For the final project I am interested in exploring ideas related to student apathy and civic engagement in my 8th and 10th grade classrooms. One challenge I consistently notice is that many students do not necessarily feel disconnected from civics, but rather see it as something larger than them and beyond their influence. Government and democracy can feel like systems controlled by adults, politicians, institutions, or people with power, rather than by students and their communities. Students have demonstrated that they understand civic concepts for the purpose of completing assignments, but they do not always recognize how civic systems and decisions shape the realities they encounter every day, like school policies, community resources, social issues, and their rights. Because of this, they struggle to see themselves as individuals with agency or as people who can make meaningfulness change. My observations sometimes convey to me that students can become passive participants in civics education because democracy can feel like something that happens around them rather than something they can actively participate in.
While I am still brainstorming, I am leaning toward final project ideas that bolster student voice, participation, and how they are personally implicated in civics. I am considering creating opportunities for students that allow them to explore their civic identities and make stronger connections between classroom content and their lived experiences. It is my hope that my project helps students could reflect on questions related to the communities that have shaped them, the issues they care about, and where they observe power and decision-making in their daily lives.
I am not set on what tech I would use, but there are many platforms that I have not used before that I am planning to explore, such as NotebookLM, blogger, ClaudeAI, and more. I will do some more research and gain experience with these platforms to see how these tools might support inquiry, creativity, collaboration, and reflection in ways that align with my beliefs about learning. Ideas in the works include:
1. Digital We the People/ Congressional Simulation
- Digital portfolios for sorting evidence
- Asynchronous discussion spaces
- Multimedia responses (videos, podcasts, infographics)
- Reduce dominance of outspoken students
- Explore personal civic identities
- Connect civic concepts to students' lives
- Create digital stories or media projects
- Online space for civic discussion
- Multiple participation formats (written, audio, video)
- Discuss current events and community issues
Love these ideas! I like the civic discussion hub especially as it's not just promoting critical thinking but also building community in the classroom. I think it's awesome that you'll be teaching students that they do have a voice and are allowed to form an opinion, which a lot of our students don't feel empowered to do.
ReplyDeleteI love that you are exploring the idea of apathy in politics, which I believe is an increasing phenomena as politics become more and more terrible. All of your ideas really lend themselves to a rich learning experience for students that will translate to their lives outside of the classroom
ReplyDeleteStella, I love that your idea is not only related to what you and students need, but also what the community needs! I'm not sure if it's super helpful but in 9th grade I was in a politics class where our 'big project' was a Civics in Action project where we had to decide a topic that we were interested in and figure out a way that we could engage with it in the public-- I ended up going to a public forum in Hartford on police brutality (circa 2018 ish) and then after our engagement, we had to write about the project. If you want, I can try to find my ancient Google docs/drive and send it over to you
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