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Democracy Schools Network
Monthly Update
June 2024
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Civics: How shall we live together?
Democracy Schools Network Annual Convening
Join us for our annual gathering from 8 am until 2 pm on Monday, September 23, 2024, at the Northern Illinois University Conference Center in Naperville. Enjoy a day of immersion in civic learning: networking with DSN members, hearing from experts in the field, reflecting on your own school's civic mission, and participating in engaging workshops on a variety of current topics in civics education. There is no fee for this day-long experience, which includes a light breakfast and lunch. Hotel accommodations are provided for members from schools that are at least 120 miles from Convening site.
Please register here.
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Carolyn Pereira Civic Leadership Award
Interested in acknowledging someone's extraordinary efforts with enhancing civic learning in his or her school? Nominations are now open! This award recognizes a DSN educator who has exhibited an exemplary commitment to strengthening schoolwide civic engagement and learning. The ideal nominee exhibits initiative, creativity, persistence, and integrity in modeling and promoting the Illinois Democracy Schools model.
We welcome your nomination here. Please submit by August 1, 2024. The recipient will be honored at the Democracy Schools Network Annual Convening on September 23, 2024.
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DSN Grants, 2023-24
Update
This year, six Illinois Democracy Schools were recipients of DSN mini-grant funds and embarked on projects designed to meet a particular civic need in their school. We were inspired with the range of projects, the creativity of the various designs, and the expanded understanding of civic engagement that they represent. Three are featured below (Shawnee High School, Olympia High School and Maine East High School.) Projects from Loyola Academy, Collinsville High School and Belvidere North High School will be highlighted in the next month's Monthly Update.
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Mark Norris
Shawnee High School (2014)
Community. A term that schools revolve around, yet after the impacts of COVID, it has had to be rebuilt. Our school, like many others, is no stranger to this, and our focus this year was community impact. We decided to approach it on three different levels. First, we took our kids to the community’s nursing homes to hand out Christmas cards while the school’s choir caroled. Next, we addressed our student community by addressing the surging issue of drugs and vaping within our school by increasing advocacy, creating curriculum to address the issue specifically, and lastly, by bringing in a recovering/former addict turned counselor to talk to our students about addiction. Lastly, we wanted to create an outdoor space to encourage our student/teacher community, though the weather has delayed finishing this project before the end of the school year. All of these projects would not have been possible without the help of our students and administrators.
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Kate Berry
Olympia High School (2023)
Our school's IDS team identified that our Foundational Civic Knowledge among staff and students was very low, based on survey results. To remedy that, we determined that establishing a base civic knowledge with a focus on consistent essential civic vocabulary for the entire district, K-12, was an appropriate project. After consulting with stakeholders, our team identified a list of essential civic vocabulary, created visual aids in the form of classroom/building posters, and designed lesson & activity suggestions for embedding the vocabulary in K-12 classrooms and extracurricular activities. Our posters were designed and delivered around the school district in April to five different buildings. We have gotten positive initial feedback so far on the posters from the K-8 teachers. We learned during this process that there has been no consistent social studies curriculum for the primary grades in the past several years, which may explain the lack of knowledge at the high school level. The vocabulary and resources we provided offered those K-8 teachers more focus on embedding social studies concepts in their classrooms. We look forward to meeting with stakeholders again next school year to discuss other ideas for utilizing the concepts and terms around the school on a regular basis. We hope that the next time we assess our staff and students at the high school on their Foundational Civic Knowledge we will have improved survey results. We believe that once a basic vocabulary or common language is established and utilized, we can move on to other more advanced connections to content and application at the high school level and more meaningful civic-focused conversations.
Billson Rasavongxay
Maine East High School (2013)
At Maine East, we have a variety of different student groups and organizations that center identity. However, these groups and organizations usually meet before or after school, which limits access to these spaces--which in turn, limits the opportunities of the students to have agency--and could lower their sense of belonging. It was our goal to create more affinity groups/spaces for students within the confines of the school day. With the help of the grant, we could provide food during lunches in order to mitigate the loss of that time for students in the cafeteria. We pulled reports to gather lists of students with racial/ethnic identifiers. This list is generated from registration and the students self-identify, which is problematic because we do not have a great list of racial identifiers, similar to the census. Through it all, we learned that we had to find ways to overcome this issue, specifically with our students who identify as Muslim/Palestinian. We talked to our Muslim Student Association (MSA) and invited others through a newsletter that is shared with our community. After inviting students, we fed them lunch and had many, many follow-up meetings with our students from MSA. We tried to have purposeful conversations to lead to more action within the school, which led to our Palestinian students speaking directly with our Academic Council, which is all of the building administration.
We are fortunate to have these significant contributors: Melissa Pikul (Maine East Principal), Romelle Taylor (Maine East Assistant Principal of Student Experiences), Sawsan Jaber (Maine West Department Chair of English), and Waleed Atawneh (Maine East MSA Sponsor).
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Civics Hive Podcast:
How can students practice civic online reasoning?
The Civics Hive is a NEW podcast that takes you on a journey through the intersection of civics and technology, preparing students for active civic engagement in the 21st century.
In each episode, hosts MJ Warden and Mary Ellen Daneels will explore essential questions with expert guests including leading educators, tech innovators, and passionate advocates, all sharing their wisdom and experiences to empower you with the knowledge you need to make a difference.
This month's episode features Joel Breakstone from the Digital Inquiry Group (formerly Stanford History Education Group or SHEG) and addresses the essential question, "How can students practice civic online reasoning?"
If you missed our past episodes, it's not too late to catch up on our thought-provoking discussions with:
Follow the Illinois Civics Hub on Facebook and Twitter/X for future episodes that feature:
- Dr. Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg from the Center on Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement
- Dr. Leah Bueso from the University of Illinois-Springfield
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Earn Your Microcredentials
Become a Guardian of Democracy Educator
The Illinois Civics Hub has partnered with the Lou Frey Institute at the University of Central Florida to provide educators the opportunity to earn microcredentials in the proven practices of civic education embedded in the middle and high school civics course requirements in Illinois. Courses include:
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Current and Controversial Issue Discussions—Learn from academic experts Dr. Diana Hess & Dr. Paula McAvoy as you explore the purpose, role, and function of discussion strategies as pedagogical tools to equip young people to be engaged citizens. This course will enhance the practice of educators with strategies and resources to create a classroom climate in which there are equitable opportunities for ALL students to engage in dialogue about essential questions across the curriculum.
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Simulations of Democratic Processes—Learn from academic experts Dr. Walter Parker & Dr. Jane Lo as you explore how democratic processes and procedures occur as part of the regular functioning of government, in each of the three branches of government, and at each level of government. This course will guide you through the purpose, planning, and implementation of three simulations: town hall meetings, legislative hearings, and moot courts.
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Informed Action through Service Learning—Learn from academic experts Dr. Joseph Kahne and Jessica Marshall as you explore the purpose, role, and function of informed action through service learning as a pedagogical tool to equip young people with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be active members of their community. In this course, you will interact with strategies and tools you can use in your classroom to support student-centered informed action through service learning.
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NEW: Constitutional Democracy as Content and Practice—Learn from academic experts Dr. Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, Dr. Shawn P. Healy, and Dr. Bonnie Laughlin Schultz as you explore how the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap can help teach constitutional democracy as both content and practice across disciplines K-12.
Registration information is available on the Guardians of Democracy homepage. Those who successfully complete the 5-week online course will earn a Bronze Certified Guardian of Democracy Educator badge via Badgr and the University of Central Florida Center for Distributive Learning.
Participants can earn 15 PD hours through the DuPage Regional Office of Education for an additional fee.
There are three strands of courses for each proven practice of civics education. Graduate credit is available through the University of St. Francis for completing all three courses. For more information, please visit the Guardians of Democracy homepage.
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Attention Social Studies Teachers!
If you want to be kept current on Social Studies standards, course mandates, and resources to support both, we invite you to sign up for the Illinois Civics Hub newsletter here.
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