Foundations of Democracy: Authority, Privacy, Responsibility, and Justice

ISBN-10: 0898181518
ISBN-13: 9780898181517
Pages: 171
Language: English
Published: 1994
Publisher: Center for Civic Education
Author: Center for Civic Education

Description

This teacher's guide presents effective strategies to implement the "Foundations of Democracy" textbook, which introduces four concepts basic to the United States Constitution: authority, privacy, responsibility, and justice. The guide explains that the success of citizenship education programs depends on extensive interaction among students, realistic content that includes balanced treatment of issues, use of community resource persons, and the support of principals and other school administrators. The guide identifies effective questioning strategies, techniques for small group learning, and interactive teaching methods. To promote student interaction, teachers are instructed to stimulate legislative hearings, moot courts, mediation sessions and town meetings. Because of the interactive and conceptual nature of the curriculum, the volume suggests performance-based assessments, in which students demonstrate their knowledge and skills by addressing complex questions within a meaningful context for which there is usually not just one correct answer. For each chapter, the guide provides suggestions for introducing the topic and for supplemental classroom activities. (JD)