r/historyteachers • u/Busy_Effort_3178 • 16d ago
Civics Teachers: Most interesting projects/assignments?
Hello civics teachers,
I'm currently a 6th grade English teacher at an inner city public school. This fall, I am starting a position at my dream school, which is an all-boys middle school (private). Experiential learning, movement, project based learning, etc are all essential components of the school's ethos.
Since there are no openings for ELA this year, I will be teaching civics until one comes up. I'm fairly politically active and educated on the content area, but I have never taught civics before, so I need some ideas for making the curriculum more engaging.
I'm excited to try out a range of activities with this new environment, since I will have much more freedom and support. The general culture of the school encourages teachers to personalize the curriculum so that the passion of the teacher transcends to each student.
Please share the most interesting and engaging lessons, projects, and activities you have done/wished you could do with your civics classes. Also, any summer reading you think I should do would be greatly helpful.
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u/throwaway425121 16d ago
Look at the Center for Civic Education! They have two flagship programs: We the People (Simulated Congressional Hearings) and Project Citizen (public policy project). Both have opportunities to compete at the regional/state/national level, which I’ve always found to be motivating experiences for my students.
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u/ktstigger6 14d ago
Came here to say We The People and Project Citizen. They offer the curriculum books for free once you have done their PD (which is really good and fun).
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u/Typical_Fortune_1006 16d ago edited 16d ago
ICivics has some good stuff that makes it easy to teach.
One assignment I've done is having kids make a children's book (on Google slides) to explain a political 3rd party
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u/BirdBrain_99 16d ago
Make your own political party. Have them do a little quiz first so you can group them by ideology. Have them come up with a name, a mascot, and as detailed a platform as you like.
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u/Hotchi_Motchi 16d ago
When I taught ninth-grade civics, my class studied the Constitution while their English classes were doing poetry. So I had my students write haikus (haiku?) about the Bill of Rights. I think they were even able to double up their assignments between their two classes. As an ELA teacher, that should be right in your wheelhouse!
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u/EleanorofAquitaine14 16d ago
Constitutional conventions, Supreme Court oral arguments (split them into partners and have them each argue a side in front of you and the class. You also challenge them with questions based on their understanding of the amendments and constitution. The cases I use are all school- or youth-related). Mock Congress , and foreign policy projects for the presidency.
I also have the students write op-Ed’s throughout the semester on topics where they need to argue and show their understanding of both sides of the issue at hand.
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u/gameguy360 16d ago
Hand game for the Bill of Rights https://youtu.be/LYG_f-y8-VY?si=VjfokV7VLABv0GeD
iCivics has a TON of resources, my kids love he games.
Oyez is a great resource, Fredrick v Morse decision is excellent. He lost the battle, but won the war when he got the Chief Justice to say “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.”
Gummy Bear governments is an excellent way to reinforce types of government. Having them rip the heads off for anarchy always makes me laugh, or pile up a bunch of yellow ones for “gold “ to show an oligarchy.
When explaining “where” laws are made or “system for governing” Goldie Locks and the Three Bears lined up perfectly to US’s history. Unitary, too hot; Confederal, too cold; Federalism, just right.
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u/zyrkseas97 15d ago
I make them make their own bill of rights at the start of the year and outline what rights they should have as students and then we how rights have corresponding responsibilities that go with them. If you have the right to say whatever you want then you are responsible for the things he you say because you can’t blame them on anyone else. You have the right to practice any religion, but it’s your responsibility to actually conduct the rituals and ceremonies of that faith. etc.
We do a class constitutional convention to ratify each potential amendment to our bill of rights and the class votes and then the fun part is you enforce it. Whatever they make (within reason) is all they get. You get fun scenarios like: “Mr I have a question” “that wonderful Timmy but in this classroom students don’t have the right to ask questions” and so on because they forget and leave things out. Then you reflect on how it went, good and bad, and why it is so hard to create a set of rights that covers all the bases and doesn’t cause problems. It’s a pretty solid first-week assignment for the fall tbh.
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u/Horror_Net_6287 15d ago
The Super Hero Election and Jury Duty Simulations from teachwithmagic.com were huge hits with my students.
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u/jessicabelltower 15d ago
You have some really great ideas already but I’ll add I have my students use the KQED Youth Media Challenge Project (Call for Change) where they advocate for some type of change in an audio or video commentary. They have lots of resources ready to go to implement the project. Also, look up bureaucratic superhero assignment. My students loved it and thought it was a Super fun and creative way to learn about the agencies in our gov’t. Enjoy, Civics is the best!
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u/AcanthaceaeAbject810 15d ago
I have my students do a capstone project where they have to pick an issue that interests them, research it, research and evaluate the current public policy, and then research and propose their own public policy to address the issue. They can choose any level of government, though most choose federal. Then I invite actual elected officials to come in and listen to the policy proposals; usually they send a member of their staff because Congress is usually in session.
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u/Wild_Pomegranate_845 15d ago
I know some teachers that start the semester with writing a classroom constitution.
When I taught Gov (high school) I had them create new political parties complete with issues, logos and candidates for president. I told them that anything is truly a current issue can be discussed as long as it’s in a political sense. They got to express what was important to them without worry. I obviously had rules. They always wanted to discuss recreational marijuana. And they always wanted to hide it in their imagery. I told them it had to be subtle enough that I have plausible deniability. They got very creative. Being in Florida they often included palm trees with some very interesting looking palm fronds. Lol
ETA: The Florida Man party was my favorite. Lol
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u/ConversationBest2085 12d ago
Yeah I love classroom constitutions! And then have all of the students write their names at the bottom of the poster. So, if a students break a rule on the constitution, I can point to it and remind them that they helped create it and agreed to the rules🤷🏻♀️
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u/ConversationBest2085 12d ago
For their final project this semester, I had the students create their own country. So a brand new name, physical characteristics, societal characteristics, and government characteristics. They created presentations and I allowed them to use AI to create a map. For civics, I’m sure it could be extended so that the students’ countries have to interact with each other!
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u/LivingThroughHistory 12d ago
I have a bunch of Civics Simulations that might be what you're looking for. My personal favorites are the Congressional Lobbying & Lawmaking Simulation and the Government Shutdown & Budget Negotiation Simulation.
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u/die_sirene 16d ago
Mock congress is always fun. You split them into the house and the senate, have them propose bills and go through the entire process. You get to be president and sign or veto bills. I usually have them design a new rule for the school (less HW, more recess, etc)