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Civics Central
Learning Resources
(What Others Have to Share)
Italicized links open
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(click on the Learning Pyramid for a PDF version in a new window)
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During the course of
our two-year study, we came
upon many organizations and institutions that provide information, ideas and
materials that should prove useful to those teaching and learning civics. Below are links to many of them.
The American Bar Association has put up a section
for teachers wanting Constitution Day material. It is located at
http://www.abanet.org/publiced/conversations/constitution/home.shtml
Follow the Twitter stream that Bill Chapman is
creating to summarize the daily events of the 1787 Philadelphia
Convention. You do not need to have a Twitter account to view the
stream, just point your browser to
http://twitter.com/philly1787 You may view the entire stream in
chronological order at
http://www.classroomtools.com/philly1787.html
Posted for teachers looking for material to meet
the recently mandated requirement for September 17,
this
Education World
page provides links and ideas useful during the rest of the school year too.
The Center for Civic
Education has also posted Constitution
Day Lessons for Kindergarten and grades 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10 and
11-12. These lessons are available at
http://www.civiced.org/index.php?page=constitution_day
Education World's Civics and Citizenship Center is also worth
some exploration. In case they are difficult to find, here are
links to their lesson planning ideas for:
In the results of a survey released on
Constitution Day 2007, the James S. and John L. Knight Foundation
reports, "Three years after a new federal law took effect requiring
schools to educate all students about the Constitution and the First
Amendment, a new survey shows that a majority of America’s students
aren’t even aware that Constitution Day exists."
Follow this link to their report. A similar survey of adults was
conducted by the First Amendment Center.
Follow
this link to that report.
Based in part on the First Amendment Center's
report, we've posted a PDF
Constitution Day slide
show designed for presentation to high school students in class
or school assemblies. It should also be of use with college students and
adult groups - anyone in need of an overview of the role of the
Constitution in American life. You may also want to look at
this version
which aims for a bit more emotional impact.
A sister site to
Factcheck.org,
the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania says, "FactCheckEd.org
is an educational resource for high school teachers and students. It’s
designed to help students learn to cut through the fog of
misinformation and deception that surrounds the many messages they’re
bombarded with every day."
The site offers
The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools has
developed a variety of tools and resources for those who are working to
improve policies and practices related to the civic mission of schools.
Standards linked lessons for students in grades
6-12 that incorporate material from the Times.
Constitutional Rights Foundation seeks to instill
in our nation's youth a deeper understanding of citizenship through
values expressed in our Constitution and its Bill of Rights and to
educate young people to become active and responsible participants in
our society. Their
publications and
online
lessons areas are worth exploring.
Looking for a 40 minute lesson that teaches the
history of voting rights in the U.S., as well includes a mock election
simulation? Check out
the lesson plan
at Vote18.org
The Leagues of Women Voters of the Monterey
Peninsula and the Salinas Valley have created a magnificent Mock
Election site
to serve the schools, teachers and students in their areas (http://www.mockelection.org/).
Resources they make available will be valuable to teachers and students
throughout the state. Those interested should examine their pages
at:
The California Secretary of State's office
conducts student mock elections coordinated with statewide general and
some primary elections. Information on the current one should be
available at:
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/studentmockelection.htm
Results from previous statewide mock elections
are available for
You may also visit
the
National Parent-Teacher Mock Election site.
Finally, there is our own Mock Election
page, with links to the pages we designed for Albany High School's 2006
Mock Election, and Berkeley High School's Mock Presidential Primary in
January 2008.
Project Vote Smart's
suggestions for teachers.
Street Law is a popular component of some
Government classes at Berkeley High School. To find out what
it is and how it might be used, visit these two sites:
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http://www.streetlaw.org/
-
http://www.streetlaw.com/
This project, founded in 2001, is "a national
initiative designed to help schools affirm First Amendment principles and
put them into action throughout their communities."
This site, a project of the John S. and James L.
Knight Foundation, provides ideas for teachers wanting to teach the
First Amendment. It also provides three reasons for them to do so:
- Three-fourths of high school students don’t
know how they feel about the First Amendment, or take it for
granted.
- Nearly half believe the government can censor
the Internet.
- One-third think the First Amendment goes too
far in the rights it guarantees.
This site, a project of the University of
Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center, seeks to hold politicians
accountable. It fact checks political ads from around the nation,
letting citizens know the results in easy to read, accessible language.
As former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, "Everyone is entitled to
their own opinion, but not their own facts."
Frank Baker introduces this section of
his Media Literacy
Clearinghouse with the following statement:
This webpage is devoted primarily to the
30-second campaign "spot;" so common in American elections. The site
is designed to provide teachers with the tools they need to
introduce political campaign advertising to their students. Another
goal is to assist teachers who want to help their students
become aware of the unique techniques of persuasion used in these
ads.
The American
Museum of the Moving Image presents a magnificent collection of
television ads from the Presidential Campaigns of 1952-2004. They are
available in various streaming video formats, so you should be able to view
them without difficulty. This is a treasure trove. For suggestions on
how to use material such as this in the classroom, take a look at
the
Propaganda in the Classroom section of Bill Chapman's
Classroomtools.com.
For many Civics and Social Studies
related links at my site, check the pages I've set up for resources
related to:
"Rock the Vote, founded nearly twenty years ago in
response to a wave of attacks on freedom of speech and artistic
expression, coordinates voter registration drives, get out the vote
events, and voter education efforts -- all with the intention of
building political power for our nation's youth."
Two must view sections of this site:
The following statement is from the Center's web
site:
The mission of the Center for Civic
Education is to promote an enlightened and responsible citizenry
committed to democratic principles and actively engaged in the
practice of democracy in the United States and other countries.
The principal goals of the Center's
programs are to help students develop (1) an increased understanding
of the institutions of American constitutional democracy and the
fundamental principles and values upon which they are founded, (2)
the skills necessary to participate as effective and responsible
citizens, and (3) the willingness to use democratic procedures for
making decisions and managing conflict.
....
The following statement by Thomas Jefferson
expresses the Center's rationale and goals.
"I know of no safe depository of the
ultimate powers of society but the people themselves, and if we
think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with
a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them
but to inform their discretion."
Ben's Guide to U.S.
Government for Kids is brought to the World Wide Web as a
service of the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government
Printing Office (GPO). Ben's Guide serves as the educational
component of GPO Access, GPO's service to provide the
official online version of legislative and regulatory
information.
This site provides
learning tools for K-12 students, parents, and teachers. These
resources will teach how our government works, the use of the
primary source materials of GPO Access, and how one can
use GPO Access to carry out their civic
responsibilities. And, just as GPO Access provides
locator services to U.S. Government sites, Ben's Guide provides
a similar service to U.S. Government Web sites developed for
kids.
Here you'll find a growing
library of resources to assist teachers and students of American
History.
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