I’m a big fan of using essential questions and themes to organize my social studies class. If you’ve looked around this site, you probably know that already. If not, check out a few of these posts and then come back: Use Themes to Make Social Studies More Civics Oriented Civic Spotlight: Redesigning a Thematic World […]
It’s not news that civic knowledge and civic engagement throughout the country is pretty low. Recent polls show that a lot of people can’t even name the three branches of government. One reason for this is that our social studies classes are often not living up to their purpose. In a lot of cases, they […]
It’s no secret that the general public is pretty ignorant about the political process. There are any number of data points that you can cite to show what people don’t know. And one of the reasons for this is that at times we aren’t fulfilling our purpose with social studies classes. They are often structured as […]
A new show debuted on ABC this fall –The Mayor. When I first started seeing ads for the show, I wondered, “Is this going to be good for teaching civics?” The premise is that a young, undiscovered rapper decides to run for Mayor as a publicity stunt – and he wins. On the one hand, […]
It’s January, and that means that the deadline for StudentCam 2018 is rapidly approaching. Submissions to the contest are due by Thursday, January 18. If you’re not familiar with the contest, StudentCam is an annual documentary competition hosted by C-SPAN. Students create a 5-7 minute documentary on a given theme, incorporating archival C-SPAN footage in […]
It’s a common complaint today that people don’t know how the government works and that they don’t learn anything about civics in schools. One reason for that is that we often misuse social studies courses – setting them up as history courses dominated by facts and chronology. Instead, we should organize these classes around a […]
If we’re going to do a good job of preparing our students to be citizens, then we can’t let social studies be driven by facts and chronology. Instead, it should focus on important themes and essential questions. By placing the emphasis on these themes, we turn facts into tools by which we can understand the […]
One way to help prepare our students to be better citizens is to ensure that social studies is not driven by facts and chronology. It should instead be anchored on important themes and essential questions. Placing the focus on these themes turns the facts into tools by which we understand the world. We learn to […]
Project Citizen is a textbook and curriculum designed to help you teach civics through project based learning. You can make it the centerpiece of your civics class or incorporate it as an extended project into a history class. If you’re not familiar with the program, you can read more about Project Citizen here. But today […]
This week, episode nine of The Mayor aired. In this episode, “Grey Christmas,” Courtney reflects on his first year as Mayor and whether or not he’s made any real progress with Fort Grey. The show is a fun way to talk with students about issues related to civics and government. As part of an ongoing series, […]