Teaching Civics through History

The Program

The Teaching Civics through History professional development program is an innovative program that prepares teachers to provide students a foundational knowledge of the historical roots of current civic and social issues facing their communities and the nation while building their literacy, research, and critical thinking skills. By connecting the past with current events, the program enables students to understand that history is made up of individual actions, empowers students to develop their civic voices and encourage them to take civic action, and helps students recognize their ability to influence history in their own communities and nationwide.

The four elements of the program are:

Lesson plans based on primary source documents, with digital resources and a classroom guide, designed for you to teach in class. Lessons are designed to be folded into existing American history and US government classes.
Professional development sessions to build content knowledge focused on key civics issues (e.g., voting rights and the First Amendment). Pedagogical instruction will focus on literacy-based strategies to help students unlock primary source documents. Workshops will be led by eminent historians and master teachers from our existing network.
Classroom implementation, where you will connect the PD session’s historic content to current events and issues of interest to students, leading to student engagement beyond the classroom in civic activities.
Feedback opportunities that include history assessments, surveys, and classroom observations.