Lesson: What kind of citizen?
Slide Deck to Share with Students HERE
This Lesson in Action:
Lesson Objectives:
Students will be able to:
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Offer multiple meanings of the term ‘citizen’
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Describe three different conceptions of good citizenship
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Reflect on their own emerging civic identity
Learning Standards:
LfJ 3. Students will recognize that people’s multiple identities interact and create unique and complex individuals
LfJ 4. Students will express pride, confidence, and health self-esteem without denying the value and dignity of other people.
Learning Activities (If you have 15 minutes…)
Greeting (Slide 3): What kind of Shrek are you today?
Reading: Look at the dictionary definition of citizenship (Slide 4)
Ask students: What are the two different meanings of the term, citizen? (Help them see that one definition is a legal term, another is more about being part of a community)
Ask students: What do you think it means to be a good citizen?
Initiative (Slide 6)
Explain that, with regard to being a member of a community, two scholars Joel Westheimer and Joe Kahne, have written about there being different ways to be a good citizen
Guide students through their definitions of three different types of citizenship—personally responsible, participatory, and justice-oriented—using the example of a community where not everyone has all the food they need (Slides 8-15)
Ask students: What type(s) of citizens does a community need? Why? (Slide 16)
Learning Activities (if you have 45 minutes….)
Initiative (continued):
Ask students: Which type(s) of citizen are you being raised to be? (Slide 17)
Ask students to work in pairs to answer this question (Slide 18): What is a challenge in your own community? How might these different types of citizens contribute to solving this issue?
When students are finished, give each pair a chance to share out the issue they focused on, and how the three different types of citizens might try to address this issue
Learning Activities (if you have 2 hours…)
Initiative (continued):
Read to students “The Story of the Star Thrower” (Slide 19)
Ask students (Slide 20):
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What is the moral of the story?
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Which type of citizen does this story seem to most value?
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Do you agree?
Read to students “The Parable of the River” (Slides 21-22)
Ask students (Slide 23)
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What is the moral of the story?
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Which type of citizen does this story seem to most value?
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Do you agree?
If possible, identify an upcoming real-life opportunity within your school or local community where students can take on one or more of these citizenship roles (see Slide 24 for an example)