Social Studies Summer Series Part 4: How to Teach Government/Civics Skills

Kirsten 0:45

Welcome to part four of the social studies summer series, we're talking all about government and civics today, teaching government and civics to students can be a daunting task, especially if you're not feeling so brushed up on government and civics topics or confident to teach government and civics topics. But it can also be really rewarding. At this grade level, in upper elementary, you're mainly thinking about the structure and function of mainly national, state and local governments, particularly in the United States. And then usually, there are some depending on the state, there are some states that do focus in sixth grade on world governments and focusing more than just the democratic government that we might have in the United States, they might focus on other governments as well and compare and contrast those governments by instilling a solid understanding of how our society functions, as well as the importance of active citizenship at an early age, including as young as the age of 5, 6, 7. However old your students may be, we pave the way for informed engaged citizens of the future. So let's talk about some ways you can help effectively teach government and civics and just help them instill a love maybe even of government and civics to your third, fourth and fifth graders.

Kirsten 2:20

The first tip I have is to start with the basics. Introduce those foundational concepts such as the three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial, the roles of elected officials, such as the president, the government, the governor, and the mayor, as well as the purpose and importance of laws. Why do we have rules, you can start as low as talking about classroom rules and school wide rules and just kind of branching out that way. Starting off with something simple for them to kind of grasp before moving on to those bigger concepts. Make sure to use age appropriate language and visuals to make sure these concepts are more accessible to your students.

Kirsten 3:06

Tip number two is to use real life examples. Bring government and civics to life by incorporating real life examples and current events into your lessons. Think about news articles, videos, and even roleplay scenarios to help students understand how government decisions impact their everyday lives. CNN 10 is a really great resource on utilizing, you know, those current events. And it's usually it runs daily, I believe, from the month of August to May, I will double check on that. And I'll also put the link in there just so you have CNN 10. But there are so many good, really great ways to incorporate CNN 10. It can be done kind of at the end of day as you guys are packing up or at the beginning of the day, and you can reflect on what they've watched. You can watch daily or you can watch once a week, it's up to you. My students were always engaged, especially my fifth graders when watching these videos.

Kirsten 4:07

Tip number three interactive activities. Engage your students through interactive activities that are encouraging participation, organised mock elections, debates or townhall meetings where students can take on different roles and express their opinions on important and relevant issues. Something that is very common that we did way back when I was teaching kindergarten was the cookie mock election that we did, which is better Oreo or chocolate chip cookie and we would you know talk about the pros and cons of each and they would vote on which type of cookie they liked. And whoever had the most votes, that would be the cookie that we would bring in. So that's something you can definitely do at an upper elementary level. Maybe something that's a favorite, maybe favorite type of candy or favorite type of sweet treat however you want to do it

Kirsten 5:00

Tip number four is to incorporate multimedia resources. Take advantage of multimedia resources such as videos, documentaries, interactive websites to enhance your lessons platforms like BrainPOP discovery Ed iCivics PBS learning, they offer so many resources designed specifically for teaching government and civics to elementary students.

Kirsten 5:26

Tip number five is to connect with community resources. Try to reach out to local government officials, community leaders or organizations dedicated to civic education to arrange guest speakers or go on to some type of field trip. These firsthand experiences can provide valuable insights and make the learning process more meaningful for your students. It's always great if you can get someone to go to your school to speak about something related to what you're learning, not just with government and civics, but really any social studies topic, one guest speaker that will probably top the books, as far as who came to our school was Beyonce's dad and I've got pictures, I've got receipts to prove it. He came and spoke to our students or fifth graders, and it was definitely something that I know many of them enjoyed once they knew who he actually was.

Kirsten 6:24

Tip number six is to encourage critical thinking, foster critical thinking skills by posing thought provoking questions and encouraging students to analyze different perspectives on political issues, of course, respectfully, teach them how to evaluate sources of information. And just making sure they know the difference between fact and opinion. This can be a really great kind of exercise if there's certain political topics that you could discuss, related to maybe freedom of speech. And this could be a kind of great way to infuse like, what is the fact versus what is an opinion.

Kirsten 7:05

Tip number seven is to promote active citizenship. Empower your students to become active citizens by encouraging them to participate in community service projects, or volunteer opportunities at a local animal shelter or food bank, or some type of student government activities, help them understand the importance of voting, advocacy and civic engagement so that they are making positive changes in their school or local communities. I know that student council is very prevalent in high schools and I know some middle and elementary schools have some type of student government or student election where I know in my elementary school that I worked out for a while they had voted on a class president. And they met and it was actually like, just for grades three through five. So they got to vote for each homeroom. Everybody was there was a class representative or president, and they would meet at a certain time, maybe once or twice a month, and plan different events.

Kirsten 8:16

The eighth tip I have is to assess and reflect. Make sure you're also assessing student understanding of government and civics concepts through quizzes, discussions, or project based assessments provide opportunities for reflection where students can think about and evaluate their own learn learning progress, and maybe even set goals for what they want to learn in the future.

Kirsten 8:40

Last tip is making it fun. Government and civics usually if we think about it, we might think this is so dry political science, we're it's not something we want to really do like on our own time, but you can also make it fun. Don't forget to make civics and government fun, engaging, thinking about games, puzzles, hands on activities, just keeping your students motivated and excited to learn about the different topics.

Kirsten 9:08

Before I end off this episode, I do want to share that I do have specifically government and civics daily passages, and worksheets for reading comprehension. It's great to tie in with ELA. There are 18 topics in this particular unit and it covers a variety of topics like the Bill of Rights, civic responsibility, US symbols, US landmarks, government in the 13 colonies. There's all kinds of topics you can use any topic that you want, as much as or as little as you want. And it comes so there's a total of 72 passages in this particular bundle. This is available in my TPT store and it's also available for members if you are a part of this Smart and Simple Social Studies, membership. This is something that you'll have access to in the resource library. So if that's something you're interested in, definitely check out the description or in the show notes so that you can learn more of how to access those resources. All right, well, Part Five is next time, I will talk to you soon. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week.