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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.

Tackling Civics: 5 Project Problems iCivics Helps Solve

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

In my 21 years of teaching middle school, I have experienced many PD sessions and received countless books, tech apps, teaching “guides,” and “supports” from administration. Very few of these have truly improved my life or my professional practice. (Perhaps you can relate?)

The ones that were valuable had one thing in common: they solved a problem. They didn’t cause more work for me; they reduced my workload. They were not just cutting-edge flashy fads; they offered real shortcuts and long-lasting solutions. 

As I’ve taken on the new 8th grade civics project requirement the past few years, I have experienced many problems…and I finally found one solution to all of them: the iCivics workbook.

Here are five problems that the iCivics workbook helps resolve.

Problem 1: Dealing with Reality

Stuff happens, and we know to expect the unexpected (school assemblies, illnesses, new students moving in, global pandemics, etc.). As I’ve learned the hard way, civics projects can get stalled or accelerated at any time by a single email reply, a guest speaker visit, or another real-life development. 

iCivics’ Solution: Their curriculum material never prescribes a certain amount of time for each lesson, and it does not presume that all your students in a class are working on the same project. The lessons and activities are deliberately ambiguous: “you” could be an individual student, a small group, or the entire class. This leaves it up to you [the teacher] to divide students however you like. They could split into groups halfway through the project, or a single student could “go rogue” with their own project idea and continue following the workbook.

In terms of daily implementation, there is also a lot of leeway. You could have whole-class read-alouds of the text on workbook pages, or assign them as homework, or some combination. (This links back to the solution to Problem 3: the passages and activities are generally accessible to everybody for independent success.) If a class discussion or guest-speaker visit goes longer for one group than others, you could let them catch up by reading or doing a certain page of their workbook before tomorrow’s class. Hooray for simplicity!

If you get squeezed for time near the end of the unit*, then perhaps some or all students don’t reach Stage 6 (“Reflecting and Showcasing”). That’s OK, because, in my humble opinion, that is the least important aspect of the project. Implementing their action plan from Stage 5 could be a success in itself, with no glitter glue or slide transitions required.

*If that’s never happened to you, then please let me take you out for a drink or coffee so I can learn your secrets of success! Haha, just kidding; of course, this has happened to you.

Problem 2: Properly Pacing the Project

In my experience, students usually take too long choosing their topic and then go too fast in developing their plan — often they even meld the two steps together in the early days of the project: “Let’s make an Instagram account right now to tell people about the city’s recycling program!” Whoa, whoa there, kids, let’s think this through. When you are leading this project for the first time, it is tough to know when to push the class along versus when to let them marinate on a decision, especially when you are developing most of the material yourself.

iCivics’ Solution: Many pages in the workbook prompt students to slow down, think carefully, seek multiple solutions, and evaluate possibilities. Lesson 3.2 “Who You Gonna Call?” is not about busting ghosts; it’s about considering the differences between individual, group, and government actions to a community problem. At the end, students are prompted to determine which would be the best approach to a scenario and explain their answer. Twelve pages later, they apply the same judgment to their real-life topic, which should lead them to a well-selected government action as their project’s plan. Image removed.

Page 76 is another good example, where students list potential influencers and rank their connection on a 1-5 scale. That should prevent them from just contacting the first people they think of.

For situations where you need to nudge the class forward, set a time limit for completing a certain page. In certain cases, you might have to take Executive Command to break the logjam. Later on, everyone can turn back to that workbook page to judge the value of that decision. Also, I think it’s valuable to have a physical workbook where you can point forward through the text: “Look, folks: we’re on page 28 and there is a lot more work left to do!” 

In case you’re wondering, social media campaigns first appear on workbook page 78, and there is a “Build Your Toolbox” activity page that forces students to carefully consider the value of tactics like creating an Instagram account to spread awareness. Maybe, just maybe, that’s not the best bet. 

Problem 3: Effective Organization

The wonderful & terrible thing about civics projects is that they are real-life efforts. That means things get messy & complicated quite quickly, especially when you are juggling multiple groups and/or classes. I have literally lost sleep at night trying to keep everything straight, and developing then re-developing organization systems for classwork. Without a strong structure, everything will collapse like a house of cards.

iCivics’ Solution: The workbook lays out six stages that provide structure by “starting wide” at the community level, then guiding students to narrow their focus toward a single issue, developing skills to research that issue in multiple ways, seeking outside help from influencers and decision-makers, and finally designing their “pitch” to persuade productive action. In reality, it is not as simple as that sentence makes things sound, but the workbook is chopped into lessons (3-6 pages and 1-3 class periods each) that build on each other. You might be able to skip one or more lessons, depending on your students’ prior knowledge and the project topic they select, but you probably won’t need to add anything. 

Furthermore, I cannot overemphasize the value of having a single container for all the lessons and most (maybe all) of the students’ academic output, notes, and reflections … instead of grappling with loose papers all over the place and/or clicking through dozens of shared GoogleDocs! That is a very big One Less Thing.

Problem 4: Appropriate Assessment

How do you grade each student fairly, especially if you’re running a whole-class civics project? Assigning quizzes seems time-consuming, and waiting until the end for a formal unit test probably doesn’t seem great either. And what are you actually supposed to assess, anyway?!

iCivics’ Solution: In the workbook, each of the six stages has a 4-column rubric at the end where you can individually mark students’ progress on the activities. You could also re-create that iCivics chart as a Google Sheet, a rubric in your LMS, or whatever else works for you. Personally, I prefer assigning open-ended reflections throughout the project. That is also built into the workbook, with at least one prompt per stage. Each lesson in the Teacher’s Guide has a header of learning objectives that remind you about the skills & knowledge that could be assessed after the activities. That will help avoid the common syndrome of Oh My Gosh Everything Matters Paralysis.* 

For example, lesson 3.3 addresses the differences between government regulations vs. provisions and restrictions vs. benefits. If students don’t get those terms straight, remember that the main purpose is for them to identify “tax-supported facilities and services” — not a perfect record of distinguishing types of service. Let’s just make sure that kids know there are multiple specific ways for local & state governments to impact people’s actions. In the “Apply To Your Issue” workbook page at the end of that lesson, students should be able to successfully identify at least one potential government solution to the problem they’ve been researching. BOOM! Mission accomplished.

*OMGEMP is a serious condition. Side effects include nausea, insomnia, muscle spasms, and caffeine addiction. If symptoms last for longer than 24 hours, seek professional attention.

Problem 5: Finding Age-Appropriate Curriculum Material

Real-life civics projects are challenging enough without pausing every two sentences to define a half-dozen vocabulary words, dangit! All the other existing teaching guides that I’ve seen are geared toward high-school students in terms of reading level and conceptual framework. The curriculum that my school district has used the past few years needed a lot of modification to work for all our 8th graders, to the point that we were basically re-designing the whole (expensive) thing!  

iCivics’ Solution: The Civics Projects workbook is student-friendly in terms of page layout, font size, and overall approach.

For example, I really like the several stories that run through the six stages, like Amir’s project which introduces the concepts of influencers and stakeholders, then reappears 20 pages later as the basis of the “speech sandwich”. The spiraling of examples & concepts will definitely work for my 8th graders, and I imagine it would for high-schoolers, as well. 

I also greatly appreciate the skill-building pages like “Research Time” in Stage 3, and the appendix pages for “Surfing Success” and “Finding SMEs.” These could be helpful reminders of previously-learned skills, or a really good introduction to concepts of media literacy and source selection — depending on your students’ needs and experience. These are some of the elements I had to add myself when I used a different civics curriculum (which shall remain unnamed).

I am not a textbook or workbook person. I have always been more of a “control enthusiast,” like Patrick Warburton in those rental car ads: producing and redesigning my own teaching material pretty much all the time. However, it pains me to admit that with the civics project there were too many problems I could not solve myself. The Civics Projects workbooks are the only curriculum guide I would ever use from cover to cover.

If you would like to use iCivics’ workbooks to assist with implementing civics projects in your classroom, check them out by clicking the button below!

Purchase the Workbook Now

Written by Andrew Swan

Andrew is an 8th grade Social Studies teacher at Bigelow Middle School in Newton MA, where he has worked for 17 years. He has been a member of the iCivics Educator Network since 2019 and served as a reviewer of the iCivics workbook. Andrew is also a co-moderator of the popular SSChat Network that hosts weekly social studies chats on Twitter with the #sschat hashtag. Follow him at @flipping_A_tchr.

Measuring Up: Civics Projects and Assessment

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

If you’re a Massachusetts civics teacher, then you’ve been trying to figure out how best to lead the required 8th grade civics project. You’ve probably asked yourself: How am I going to approach this? How will I keep students engaged? How many weeks will I need? Then, after you’ve mapped out your ideas and expectations, you may find you still have a burning question.

How am I going to grade all this?

It’s a fair question. The implementation of the civics project can take six to eight weeks of class time, and that’s a long stretch to go without concrete assessment. So what can you do?

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) Civics Project Guidebook provides some ideas. It includes a general outline of assessment categories and sample competencies for making your own rubrics. But what if you need weekly grades in your gradebook? What if you want more direct assessments of student knowledge and skills? This is where the iCivics workbook can make your life a little easier.

An Abundance of Activities

The Civics Projects Workbook by iCivics follows the six stages of project development outlined in the DESE Guidebook. In each stage, there are several lessons consisting of a reading and follow-up activities. You can select the activities you want and grade each individually on an effort scale. Or, you can assign all the activities in a given stage and grade them as a group. The workbook provides a rubric at the end of each stage where all the activities can be combined for an overall stage grade.

As for the activities, the iCivics workbook provides plenty of options. Variety is the spice of life, and the same is true for civics project assessment.

  • Do you want students to write? Each stage in the iCivics workbook, concludes with a writing prompt. The prompt asks students to reflect on something they learned or a skill they gained during that section of the project. The prompts are accessible by all students, but if they aren’t challenging enough, you can add another question, require specific examples, or ask students to write a story that describes what they learned. If that’s still not challenging enough, you can turn the reflection prompts into oral presentations or even formal essay assignments.
     
  • Would you rather have quizzes? The iCivics workbook can help you create simple vocabulary quizzes. In all the readings, new concepts and terminology are printed in bold. You can easily skim the book’s pages to collect enough vocabulary for a quiz at the end of each stage.

All of this sounds good, but the biggest challenges in assessing the civics projects come when students are completing their action steps. This is when students are working in their groups to complete research, develop public awareness materials, conduct interviews, or plan events. How do you assess individual progress when each student and each group have different assignments? The iCivics workbook has you covered.

Assessing Action Steps

It contains several graphic organizers where students can show their research and planning. Each organizer provides another assessment opportunity. The workbook also includes individual and group tracking sheets. This is where students can list their weekly goals and track what they actually accomplished. The tracking sheets give students support for managing their work, and they give you a quick way to evaluate their progress. Lastly, in the workbook’s Appendix, there are templates for writing emails and scripting voicemail messages when contacting their local leaders. The templates can be completed by all students (not just the ones sending requests) and they can serve as yet another form of assessment.

So, while you’re planning your approach to the civics project this year, remember that iCivics has your back. Our workbooks provide the content and structure students need to be successful. And they provide you with enough assessment opportunities to keep your gradebook full.

Purchase the Workbook Now

Written by Lora De Salvo

Lora De Salvo is a Curriculum Associate at iCivics. She has 16 years of experience teaching U.S. history and U.S. government courses at the two-year college and high school levels. She has also worked as a training specialist with the Anti-Defamation League facilitating anti-bias and anti-bullying programs with middle and high school students.

Bringing Civics to Life for Students Through Film

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor once said, “For me, civic education is the key to inspiring kids to want to stay involved in making a difference.” When students understand how government functions and the role that people play in shaping a democracy, they begin to see the value of civic education that Sotomayor highlights. 

One way to allow students to step inside of a civic experience and gain a deeper understanding of the function of government and the role that they play is through film. When used properly, films can be a powerful educational tool to develop critical thinking skills. Educators who have used film in their materials agree. One resource you might use is Journeys in Film.

Journeys In Film is a non-profit organization that believes in the power of films to open minds, inspire an interest in learning, amplify issues, and compel viewers to make a difference as they engage in their communities. “Journeys In Film introduced me to films that can have a great impact for change in the classroom,” an educator recently shared after a professional development workshop highlighting Journeys in Film’s materials.

The Journeys in Film library of films with corresponding free resources (CORE-based curricula and/or discussion guides) includes 22 films that have dedicated Social Studies Lesson Plans, many with civics components. The lessons are designed to be simple enough for the beginning teacher to manage easily, with all materials camera-ready. And of course, all lessons are standards-based, so the teacher can readily incorporate film into an established set of learning goals.

Eager to try using films in your classroom? Here are some iCivics resources that pair well with Journeys in Film lesson plans:
 

  • A favorite among Journeys in Film’s offerings for middle school classrooms in teaching civics is Please Vote For Me, a documentary about an elementary classroom election in China. The curriculum includes A Lesson In Democracy, which would pair well with many of the Politics and Public Policy lessons available through iCivics.
     
  • The film He Named Me Malala, a documentary highlighting Malala Yousafzai’s advocacy work, includes a lesson about Working For Change and a discussion of What Can You Do?, which can be used in combination with iCivics’ County Solutions lesson plan.
     
  • For teaching about First Amendment rights, consider the film The Post, which is about the Washington Post’s effort to publish information about the Pentagon Papers. Journey in Film’s curriculum includes lessons such as The Supreme Court and Freedom of the Press, Why Is a Free Press So Important?, and First Amendment Rights and the Student Press. iCivics also provides resources that can be used in conjunction with Journey in Film’s, including The Role of Media, NewsFeed Defenders, and Student Expression.

Written by Jennifer Fischer

Jennifer is a writer, film producer, and educator whose work focuses on highlighting shared human experiences to cultivate empathy and understanding. Her films have screened across the United States and abroad and have been featured by NBCLatino, ABC, Univision, Fusion, NBCBLK, Vice News, and others, with her film “THE wHOLE” premiering at Amnesty International’s 50th Anniversary Human Rights Conference. She has developed curriculum for LA’s BEST, the Metta Center for Nonviolence, and in conjunction with the Outreach Center for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, where she received her M.A. She is currently the Outreach Director for Journeys in Film. You can connect with Journeys in Film on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.