Teachers & Students are Citizens
We teach students how to become the best citizens they can be. Citizens should be aware of how their choices affect others and care about the needs of others. In social studies, it is important to teach students how to critically think for themselves instead of promoting specific ideologies. By providing students with a variety of accurate resources and tools, students become informed and critical of events and news around them. They learn to respect and be kind to everyone and are encouraged to promote equity and justice, in our democratic society.
01
Election Activity
One of our units in my 6th grade geography class focused on government. Voting is one way to be a good citizen, so I wanted my students to know how the biggest elections in our country are decided. Many were unfamiliar with the voting system for our presidential elections and wanted to know more. To teach my students about the election process, I had a slideshow presentation informing students of how elections are run, both by popular vote and by the electoral college. Using two topics that the children were passionate about, I conducted mock elections of both types in class, and I was able to have my students experience the difference between voting systems. This got my students involved and had to work together in groups to vote in the electoral college simulation. The website 270towin.com was also used in class. Students were able to explore past election results as well as experimenting on their own what happens for each state.
By giving students the opportunity to experience different types of elections and seeing how states affect the presidential elections, my students were able to learn about important aspects of being a citizen here in the United States.
02
Analyzing the Preamble & the Purpose of Government
Another lesson we had focused on the Preamble to our constitution and the purpose of having a government. We started the lesson by briefly discussing what the Preamble is, then had students fill out a chart analyzing the different parts of the Preamble. After they finished, we had a group discussion about how the purposes stated in the Constitution can still be reflected in what we do in our country today. This directly related to my students and me being citizens in the United States. It encouraged them to start thinking about what they want the government to do and what they find most important.
Afterwards, I split the class up into groups. With whiteboards, each group was tasked to create a word web about the 3 main purposes of government. Students brainstormed specific ways they see how our government is completing our goals. When students finished their word webs, we came back together as a class and discussed all of the different ways we can see our government's purposes reflected in its actions. This led into a discussion about what additional things governments could do to help its people. This activity had students think critically about what they believed the purpose of government should be and what governments could do to help others, which showed them that they should be involved in their government.
Students working together to create a word web focused on the purpose of government.
03
Dollar Street
For this assignment, I used a website called "Dollar Street." This resource shows how people live in different places all across the world and categorizes them based on their monthly income. The creators of this website collected thousands of photos of homes and items families use to show the different of the standard of living in different areas of the world based on income. It was created to help people become aware of the stereotypes people have of how people live. I wanted to design an assignment that would use this resource so that my students would become more aware of how other people live around the world. I wanted to challenge their current beliefs and help them to become compassionate citizens.
For this assignment, I created a chart and reflection questions for my students to fill in and answer. The chart was structured so that my students needed to look at 5 different families who lived with 5 difference income levels. They had to list some basic facts about the families, and then they had to describe two different items they found in each home. This was supposed to allow them to compare and contrast how each family lived and observe different cultures. After completing the chart, students had some reflection questions which made them critically think about what other people experience versus their own experiences. My students really enjoyed this assignment and were very curious as to how other people live.