Thanks to the wonderful Heidi Boles from S3 Strategies, I have acquired several relevant and engaging strategies to aid my students’ civic education. My favorite, and one I am so excited to share with my students upon returning to school, is the “What Do You See?” strategy that engages even the littlest learners by tapping into their schema and encouraging meaningful conversations with their classmates. A big portion of civics education in first grade is teaching students about their civic responsibilities. This activity aims to help students connect the dots between their everyday lives to the big world that they will be in one day.
To complete this activity, students will be in groups of three or four. They will discuss what they see in each photo with their group in an objective manner (ie. what is happening in the picture, what do they recognize, who is in the picture, etc.). Students will have the opportunity to name the civic responsibility with their group. When we come back together as a whole group, we will discuss their findings and thoughts, reveal the civic responsibility, and chart reasons that responsibility is important to the function of society. Students will build knowledge of the unknown by connecting to what they already know.
I am eager to hear about civic responsibility from the views of my first graders! Can you guess the civic responsibility of each slide?
Madison Kibbey
Carter City Elementary School
Carter County Schools
1st Grade
