Engage students in meaningful civic learning and encourage them to become active and informed citizens. With this essential book, co-published by Routledge and MiddleWeb, you will gain a variety of practical strategies for teaching civics and current events to your middle school students. Author and expert teacher Sarah Cooper takes you into her school and shares her classroom-tested methods and tools.

Topics include:

• Fitting current events into an already-packed history curriculum
• Staying nonpartisan and fostering balanced discussions
• Helping students find their stake in the news
• Teaching civic literacy through primary sources, then and now
• Encouraging students to invest in analytical writing
• Fostering student ownership of our classrooms through discussion and debate
• Cultivating citizenship through empathy and community engagement

Throughout the book, you'll find student examples, handouts, and rubrics, so that you can easily implement the ideas in your own classroom. By getting your students to think critically about current events, you will help them become passionate writers, thinkers, and involved citizens.

Sarah Cooper teaches eighth-grade US history and is the Dean of Studies at Flintridge Preparatory School in La Cañada, California. She is also author of Making History Mine (Stenhouse, 2009). She presents at conferences and writes for Edutopia, MiddleWeb, and other education sites.

Contents

Introduction: Why Civics, and What Does Civics Education Mean Today?

Chapter 1: Fitting Current Events into an Already-Packed History Curriculum

Chapter 2: Staying Nonpartisan and Fostering Balanced Discussions

Chapter 3: Helping Students Find Their Stake in the News

Chapter 4: Teaching Civic Literacy Through Primary Sources, Then and Now

Chapter 5: Encouraging Students to Invest in Analytical Writing

Chapter 6: Fostering Student Ownership of Our Classrooms Through Discussion and Debate

Chapter 7: Cultivating Citizenship Through Empathy and Community Engagement

Epilogue