The Service-Learning Ideas and Curricular Example (SLICE) I selected pertained to the subject of American government. It could easily be used in a civics or government course, grades 9- 12. The description of the SLICE is the following: While studying about the role of the federal government in the economy, students will focus on particular programs such as minimum wage, OSHA, or the Environmental Protection Act. Each student will research a specific program, evaluate the over all effect of the program on the economy, and determine if the program needs to be reformed or be eliminated. Based on his or her analysis the student will write a letter to a member of Congress with a recommendation.
Civic education and civic participation are two integral components to any government/civics classroom, and this lesson plan manages to accomplish this quite well. First of all, it creates a manner in which the students can actually become interested in the topic. By focusing a particular programs that can personally affect students, it makes the role of the federal government more relative.
For the methods aspect of social studies inquiry, it best accomplishes the learning cycle. Students will at first explore the role of the federal government in the reading. Next, in the small groups the students will discuss the new content ( the program issued) and eventually present their findings in the paper. The application of the new information comes in the analysis of the federal government.
As stated previously, it's an excellent topic because it is relevant to the students, or the soon will become aware of how relevant the programs really are in their everyday lives.
There are a plethora of benefits for this exercise. It executes the sharpening of critical thinking skills, and can even get kids involved in the functioning of the government. An activity like this can really spark interest among the students. It also relies less on the teacher, eliminating any potential for bias by the instructor. Writing a letter is a vastly important aspect to showing the basic participation of the American citizenry. Any activity that is predominantly student generated is excellent in my book!
Finally. the only shortcoming I could fathom was there not being enough materials from all sides of the political spectrum to inform the students. Resources must be chosen carefully, to attempt to give the must objective lesson to the students. This could easily be mitigated by providing a variety of fair, relatively less biased resources for the students.
Links:
http://www.servicelearning.org/slice/index.php?ep_action=download&ep_id=325&file_num=261
http://www.servicelearning.org/slice/index.php?ep_action=view&ep_id=325
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This would be an incredibly valuable resource to the civics classroom. Whenever teachers are faced with the question of what citizens can do to directly effect their country, they always list concepts like the one this project proposes but without any concrete examples. This project provides students with a chance to participate in their democracy as active citizens, which is really what the point of civics is in the first place.
ReplyDeleteIts good stuff to put the students in charge of reforming government programs. these programs aren't perfect just because they are government-run! maybe the kids could even check out construction sites for OSHA or data on local ecosystems for the effectiveness of the Environmental Protection Act in their area.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of getting students into the practice of writing letters to their representatives to share an informed opinion about government programs. Schools put such an emphasis on voting but for a lot of students, that is still a number of years away. This shows them that you don't have to be 18 to be involved and be a good citizen.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great idea, it also could tie into labor economics section with the minimum wage and programs part. I think this is a great way to spark interest in students, and it is very relevant to the way the economy functions and their lives. I think it is important to get students to look at features like these!
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