy many more benefits than the wonderful collegiality. We have opportunities to beta test new iCivics resources, learn about the latest features and updates, and access amazing educational opportunities for ourselves and our students. I hope you’ll join us and share your own passions and expertise. We’d love to have you!

Written by Ada Bélanger

Ada teaches ESOL and US history/government in Bedford, New York. She has been a member of the iCivics Educator Network since 2016. She accidentally stumbled across iCivics during an Internet search several years ago, and today iCivics features prominently in her classroom.

4 Ways to Build Classroom Community Through Feedback Using Kami & iCivics

Posted on December 10, 2021July 31, 2024 by Luke O'Connor

A strong classroom community is vital for empowering students and making them feel valued. Creating such an environment should foster kindness, responsibility, compassion, empathy, and more. Though there are many ways to build toward a strong classroom community—including through family involvement, identity, and predictability—feedback is one aspect that is often overlooked.

Feedback is an important component for building classroom community because it is what students rely on to understand and reflect on their actions. Decisions are based on this feedback and impact how students will operate in the future. Students need adequate feedback about their work in order to improve. Therefore, a method for providing feedback needs to give teachers plenty of options for communicating with students. Fortunately, iCivics and Kami have you covered!

Kami allows teachers to markup, discuss, and provide feedback on iCivics lessons using Kami’s text, comment, and media tools.

Here are four ways to use iCivics and Kami to provide feedback to students:

1. Utilize the comment tools

Kami’s comment tools allow teachers to respond directly to a specific spot in students’ work. This flexibility means that teachers can pinpoint targeted areas for improvement and praise. Kami’s comment tools also allow for teacher and student reply. Why not try using the comment tool to ask a scaffolded question that will help students rethink something they answered incorrectly? Then allow students to try again by replying to your comment! Rather than seeing feedback as failure, students will see it as an opportunity for growth and repeated practice.

2. Give praise with correction

Some students will respond well to corrective feedback, while others will struggle with it. One way to balance this is by offering praise along with corrective feedback. Studies show that praise boosts student confidence and motivates them to complete or stick with challenging tasks. Kami’s media tools allow teachers to add stickers to student work indicating “great effort”, “excellent work”, and “good idea.” You can follow up the visual appeal and excitement of a sticker with a more specific explanation of what the student did well with Kami’s comment tool.

3. Use student exemplars with the class

Using a projector or smartboard, share student exemplars with the class. Kami’s markup tools like the text highlighter and the drawing or shapes tool let you emphasize for students what to focus on. We recommend sharing a range of student exemplars at varying performance levels and discussing them with students. When students see and have opportunities to discuss examples of real student work, they gain a better idea of what success looks like at different levels.

4. Offer real-time feedback on assignments

As students think through their own ideas and grapple with an assignment, circulate around the room to monitor students’ progress. Take note of what students seem to be struggling with and what they are getting right. With students’ permission, select a sample to project on the whiteboard to model and discuss with the class. Use Kami’s annotation tools to draw students’ attention to important pieces of evidence or keywords that underscore the concept you are teaching. If you need to provide this feedback virtually, Kami allows teachers to make comments in real-time on iCivics lessons and provide students with the opportunity to improve their work as they continue to complete the assignment.

Using Kami’s tools with iCivics assignments will allow teachers to give students the formative feedback they need to build confidence, resilience, and a classroom culture of learning. Try using Kami with iCivics today!

iCivics & History’s Mysteries Partner to Expand Innovative History and Civics Curriculum for Grades K-5

Posted on December 6, 2021July 31, 2024 by Luke O'Connor

iCivics acquired History’s Mysteries’ elementary curriculum, and will continue to work in partnership with the creators to further develop the product, making it available to K-5 students nationwide.

iCivics is partnering with History’s Mysteries to integrate its K-5 learning offerings into the iCivics suite of educational materials. This marks a significant investment for iCivics in elementary civic education, which has historically been underserved by the field.

The partnership with History’s Mysteries will allow iCivics to address this fieldwide deficit, and provide a full library of learning materials for every grade level K-12, giving elementary educators an accessible way to engage younger learners in history and civics during the most foundational years of their education.

Founded in 2009, iCivics reaches more than 145,000 teachers and 9 million students annually through free, nonpartisan games and interactive lesson plans that teach the fundamentals of civic education by putting students at the center of learning.

Similarly, History’s Mysteries places young learners in grades K-5 in the center of the action by challenging them to act as history detectives. Its curriculum asks students a “Big Question” such as “What does it mean to be a citizen?” and then guides them through a discussion with teachers in which students use primary sources such as images, videos and texts to form conclusions.

Over the next few years, iCivics will expand History’s Mysteries’ K-5 content and make materials easier for teachers to use by aligning the content to standards in all 50 states. As part of the partnership, History’s Mysteries will be rebranded as Private “i”: History Detectives. The new, upgraded History’s Mysteries content will be available at iCivics.org in time for the 2022-2023 school year.

Of the partnership, Kelley Brown and Laurie Risler, who created History’s Mysteries, said, “History’s Mysteries originated from educators asking for accessible primary sources, inquiry-based learning, and engaging materials. We developed a foundation of historical mysteries that will undoubtedly grow and improve with such an incredibly respected and knowledgeable organization. iCivics’ long track record of creating quality, balanced, and engaging materials for learners makes me so excited for the future of our partnership and the new Private “i” History Detectives in elementary classrooms all across the country.”

“iCivics has wanted to expand into elementary curriculum for quite some time. The building blocks of lifelong civic learning can and should be laid in the earliest grades. We’re incredibly excited about History’s Mysteries and what it will bring to our youngest learners,” iCivics Director of Curriculum and Content Taylor Davis said. “We already know that K-5 students are eager to learn more about civics. What better way to do that than by building on young students’ natural curiosity and asking them to take on the role of history detectives in search of civic knowledge and skills through the close-reading of primary sources and critical thinking.”

This collaboration grew out of the Library of Congress’s Teaching With Primary Sources (TPS) initiative, which provides grants for organizations to build materials and tools that teach key concepts using the Library’s digitized primary sources and other online resources. iCivics and History’s Mysteries are both grantee organizations and members of the TPS Consortium.

Ethel Payne: First Lady of the Black Press

Do students see their communities and the issues they care about covered in the news? More inclusive coverage of national and world events is due in part to Ethel Payne, the second Black woman to become a member of the White House Press Corps. In her position, she asked leaders tough questions and wrote hard-hitting news stories. Her persistence brought civil rights issues to a national audience and put Black people’s experiences on the front page.

Patsy Mink: Changing the Rules

Does your school have a women’s soccer team? And do your students aspire to careers in law, science, or engineering, regardless of their gender? Patsy Mink helped make that possible as the co-author of Title IX, the landmark legislation that prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal money. Mink was the first woman of color elected to Congress and in her 24 years as a Representative battled inequality by changing the laws.

Rachel Carson’s Fight for the Environment

The United Nations Climate Change Conference starts this weekend in Glasgow, Scotland. Many of the issues world leaders will be discussing and taking action on were first brought to light in Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking book, Silent Spring.

Looking for more lessons about how women have impacted history? Our suffrage resources will help you teach about the importance of voting and how women have had to fight for their right to vote.

5 iCivics Election Day Activities

Posted on November 2, 2021July 31, 2024 by Luke O'Connor

Happy Election Day! Today, important local elections will be held around the country. These races and ballot measures are a great way to introduce students to voting, explore how the process works, and talk about the impact casting a ballot can have right in their local communities. If you’re searching for fun Election Day activities for your class, look no further! Check out some of our top resources.

1. Cast Your Vote Game

Cast Your Vote demonstrates the value of becoming an informed voter. In this game, students will research candidates, identify issues important to them, and then participate in a simulated local election.

The Extension Pack explains concepts and vocabulary that may be new to students and turns many parts of the game into teachable moments. The game offers English language learner (ELL) support and a pre/post-game assessment quiz, which will help you gain insight into what students learned during gameplay.

2. Voting Rights Lesson Plan

Even though your students may not be old enough to vote, they still can have major influence on elections. From registering voters to contacting elected officials, young people have many opportunities to participate in this democratic process. This resource guide – designed to be used independently – gives students tools, ideas, and guidance for engaging in elections outside the ballot box.

4. The Spectrum of State Election Laws Infographic

The rules for voting can vary greatly from one state to another. Keeping track of the differences can be difficult, but this interactive infographic lays out the various options and allows students to pinpoint which laws apply to their state. From registration to IDs to recounts, this infographic truly covers the election law spectrum.

5. Got Ballot? Lesson Plan

One of the best ways for students to understand how voting works is to see a ballot themselves! This lesson takes students to the voting booth and explains what they could see on a ballot. From referendums to recalls, students will get a better understanding of how voters have the opportunity to initiate change in state and local government.

These just scratch the surface of iCivics’ options for Election Day activities. Check out our Election Headquarters and Politics and Public Policy curriculum unit for more!

Using iCivics in Special Education

Posted on October 27, 2021July 31, 2024 by Luke O'Connor

This may sound like an obvious statement, but working with students in special education is not like teaching in general education. I know I’m not breaking any new ground with that statement, but you might be surprised at how few resources are out there for teaching social studies in special education.

In some cases, like with iCivics, resources can be easily adapted to accommodate the different needs of varied classrooms.

As someone who has spent most of the past eight years teaching middle and high school social studies content at non-public, special education schools in the Baltimore area, I can tell you that iCivics materials have to be used a little bit differently in my context.

For example, it seems like most Gen Ed teachers have their students play iCivics games individually. Students can go through the game at their own pace, and this setup also allows for friendly competition. This method is undoubtedly appropriate for many students. Others, however, do not always work best on their own, which brings me to my biggest piece of advice: Play the games as a whole group.

When I started using iCivics games in 2014, the entire class played together out of necessity. The school I was at had great technology, but we didn’t have a class-set of laptops, let alone individual laptops for each student. I had my desktop and a projector. So, I had no choice but to project my screen onto the board and ask my students to help me make decisions.

My students made it quite clear that they did not care what I said or did; they didn’t want to learn anything about the government or civics because they saw no use for it. Mind you, these special education classes are full of kids on a diploma track whose life experiences have often included negative encounters with aspects of government, including the public school system.

It’s for this reason that playing Executive Command with that first group of students was a transformational moment for me. To see the excitement my students had being President of the United States was truly awe-inspiring.

After helping me navigate the executive branch, that first group of students (and most of the subsequent groups of students) were so excited, they wanted to play iCivics games again and again. They wanted to play so badly, they were willing to take turns and watch each other play on the board.

That’s right: students who often had trouble being in the same room with each other for more than 30 minutes were willing to take turns, watch politely, or sometimes even help each other navigate the game!

So, next time you play an iCivics game with your class, try playing with the whole class. When you play the games as a whole group, you can better manage how engaged students are in the game.

You can:

make sure students actually read and understand what the game’s asking them to do.
make sure students understand what all the symbols and logos stand for.
scaffold the reading and listening portions of the game, if necessary.
fill in some of the missing content knowledge they may need to fully understand the game.
ask probing questions to encourage deeper thought.

An important addition to this is to realize that when playing as a whole group, the game takes much longer. The first time you play with your class, build in at least two days to complete the game, allowing time to fill in the content knowledge, ask probing questions, etc.

There are undoubtedly benefits from students playing iCivics games individually, but I would at least start by playing the game as a whole group and then build up to students playing independently or in small groups. Either way, you’ll know that you’re helping to prepare your students to be more civically engaged.

Written by Neil Wrona

Neil is currently a Special Educator at Mount View Middle School in Howard County, MD, but has taught the gamut of high school social studies for most of his eight years as a teacher. He has been a member of the iCivics Educator Network since 2017 and has been a book reviewer for Solution Tree Publishing since 2020. You can follow him on Twitter @neilwrona.

Through the iCivics Educator Network, the perspectives of teachers across the country contribute to the public conversation about civic education in the United States. Each contributor represents their own opinion. We welcome this diversity of perspectives.

Are Your Students #VoteReady?

Posted on October 11, 2021July 31, 2024 by Luke O'Connor

The U.S. Government class started the same way it has every semester for the past three years. Students faced the following question:

If/when you are eligible to do so, will you register to vote?

(And for those who do not meet the citizenship or residency requirements: Will you encourage those who can register to do so?)

And, as with every other time students have faced this question before we actually got into the curriculum, the answers were roughly the same:

“I don’t really care about politics.”

“I don’t know enough to figure out who to vote for.”

“Those people are all the same; it doesn’t matter if you vote.”

“Elections aren’t real—‘they’ already know who is going to win. The voting is just a show.”

“I’ve got to save my money for other things, I can’t pay to register to vote.”

“One vote doesn’t matter.”

“What difference does it make?”

“ I have to answer ALL those questions to register?”

“I don’t have an ID.”

I have heard these same responses from dozens of students. Our public high school in Allentown, PA, is relatively new, and has graduated only three classes of seniors so far. This year, I enter into preparing my fourth cohort of 17-18-year-olds to take their place in adult civic life in our community. As with past years, I will be faced with several sections each day of students promising me that I will not succeed in convincing them that voting should be in their toolbox of ways to have an impact on their future.

Allentown is a city of more than 121 million people. Set in the Lehigh Valley in southeastern Pennsylvania, Allentown is home to a population that is more than 68 percent BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), most of whom belong to the city’s Hispanic/Latino majority. Around a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, and almost a fifth of the population is foreign-born. These demographics are reflected in Allentown’s public school district, where 84 percent of the 16,000+ students are BIPOC, with almost 70 percent identifying as Hispanic/Latino. Additionally, 89 percent are from low-income families, and 100 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch.

We know that nationwide, communities of color and communities with high levels of poverty have the lowest rates of voter registration and voter turnout. Allentown is no different. While Pennsylvania as a whole has a higher-than-average rate of voter turnout (in 2020 approximately 71% of Pennsylvania’s eligible voters turned out to vote, compared to 68 percent nationally), and the Lehigh Valley rate was higher than both the statewide and national turnout rates (75% in 2016), voting rates across Allentown’s neighborhoods vary widely. Voter turnout in Allentown’s affluent and mostly White West End is more than three times the rate in Allentown’s Center City neighborhoods.

It is from these neighborhoods, where voting isn’t a tradition seen and practiced in most households, that my skeptical students come by their beliefs about voting. They often report never having seen someone vote, not knowing anyone who has ever voted, and sharing a general disbelief that the government represents or serves the people in their homes and neighborhoods. They look at candidates for office and do not see themselves.

My students are the perfect representation of research published in 2016 listing the most common reasons why people don’t vote.

Registration is hard
Lack of education and/or lack of a community of peers who are voters
Lack of enough choices
Apathy and burnout.

Luckily, several of those obstacles to voting can be addressed within the civics classroom—and that’s where our classroom investigation of voting comes in.

Voting Starts in the Classroom

Voter registration drives are common sights in U.S. high schools. Often consisting of decorated tables in the school cafeteria, energetic student volunteers with clipboards at Back-to-School Nights, and colorful posters hanging on bulletin boards with directions to registration websites or stacks of paper registration forms, registering voters is the work of extracurricular clubs and outside organizations partnering with volunteers within the schools. But in communities where the act of opting into formal participation in the institutions of civic life isn’t a given, it isn’t enough to merely hang a poster and hand a student a form to fill out.

We show students what we value through what is given a place in the classroom. In our school building, this has meant giving voting a place front-and-center in civics instruction.

The opening discussion around “will you be a voter?” is the launch of an eight-week investigation around the history of voting rights and voter suppression, trends in voter participation, analysis of access to government resources compared to voter turnout, and current proposed state and national legislation to either expand or restrict voting access. At the end of these eight weeks, students complete two culminating tasks—an argumentative research paper on methods needed to improve voter participation and a personal decision: will they register to vote or not?

The sequence of instruction is as follows: Before entering their senior year, students are immersed in a civics-focused social studies curriculum, where all instruction culminates in some form of civic action. The anchor of this curriculum is the iCivics’ Foundations of Government curriculum unit. Each year, students have grappled with their role as “We the People” and what it means to be responsible for self-governance under a republican democracy based upon popular sovereignty.

Over the course of the first half of their U.S. Government semester, students work through the following activities:

Comparing voter turnout: Students begin by looking at examples of allocations of federal resources to states as they are influenced by voter turnout. Students learn that politicians are driven to pay more attention to the needs of populations that vote.
Investigate the following areas
- Who should have the right to vote?
- Why don’t people vote?
- What stops people from voting?
- Who votes? (A map-based investigation of voter turnout)
- Should we make voting mandatory?
Culminating task: Students then research state and federal voting reform proposals, select one or propose one of their own, and produce argument papers to support their ideas. Time permitting, students translate their formal papers into posters, public service announcements (PSAs), social media posts, and letters to the editor to share their learning and persuade the community.
Voter registration drive: This happens within the classroom, not the cafeteria. Research shows that difficulty completing the registration process is a major obstacle for individual voters, so we make space for it during regular instructional time. The iCivics resource Got Ballot? is a great tool for supporting new voters as they grapple with their first ballot. We also celebrate new voters by throwing a “First Political Birthday” party the day after each election day, with cupcakes and candles for each student who voted for the first time.

The Proof is in the Progress

Voter registration takes place three times a year in our high school: once in early fall for those eligible students who turn 18 before the November elections; again in mid-winter for those who turn 18 before the April Pennsylvania primaries; and a third time before graduation to support those who turn 18 after those dates. Students become ambassadors and reach out to peers who need support, and even bring home their newfound expertise in the registration process. Many parents, aunts, cousins, and neighbors have also been registered as part of student voter registration drives.

Has facilitating deep student investigation into voting and the consequences of low voter turnout had an impact on student belief in their ability to raise their voices through voting? Judge for yourself!

Remember where the students started off each semester? Overwhelmingly skeptical and disinterested in anything related to voting.

At the end of each semester? In 2020, our high school was one of 20 recognized nationwide by When We All Vote and MTV for excellence in new voter education and registration. What’s more, we have earned the Governor’s Civic Engagement Award all three years that we have had 18-year-olds as students—twice at the gold level.

This award recognizes Pennsylvania high schools for success in voter registration. Schools must register 65 percent of eligible students to earn the silver level or 85 percent for the gold level. (Only COVID prevented us from reaching Gold status last year).

One of my students from the Class of 2019 came to me as a student who believed that voting in Pennsylvania had nothing to do with her. Most of her family still lived in Puerto Rico, and she claimed that there was no reason for her to vote any place else. After a semester of learning, she had not only registered to vote, she was also one of three students who represented us in Harrisburg to accept our first award from the Governor.

What changed her thinking? That fall, her home community was devastated by Hurricane Maria. In the classroom, she learned that although Puerto Rico is part of the United States, and Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, the island has no votes in the Electoral College and, therefore, does not participate in general presidential elections. Her family, then, had not been able to vote for the President who would decide on relief and recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and could not vote him out if they were unhappy with his decisions. But this student realized that she could use her vote in Pennsylvania to speak for her island and her family. She is a perfect example of what can happen when we connect student learning to authentic experiences in students’ lives.

Written by Shannon Salter

Shannon Salter is in her 10th year teaching high school social studies. She has worked under a National Science Foundation grant, published research in Social Education and The Science Teacher, and spoken at National Geographic, the National Council for the Social Studies, and several professional development sessions. Shannon is a member of the iCivics Educator Network, the National Geographic Educator Advisory Panel, the National Constitution Center Teacher Advisory Council, and is currently serving on the Educating for American Democracy Implementation Consortium. Her passion is creating opportunities for students to use the skills of civic action to take their learning in all subjects out of the classroom to make an impact on their community.

Category: Educator Blog