How do you help students see the relationship between current issues in social studies and their rights and responsibilities as citizens?
How do you encourage students to conduct research about current issues and plan and implement community service projects?
What are the benefits of participating in such projects? What are some pitfalls?
What are some important considerations when teaching students about the needs of people in other countries?
Taking It Back to Your Classroom
Identify a controversial issue in your curriculum or a problem in your community that students could participate in solving. Ask students to research and discuss the issue, consider the issue from different points of view, and then plan a course of action. Ask students to think of criteria they can use to evaluate their success at each phase.
One way to help students understand an issue is to ask them to write a news article about it. After students have written their articles, have them explore an Internet site that posts student news.
Ask students to nominate people from the community or people they have read about in the news for a "People Who Make a Difference" bulletin board.
For related print materials and Web sites, see Resources.
