Civic Involvement

Overview

In this lesson students will consider what it means to be civically involved. They will then conduct a survey and find out what types of activities students and adults are most likely to participate in.

Grade Levels

5 – 8

Objectives

Students will:

• explain what it means to be civically involved;
• identify at least five different types of civic activities; and
• explain which civic activities they are most likely to participate in and why.

Estimated Time

2 days

Materials Needed

• E-Learning Module: Minority Civic Involvement
• Internet connection with Macromedia FLASH ® enabled

Procedure

Day 1

1. Ask students to explain what they think civic involvement entails.
2. As a class, develop a list of civic activities. Write this list on the board.
3. Use a projection device to show students both videos from "Types of Civic Involvement" in the Minority Civic Participation E-Learning module.
4. After the video, have students add to the list of civic activities. Ask students to copy the list on a piece of paper. They will need this list for their homework assignment.
5. Take a survey of the class and find out which civic activities students are most likely to participate in.
6. Have students help you create a graph that shows the results of the survey. This graph should be large enough for a bulletin board.
7. For homework, have students interview two adults and ask them to indicate which of the activities on the list they are most likely to participate in and why.

Day 2

1. Ask students to share their findings.
2. Have students help you create a graph that shows what types of civic activities adults are most likely to participate in. This graph should be as large as the graph that shows the class survey results.
3. Compare and contrast the two graphs. Then create a bulletin board that shows the results of the surveys. This bulletin board can also include the list of civic activities along with a prompt that encourages students from other classes to take the same survey. For example, you may want to have students from other classes put a tally mark next to the five activities they are most likely to participate in.

Extension Activities

Have students visit the Circle Web site at http://www.civicyouth.org/ and find out how they can become involved in government. Encourage students to participate in at least one of the activities described.

Assessment

Basic Concepts and Processes

Ask your students to respond to the following requests for information and assess their knowledge of key concepts taught in this lesson.

1. What does it mean to be civically involved?
2. Describe at least five different civic activities. Which activities are you most likely to participate in? Why?

Lesson Plan Feedback

If you have suggestions for improving this lesson plan, or if you have ideas for others using the module, please let us know. We value your input. Thank you!

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