With the elections coming up in the fall our co-op is planning on a civics class

[Guest witherly]

Can any of you recommend a curriculum/text you have used? We are already planning on next year.

No rest for the weary.... :001_smile:

[Peek a Boo]

We are planning something similar: electoral college and campainging in the fall, local civics in the spring.

 

 

what ages will be in your class?

 

I'm not planning on using a spine for civics --it's only 12 classes. we were just going to explore local organizations, how they help the community, and ways that even kids can be involved. i expect the kids to do some research for this.

 

We do have a local city election geared for May of '09, so voting /campaigning/ encouraging voting will come into play as well.

 

4-H has a citizenship curriculum that I'm waiting to see, as well as several online resources.

 

one site that has lots of great ideas: http://www.learningtogive.org

 

good luck!

[Myra]

I know that our local co-op once ordered Scholatic booklets for each student that are published whenever there is a presidential election. I haven't seen the books personally so I can't give you a "review" but....I'm sure you could go online and find out more info.

 

Myra

[AuntieM]

my son will be taking an American Government/Current Events class through our coop next year, so I haven't researched one. Just thought I'd mention that I plan to order a WORLD Magazine subscription for him to be his news source for the term. Perhaps that would be an extra you would also enjoy. Be aware that it is circulated by a Christian publisher. I think you can ask for a sample from their website (google God's World News if you are interested, i am a total failure at making links to posts!).

[Samuel]

I might be teaching American Gov't next year, so I've been investigating various options. I would recommend the Oxford very short introduction series.L. Sandy Maisel has a book called American Political Parties and Elections. While I would be assigning it to college freshman, there is no reason at all that a high school student couldn't read and understand it, as its designed to be a concise (150 pages) and clear introduction. I would supplement it with addtl readings for college students, but it would work as a stand alone for high schoolers learning the basics about elections in the American political environment.

Charles O Jones has a volume in the series The American Presidency which is also quite good about how the office of the Pres. works. The best thing about this series is that the books are something like $10 new.

 

On the Congress, Cushman's An Introduction to the US Congress is a through introduction, though not quite as accessible as the Oxford books. I haven't found anything on the court that's quite convinced me, yet.

 

On current events I would highly recommend reading the Economist which is free on the website. The Lexington column's take on American politics is quite unique. While the paper has some quite technical articles on economics, its opinion pieces and politics articles are accessible to high school readers--I wish I had read it in high school.

[Guest witherly]

Our civics class will be at the high school level with some 8th graders as well. We already subscribe to World Magazine for currrent events plus supplementing with CNN news website and local newspapers.

I checked a book out from the library, US Government by Jane Smith and Carol Sullivan, but it looks pretty basic. I will check out the above mentioned titles and see what turns up.

Thanks again.