SS.7.CG.2.2

In this lesson, students will extend their understanding of percentages to problem solve with taxes, in context, while exploring how taxes impact local communities.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will calculate sales tax to plan a family vacation budget. Through collaborative learning activities and discussions, students will understand the concept of sales tax as a civic responsibility and recognize the importance of considering sales tax in their financial planning to contribute to their community’s public service and infrastructure in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will organize their research and ideas on water conservation or consumption from lesson 1 of this unit. They will transform their research into a flow chart that will become their digital plan for communicating or engaging with government officials.  This is lesson 2 of a 3-part integrated civics and computer science mini-unit.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use Scratch to create an artifact that encourages government officials and the public to protect water consumption and conservation at the local, state, or federal levels in the State of Florida. This is lesson 3 of 3 which integrates civics and coding.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will understand the value of civic responsibility and the impact of civic engagement on society. The civic responsibility this lesson will focus on is water conservation and/or water consumption issues. Ultimately, the students will focus on one type of responsibility that encourages citizens to communicate with government officials and/or the public. This is lesson 1 of 3 which integrates civics and coding.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will create a scratch program about a volunteering opportunity using the planning sheet they created in lesson 2. Students will participate in a gallery walk and then adjust their animations according to suggestions gleaned from the gallery walk. This is lesson 3 of a three-part integrated computer science and civics mini-unit.  

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will plan their Scratch code for a volunteer interest area of their choice using a graphic organizer. This is lesson 2 in a three-part integrated computer science and civics mini-unit.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore volunteerism as a civic responsibility that benefits the community. They will research and select a volunteer opportunity to use as the focus of their Scratch program in lessons 2 and 3 of this integrated computer science and civics mini-unit. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use their knowledge of percentages to calculate federal income tax and local sales tax. They will explore the obligation of citizens to pay taxes and how taxes fund public services. Students will evaluate different tax models by comparing percentages of income taxed at different income levels.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will create a public service announcement in Scratch about our civic responsibility to protect the habitat of a chosen endangered species. Students will use research from lesson 2 on this final part of a 3-lesson unit integrating computer science with civics.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this integrated lesson plan, students will reflect on their observations of weathering and erosion of Castillo de San Marco National Monument (from lesson 2) and the roles and responsibilities of those involved in its preservation. As a final product, they will draft a letter to the government official/agency responsible for the monument, detailing what they have learned about the Castillo monument, how the science of weathering and erosion apply, why it is important to prioritize restoration/preservation of the monument, and their ideas for better maintenance based on their research. As a culminating activity, students will peer review each others’ letters for improvement.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will work collaboratively to rank civic duties and responsibilities needed to keep a constitutional republic. They will utilize mathematical strategies to convert measurements of time as they calculate costs using the four operations with decimals and create an effective schedule for the ads within a budget in this model eliciting activity.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will practice their skills in interpreting data and creating graphical representations in this integrated civics lesson. Students will apply graphing skills to analyze government spending data and reflect on the importance of mathematics in communicating complex numerical information visually so the public can better stay informed.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will discuss the consequences of human impacts on Earth and then teach a topic to other classmates in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will debate the environmental and human impacts associated with building a cruise ship port in their county, exploring the roles and responsibilities that the scientific community, individuals, and interest groups play in influencing government policy with this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will evaluate whether various human activities impact the Earth and then discuss our civic duties and obligations to our Earth. They will also use scenarios to examine whose responsibility it is to protect the Earth from human impact in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students use a graphic organizer to guide the research of an endangered species/subspecies and evaluate the responsibility of citizens to protect their ecosystem. This is part 2 of a 3-part unit.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read “The Spirit of Liberty” delivered by Learned Hand in 1944 to a crowd of more than a million people in New York's Central Park for an event billed as "I Am an American Day." Students will analyze the two distinct central ideas that emerge in the speech. They will identify the textual evidence within the speech that supports each central idea. Students will also complete text-dependent questions to further analyze the speech. Students will also make connections with civics content by analyzing Hand’s speech to examine how he emphasizes the common good as a responsibility of citizenship.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 1 of a 3-part lesson unit.

Students will watch a sample public service announcement created on Scratch about ways to protect the endangered state saltwater reptile, the loggerhead sea turtle. Students will evaluate the civic duties of citizens to protect endangered species in Florida in this integrated lesson plan and discuss how well our citizens are currently fulfilling their civic responsibilities.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will brainstorm and share knowledge about human impacts on Earth and their civic duty to protect the Earth through anchor charts (round robin style), discussion, and a worksheet in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is part of a text unit for A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. Students will be introduced to the concept of common good. They will be given the opportunity to acknowledge what they do as individuals for the common good of their family, friends, and community. Then they will connect the common good of their personal lives with Salva and Nya’s actions for the common good regarding their personal situations in A Long Walk to Water.

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will learn about the obligations and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship while completing guided notes that accompany a teacher-presented slideshow.  Students will then show what they know by completing and submitting a one-pager assignment.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will take notes on the history, changes, pros, and cons of the Electoral College while being guided through an interactive PowerPoint. Following reading and notetaking, students will be introduced to an activity with movement, discussion, and debate called Hop the Line. Students will engage in respectful, evidence-based dialogue to share their evidence-based views on the following topic: The Electoral College should remain the process of electing the U.S. President.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson will teach students about the duties and responsibilites of American citizenship.  Students will read the definitions and then identify differing examples.  Afterwards, students will create a mnemonic device to assist them in remembering key examples for both.  Ultimately, students will predict what a society would look like if citizens do not fulfill their obligations and responsibilities.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will help a volunteer coordinator choose cleanup projects that will have the greatest positive impact on the environment and the community.  They will apply their knowledge of how litter can impact ecosystems along with some math skills to make recommendations for cleanup zones to prioritize.  Students will explore the responsibilities of citizens to maintain a clean environment and the impact that litter can have on society in this integrated Model Eliciting Activity.  

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations.  Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will distinguish and evaluate obligations and responsibilities of U.S. citizens and identify the consequences if citizens do not fulfill them. Students will also recognize the concept of the common good as a reason for fulfilling obligations and responsibilities.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will learn what an Impromptu Speech is and how to present one. Students will be given prompts focused on U.S. citizenship to create their own speeches and present them in class.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will identify the differences between obligations or responsibilities of citizenship. Students will use scenarios to identify specific obligations and responsibilities of citizens.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA, students will take on the role as a member of the Sunshine County Budget Committee. Members will collaborate to determine the optimal sales tax rate, use that rate to calculate how much money can be used for special projects, then decide which special projects to include in the budget proposal. Students will use percentages to problem-solve in context while considering citizen input and constraints on spending.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will extend their understanding of percentages to problem solve with taxes, in context, while learning about some of the different types of taxes.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this interactive tutorial, learn about the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of American citizenship.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Simulate the experience of serving on a jury and deciding a case in this interactive tutorial. Learn all about trial by jury and why it's such an important part of our society, as well as an obligation of citizenship.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

This interactive tutorial will help you answer the questions: What can individuals do on their own to make change? When can your government help you? To which government can you turn? Learn about responsible citizenship and how you might make positive changes in your own community.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

This Grade 7 Civics Family Guide provides some ideas and activities to support civics education when at home, out and about, and in the community. The activities provided align to the civics learning benchmarks within Standard 2 at this grade level.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will work in pairs to give an Impromptu Speech given the same topic. One student starts, and the second student finishes.

Type: Teaching Idea

Alejandro Brice and his family immigrated from Cuba at the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. His father was jailed as a counter-revolutionary sympathizer and upon release, the family fled the country. Dr. Brice shares his memories of his “freedom wings”, the culture shock of growing up in Ohio as immigrants, learning English in elementary school, watching his family start over, and becoming a U.S. Citizen. Dr. Brice is a college professor specializing in the education of immigrant children and English language learners.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

Ivonne Blank immigrated to the United States in 1961 as part of Operation Pedro Pan, the largest exodus on unaccompanied minors in the Western Hemisphere. Ms. Blank talks about how difficult it was waiting for her parents and living in an orphanage in Denver, CO. Her parents later left the island by boat, were rescued by the Coast Guard, and resettled in the United States. After the family was reunited, they were able to rebuild their lives with support from their community. Ms. Blank went on to become a lifelong educator and U.S. citizen.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation