The Civic Life Powerful Practices
Instructional practices to ensure youth develop lasting skills, habits, and dispositions necessary to navigate a complex and constantly changing world.
Defining the Civic Life Powerful Practices
Across the district, many teachers and students are already engaging in meaningful social science instruction. We share here how educators build transformative, democratic classrooms through these powerful practices of democratic education.
What, Why, and How
Discuss and Deliberate
- Student Centered Civic Discussion & Deliberation - Chicago Public Schools and the Teaching Channel: Watch these videos on the Teaching Channel featuring Chicago Public Schools’ teachers and students. These videos go deep into discussion and deliberation techniques and can be used as exemplar classrooms to observe or a place to learn more about the value of discussion and deliberation.
- Teaching Controversial Issues: An Introduction: This article, put out by the National Council for Social Studies, speaks to the importance of teaching students how to engage in controversial political and constitutional issues. Use this article to continue learning about the importance of discussion and deliberation in classrooms.
- Guardian of Democracy: The Civic Mission of Schools: This article is a deeper dive into the role that collaborative, democratic classrooms play in student outcomes and their preparedness for college, career, and civic life. Read this article to learn more about the research and outcomes of powerful civics practices in classrooms..
- Discussion and Deliberation Resources to Get Started: This resource bank includes helpful tools for facilitating discussion and deliberations in your classroom, including creating classroom climate for discussion, grounding knowledge, and facilitating discussion. After learning about collaborative, democratic classrooms, select a strategy from this resource bank and implement it in your classroom
Practice Critical Media Literacy
- Introduction to Media Literacy: Crash Course Media Literacy: Start here to learn about what Media Literacy is and why it is so important in today’s world. This is a great video for adults and young people to explore why Media Literacy matters.
- Give Facts a Fighting Chance: A Global Playbook for Teaching News Literacy: This publication from the News Literacy Project outlines why Media Literacy matters and provides teaching strategies for incorporating Media Literacy in classrooms.
- Stanford History Education Group: Civic Online Reasoning: Use this lesson database to engage your students in Civic Online Reasoning. The COR curriculum provides free lessons and assessments that help you teach students to evaluate online information that affects them, their communities, and the world
- News Literacy Project: The News Literacy Project’s website offers many teaching strategies and tools for teaching Media Literacy in schools. The website also is updated frequently with blogs and resources to address current events and media literacy.
Take Action through Experiential Learning
- Taking Informed Action to Engage Students in Civic Life: This article is an introduction into engaging students in taking informed action. It makes the case for why it is necessary in schools. Use this article to learn more about why Taking Informed Action is so important for students to be engaged in.
- CPS Informed Action Framework: Start here to learn about informed action and project-based learning. This framework includes readings and resources on how to engage students in Taking Informed Action. It includes resources for developing Call to Action Questions, Investigation, and Pathways to action
Nurture Democratic Systems and Structures
- Guidebook: 6 Proven Practices for Effective Civic Learning: Read this article to understand how using these 6 Proven Practices for Effective Civic Learning can cultivate and nurture collaborative, democratic classrooms. Use this article as a starting point to understanding more about powerful practices that promote collaborative, democratic classrooms.
- Building Democratic Classroom: Cultivating Civic Competencies: Read this article to understand and reflect on what civic life in classrooms and schools can do to transform youth.
- CPS Student Voice 360 Toolkit: Use this toolkit to learn about the researched based tools that have been tested with youth and adults, in classrooms and schools in Chicago and across the country. The goal of this document is to support schools and teachers in their efforts to build inclusive partnerships between youth and adults and ensure that student perspectives are elevated as valued members of the school community.