Massachusetts Civic Learning Week 2023

This event is organized by Generation Citizen.

This session is designed to create a space for students to explore careers in civic action. Panelists will include community organizers, activists, and elected officials. They will speak with students about career paths and best practices, skills, and mindsets for getting started in a role focused on civic action, and what they’ve learned about civic action over the course of their work. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions, share their experiences, and give and gain context and advice from panelists.

Please note that an additional registration step is required for this event. Please register for this event here to receive the Zoom meeting details.

This event is organized by the Democratic Knowledge Project.

This session will provide educators and administrators with an experiential orientation to an approach to civic learning and a set of resources aligned with the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap and the MA History/Social Studies framework. During this session, participants will engage in and reflect on a hands-on activity from the Democratic Knowledge Project (DKP) curricular resources. They will learn about the DKP, its pedagogical approach to Deeper Civic Learning, and how the DKP resources have been experienced by Massachusetts educators and students over the past four years.

Please note that an additional registration step is required for this event. Please register for this event here to receive the Zoom meeting details.

This event is organized by WriteBoston.

Civics education in general and civics action projects specifically will inevitably entail developing effective research skills. According to the MA Civics Project Guidebook,  the goals of the research and investigation stage are to: "(1) develop common language and knowledge on the issue, including the range of perspectives on the issue, and (2) learn about the possible root causes of the issue." The guidance continues: "students should also not limit themselves to traditional research online and in libraries; rather, they should survey community members and interview community experts in order to gather the most pertinent, localized information on how this issue or topic manifests in the community...and what can be done about it to create lasting, systemic change."

For many years, the Teens In Print (TiP) journalism program has been working with youth to successfully conduct interviews with community members and leaders. In this workshop, Elvis, a TiP Youth Program Facilitator is teaming up with Liz, a WriteBoston Instructional Coach, to present best practices, lessons learned, resources, materials and inspiration for educators who want to bring this practice into their classrooms. We will address everything from setting up and preparing for the interview, to initial outreach and communications as well as logistics of conducting the interview and using the interview in writing. Educators will leave our workshop prepared to engage students in this truly meaningful and authentic research endeavor as part of their civics educational experience.

Please note that an additional registration step is required for this event. Please register for this event here to receive the Zoom meeting details.

This event is organized by the League of Women Voters of Needham.

This session will present materials and strategies for high school teachers to use to enable students to select an issue, research bills before the legislature, and develop and execute an advocacy plan. These materials include a Student Advocacy Guide and a set of short videos.
We will also present a structure for a civics showcase where students can make their pitch to state legislators, town officials, and the general public. We will also discuss the successful school / community collaboration with the League of Women Voters for this project.

Please note that an additional registration step is required for this event. Please register for this event here to receive the Zoom meeting details.

In this session, K-12 educators will have an opportunity to explore five different ideas for integrating civics into your regular classroom routines. From classroom principles to morning meeting to problem solving to classroom rules, civics is and can be everywhere. In this session, educators will have the chance to imagine and try out some basic activities for building civics into existing classroom practice and curriculum.

Please note that an additional registration step is required for this event. Please register for this event here to receive the Zoom meeting details.

This event is organized by the Tufts University Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).

Young people want to learn about elections in school and, when they do, they're more likely to vote, engage in their communities, and become engaged and informed members of our self-governing society. Join us for a brief 20 minute research presentation and 25 minute Q&A hosted by CIRCLE on how K-12 schools can play a role in preparing young people for participation in our nation's constitutional democracy. We will share major findings and recommendations from the CIRCLE Growing Voters report about teens' civic learning experiences, or lack thereof, and the role of schools in a paradigm-shifting framework for supporting young people's civic development. We will examine how multiple stakeholders in the K-12 schools ecosystem, including students, teachers, and administrators can work together to support young people's democratic education and participation and outline the practical steps they can take to ensure each and every student, especially those from disadvantaged or marginalized communities, receives a high-quality civic education that prepares them to be engaged members of their community and our democracy.

Please note that an additional registration step is required for this event. Please register for this event here to receive the Zoom meeting details.

This event is organized by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and Generation Citizen.

This session will explore how Massachusetts schools and districts can host their own local civics project showcases. Often structured as “science fairs for civics,” the goal of these showcases is to celebrate student-led civics projects and to provide opportunities for students to share their work with an authentic audience. During this session, two teacher-leaders will share examples of school-wide and city-wide showcases they planned and hosted, covering topics both logistical and pedagogical! Attendees will leave the session with concrete resources for how to host their own civics project showcase events.

Please note that an additional registration step is required for this event. Please register for this event here to receive the Zoom meeting details.

This event is organized by the iThrive Games.

How we engage civically is a measure of our social and emotional skills. This session, designed for secondary school administrators, policymakers, and organizations, will explore how iThrive Sim’s award-winning simulation games elevate C3 Framework-aligned civics education into play-powered, social and emotional skill-building experiences for teens. As part of this informational session, participants will learn how iThrive Sim’s game-based and wellness-supporting approach to civics education, and the science that underpins it, is transforming how young people learn. Participants will also play a demo of a single-player game co-created by teens, iThrive Games, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for a firsthand experience of how the self-regulation, stress management, peer connection, and real-world applications in an iThrive Sim game helps create transformative civic learning experiences in high schools and in teen-serving program.

Please note that an additional registration step is required for this event. Please register for this event here to receive the Zoom meeting details.

This event is organized by Lindsay Lyons.

Civics projects are opportunities for students to take action in pursuit of justice. Issues that matter to students and our larger society involve politics, identity, and sometimes shocking current events. Students are capable of grappling with these topics, but adult discomfort may be holding students back. This session will help school and district leaders equip teachers with the necessary skills for these conversations using a protocol that teachers can also use with students.

Please note that an additional registration step is required for this event. Please register for this event here to receive the Zoom meeting details.

This event is organized by Mosaic: Interfaith Youth Action.

In this workshop, facilitators from Mosaic: Interfaith Youth Action will demonstrate how experiential education is a key intervention for interfaith understanding and social justice, inviting participants to learn through sharing & activities. Attendees will have the opportunity to first be participants, playing games and engaging in the learning process first-hand, before facilitators elaborate on the pedagogy that structures this method, which draws significantly on David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model (experience plus reflection equals transference and new knowledge). This method—developed at Mosaic—focuses on centering and amplifying youth voices to harness the insights of experience through expert facilitation and guidance. This pedagogy affords both a safe and brave space for youth to engage in meaningful dialogue about their faith-based traditions, their multidimensional identities, and how these experiences and identities call them towards social action.

Please note that an additional registration step is required for this event. Please register for this event here to receive the Zoom meeting details.

This event is organized by the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

How do we provide all students with a history education that is culturally responsive, civically engaged, and inquiry-based? For the past two years, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has been developing and piloting a comprehensive middle school curriculum, called Investigating History, intended to achieve this goal; it will be released as a free resource beginning in Summer 2023. In this session, we will preview how the Investigating History materials have been designed to build students’ civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions while engaging them with multiple voices and perspectives from the past and present. We will share initial trends about where teachers have seen successes and challenges with the curriculum and what we’ve learned about how to help teachers make these types of pedagogical shifts. We will also be joined by teachers who have used Investigating History in their classrooms to speak firsthand about their and their students’ experiences with the curriculum.

Please note that an additional registration step is required for this event. Please register for this event here to receive the Zoom meeting details.

This event is organized by Education Development Center.

In this session, participants will explore different strategies for brainstorming and reflection that catalyze student-led civic inquiry and action. Participants will take away resources for facilitating civics projects from new civics curriculum, Supporting Readiness through Vital Civic Empowerment (SRVCE), funded by the Department of Defense, which blends inquiry-based civic learning, media literacy education, and exploration of careers in public service.

Please note that this event requires an additional registration step. Please register for the Zoom link here. Once you complete the form, Zoom will automatically send you a unique Zoom link to your email.

This event is organized by Emerging America.

Join educators and disability advocates as we share compelling stories of disability rights activists across 200 years of history and ways you can support disability history today.
The new Reform to Equal Rights: K-12 Disability History Curriculum offers free, online, 23 inclusive lessons with 200+ primary sources. Topics include Moral Reformers, Disability Rights Movement, and fully inclusive Civics Projects. A unit on disabled Civil War veterans and nurses who served them features Massachusetts stories, supported by the Expand Massachusetts Stories program of Mass Humanities. Learn about the grassroots Easterseals Massachusetts #TeachDisabilityHistory campaign.
Funded by a Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources grant.

Please note that an additional registration step is required for this event. Please register for this event here to receive the Google Meet details.

This event is organized by Primary Sources.

This session is designed to bring educators into conversation with each other regarding the intersection between curriculum and pedagogy in the long struggle for racial justice in Massachusetts. Featuring the short documentary film, Legacy of Courage: Black Changemakers in Massachusetts, Past, Present, and Future, we will explore the setbacks, strategies, and accomplishments of those who have struggled for racial justice in the Commonwealth since the 18th century while contemplating the role of educators in contemporary, ongoing, and unresolved efforts to solidify and expand racial justice and educational opportunities for marginalized communities. Within these efforts, this session will situate civic agency and activism as a vehicle for meaningful instruction as well as a tool for social progress.

Please note that an additional registration step is required for this event. Please register for this event here to receive the Zoom meeting details.