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Civic Education Activity
Topic: Citizenship
Standard of Learning, Student Learning Goals, and Objective
Standard of Learning: CE.3 The student will apply social science skills to understand
citizenship and the rights, duties, and responsibilities of citizens by
a) describing the processes by which an individual becomes a citizen of the United
States.
b) describing the First Amendment freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and
petition, and the rights guaranteed by due process and equal protection of the laws.
c) describing the duties of citizenship, including obeying the laws, paying taxes,
defending the nation, and serving in court.
d) examining the responsibilities of citizenship, including registering and voting,
communicating with government officials, participating in political campaigns,
keeping informed about current issues, and respecting differing opinions in a
diverse society; and
e) evaluating how civic and social duties address community needs and serve the
public good.
Student Learning Goals: [Explain your student learning goals for this activity and provide an
overall description of what you want your students to gain from this activity. This response
should be at least one solid paragraph of five sentences.]
The students learning goals are to apply social science skills to understand citizenship
and rights, dues, and responsibilities of citizens. This means that they will learn what each one of
these topics mean individual, then see how they connect all together. The students will also be
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able to see the process of how one becomes a citizen, pay taxes, gets a job. The students should
gain knowledge of what citizenship looks like and be able to do their part to help others become
citizens. “Young children start developing citizenship skills by living and practicing good
citizenship in democratic classrooms” (Maxim 2022).
Objective: Given a scenario/lesson about citizenship, the students will describe the process by
which an individual becomes a citizen of the United States.
Federalism, Virginia State Government, Local Government
Federalism:
The Constitution is one term that I would integrate into my activity. The fourteenth
amendment says, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside”
(Doctrine 2022). “The constitution’s framers chose federalism to further divide power between
the nationals and state government and preserve the ability of citizens to choose representatives
who would govern closer to home” (Virginia 2022). The Bill of Rights is another term that
would be important in this activity. “The Bill of Rights protects citizens against national and
more state actions, federal and state laws also regulate citizens’ lives” (Virginia 2022)
Virginia State Government:
“The Virginia General Assembly has the power to levy taxes and to make laws for the
Commonwealth” (Virginia 2022). This is important for being a citizen in the United States
because, a citizen must follow laws and pay taxes. There could be changes to these at any time,
so staying up to date on this is important. Virginia Supreme Court is another term I would use in
this activity. “The Virginia Supreme Court is the highest court in the judicial system of the
Commonwealth” (Virginia 2022). Now I know that the supreme court has many different
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sections to it, but just explaining to the students that there are courts and there are different courts
for different situations.
Local Government:
Counties is the first term I would use in this activity. “Unlike cities and towns, counties
operate under the Constitution of Virginia and general and specific laws rather than under
charters” (Virginia 2022). Voting depends on what county you live in, so knowing what counties
are is important for students to know. Taxes would the other term I would use for this activity.
We pay taxes wherever we go, not only on food but for clothing and cars. “The local sales and
use tax are levied by every city and county in Virginia at the maximum rate of 1.0 percent”
(Virginia 2022).
Civic Participation and Engagement Practices with Four Pedagogical Techniques
Literature Integration:
What Can a Citizen Do is a great book to explain citizenship. This book goes through
many different things a citizen can do. “A citizen’s not what you are, a citizen is what you do”
(Eggers 2018). This book can be for 1st grade and up, and it really shows students that even the
little things count as being a citizen. Being a citizen can start at a young age in the classroom.
Giving students classroom jobs each day really helps not only be a citizen but teach them
responsibility, being respectful to others and over all a good student.
Decision-Making:
I think it’s very important to let the students come up with their own rules in the
classroom. This allows them to engage in decision-making and to make sure they have a say in
what going on in the classroom. Another way to engage decision making is giving the students
options after they have finished an assignment. Students love when they can choose what they
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do, every day they go to school and must listen to the teacher. Giving students a choose helps
them stay for motivated to get their work done.
Values, Symbols, and Holidays:
These are important topics to make known in your classroom. Every one of us is
different, and we all come from different cultures and place. So, making sure each student is
included in your classroom is important. The way to promote this is to have a conversation with
each student one on one, to get to know them on a personal level. Another place to start would be
looking at the school calendar and seeing with holidays the school celebrates then asking the
students if they celebrate any that the school doesn’t.
Activity Methods, with Technology and Differentiation
Technology:
The students can use technology to look up examples what people have done as a citizen.
Letting students explore on their own with boundaries, allows them to have responsibility to
make sure they are doing the right think. This also gives them a test to see if they can use it
wisely. Students could also make a PowerPoint on being a citizen, nothing too long or big. But
just explaining what a citizen is and what they look like and how they can change their city.
Activity Procedures: Describe the student activity procedures, with a beginning, middle, and end.
Explain your viewpoint on this with at least one solid paragraph of five sentences.
Beginning will be reading the book on what can a citizen do. This will open the students
to recognize that they might already do some of the things in the book. The middle will be a
good citizen or not bingo game. I will read phases and the students will have to determine if that
is a citizen or not. The end is the students making a citizenship carnation. This activity promotes
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good citizenship and gives then the opportunity to create a visual reminder of what being a good
citizen means.
Differentiation:
With students who are English Language Learners, I would pair them with another
student to help them understand, I would also give them a printout of the notes translated in their
language. Students who are gifted I would give them a more challenging activity, I would also let
them help those who are struggling. For the students who are visual learners I will print out the
notes from the lesson, have a PowerPoint and an example of the activity. For the auditory
learners I will speak clearly and make sure to repeat the instructions and or lesson. For
kinesthetic learners I would print out the notes and activity worksheet to have them in front of
them.
Assessment
Assessing Student Learning:
I would give my students a quiz over the novel information. This would allow them to
not get overly stressed, most students freak out when you say test. The quiz would have ten
questions, the questions would be about the main idea, definitions, and true and false.
Example of Assessment:
Citizenship Quiz
1. What is a citizen?
- Someone who lives in a certain city or nation
- To sign up to vote
- A question the community must make a decision on
2. Voting is
- Right
- A responsibility
- Both
3. Who are the citizens of a community?
- Leaders
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- Adults
- All members
- Visiting people
4. Good citizens are ____ in their communities
- Bullies
- Kids
- Teachers
- Role models
5. I helped my neighbor mow his lawn yesterday. Is this a good citizen?
- True
- False
6. What ‘s one example of a responsibility you have in your school?
- To have recess
- To ignore my teachers
- Be safe, be kind, Be respectful
- To have friends
7. Which one is not an example of a good citizen?
- Be respectful
- Help others
- Be honest
- Disobeying my parents
8. Where should I respect the rules?
- School
- Home
- Any public place
- All the above
9. Bullying a boy at school is being a good citizen
- True
- False
10. Rules and laws keep order
- True
- False
Plan for Feedback:
I will provide my students feedback on their quiz. There are two symbols I will use at the
top of each student’s quiz. The first symbol would be a thumbs up and the second is thumbs
down. For the students who got thumbs up they know the information and don’t need help. The
students who got a thumbs down they will get extra help at small group time with the teacher. I
think the most important thing is to not let other students get overwhelmed if they need more
help. This way other students wouldn’t know if they need help till, I call small groups.
References
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[Reference the resource(s) that you used for this assignment and follow current APA standards.]
Doctrine and practice | constitution annotated - congress. (n.d.). Retrieved October 13, 2022,
from https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt14-S1-1-2/ALDE_00000812/ G
Virginia state and Local Civic Education Module. Civics Education. (n.d.). Retrieved October
13, 2022, from https://civiceducationva.org/
Eggers, D., & Harris, S. (2018).GWhat can a citizen do?GChronicle Books LLC.
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