Category: Teaching Civics

How does politics really work in America?

Lesson Overview This learning unit is based on a recent study from Princeton University that confirms what many Americans have felt for years – the preferences of the average American have very little impact on the laws being passed by the Federal government.  Students learn more about how our democratic republic is supposed to work…




#makeschooldifferent

Reposted from Scott MacLeod’s Blog – http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/ When it comes to education, we have to stop pretending… that short-term memorization equals long-term learning that students find meaning in what we’re covering in class that low-level facts and procedures are a prerequisite to deeper learning that analog learning environments prepare kids for a digital world that what…


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2015 NESSC High School Redesign Conference – Presentation on Political Literacy

Dear CSC Students and Parents, I wanted to send a big thank you to my current and former students for their recent participation in the High School Redesign Conference in Boston this past week.  The conference was sponsored by the New England Secondary School Consortium (NESSC) and the Great Schools Partnership (GSP).  These organizations both…




Political Literacy – What it is and why we should teach it.

What is political literacy? Political literacy means having the basic skills, understandings, and attitudes required to take an active and well educated role in a democratic society.  Why should schools teach political literacy. In a world with so many problems in need of political solutions we need citizens who are capable of filtering through all of…




Rethinking Politics in the Classroom by Daniel Judt

This was an excellent article written by the son of Tony Judt in The Nation.  The article is no longer available on The Nation’s website, but I was able to resurrect the article by finding a cached version of the page.  (Note: the link to the article on The Nation’s website now appears to be working)…




Great Framework for Creating Engaging Student Work

  Qualities of Engaging Student Work A critical factor for improving learning lies in providing high-quality work for students- work that engages students, work that enables students to learn what they need in order to succeed in the world. The traits of engaging student work listed below evolved from Dr. Phillip Schlechty’s book, Working on…