Tag: Teaching with iCivics

Using iCivics in Special Education

Posted on 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 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.

  1. Registration is hard
  2. Lack of education and/or lack of a community of peers who are voters
  3. Lack of enough choices
  4. 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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?
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

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.

Teaching Tips: Customizing your Game Sandwich

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

In a recent blog post (Meet the iCivics Extension Pack), we talked about the iCivics “Game Sandwich.” As you bite into that dish, here are some ways to add a bit more flavor.

Customize Your Game Sandwich

✔️ The best part of the Game Sandwich is that you can pick and choose which activities and slides you’d like to use. It allows for flexibility, and the amount of time you spend is up to you. Activities progress from quick comprehension checks to open-ended activities where students are asked to dig deeper.

✔️ Introducing a large amount of content like the amendments in Do I Have A Right? or the responsibilities of the three branches in Branches of Power at one time can be overwhelming for some students. We recommend limiting the amount of slides from the Extension Pack that you teach in a single day. We also suggest having pairs ask and answer questions about the slides to get them talking. 

✔️ For vocabulary building, provide students with a list of words to know and practice. You can use the Glossary of Game Terms from the Extension Packs.

✔️ ELL tip: Have students share terms that are relevant in their native language.

✔️ When teaching English and multilingual learners, it’s a good idea to address the four language domains: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The games provide listening and reading practice, and the Extension packs cover the other skills.

Do you want fries with that?

As a “side item”, we offer additional game-related resources. Most games have an illustrated guide (available as a downloadable PDF in English or Spanish). Each one has a different title, such as the Amendment Guide, (Do I Have A Right?), SCOTUS path (Argument Wars), Isley City Fact Sheet (Cast Your Vote), Classic Dept Guide (Counties Work). These guides can be used to:

✔️ Preview the game as an advance organizer

✔️ Introduce the content before playing so that students can become familiar with the main concepts. For example, the Amendment guide is a way to teach the amendments before playing and highlight the illustrations and color-coding in the game.

 

✔️ Review the game after playing.

Each game also has a Game Guide which is a PDF that explains how the game works and gives some useful tips for playing. This comes in handy when a student turns to you asking questions beyond the content. It gives you immediate boss-level insights.

Where can you find these resources?

You can find these game-specific guides by going to the game page (while logged into your teacher account) and clicking the “DOWNLOAD RESOURCES” button.

For more information about the Extension Packs and the “Game Sandwich,” check out this blog. 

More tips & tricks:

Find more articles about how to best use iCivics resources below.

Using Games to Drive Student Engagement in a Remote Classroom

Adding My Voice to iCivics Material: Tips and Tricks for Making Online Learning Accessible and Engaging with Kami by Andrew Swan

iCivics in Dual Language Teaching: How to Utilize iCivics Resources to Engage English and Multilingual Learners by Verónica Schmidt-Gómez, MEd

Written by Kristen Chapron

Kristen Chapron is Senior Editor of Digital Learning and ELL at iCivics. As a leading “chef” for the iCivics “game sandwich,” Kristen has been serving up and guiding the direction of Extension Packs for more than four years.

Tackling Civics: 5 Project Problems iCivics Helps Solve

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

In my 21 years of teaching middle school, I have experienced many PD sessions and received countless books, tech apps, teaching “guides,” and “supports” from administration. Very few of these have truly improved my life or my professional practice. (Perhaps you can relate?)

The ones that were valuable had one thing in common: they solved a problem. They didn’t cause more work for me; they reduced my workload. They were not just cutting-edge flashy fads; they offered real shortcuts and long-lasting solutions. 

As I’ve taken on the new 8th grade civics project requirement the past few years, I have experienced many problems…and I finally found one solution to all of them: the iCivics workbook.

Here are five problems that the iCivics workbook helps resolve.

Problem 1: Dealing with Reality

Stuff happens, and we know to expect the unexpected (school assemblies, illnesses, new students moving in, global pandemics, etc.). As I’ve learned the hard way, civics projects can get stalled or accelerated at any time by a single email reply, a guest speaker visit, or another real-life development. 

iCivics’ Solution: Their curriculum material never prescribes a certain amount of time for each lesson, and it does not presume that all your students in a class are working on the same project. The lessons and activities are deliberately ambiguous: “you” could be an individual student, a small group, or the entire class. This leaves it up to you [the teacher] to divide students however you like. They could split into groups halfway through the project, or a single student could “go rogue” with their own project idea and continue following the workbook.

In terms of daily implementation, there is also a lot of leeway. You could have whole-class read-alouds of the text on workbook pages, or assign them as homework, or some combination. (This links back to the solution to Problem 3: the passages and activities are generally accessible to everybody for independent success.) If a class discussion or guest-speaker visit goes longer for one group than others, you could let them catch up by reading or doing a certain page of their workbook before tomorrow’s class. Hooray for simplicity!

If you get squeezed for time near the end of the unit*, then perhaps some or all students don’t reach Stage 6 (“Reflecting and Showcasing”). That’s OK, because, in my humble opinion, that is the least important aspect of the project. Implementing their action plan from Stage 5 could be a success in itself, with no glitter glue or slide transitions required.

*If that’s never happened to you, then please let me take you out for a drink or coffee so I can learn your secrets of success! Haha, just kidding; of course, this has happened to you.

Problem 2: Properly Pacing the Project

In my experience, students usually take too long choosing their topic and then go too fast in developing their plan — often they even meld the two steps together in the early days of the project: “Let’s make an Instagram account right now to tell people about the city’s recycling program!” Whoa, whoa there, kids, let’s think this through. When you are leading this project for the first time, it is tough to know when to push the class along versus when to let them marinate on a decision, especially when you are developing most of the material yourself.

iCivics’ Solution: Many pages in the workbook prompt students to slow down, think carefully, seek multiple solutions, and evaluate possibilities. Lesson 3.2 “Who You Gonna Call?” is not about busting ghosts; it’s about considering the differences between individual, group, and government actions to a community problem. At the end, students are prompted to determine which would be the best approach to a scenario and explain their answer. Twelve pages later, they apply the same judgment to their real-life topic, which should lead them to a well-selected government action as their project’s plan. Image removed.

Page 76 is another good example, where students list potential influencers and rank their connection on a 1-5 scale. That should prevent them from just contacting the first people they think of.

For situations where you need to nudge the class forward, set a time limit for completing a certain page. In certain cases, you might have to take Executive Command to break the logjam. Later on, everyone can turn back to that workbook page to judge the value of that decision. Also, I think it’s valuable to have a physical workbook where you can point forward through the text: “Look, folks: we’re on page 28 and there is a lot more work left to do!” 

In case you’re wondering, social media campaigns first appear on workbook page 78, and there is a “Build Your Toolbox” activity page that forces students to carefully consider the value of tactics like creating an Instagram account to spread awareness. Maybe, just maybe, that’s not the best bet. 

Problem 3: Effective Organization

The wonderful & terrible thing about civics projects is that they are real-life efforts. That means things get messy & complicated quite quickly, especially when you are juggling multiple groups and/or classes. I have literally lost sleep at night trying to keep everything straight, and developing then re-developing organization systems for classwork. Without a strong structure, everything will collapse like a house of cards.

iCivics’ Solution: The workbook lays out six stages that provide structure by “starting wide” at the community level, then guiding students to narrow their focus toward a single issue, developing skills to research that issue in multiple ways, seeking outside help from influencers and decision-makers, and finally designing their “pitch” to persuade productive action. In reality, it is not as simple as that sentence makes things sound, but the workbook is chopped into lessons (3-6 pages and 1-3 class periods each) that build on each other. You might be able to skip one or more lessons, depending on your students’ prior knowledge and the project topic they select, but you probably won’t need to add anything. 

Furthermore, I cannot overemphasize the value of having a single container for all the lessons and most (maybe all) of the students’ academic output, notes, and reflections … instead of grappling with loose papers all over the place and/or clicking through dozens of shared GoogleDocs! That is a very big One Less Thing.

Problem 4: Appropriate Assessment

How do you grade each student fairly, especially if you’re running a whole-class civics project? Assigning quizzes seems time-consuming, and waiting until the end for a formal unit test probably doesn’t seem great either. And what are you actually supposed to assess, anyway?!

iCivics’ Solution: In the workbook, each of the six stages has a 4-column rubric at the end where you can individually mark students’ progress on the activities. You could also re-create that iCivics chart as a Google Sheet, a rubric in your LMS, or whatever else works for you. Personally, I prefer assigning open-ended reflections throughout the project. That is also built into the workbook, with at least one prompt per stage. Each lesson in the Teacher’s Guide has a header of learning objectives that remind you about the skills & knowledge that could be assessed after the activities. That will help avoid the common syndrome of Oh My Gosh Everything Matters Paralysis.* 

For example, lesson 3.3 addresses the differences between government regulations vs. provisions and restrictions vs. benefits. If students don’t get those terms straight, remember that the main purpose is for them to identify “tax-supported facilities and services” — not a perfect record of distinguishing types of service. Let’s just make sure that kids know there are multiple specific ways for local & state governments to impact people’s actions. In the “Apply To Your Issue” workbook page at the end of that lesson, students should be able to successfully identify at least one potential government solution to the problem they’ve been researching. BOOM! Mission accomplished.

*OMGEMP is a serious condition. Side effects include nausea, insomnia, muscle spasms, and caffeine addiction. If symptoms last for longer than 24 hours, seek professional attention.

Problem 5: Finding Age-Appropriate Curriculum Material

Real-life civics projects are challenging enough without pausing every two sentences to define a half-dozen vocabulary words, dangit! All the other existing teaching guides that I’ve seen are geared toward high-school students in terms of reading level and conceptual framework. The curriculum that my school district has used the past few years needed a lot of modification to work for all our 8th graders, to the point that we were basically re-designing the whole (expensive) thing!  

iCivics’ Solution: The Civics Projects workbook is student-friendly in terms of page layout, font size, and overall approach.

For example, I really like the several stories that run through the six stages, like Amir’s project which introduces the concepts of influencers and stakeholders, then reappears 20 pages later as the basis of the “speech sandwich”. The spiraling of examples & concepts will definitely work for my 8th graders, and I imagine it would for high-schoolers, as well. 

I also greatly appreciate the skill-building pages like “Research Time” in Stage 3, and the appendix pages for “Surfing Success” and “Finding SMEs.” These could be helpful reminders of previously-learned skills, or a really good introduction to concepts of media literacy and source selection — depending on your students’ needs and experience. These are some of the elements I had to add myself when I used a different civics curriculum (which shall remain unnamed).

I am not a textbook or workbook person. I have always been more of a “control enthusiast,” like Patrick Warburton in those rental car ads: producing and redesigning my own teaching material pretty much all the time. However, it pains me to admit that with the civics project there were too many problems I could not solve myself. The Civics Projects workbooks are the only curriculum guide I would ever use from cover to cover.

If you would like to use iCivics’ workbooks to assist with implementing civics projects in your classroom, check them out by clicking the button below!

Purchase the Workbook Now

Written by Andrew Swan

Andrew is an 8th grade Social Studies teacher at Bigelow Middle School in Newton MA, where he has worked for 17 years. He has been a member of the iCivics Educator Network since 2019 and served as a reviewer of the iCivics workbook. Andrew is also a co-moderator of the popular SSChat Network that hosts weekly social studies chats on Twitter with the #sschat hashtag. Follow him at @flipping_A_tchr.

Measuring Up: Civics Projects and Assessment

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

If you’re a Massachusetts civics teacher, then you’ve been trying to figure out how best to lead the required 8th grade civics project. You’ve probably asked yourself: How am I going to approach this? How will I keep students engaged? How many weeks will I need? Then, after you’ve mapped out your ideas and expectations, you may find you still have a burning question.

How am I going to grade all this?

It’s a fair question. The implementation of the civics project can take six to eight weeks of class time, and that’s a long stretch to go without concrete assessment. So what can you do?

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) Civics Project Guidebook provides some ideas. It includes a general outline of assessment categories and sample competencies for making your own rubrics. But what if you need weekly grades in your gradebook? What if you want more direct assessments of student knowledge and skills? This is where the iCivics workbook can make your life a little easier.

An Abundance of Activities

The Civics Projects Workbook by iCivics follows the six stages of project development outlined in the DESE Guidebook. In each stage, there are several lessons consisting of a reading and follow-up activities. You can select the activities you want and grade each individually on an effort scale. Or, you can assign all the activities in a given stage and grade them as a group. The workbook provides a rubric at the end of each stage where all the activities can be combined for an overall stage grade.

As for the activities, the iCivics workbook provides plenty of options. Variety is the spice of life, and the same is true for civics project assessment.

  • Do you want students to write? Each stage in the iCivics workbook, concludes with a writing prompt. The prompt asks students to reflect on something they learned or a skill they gained during that section of the project. The prompts are accessible by all students, but if they aren’t challenging enough, you can add another question, require specific examples, or ask students to write a story that describes what they learned. If that’s still not challenging enough, you can turn the reflection prompts into oral presentations or even formal essay assignments.
     
  • Would you rather have quizzes? The iCivics workbook can help you create simple vocabulary quizzes. In all the readings, new concepts and terminology are printed in bold. You can easily skim the book’s pages to collect enough vocabulary for a quiz at the end of each stage.

All of this sounds good, but the biggest challenges in assessing the civics projects come when students are completing their action steps. This is when students are working in their groups to complete research, develop public awareness materials, conduct interviews, or plan events. How do you assess individual progress when each student and each group have different assignments? The iCivics workbook has you covered.

Assessing Action Steps

It contains several graphic organizers where students can show their research and planning. Each organizer provides another assessment opportunity. The workbook also includes individual and group tracking sheets. This is where students can list their weekly goals and track what they actually accomplished. The tracking sheets give students support for managing their work, and they give you a quick way to evaluate their progress. Lastly, in the workbook’s Appendix, there are templates for writing emails and scripting voicemail messages when contacting their local leaders. The templates can be completed by all students (not just the ones sending requests) and they can serve as yet another form of assessment.

So, while you’re planning your approach to the civics project this year, remember that iCivics has your back. Our workbooks provide the content and structure students need to be successful. And they provide you with enough assessment opportunities to keep your gradebook full.

Purchase the Workbook Now

Written by Lora De Salvo

Lora De Salvo is a Curriculum Associate at iCivics. She has 16 years of experience teaching U.S. history and U.S. government courses at the two-year college and high school levels. She has also worked as a training specialist with the Anti-Defamation League facilitating anti-bias and anti-bullying programs with middle and high school students.

Bringing Civics to Life for Students Through Film

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor once said, “For me, civic education is the key to inspiring kids to want to stay involved in making a difference.” When students understand how government functions and the role that people play in shaping a democracy, they begin to see the value of civic education that Sotomayor highlights. 

One way to allow students to step inside of a civic experience and gain a deeper understanding of the function of government and the role that they play is through film. When used properly, films can be a powerful educational tool to develop critical thinking skills. Educators who have used film in their materials agree. One resource you might use is Journeys in Film.

Journeys In Film is a non-profit organization that believes in the power of films to open minds, inspire an interest in learning, amplify issues, and compel viewers to make a difference as they engage in their communities. “Journeys In Film introduced me to films that can have a great impact for change in the classroom,” an educator recently shared after a professional development workshop highlighting Journeys in Film’s materials.

The Journeys in Film library of films with corresponding free resources (CORE-based curricula and/or discussion guides) includes 22 films that have dedicated Social Studies Lesson Plans, many with civics components. The lessons are designed to be simple enough for the beginning teacher to manage easily, with all materials camera-ready. And of course, all lessons are standards-based, so the teacher can readily incorporate film into an established set of learning goals.

Eager to try using films in your classroom? Here are some iCivics resources that pair well with Journeys in Film lesson plans:
 

  • A favorite among Journeys in Film’s offerings for middle school classrooms in teaching civics is Please Vote For Me, a documentary about an elementary classroom election in China. The curriculum includes A Lesson In Democracy, which would pair well with many of the Politics and Public Policy lessons available through iCivics.
     
  • The film He Named Me Malala, a documentary highlighting Malala Yousafzai’s advocacy work, includes a lesson about Working For Change and a discussion of What Can You Do?, which can be used in combination with iCivics’ County Solutions lesson plan.
     
  • For teaching about First Amendment rights, consider the film The Post, which is about the Washington Post’s effort to publish information about the Pentagon Papers. Journey in Film’s curriculum includes lessons such as The Supreme Court and Freedom of the Press, Why Is a Free Press So Important?, and First Amendment Rights and the Student Press. iCivics also provides resources that can be used in conjunction with Journey in Film’s, including The Role of Media, NewsFeed Defenders, and Student Expression.

Written by Jennifer Fischer

Jennifer is a writer, film producer, and educator whose work focuses on highlighting shared human experiences to cultivate empathy and understanding. Her films have screened across the United States and abroad and have been featured by NBCLatino, ABC, Univision, Fusion, NBCBLK, Vice News, and others, with her film “THE wHOLE” premiering at Amnesty International’s 50th Anniversary Human Rights Conference. She has developed curriculum for LA’s BEST, the Metta Center for Nonviolence, and in conjunction with the Outreach Center for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, where she received her M.A. She is currently the Outreach Director for Journeys in Film. You can connect with Journeys in Film on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.