Master skills, explore new ideas, and build your teaching toolbox with free live, recorded, and on-demand training.
Learn about services designed to build educator capacity and cultivate dynamic educational experiences for students.
We’ve got answers. Visit our Support Desk to learn how to set-up and use your My iCivics Account.
Explore opportunities we’ve designed to create community and build your expertise.
Still stuck? Our Support team is standing by to help. Submit a request and we’ll be in touch.
Kick off this project-based unit by asking students to examine what it means to make change in the world. Students think about why people are motivated to advocate for change, what…
Do your students breeze through internet search results, easily weeding out irrelevant results and finding exactly what they need? No? This step offers a detailed look at how to…
In this step, students read and annotate the sources they identified in Step 2. The lesson discusses investigative reading and offers strategies for staying organized when faced…
No issue exists in a vacuum, so in this step, students examine the factors that contribute to the circumstances surrounding their issue to gain a deeper understanding of the issue…
In this step, students figure out who’s got a stake in their issue. They learn what stakeholders are and how to identify them, as well as why the power of numbers is important and…
Armed with information and a deep understanding of their issue, students shift into action mode in this step by writing an action plan for “moving the needle” on their issue.
Students take a “step” back in Step 7 and identify gaps in their information: What pieces of the puzzle are still missing? What information is important to have before going on? To…
To get support for an issue, you have to be able to talk about it—and in this step, students learn how to do that effectively. By developing and practicing both an elevator speech…
In this step, students get creative by developing “swag” to promote their cause. They learn principles of effective attention-grabbing that they apply to their own swag designs,…
In the culminating lesson, students learn how to design and deliver an effective slide presentation to gather support for their issue, create a 5-minute presentation targeted to a…
Strip the fear out of bias by showing students how to notice the word choices and framing that show up when bias is present in a news story. Students learn about methods…
Satirical news stories, like political cartoons, are meant to poke fun—not trick people. Help your students learn to spot satire and understand both the joke and the purpose of…
Review the official presidential line of succession and read about its origins. Students also learn how to detect satire in a news literacy-related activity.
Discover the different types of congressional committees and their responsibilities. What's more, teach students about bias and balanced reporting. In the closing activity,…
First, teach students about filibusters and how and why senators use them. Next, help students develop their news literacy skills by taking a look at how news coverage of a…
Learn about the electoral advantage that favors incumbents and the benefits and drawbacks of reelecting members of Congress. Then, put students' news literacy skills to work as…
Students try their hand at a simplified districting exercise and learn about the common gerrymandering practices of packing and cracking districts. Students then explore the…
Students learn about midterm elections, their role as a referendum on the presidency, and how a shift in party control impacts the legislative and executive branches. Page two of…
Make your students’ gameplay more meaningful by using our immigration lesson plan designed specifically for Immigration Nation. This easy-to-use Extension Pack helps you give…
Meet your PALS—Power, Authority, Legitimacy, and Sovereignty! In this lesson, students are introduced to these characteristics of government and consider how…
Lesson Plan