Visit the Study for the Test (2008 version) page to find materials for the English and 2008 version of the civics test to use as part of your classroom resources. Many of these items can also serve as self-study tools.
Through grant making to National Trust Historic Sites, the Marder-Vaughn Center promotes a more concrete understanding of our shared civic values. The Center provides greater context and support across the National Trust 28 Historic Sites, focusing on the development of civics-focused, highly experiential programming that centers the educational, social and emotional needs of children and young adults while engaging with the staff of the National Trust's Historic Sites. It also creates and disseminates digital resources and national models for other historic sites across the country and around the globe to follow, facilitating exchanges of best practices.
The Marder-Vaughn Center funds the Marder-Vaughn Teachers-in-Residence at National Trust Historic Sites program. Dr. Samantha Averett, former Teacher-in-Residence at the Woodrow Wilson House, created several middle and high school-level lesson plans based on civics and social studies. Dr. Averett is a civics teacher in Washington, D.C.
Want to dive deeper into the series? These lesson plans offer standardized, grade level appropriate activities and engagement questions to help take your child or classroom's civics learning to the next level.
Hold a committee hearing in your class to debate a policy proposal the same way Washington State legislators do. The sample bills below come with pre-drafted amendments and bill reports (recommended for younger grades or classes with limited time). Students can also write their own bills and amendments, or look up real bills by topic on the Legislature's search site. The Teacher Guide includes a complete 5-class lecture plan, Common Core standards aligned evaluation rubrics in Speaking and Listening and Literacy in Social Studies, hearing scripts, and graphic organizers for student research and debate prep.
With our Civics in Digital Life lessons, you can help your students consider important topics that cut across news and media literacy, digital citizenship, social and emotional learning (SEL), and civics. Designed for upper-middle school and high school students, these learning activities focus on identity development, perspective-taking, and civil discourse, ultimately promoting a deeper sense of civic agency and engagement.
Misinformation and fake news continue to infiltrate online platforms, as have conspiracy theories, which tend to gain popularity during times of crisis -- like during a global pandemic, political crisis, or war. Additionally, as young people spend more of their time online, they're witnessing, and perhaps even participating in, online incivility, as evidenced by the ongoing rise in hate speech, trolling, and cancel culture. Use these lessons to empower students to harness the power of technology to be curious learners, critical thinkers, and engaged citizens.
Description of the Civics Academy
The Civics Academy is a group of judges and attorneys who have been specially trained to deliver civics education to elementary-aged students. The Academy visits elementary school classes from grades 4 to 6 to present a 50-minute lesson plan that has been developed to help young students understand their role in our society.
Civics Academy Lesson Plan
The first section is Rules and Fairness; the second, Representative Democracy; and the third, Democracy and You. Each part of the lesson features activities to help the ideas contained within come to life for young students.
When entering the database, a master list of all lesson plans for all courses available will be visible. Click on the lesson title to open and/or download it. Files that have an accompanying Power Point presentation will have a PPT icon to the right of the lesson title. (When you see a lesson title repeated in the master list, it is because there are versions of that lesson aligned to more than one course.)
If you cannot find the lesson you are looking for, are unable to open a file, would like to request a Word or PPT version of the PDFs in the Database, or have a particular topic request for a lesson plan or activity, please send a message to Carol...@unc.edu.
Students are confused about how to evaluate online information. We all are. The COR curriculum provides free lessons and assessments that help you teach students to evaluate online information that affects them, their communities, and the world.
From history teachers to educational technology specialists to librarians in our district, those who have become familiar with Civic Online Reasoning are using the lessons and assessments to engage students in combating misinformation and to provide a skill set to foster empowered citizenship in the digital age.
The Hillsdale College K-12 History & Civics Curriculum is a complete collection of lesson plans for teaching American history, civics, and government to K-12 students. Students who study using this curriculum learn about American history from the colonies through the Civil War at four different times during their K-12 years, each time increasing in depth. The curriculum also includes American history since the Civil War and American government and civics for both middle and high school students.
One of the first items for planning an RU Ready Civics Fair focuses on gaining administrative approval for the event. As an instructor, take the time to map out the location, time, and goals for the event. We recommend sending the proposal to your administration and key partners with ample time (approx. 4-6 months prior).
Are you looking for more civic opportunities to incorporate into your classroom? Visit the RU Ready in the Classroom series for complete lesson modules fostering democratic learning in high school students.
There are 30 students in this classroom, and most are low to mid incomefamilies. All ELL students are at a 4 or 5 proficiency. Majority are Spanishspeakers, and some are Vietnamese, Somali, Navajo, Burmese, Russian, andLiberian. 5 students have IEPs/504 plans. 10 students are 1-2 years below intheir reading and 7 and below in their math skills. 5 students are 1-2 yearsabove in their reading and math skills.
List all resources, materials, equipment, and technology you and thestudents will use during the lesson. As required by your instructor, add orattach copies of ALL printed and online materials at the end of thistemplate. Include links needed for online resources.
Students will complete a one-paragraph reflection on the activity. They will have to use at leastone vocabulary word in their reflection and use proper grammar. They will be expected tomention an example from the activity and demonstrate their understanding on the lesson.Students will then do an exit slip to determine their understanding to see if I need to re-teach orre-direct learning,
In this lesson geared towards kindergartners, students analyze primary sources to reinforce the definitions of rules and responsibilities and consider why rules matter and ways to be responsible at home and in the classroom as well as a ways to act as a responsible citizen of their local community and of the world.
This lesson introduces students to the history of Hawai'i. Using primary sources, students will learn about the events that led to the annexation of Hawai'i by the United States, as well as its eventual admission into the union as a state and the lasting impacts and legacies of these events.
Cherokee people faced a number of challenges to their sovereignty in the 18th and 19th centuries. In this lesson plan, students examine the geographic, political, and cultural frontiers Cherokees confronted and overcame during this time.
This lesson plan uses A. A. Lamb's painting Emancipation Proclamation and resources from BlackPast to explore the successes and shortcomings of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Reconstruction amendments, as well as the roles played by Black people in securing their own freedom.
One of the Institute's new featured programs is Educating for Democratic Citizenship which features "Action Civics" lessons and related materials developed by a group of accomplished, experienced educators. These lessons can be found on a dedicated section of ShareMyLesson.
2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The Institute worked to make a special contribution to this commemoration by publishing lesson plans and materials that K-12 teachers across the country can use in their classrooms.
Ultimate Civics developed Activating My Democracy as a dynamic way to teach your students about the active power of civics. Download our FREE civics lesson plans for middle and high school students, and help inspire our next generation of game changers!
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