Curriculum Overview Unit Overviews

FJCC Middle School Civics Curriculum

OVERVIEW OF THE CIVICS CURRICULUM

Welcome to the Florida Joint Center for Citizenship's Applied Civics Course for middle school students! In this curriculum teachers will find "one-stop shopping" – that is, everything they need to teach a yearlong civics course: lesson plans, content summaries, supporting materials such as student worksheets and teacher keys, and assessment plans.

The widely-regarded 2003 Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools report (http://www.civicmissionofschools.org) identifies "six promising approaches" to civic learning that are incorporated into this curriculum:

• Formal instruction in government, history, law and democracy
  The report specifically urges dynamic and interactive teaching methods rather than "teaching by rote," since drier methods may alienate students from politics.
• Guided discussion of current local, national, and international issues and events
  The report urges discussion of issues students find personally relevant, conducted in a way that encourages multiple points of view.
• Active learning experiences where students perform community service and/or service learning
  The report urges giving students a role in choosing and designing volunteer activities; articulating explicit civic outcomes; linking service to curricular study; and providing opportunities and vehicles for critical reflection. These recommendations are in keeping with "best practice" principles in service learning.
• Co-curricular activities to foster engagement with schools and communities
  The report does not specify favored co-curricular activities. Rather, it acknowledges that learning takes place within and beyond school walls, and it encourages extracurricular efforts to strengthen young peoples' involvement in an array of social and civic institutions.
• Student participation in school governance
  The report urges students to take an active role in classroom and school governance matters as a means for practicing civic participation skills. However, the report does not specify the scope and parameters of student involvement.
• Student participation in simulations of democratic processes
  The report argues that engaging students in simulations of voting, trials, legislative deliberation, and diplomacy can lead to heightened political knowledge and interes

Thus, this curriculum focuses on the civic knowledge, intellectual and participatory skills, and dispositions useful for the 21st century middle school classroom, focusing on two forms of student engagement: engagement with civics content (curricular) and with civic life (experiential). It aims to involve students in critical and higher-order thinking, to teach students "life-long learner" skills, and to present students with multiple perspectives. Its "eclectic approach" draws from a variety of materials to provide both content and teaching strategies that build on students' background experiences, incorporate a variety of learning styles, make use of appropriate technologies, develop FCAT-related literacy skills, and offer authentic assessment to gauge student learning.

This civics curriculum comprises six units: Citizenship Duties, Rights, and Liberties; State and Local Government in Florida; Foundations of American Government; Overview of the United States and its Federal Government (including a mini-unit on related economics content); Elections, Parties, and Pressure Groups; and Global Affairs and U.S. Foreign Policy. The curriculum also addresses all of the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards and Benchmarks for 7th Grade Civics, Geography, and Economics.

Content background for teachers is incorporated into each lesson as are assessments. Lesson materials are drawn from a wide array of Internet-based resources.

The Curriculum Team and Teacher Support

The writing team for this curriculum includes the following personnel:

Dr. Doug Dobson	ddobson@mail.ucf.edu	Professor of Political Science at the University of Central Florida, Principal Investigator, and Executive Director of the Florida Joint Center for Citizenship Education
Dr. Elizabeth Anne Washington	ewashington@coe.ufl.edu	Professor of Social Studies Education at the University of Florida, FJCC Senior Fellow, and Project Director
Dr. Terri Susan Fine	tfine@mail.ucf.edu	Professor of Political Science at the University of Central Florida, FJCC Senior Fellow, and Content Specialist
Dr. Michael Berson	berson@coedu.usf.edu	Professor of Social Studies Education at the University of South Florida, FJCC Senior Fellow, and Technology Specialist
Valerie McVey	vmcvey@mail.ucf.edu	FJCC Instructional Specialist and Project Manager
Emma Humphries	ekhumphries@ufl.edu	University of Florida, FJCC Instructional Consultant
Peggy Renihan	renihanp@mail.leon.k12.fl.us	FJCC Community Resource Coordinator

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Overview of Units

Unit I. Citizenship: Duties, Rights, and Liberties (Civics Standard 2)

This first unit is all about citizenship. Students will be begin by defining this exciting concept before exploring what it really means for them in terms of rights, responsibilities, and forms of engagement. Particular emphasis is placed on the work of "American Heroes" and how young people have made a difference in American civic life. Additionally, students will learn skills that are required for such important activities as cooperative learning, deliberation, discussion, and research.

During the first week of Unit I, students will work to define citizenship, to identify civil rights and civil liberties, to determine the source of these rights and liberties, and, most importantly, to recognize that certain responsibilities accompany those rights and liberties. The class will then move on to the topic of civic engagement, where students will learn what it means to be an informed citizen and an engaged citizen, how political issues are related to their personal lives, and how different people engage in the political process. Lastly, students will define civic virtue, enlightened self-interest, and the common good, and explore how these concepts play out in real life.

By the halfway point of the unit, students will be ready to apply all that they have learned! Before diving into group projects, one lesson will be devoted to cooperative learning, allowing students to identify values and behaviors that are conducive to such learning, and to understand the system of peer- and self-evaluation that the class will employ. Then it is on to the "American Heroes" project in which students will research a hero and create a MySpace or Facebook page that reflects their knowledge of that hero. The cooperative learning will then pause, providing time for students to learn about deliberation and discussion before launching into a five-day exploration of how young people have made a difference in American life.

Unit II. State and Local Government (Civics Standards 2 & 3; Economics Standard 2; Geography Standard 5)

The second unit for the course is about local and state government. During Unit 1, students learned about their role as a citizen and in Unit 2 students will understand how citizens can impact their government and how government impacts the daily life of its citizens. Unit 2 begins the study of government structures and institutions and students will begin this study by understanding the most immediate form of government – local government. This unit leads students through a combination of learning content knowledge about their own city government framed within a whole class research project. As students learn the fundamentals of their local government, they will then begin exploring issues in their community, determining an issue they are passionate about, conducting research, creating a solution and then implementing an action plan.

To begin Unit II, students will engage in cooperative learning activities to reinforce the concept that working as part of a group is an important life skill and will be imperative as students work together on a whole class project. Students will then begin learning local government content knowledge. They will investigate the structures and functions of their city government, the composition of their city's citizens as well as the physical characteristics of their city. Once students have an understanding of how their city or town works, they will begin exploring issues within their community. Students will research, analyze, and synthesize information on current community issues to determine one common issue that will serve as the focus for a class wide research study. Once students have identified one issue they will pursue as a whole class assignment, they will conduct various kinds of research, synthesize their research and create a solution for their issue. This unit culminates in creating and implementing an action plan for the issue. As a whole class, students will educate their school or city community about their issue and proposed solution. This unit concludes with an opportunity for group and self-reflection.

Unit III. Foundations of American Government (Civics Standard 1)

Unit III takes students to the next level. After learning about state and local government in Unit II, they are now ready to explore the foundations of our national government, including the principles and philosophical foundations of the American political system, the reasoning behind and in the Declaration of Independence, the structure of our government as created by the U.S. Constitution, and why and how our Constitution has been amended. This short unit will conclude with a project-based assessment that allows students to demonstrate all that they have learned in the unit.

The unit begins with a look at the founders and the writings that influenced them most. By reading passages from the "library books" that the founding fathers would have most certainly read, students will make connections between the ideas found in these great works and specific articles and amendments in the U.S. Constitution. Next, by examining the Declaration of Independence, students will identify the causes that impelled us to separate from Great Britain, as well as the principles we called upon to justify our separation. The class will then spend five days studying the U.S. Constitution by exploring such questions of why it was written, what ideas and principles are found in it, how it organizes and limits our government. Lastly, students will work to understand the main arguments for and against ratification, as espoused by the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, before moving on to the amendment process and the ways in which the Constitution has been amended throughout history.

Unit III will conclude with a project-based assessment, in which students will be asked to apply what they have learned about our national system of government in the creation of a board game that incorporates fundamental principles and philosophical foundations of the American political system. Once the games are completed, students will play and evaluate the games created by their classmates.

Unit IV. Overview of the United States and its Federal Government (Civics Standard 3; Economics Standards 1 and 2; Geography Standards 1, 2, 3)

Unit IV shows students the inner workings of the three branches of government and incorporates a bit of geography and economics as well. After learning about the historical and philosophical foundations of our national government in Unit 3, students are now ready to learn about how the national government is organized into three branches – legislative, executive, and judicial –the roles and responsibilities of each branch, and how the branches interact with each other. Along the way, students learn the important concepts of checks and balances and separation of powers, which help to limit the power of government.

The unit begins with an overview of U.S. geography, including a "virtual tour" of the historically important city of Philadelphia. To begin their study of the structure and functions of the U.S. government, students will research the political systems of other nations and compare the U.S. system with other political systems. Next, they will learn about the concept of federalism and the division of power between the federal and state governments. Students will then spend three days learning about Congress and what representatives and senators in the national legislative branch do, and three days exploring the executive branch and the many different roles of the President. A five-day lesson on the judicial branch addresses the various kinds of courts that comprise our judicial system, the role of the Supreme Court, and some of the landmark cases that have defined us as a nation. Next, students will learn about the three branches of Florida government and the state Constitution. The federal government portion of the unit concludes with an assessment. The last few days of Unit 4 comprise an economics "mini-unit" in which students will analyze why we study economics and explore various types of economic systems, with particular emphasis on the key characteristics of the market economy of the U.S.

Unit V. Elections, Parties, and Pressure Groups (Civics Standard 3; Geography Standard 4)

In the next unit, students will learn about political parties, voting rights, and voting behavior, as well as the impact of special interest groups, the media, and technology on U.S. campaigns and elections. Particular emphasis will be placed on national campaigns as students analyze presidential campaign commercials from the past and present, and even design their own campaigns (including commercials).

Before diving into all things political, it is important for students to understand the competing parties in our political system and where they as individuals fall on our political spectrum. Therefore, students will begin the unit by taking a short political ideology survey and learning basic political vocabulary. The class will then spend three days exploring voting in America, including the extension of voting rights (from the Constitution to the 26th Amendment), voting behavior (specifically voter turnout in national elections), and demographic voting groups (based on gender, race, age, income, and education). Then it's on to campaigns, as students will learn how special interest groups and political action committees, the media, and technology have influenced this important political process. Activities include completing an interactive learning module, viewing commercials sponsored by interest groups and candidates, and exploring candidate websites. Lastly, students will take a quick look at how the Electoral College determines the winner in presidential elections.

As with other units, Unit V will conclude with a project-based assessment. Working in groups, students will be asked to create a campaign for a potential presidential candidate, including a campaign proposal, an official "announcement of candidacy" speech, campaign materials, and a web commercial. Meanwhile, another one group of students will plan a mock election by designing a "Get Out The Vote" campaign, developing a schedule for airing all of the web commercials that their classmates have created, creating a ballot, and building voting booths and a ballot box.

Unit VI. Global Affairs & U.S. Foreign Policy (Civics Standard 4; Economics 3; Geography 1 and 6)

The lessons in Unit 6 address standards in civics, economics, and geography as students learn about a variety of issues and places related to U.S. foreign policy, international conflict, human rights, economic globalization, and media coverage of international events. The unit relies on cutting-edge websites and print sources to keep up with the rapidly changing landscape of global affairs.

Before diving into specific issues, it is important for students to gain a sense of world geography. Therefore, students will begin the unit by spending two days locating major physical features on a world map and learn about "top ten" countries relative to a variety of key statistics. Then, before analyzing important global issues, students will spend one day examining the sources of information for those issues and the ways that different kinds of media coverage influence public perceptions of international events. Next, students will engage in a series of lessons about the Iraq War as a case study of international conflict; the crisis in Darfur (Sudan) as a case study of an international humanitarian disaster; global migration and refugees; human rights issues around the world, including child soldiers, hunger, and AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. Following are two lessons on the impact of globalization on economies and cultures, and two lessons on the impact of global warming.

As with other units, Unit VI will conclude with a project-based assessment. Working with partners, students will be asked to design collage posters that focus on a specific global issue they are interested in and present their posters to their classmates.