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Author: Luke O'Connor

5 iCivics Election Day Activities

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

Happy Election Day! Today, important local elections will be held around the country. These races and ballot measures are a great way to introduce students to voting, explore how the process works, and talk about the impact casting a ballot can have right in their local communities. If you’re searching for fun Election Day activities for your class, look no further! Check out some of our top resources.

1. Cast Your Vote Game

Cast Your Vote demonstrates the value of becoming an informed voter. In this game, students will research candidates, identify issues important to them, and then participate in a simulated local election.

The Extension Pack explains concepts and vocabulary that may be new to students and turns many parts of the game into teachable moments. The game offers English language learner (ELL) support and a pre/post-game assessment quiz, which will help you gain insight into what students learned during gameplay.

2. Voting Rights Lesson Plan

Even though your students may not be old enough to vote, they still can have major influence on elections. From registering voters to contacting elected officials, young people have many opportunities to participate in this democratic process. This resource guide – designed to be used independently – gives students tools, ideas, and guidance for engaging in elections outside the ballot box.

4. The Spectrum of State Election Laws Infographic

The rules for voting can vary greatly from one state to another. Keeping track of the differences can be difficult, but this interactive infographic lays out the various options and allows students to pinpoint which laws apply to their state. From registration to IDs to recounts, this infographic truly covers the election law spectrum.

5. Got Ballot? Lesson Plan

One of the best ways for students to understand how voting works is to see a ballot themselves! This lesson takes students to the voting booth and explains what they could see on a ballot. From referendums to recalls, students will get a better understanding of how voters have the opportunity to initiate change in state and local government.

These just scratch the surface of iCivics’ options for Election Day activities. Check out our Election Headquarters and Politics and Public Policy curriculum unit for more!

Head to the Election Headquarters!

Using iCivics in Special Education

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

This may sound like an obvious statement, but working with students in special education is not like teaching in general education. I know I’m not breaking any new ground with that statement, but you might be surprised at how few resources are out there for teaching social studies in special education. 

In some cases, like with iCivics, resources can be easily adapted to accommodate the different needs of varied classrooms.

As someone who has spent most of the past eight years teaching middle and high school social studies content at non-public, special education schools in the Baltimore area, I can tell you that iCivics materials have to be used a little bit differently in my context. 

For example, it seems like most Gen Ed teachers have their students play iCivics games individually. Students can go through the game at their own pace, and this setup also allows for friendly competition. This method is undoubtedly appropriate for many students. Others, however, do not always work best on their own, which brings me to my biggest piece of advice: Play the games as a whole group.

When I started using iCivics games in 2014, the entire class played together out of necessity. The school I was at had great technology, but we didn’t have a class-set of laptops, let alone individual laptops for each student. I had my desktop and a projector. So, I had no choice but to project my screen onto the board and ask my students to help me make decisions. 

My students made it quite clear that they did not care what I said or did; they didn’t want to learn anything about the government or civics because they saw no use for it. Mind you, these special education classes are full of kids on a diploma track whose life experiences have often included negative encounters with aspects of government, including the public school system.

It’s for this reason that playing Executive Command with that first group of students was a transformational moment for me. To see the excitement my students had being President of the United States was truly awe-inspiring.

After helping me navigate the executive branch, that first group of students (and most of the subsequent groups of students) were so excited, they wanted to play iCivics games again and again. They wanted to play so badly, they were willing to take turns and watch each other play on the board.

That’s right: students who often had trouble being in the same room with each other for more than 30 minutes were willing to take turns, watch politely, or sometimes even help each other navigate the game! 

So, next time you play an iCivics game with your class, try playing with the whole class. When you play the games as a whole group, you can better manage how engaged students are in the game.

You can: 

  • make sure students actually read and understand what the game’s asking them to do. 
  • make sure students understand what all the symbols and logos stand for. 
  • scaffold the reading and listening portions of the game, if necessary. 
  • fill in some of the missing content knowledge they may need to fully understand the game. 
  • ask probing questions to encourage deeper thought.

An important addition to this is to realize that when playing as a whole group, the game takes much longer. The first time you play with your class, build in at least two days to complete the game, allowing time to fill in the content knowledge, ask probing questions, etc. 

There are undoubtedly benefits from students playing iCivics games individually, but I would at least start by playing the game as a whole group and then build up to students playing independently or in small groups. Either way, you’ll know that you’re helping to prepare your students to be more civically engaged.

Written by Neil Wrona

Neil is currently a Special Educator at Mount View Middle School in Howard County, MD, but has taught the gamut of high school social studies for most of his eight years as a teacher. He has been a member of the iCivics Educator Network since 2017 and has been a book reviewer for Solution Tree Publishing since 2020. You can follow him on Twitter @neilwrona.

 Through the iCivics Educator Network, the perspectives of teachers across the country contribute to the public conversation about civic education in the United States. Each contributor represents their own opinion. We welcome this diversity of perspectives.

Are Your Students #VoteReady?

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

The U.S. Government class started the same way it has every semester for the past three years. Students faced the following question:

If/when you are eligible to do so, will you register to vote?

(And for those who do not meet the citizenship or residency requirements: Will you encourage those who can register to do so?)

And, as with every other time students have faced this question before we actually got into the curriculum, the answers were roughly the same:

“I don’t really care about politics.”

“I don’t know enough to figure out who to vote for.”

“Those people are all the same; it doesn’t matter if you vote.”

“Elections aren’t real—‘they’ already know who is going to win. The voting is just a show.”

“I’ve got to save my money for other things, I can’t pay to register to vote.”

“One vote doesn’t matter.”

“What difference does it make?”

“ I have to answer ALL those questions to register?”

“I don’t have an ID.”

I have heard these same responses from dozens of students. Our public high school in Allentown, PA, is relatively new, and has graduated only three classes of seniors so far. This year, I enter into preparing my fourth cohort of 17-18-year-olds to take their place in adult civic life in our community. As with past years, I will be faced with several sections each day of students promising me that I will not succeed in convincing them that voting should be in their toolbox of ways to have an impact on their future.

Allentown is a city of more than 121 million people. Set in the Lehigh Valley in southeastern Pennsylvania, Allentown is home to a population that is more than 68 percent BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), most of whom belong to the city’s Hispanic/Latino majority. Around a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, and almost a fifth of the population is foreign-born. These demographics are reflected in Allentown’s public school district, where 84 percent of the 16,000+ students are BIPOC, with almost 70 percent identifying as Hispanic/Latino. Additionally, 89 percent are from low-income families, and 100 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch. 

We know that nationwide, communities of color and communities with high levels of poverty have the lowest rates of voter registration and voter turnout. Allentown is no different. While Pennsylvania as a whole has a higher-than-average rate of voter turnout (in 2020 approximately 71% of Pennsylvania’s eligible voters turned out to vote, compared to 68 percent nationally), and the Lehigh Valley rate was higher than both the statewide and national turnout rates (75% in 2016), voting rates across Allentown’s neighborhoods vary widely. Voter turnout in Allentown’s affluent and mostly White West End is more than three times the rate in Allentown’s Center City neighborhoods. 

It is from these neighborhoods, where voting isn’t a tradition seen and practiced in most households, that my skeptical students come by their beliefs about voting. They often report never having seen someone vote, not knowing anyone who has ever voted, and sharing a general disbelief that the government represents or serves the people in their homes and neighborhoods. They look at candidates for office and do not see themselves. 

My students are the perfect representation of research published in 2016 listing the most common reasons why people don’t vote.

  1. Registration is hard
  2. Lack of education and/or lack of a community of peers who are voters
  3. Lack of enough choices
  4. Apathy and burnout.

Luckily, several of those obstacles to voting can be addressed within the civics classroom—and that’s where our classroom investigation of voting comes in.

Voting Starts in the Classroom

Voter registration drives are common sights in U.S. high schools. Often consisting of decorated tables in the school cafeteria, energetic student volunteers with clipboards at Back-to-School Nights, and colorful posters hanging on bulletin boards with directions to registration websites or stacks of paper registration forms, registering voters is the work of extracurricular clubs and outside organizations partnering with volunteers within the schools. But in communities where the act of opting into formal participation in the institutions of civic life isn’t a given, it isn’t enough to merely hang a poster and hand a student a form to fill out. 

We show students what we value through what is given a place in the classroom. In our school building, this has meant giving voting a place front-and-center in civics instruction.

The opening discussion around “will you be a voter?” is the launch of an eight-week investigation around the history of voting rights and voter suppression, trends in voter participation, analysis of access to government resources compared to voter turnout, and current proposed state and national legislation to either expand or restrict voting access. At the end of these eight weeks, students complete two culminating tasks—an argumentative research paper on methods needed to improve voter participation and a personal decision: will they register to vote or not?

The sequence of instruction is as follows: Before entering their senior year, students are immersed in a civics-focused social studies curriculum, where all instruction culminates in some form of civic action. The anchor of this curriculum is the iCivics’ Foundations of Government curriculum unit. Each year, students have grappled with their role as “We the People” and what it means to be responsible for self-governance under a republican democracy based upon popular sovereignty.

Over the course of the first half of their U.S. Government semester, students work through the following activities:

  1. Comparing voter turnout: Students begin by looking at examples of allocations of federal resources to states as they are influenced by voter turnout. Students learn that politicians are driven to pay more attention to the needs of populations that vote.
  2. Investigate the following areas
    • Who should have the right to vote?
    • Why don’t people vote?
    • What stops people from voting?
    • Who votes? (A map-based investigation of voter turnout)
    • Should we make voting mandatory?
  3. Culminating task: Students then research state and federal voting reform proposals, select one or propose one of their own, and produce argument papers to support their ideas. Time permitting, students translate their formal papers into posters, public service announcements (PSAs), social media posts, and letters to the editor to share their learning and persuade the community.
  4. Voter registration drive: This happens within the classroom, not the cafeteria. Research shows that difficulty completing the registration process is a major obstacle for individual voters, so we make space for it during regular instructional time. The iCivics resource Got Ballot? is a great tool for supporting new voters as they grapple with their first ballot. We also celebrate new voters by throwing a “First Political Birthday” party the day after each election day, with cupcakes and candles for each student who voted for the first time.

The Proof is in the Progress

Voter registration takes place three times a year in our high school: once in early fall for those eligible students who turn 18 before the November elections; again in mid-winter for those who turn 18 before the April Pennsylvania primaries; and a third time before graduation to support those who turn 18 after those dates. Students become ambassadors and reach out to peers who need support, and even bring home their newfound expertise in the registration process. Many parents, aunts, cousins, and neighbors have also been registered as part of student voter registration drives. 

Has facilitating deep student investigation into voting and the consequences of low voter turnout had an impact on student belief in their ability to raise their voices through voting? Judge for yourself!

Remember where the students started off each semester? Overwhelmingly skeptical and disinterested in anything related to voting. 

At the end of each semester? In 2020, our high school was one of 20 recognized nationwide by When We All Vote and MTV for excellence in new voter education and registration. What’s more, we have earned the Governor’s Civic Engagement Award all three years that we have had 18-year-olds as students—twice at the gold level. 

This award recognizes Pennsylvania high schools for success in voter registration. Schools must register 65 percent of eligible students to earn the silver level or 85 percent for the gold level. (Only COVID prevented us from reaching Gold status last year). 

One of my students from the Class of 2019 came to me as a student who believed that voting in Pennsylvania had nothing to do with her. Most of her family still lived in Puerto Rico, and she claimed that there was no reason for her to vote any place else. After a semester of learning, she had not only registered to vote, she was also one of three students who represented us in Harrisburg to accept our first award from the Governor. 

What changed her thinking? That fall, her home community was devastated by Hurricane Maria. In the classroom, she learned that although Puerto Rico is part of the United States, and Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, the island has no votes in the Electoral College and, therefore, does not participate in general presidential elections. Her family, then, had not been able to vote for the President who would decide on relief and recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and could not vote him out if they were unhappy with his decisions. But this student realized that she could use her vote in Pennsylvania to speak for her island and her family. She is a perfect example of what can happen when we connect student learning to authentic experiences in students’ lives.

 

Written by Shannon Salter

Shannon Salter is in her 10th year teaching high school social studies. She has worked under a National Science Foundation grant, published research in Social Education and The Science Teacher, and spoken at National Geographic, the National Council for the Social Studies, and several professional development sessions. Shannon is a member of the iCivics Educator Network, the National Geographic Educator Advisory Panel, the National Constitution Center Teacher Advisory Council, and is currently serving on the Educating for American Democracy Implementation Consortium. Her passion is creating opportunities for students to use the skills of civic action to take their learning in all subjects out of the classroom to make an impact on their community.

Through the iCivics Educator Network, the perspectives of teachers across the country contribute to the public conversation about civic education in the United States. Each contributor represents their own opinion. We welcome this diversity of perspectives.

How Iconic! A New Way to Find The Best iCivics Resource for Your Unique Classroom

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

Our “teach” page search is built to help you find iCivics resources with as few clicks as possible, saving you valuable time when lesson planning. The search view displays all of our resources (hint, hint: we have more than just games!). As shown below, you can use filters such as “middle school,” “game,” “curriculum unit,” “state standards,” and more to sort. View this training video for a walkthrough of all of the filters available.

Introducing the Icons

We have added icons to the search view on the “teach” page that will help you quickly understand what each lesson or activity offers. The icons indicate:

  • Grade Level: Easily search for middle or high school resources. 
  • Pedagogy: We call these “Tags.” Think strategies and modes of learning, such as “inquiry-based,” “ELL,” and cross-curricular connections.
  • Technology Requirements: Whether you’re looking for no-tech or tech-specific activities, we have them at iCivics. 
  • Resources: What resources are included with a lesson or game? Icons like “PDF” and “PPT” can tell you. Icons also note when a lesson includes a Nearpod, Kahoot, or interactive Google Slides deck. 

To help you get more familiar, we have created a handy icon menu. So many options, right?! To utilize the iconography when searching, simply hover your mouse over the icons and the title will appear. 

Visit the Icon Menu

Want to see an example?

Let’s assume you’re looking to use our game Win the White House and find activities to teach around the game. Below is how the icons on the extension pack resource card illustrate what is offered and will help you think about how you might use the resource with students.

A Sneak Peek of the Icon Menu

Below is a quick look at some of the icons related to pedagogy, such as “inquiry-based” and “project-based” to give you an idea for filtering down your search! We bet you didn’t know we had all of these options?! Explore the menu to see more. 

Assessment: Resources that include assessments. This may include quizzes or instructions in the resources’s teacher guide.

ELA/Literacy: Resources that support literacy.

Inquiry-Based: Resources that center an inquiry-based approach to learning.

Project-Based: Resources that include project-based learning (PBL) activities and instructional approaches.

We also have a stellar line-up of partners, whose interactive tools and technology offer you the ability to use iCivics lessons in any classroom environment. Explore some of our featured partners below. The icon menu offers a complete list.

Boost student creativity with iCivics lessons by using our built-in Kami integration!

Try iCivics lessons with the student-paced or live participation features on Nearpod.

Test student knowledge with ready-to-play Kahoot quizzes for iCivics lessons.

Enter to Win a Civics Book Bundle from Penguin Young Readers!

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

We have teamed up with our partners at Penguin Young Readers to give five lucky teachers a themed Who HQ book bundle, ideal for elementary and middle school students! You could win one of five unique book bundles that contains 10-11 Who HQ books and 50 iCivics pencils and stickers for your classroom

Here is a sneak peek of one of the themed bundles you could win:

Entering this giveaway is easy! To enter:

  1. Complete a Who HQ For You Civics activity (found under the October Theme) with your students between Monday, October 4 to Friday, October 15, 2021.
  2. Submit samples of the completed activity along with a short write-up of top takeaways and memorable moments.

The Who HQ Civics Book Bundle Giveaway is open now through October 15, 2021. Visit the official giveaway page to learn more.

Hispanic Heritage Month 2021: Courage, Integrity and Commitment

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

I started my 20th year in education in the second year of a global pandemic. Teachers, doctors, nurses, and countless other medical and educational personnel are exhausted, drained physically and emotionally—and yet they keep showing up to do the job.

As I listen to the academic conversations in my classroom, I can’t help but remember how emotionally and physically exhausted my students must be, too, yet they keep showing up to do the job.

I think of those in this amazing country that, despite a global pandemic, continue showing up to fight for justice, for peace and for recognition.

As a Latina, entering Hispanic Heritage Month always fills me with pride. I can’t help but be grateful for the commitment, the courage, and the integrity of those that lobbied for Hispanic Heritage Week to be created in 1968—and even more so for those that continued the fight into 1988, which led to the Hispanic Heritage Month we celebrate today.

As a Spanish/English Dual Language teacher, I am so thankful for those that had the courage to fight for equality of education for English Learners. Cases like Lau v. Nichols paved the way for an incredible shift in education for our ELs. I think of Dr. Antonia Pantoja who founded ASPIRA and fought endlessly for educational access for the disadvantaged Latinx students in New York. Thanks to her efforts, and the efforts of those who supported her, the ASPIRA Consent Decree is now the foundation for many EL Programs across the country!

And finally, I think of Justice Sonia Sotomayor who, after overcoming her own insurmountable obstacles, became the first Latina Supreme Court Justice! In 2015, she became a board member of iCivics and her mission was to make sure that the games and support materials were accessible to all learners, especially English learners. In 2017, Do I Have A Right? became the first game with supports for English and multilingual learners and a Spanish version, ¿Tengo algún derecho?. It’s also the first game I ever used in my Dual Language classroom! I love how it not only allows my students to learn about their rights in this country, but their parents can, too! Thanks to Justice Sotomayor’s efforts to ensure a civic education for everyone, I am able to provide educational support to my Spanish-speaking EL students through iCivics’ ELL resources.

iCivics continued to provide support to our ELs during the pandemic. They teamed up with Kami to provide additional support to students learning online. Online learning proved to be difficult for many of our ELs who learn best by working together, hearing language spoken, and applying language. Thankfully, Kami provided an opportunity for students to continue to interact with language by providing ways to record verbal responses, as well as written responses in both languages. The typing capability and highlighting features allowed students to interact with the language depending on the tasks provided by the teacher.

So during this Hispanic Heritage Month, take time to remember those who demonstrated, and continue to demonstrate courage, integrity and commitment by fighting to level the playing field for our Latinx students!

How will you share stories of courage with your students?

Other iCivics Resources for Teaching English and Multilingual Learners:

Written by Verónica Schmidt-Gómez, MEd

Verónica Schmidt-Gómez teaches Dual Language World History, Dual Language Civics, and Dual Language U.S. History at Turner Bartels K-8 School in Tampa, FL. She has been a member of the iCivics Educator Network since 2020. Follow her on Twitter at: @SraGomezDual.

I ❤️ Support: My Time Helping Teachers as an iCivics Intern

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

Hello there! My name is Jerry Vogel, and I am currently an intern at iCivics. I’ve been working here since the end of May, and it’s been a crazy ride all the way through. But let me tell you, it’s been fun. Allow me to tell you the abridged version of my life as a part of the iCivics family.

I started off working as a standard tech intern. I tested code and a few programs, sifted through databases for various pieces of information, and performed other simple—but useful—tasks. It wasn’t much, but it was honest work. However, the real fun began in June. Our dearly beloved Curriculum Associate Molly Launceford announced that she was leaving the company to pursue a law degree and needed someone to take her spot as a member of the Support staff. She trained me on how to respond to inquiries from our educators, fill out the weekly report, and warned me that while the job may feel easy, work would soon ramp up. Not much happened in June or July with Support. Occasionally, a teacher reached out to ask about data privacy. Some questions about games came in and other pretty tame stuff. But then… the back to school season rolled around.

August has been a crazy month here at iCivics as the school year kicks off and teachers head back to the classroom – and begin using iCivics! As many of you may know, we released new features on our website! As a member of the Tech team, I worked on what we called the “site migration.” It’s tech speak for an upgrade. I helped make sure certain parts of our analytics worked correctly, but my main task was monitoring support inquiries from educators. And as soon as we migrated the site, the tickets started coming in. 

I could have never expected the rush that I’ve experienced as a part of the Support team. It’s been crazy! We’ve had a lot of teachers asking us for help and direction. And I have LOVED it. It’s been so much fun. I really feel like I’m making a difference to our users. Whenever I press send on a response detailing how to sync a Google Classroom class or a response telling someone that their bug has been resolved, I feel a twinge of happiness. It’s wonderful to be able to help so many people all from the comfort of my big desk chair. Knowing that what I am doing is not only helping the person I am responding to but many others experiencing the same issue brings a big smile to my face.

This is far from the end of my time at iCivics. My internship will be extending into December, and I’m looking forward to continuing my work here. Support does not end with back to school! I’m excited to see what comes of my time with the Support team. Then of course there’s programming—my true speciality. I’m looking forward to seeing what sorts of programs I will get to work on for iCivics. All I know is that whatever I do, it’s going to be a good time for me. And of course, it’ll make the experience of everyone who reads this better. We’re always looking to make iCivics as amazing as possible. I’m happy to do my part.

Written by Jerry Vogel

Jerry Vogel is a Computer Science student at Northeastern University currently working on the Tech and Support teams at iCivics. He loves to listen to music, cook, and watch videos of cute animals.

Teaching Tips: Customizing your Game Sandwich

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

In a recent blog post (Meet the iCivics Extension Pack), we talked about the iCivics “Game Sandwich.” As you bite into that dish, here are some ways to add a bit more flavor.

Customize Your Game Sandwich

✔️ The best part of the Game Sandwich is that you can pick and choose which activities and slides you’d like to use. It allows for flexibility, and the amount of time you spend is up to you. Activities progress from quick comprehension checks to open-ended activities where students are asked to dig deeper.

✔️ Introducing a large amount of content like the amendments in Do I Have A Right? or the responsibilities of the three branches in Branches of Power at one time can be overwhelming for some students. We recommend limiting the amount of slides from the Extension Pack that you teach in a single day. We also suggest having pairs ask and answer questions about the slides to get them talking. 

✔️ For vocabulary building, provide students with a list of words to know and practice. You can use the Glossary of Game Terms from the Extension Packs.

✔️ ELL tip: Have students share terms that are relevant in their native language.

✔️ When teaching English and multilingual learners, it’s a good idea to address the four language domains: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The games provide listening and reading practice, and the Extension packs cover the other skills.

Do you want fries with that?

As a “side item”, we offer additional game-related resources. Most games have an illustrated guide (available as a downloadable PDF in English or Spanish). Each one has a different title, such as the Amendment Guide, (Do I Have A Right?), SCOTUS path (Argument Wars), Isley City Fact Sheet (Cast Your Vote), Classic Dept Guide (Counties Work). These guides can be used to:

✔️ Preview the game as an advance organizer

✔️ Introduce the content before playing so that students can become familiar with the main concepts. For example, the Amendment guide is a way to teach the amendments before playing and highlight the illustrations and color-coding in the game.

 

✔️ Review the game after playing.

Each game also has a Game Guide which is a PDF that explains how the game works and gives some useful tips for playing. This comes in handy when a student turns to you asking questions beyond the content. It gives you immediate boss-level insights.

Where can you find these resources?

You can find these game-specific guides by going to the game page (while logged into your teacher account) and clicking the “DOWNLOAD RESOURCES” button.

For more information about the Extension Packs and the “Game Sandwich,” check out this blog. 

More tips & tricks:

Find more articles about how to best use iCivics resources below.

Using Games to Drive Student Engagement in a Remote Classroom

Adding My Voice to iCivics Material: Tips and Tricks for Making Online Learning Accessible and Engaging with Kami by Andrew Swan

iCivics in Dual Language Teaching: How to Utilize iCivics Resources to Engage English and Multilingual Learners by Verónica Schmidt-Gómez, MEd

Written by Kristen Chapron

Kristen Chapron is Senior Editor of Digital Learning and ELL at iCivics. As a leading “chef” for the iCivics “game sandwich,” Kristen has been serving up and guiding the direction of Extension Packs for more than four years.

What’s Your Back-to-School Planning Style?

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

When planning your lessons do you enjoy finding opportunities within a well-structured sequence of resources? Skipping along a clear path of high-quality content? If this sounds like you, here’s your “Team Dorothy” jersey.

If that doesn’t really strike your fancy, I’d guess you are more of the type that looks around for pieces and bits that can be jigsawed together into a teaching monster of your own making. You may even fancy yourself a bit of a mad scientist in the classroom. If that sounds like a better fit, you belong on “Team Frank(enstein)”.

No matter the team or approach to teaching, our Scope and Sequence (S&S) document acts as a perfect reference point for your back-to-school planning. Here at iCivics, we develop our lessons and other resources to work as complete and comprehensive units, as well as individual items that can be used to supplement your existing teaching materials. Let’s dig into how the S&S can be used in both situations.

Team Dorothy and the Yellow Brick Road

The iCivics S&S is your Yellow Brick Road. It offers up a clear and organized structure that you can use to plan your semester and beyond. We’ve curated our content in thematic units that include our lesson plans, games, webquests, DBQuests, and more. Each item is carefully placed to provide you with an instructional flow that is as intentional as it is comprehensive. You never need to worry about when or where to use a resource; it’s all laid out! And there’s no need to worry about straying a little from time to time. While our resources build and support an ongoing instructional experience, you can always mix it up and integrate other resources. You can’t break the S&S, but you can make it your own!

Tips for Team Dorothy:

  • Great for new teachers, new-to-civics teachers, and teachers looking for a new or improved way to teach a civics class.
  • Use the iCivics’ standards search tool to connect the S&S with your state’s learning standards.
  • Determine when a middle school or high school lesson plan is best. You can level up or down through the Scope and Sequence for units that have high school counterparts.
  • Try to find time to take notes on a unit as you teach it. Would you change anything up? Did anything work particularly well? It’s a huge help going into the next year. 

Team Frank and the iCivics Laboratory

We offer up our S&S to the mad scientists to use in their laboratories (aka classrooms). Mix it, dilute it, boil it down, or blow it up! You can use the doc as more of a menu than a map, finding the tools, content, and delivery methods that fit the unique needs of your students. Each piece of content can stand on its own, so you can slip items in amongst your required textbook, along with other resources, or as great cross-curricular bridges. The S&S is also a great way to see the breadth of offerings at iCivics.

Tips for Team Frank:

  • The “teach” page on iCivics.org is a great place to search, filter, and engage with everything we have.
  • Make note of what you used, how it worked, iterate as needed, and remember… you are a mad scientist!
  • Connect to current events by highlighting the civic structures behind the news.
  • Pull civics into history, ELA, and STEM courses on an “as needed” basis.

Scope & Sequence is designed to help you save time and brain cells, as well as give access to all that iCivics has to offer, which makes it a great starting point for your back-to-school planning.

Elementary
Middle School
High School

Written by Carrie Ray-Hill

Carrie Ray-Hill is the Senior Director of Digital Learning and oversees the conceptualization and development of iCivics’ educational resources, with a particular concern for teacher usability. She is responsible for maintaining a consistent focus on iCivics’ educational mission. Prior to joining the iCivics team, Carrie taught middle and high school social studies and language arts in St. Louis and Washington, DC. In addition to seeking out the finest of cheeses, Carrie spends her spare time watching British panel shows, making cookies for the office, and killing zombies.

Try a Game Sandwich: Meet the iCivics Extension Pack

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

What’s on the menu today? The iCivics Game Sandwich! We use this term to describe how our Extension Packs can be used with our games to dig deeper into the concepts presented.

The Game Sandwich

How can game content be more accessible to all learners, especially English and multilingual learners? By integrating it with other methods to create robust and engaging classroom experiences around complex disciplinary concepts. In other words, teach around the game.

We call this approach the “Game Sandwich” because we’ve “sandwiched” opportunities for deeper learning around the game via our Extension Packs.

  • The game is the “meat” of the sandwich
  • The top “bun” consists of pre-game extension activities
  • And the bottom “bun” features post-game practice

Extension Packs are made up of slides and a PDF document with printable activities. These provide tips, instruction, and guidance on making the most of our games in the classroom. Extension activities build reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills (as well as content knowledge!). They are great for all students, not just English (EL) and multilingual (ML) learners. The Extension Packs are flexible with a lot of pre- and post-game activities, so you can pick and choose what you’d like to use in class.

The slides include visuals from the game and offer additional support for visual learners. Each of the activities from the PDF has a corresponding interactive slide so that the activity can be displayed on a whiteboard or smartboard for modeling or whole-class instruction. You can download and make a copy of the slides to use while teaching. With your copy, you have the ability to add, delete, and edit slides.

Extension Packs include these components:

  • Pre-game: We begin by activating and pre-teaching critical content with a starter activity and mini-lesson. ELL extensions highlight how to adapt activities for different proficiency levels. There are also guided graphic organizers students can use to write down notes and ideas. 
  • Vocabulary: Supporting language learners in vocabulary development is key, so each extension pack has game-specific Tier II and III vocabulary with practice activities. These can be done before or after the game to build or reinforce new vocabulary and academic language.
  • Game: We include a teaching strategy for game play. We encourage partner or group play for all students. It adds another dynamic to the game because it gets students talking. For ELs/MLs, it’s a low-risk way to support oral language development as they talk to their peers.
  • Post-game: There are a variety of post-game activities that create opportunities for students to reinforce what they have learned in the game. Some are very quick “can you show me you got it” comprehension checks, and others are more open-ended and ask students to dig deeper. They all include a Mini-Quiz assessment.

Where can you find the sandwich?

In the game-specific Extension Packs! Make sure you are logged into your educator account. Then simply click on “Game Extension” under the “Tags” section of the search feature from our “teach” page or access a game-specific one from the “Download Teacher Resources” button on a game’s page. When you open the PDF, you will find a link to the google slides under “Materials.”

 

 

For more ideas for English and multilingual learners, check our our landing page: iCivics & ELL: Resources to Engage your Multilingual Classroom

Written by Kristen Chapron

Kristen Chapron is Senior Editor of Digital Learning and ELL at iCivics. As a leading “chef” for the iCivics “game sandwich,” Kristen has been serving up and guiding the direction of Extension Packs for more than four years.