My Civics Story - Teaching Civics Projects

Students in Massachusetts have the opportunity to interact with decision makers in their communities and make real-world change because of the new law that required middle and high schools to teach civics by engaging students in real-world action civics projects. Sarah Calla is a 8th grade Social Studies teacher in Methuen and shares her reflections and advice from teaching student-led Action Civics projects using the Generation Citizen framework and curriculum.

So, you are teaching Civics. You are a teacher in a classroom in Massachusetts, trying to figure out how to implement the civics projects in your classroom. You bring so much to this experience already. You have already led group projects during your years of teaching or used group work in your classrooms. You know how to work with groups. You also have experience working in and with communities. What did you do in the past for volunteer work or civic engagement? Were you ever a Girl Scout, Boy Scout, camp counselor, Yearbook Advisor, coach? If you answered yes to any of these, you are more than prepared to take on the civics project. You might even find that you really enjoy it. I did. Yes, there are going to be moments where you think, What am I doing? There will also be other times where you think, This is why I became a teacher.

Here is my Civics story...

At the end of 2019, I was invited to attend a Civics training with Generation Citizen. I was very skeptical about the process, but I was open to doing the class civics project.

During the training, when I first saw all the materials, I felt a sense of panic. I said to myself, “It is okay. Breathe. We are all in this together. You can do it.” By the end of the training, so many of my anxieties were alleviated - I was very fortunate. They walked us through the whole process and answered every little and big question. They supported us throughout the project for the year following. I now have two projects under my belt, and I am in the middle of two more projects. The projects are being done remotely with a little bit of hybrid (some kids are always remote). I can’t believe how far I have come in my confidence and ability to lead the projects and how transformational they are for my students.

Here are some of my reflections on each of the six stages of the project you will go through.

Stage One: Examine Self and Civic Identity (You)

You, as a teacher: Sit down. Consider some things about yourself. Think long and hard about your teacher persona. Who are you and what do you believe about student learning? You will likely be pushed outside of your comfort zone. You have been here before during your teaching career. You just have to take one step at a time. During COVID, you will need to social distance. You can do this civics project whether or not you’re teaching remotely.

Who are you and what is your Civic past? Have you worked polls? Have you helped a candidate run for election? Have you run for office? Do you vote? Be honest; tell the kids. I wouldn’t tell them or indicate to them whether you are liberal or conservative. I also wouldn’t tell them whether you voted for Trump, Biden, or another candidate. They ask, and I say, “I voted.” I don’t want my beliefs to impact the beliefs of my students. I am sure that I say things or do things that help them to guess, but I leave it ambiguous. They do know that I believe in reducing, reusing, and recycling. They also know that I love the color purple. I talk about this all of the time. I also believe very strongly in community. We are a community of learners. We help one another when we fall down. We reach out to people in need. We come together to make change. Our classroom is a microcosm of our community. Everything we do impacts something or someone else.

As you consider community, do you live in the community in which you teach? If you do, talk about the community and why you chose to live there or why you chose not to leave. If you don’t, why did you choose to live in this community or teach in your own community? What did you do in your community when you were young: swimming, Girl Scouts, baseball, Boy Scouts, dance…? How did it make you feel to be part of your community? Why is community important? How has your community supported you and how have you supported your community?

Stage One: Examine Self and Civic Identity (Your students)

Classroom Constitution: I used the Class Constitution Handout in order to set up my class constitution. You have likely done this in the past with classroom rules.

Personally, at this time, I create class governance. I believe very strongly in the group leader. I ask my students how they would like to make decisions as a class. We talk about whether we would like a president and vice president, a class council. I will absolutely allow these students to have leadership roles in my classroom. Classroom governances: class 1, President and class council of four; class 2, class council of six; class 3, class council of five; class 4, co-presidents and class council of four (we did have an impeachment). My class council and my presidents become my go between and my assistants. I do tell my students that it is a democracy under a tyranny. I am the Queen of the classroom and must be included in all communication. I also have the ability to squash anything that is not okay or is impossible. I have found the model with a president has ended with more success in all of the projects.

Community Wheel: I truly hope that you are as fortunate as I am to have a well-constructed town or city website. My city website is excellent. I need to thank whoever is responsible for the organization and creation. If your website is not present or it is dated, you and/or your students will have some homework to do. [Actually, this could be your civics project. You would likely interact with the executive branch in your city or town.]

Students will learn about what type of government that they have in their locale: city government or town government. Do you have a mayor and a city council? Do you have a town manager and town meetings?

My students went to our city website in order to fill out the My Community Wheel Activity Worksheet. I used a table instead, which made it easier for my students to type in answers.

I asked students to fill out their own Community Issues Organizer Handout. We had a lot of quick conversations about our community as students were filling this out. We had even more conversations when they were complete. In addition, I used the Community Interviews Handout to complete three community interviews. It is up to you. My thought process is that some students will not do it or can’t do it, and it would allow us to have a better set of data to work with in order to create a focus issue. You may want to add additional questions. I definitely reduced the number for special needs populations. I did have students use FaceTime or Google Meet in order to interview family members who did not live with them. I also tell them that they can ask coaches, church members, bus drivers. I even let them ask older siblings who are in high school or above. During COVID, this was all done virtually.

Stage 2: Identifying an Issue (You)

As the students begin to discuss the issues, you have to figure out what you are able to do to help the students. You have to help the students narrow it down. If you have ever used Lucy Calkins, think of the watermelon and the seed. We are looking for the seed At the eighth grade level, I try to steer them towards something that they can actually do. I also try to steer them towards something where they may see an actual change. For example, one class' focus issue was transportation. They ended up getting a bike rack put in at our school. They could see the end result; therefore, the project was more powerful. I often think of the kids that got the optical illusion crosswalks put into their community.

It is not your project, but you will often be working as a project manager or an idea person. You are truly the “guide on the side” for this project. But, depending on the class sitting in front of you, you may do very little or you may be busy all the time. It is similar to running a small marketing business. You will definitely be busy with communication. You may also have to nudge an adult. You will definitely be using every contact that you have ever had for some purpose. Mainly, I have found the adults extremely helpful and willing to help. I truly hope that you have the same experience.

Stage 2: Identifying an Issue (Your students)

We used all of the community surveys to help determine the three biggest issues in our community. I put the kids in different Google Meets. Each group talked about the issues that they all had from their interviews. I asked them to pick the top three for their group. I popped into each group. When each group had the top three issues, I turned to Trello. I used the free version. I am at a Title 1 school and we don’t have a lot of money for extras like this. Using Trello, I posted all of the ideas from each group. Trello allows you to add or remove items. You can also reorder the items. Each group presented the issues that they choose. I listed all of the ideas in the first column of Trello. From here, we had consensus building and discussion, and I did a quick Google form where they voted for the top three.

Google Meets Breakout rooms without the Breakout room feature. First, the first time that you do it, you will have sensory overload. Breathe. You got this. I created six different Google Meets. I opened them, and named them Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4, Group 5, and Group 6. I would silence the mic and turn off my camera. You can hear the kids talking. So, the teacher-student interaction became a texting situation, though, there were times I used the mic and didn’t worry about the extra sound. I have found that if I leave the Meet (ability to rejoin), I can lose the sound for all of the individual meets. I pop in and out of the Google Meets to check in with the kids. When I want them back, I ask them to rejoin the main Meet. When we were hybrid, I had some kids still remote. So, I would ask one student from each group to be the virtual representative. It was their job to ensure that the students online knew what was happening.

Once we have the three biggest issues, students are ready for a class discussion where there is consensus building. In the classroom, the students would move to corners. We would talk about all of the issues. Students would make the case for the issue that they chose. Other students would move corners. The idea is that all of the students will end up in one corner.

I did have one class where we couldn’t come up with consensus. We had three holdouts. My class president turned to me and said, “This is a democracy, right?”

I said, “Yes.”

She said, “Okay, can I tell them that the majority rules?” (There were only three kids that didn’t come to consensus.)

I said, “Absolutely.” This was one of those moments where I thought Wow, she is really buying into this.

During COVID, I had the kids fill out Google forms. We discussed using Google Meets. When using Google forms, I would also share the pie charts to show the decision making process. I tended not to show it until we had a final number. However, in some cases, I would let the kids fill it out and see the pie chart change.

Stage 3: Researching and Investigating (You)

This is where your city or town website comes into play. You may also be using your school website. My students have used the DESE website. They have also used the Massachusetts State Government website. I used the root causes document. I also used a modified jigsaw (we jigged, we didn’t saw) for the students to complete the Case Study Analysis. Each group went over the case study and filled out questions. They reported back to the class. This worked out really well.

Stage 3: Researching and Investigating (Your Students)

The students started out by looking at the Understanding Root Cause document. I had six groups. Each group took one of the projects. They went through the table and completed it. After they were done, I asked the students to report out on what the students did and the root cause. I also asked them whether they thought that the project was a project that we could possibly complete or recreate.

Next, I had the students focus on the topic that we chose. I asked them to complete research. Depending on the topic, I might have students research different aspects. I also had the students look at our city website in order to determine what committee or department would be able to help us with the topic. For example, right now, one of my groups started with littering. They came around to water bottles being an issue. The root cause of littering was often water bottles. They determined that if we had water bottle fillers that we could help to alleviate littering in our city and keep thousands of water bottles out of our landfill.

Stage 4: Developing an Action Plan (You)

This is where the project truly gets a little “messy.” You, as a teacher, will have to let go and also check in constantly with the kids. I kept a spreadsheet with dates to keep track. I also wrote notes each day.

Stage 4: Developing an Action Plan (Your Students)

The students had a root cause, so we created an action plan. At this time, we created groups for our project.

My water bottle filler class broke up into the following groups:

Research: Statistics specifically for water bottles and water bottle fillers. Where to get one and how to get one? TCO of water bottle fillers.

Survey: This group created a survey to determine whether or not people would use a water bottle filler, etc. They also created a form for the fundraising group.

Presentation: They created a presentation about the water bottle fillers, why we needed them, and statistics.

Fundraising: Students came up with fundraising ideas. In this case, they found a place to fundraise water bottles and hand sanitizer. They created a flyer and are working on advertising and sales.

Communication: This group sent emails to the companies, change-makers, and anyone else that needed communication.

My bike rack project broke up into the following groups:

Rules: What rules would be in place when kids rode bikes to school, bike licenses, consequences

Laws: Looked at the laws surrounding riding bikes to school.

Communication: Called and emailed businesses and change makers. Set up meetings.

Video: Bike safety video and video on the rules

Survey: Survey teachers and students about bike safety. Survey about who would want to ride a bike to school.

Presentation and Tri-fold board: Develop a presentation to share with the community.

Stage 5: Taking Action (You)

I created a journal for my students to fill out daily. I also created a document for my group leaders.

Stage 5: Taking Action (Your Students)

My groups got to work. My group leaders, class governance, checked in with me daily. I also popped into groups. I did this in the classroom, and I did this using Google Meets. It was successful in person and online. This piece is the most complicated. It is better talked about through conversation.

Stage 6: Reflecting and Showcasing (You)

Last year we didn’t get to this part because it was cancelled during COVID. However, when you are presenting to your principal or other change makers, you are showcasing the students’ work and asking them if they hold decision-making power.

Stage 6: Reflecting and Showcasing (Your Students)

Students practiced presenting. We had a dry run prior to our meetings with the principal and/or changemakers.

My students also completed a reflection on the project, a self-assessment. I asked them to complete a % that each group member earned for their work out of a total of 100. I also had them complete a project assessment.

Regardless of how you tackle this project, you are a teacher. You will be great. Feel free to reach out to teachers that are already completing projects. I have found other teachers very helpful. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Civics Project Guidebook has a lot of great ideas and tons of resources.

When you don’t know what to do, reach out to a Civics Fellow, your colleagues, your history department head, Facebook groups, and any other forum that you would like. Don’t stay stuck. Some groups will not gel. Some groups will need a great deal of support.

You can do this. Your kids can do this. If they don’t, it is okay.