How to teach active citizenship: Lesson plans for teachers

What is active citizenship and why is it important?

The Centre for Civic Education defines active citizenship as “getting involved in the life of your community and nation so that you can help determine the country’s future”. 

Learning about civic responsibility and ways to become involved with their community empowers students to make positive changes in the world around them. Students who practice active citizenship are preparing for a future of community engagement and political know-how.

Key elements of effective citizenship lesson plans

An effective citizenship lesson plan begins like any other lesson plan: with a clear objective, teachable content, and meaningful takeaways.

I find that the most successful lesson plans also involve building or practicing a skill and forging meaningful connections to your students’ lives.

Clear objective

Start by determining your objective for this lesson plan. At the end of the day, what is it you want your students to take away from this lesson? 

Be sure to keep the objective realistically attainable. For example, your students are not likely to be able to remember the entire constitution, but it’s reasonable to want them to leave class understanding why it was needed in the first place.

Teachable content

This is the bread and butter of your active citizenship lesson plan. 

• What is the topic you’re covering? 
• What are the facts you want your students to know? 

Some common citizenship topics to get you started:

• The history of democracy,
• Civil rights movement,
• Women’s suffrage,
• White Australia Policy and/or
• Immigration.

Building citizenship skills

Active citizenship requires some specific skills. 

Some of the important skills you should focus on building or refining in your lesson plans include:

• Critical thinking,
• Building Empathy,
• Self-reflection,
• Communication,
• Cooperation and conflict resolution, and/or
• Media literacy.

Meaningful connections

Identifying meaningful connections to your students’ lives gets them thinking about the importance of the civics ideas you’re teaching. It also helps them to think critically about the implications personally, and fosters empathy.

Luckily, active citizenship basically forges its own connections! All of your students have a stake in their community, whether it be caring about the school grounds, beautification of the neighborhood, or supporting their local library.

Takeaways 

Now that your students have learned the content and practiced the skills, what should they do with all of that? 

The takeaways of your active citizenship lesson plan should include actionable ideas or steps.

Build time into your lesson for brainstorming, either individually or as a class. 

How can your students make positive change in their community? 

Feel free to adapt one of the student citizenship projects below into something meaningful for your class.

Engaging classroom activities to teach active citizenship

1) Make your voice heard

Active citizenship often requires speaking up. 

1. First, ask your students to determine a local cause that’s important to them. Examples might be the environment or access to community resources.

2. Next, have them practice their research skills by finding out who the stakeholders are.
   • Is there a local community board they can contact? 
   • Who is their local representative? 
   • Is this a local or federal issue? 

3. Finally, have them write a letter, send an email, or make a phone call to a changemaker who has a stake in that cause. 

Standing up for a good cause in your community by making your voice heard is incredibly empowering, and the very basis of active citizenship.

2) Write a classroom code of conduct

Part of being an active citizen is knowing your rights and responsibilities. Students’ powers can be fairly limited, but you can empower them by working with them to create a classroom code of conduct. This could also be a type of constitution, or a classroom bill of rights.

1. Before putting pen to paper, have your students brainstorm what their rights and responsibilities as a student in your classroom are. 

For example, 

• Do they have the right to use the bathroom whenever they want? 
• Is it their responsibility to put their homework on your desk in the morning?

2. And don’t forget your rights and responsibilities as an educator.
   • What can your students expect from you? 

3. Once you and your students have agreed on the finer points of the code of conduct, write it out and display it somewhere prominent. 

4. Refer to it throughout the year and let it guide how you and your students function in your classroom. 

Remember, it can always be amended if something isn’t working!

3) Practise difficult conversations

Active citizenship can sometimes require having difficult conversations. Practise this skill with your students in the classroom, establishing it as a safe space. 

Class debates are a great way to practice this type of communication.

1. Introduce a topic, 
2. Have your students research it, and 
3. Ask them to come up with valid, fact-based arguments for or against the topic at hand. 

This is a transferable skill that they’ll use throughout their lives as an active citizen.

Service learning and real-world projects to support active citizenship 

Student citizenship projects that take place in the community are beneficial both for your students and for the local community – your students practise active citizenship, and their community benefits! 

Here are some ideas to get started:

1) Participate in a community improvement project

Organise, or have your students join an existing effort, to improve their community. 

There are so many ways to approach community improvement that there really is something for everybody. They could:

• Plant a tree or garden,
• Pick up rubbish in a local park or along the street, or
• Paint a mural to beautify a local space.

2) Volunteer to make a difference

Mahatma Gandhi once said “The best way to find yourself is in the service of others…”. Volunteering is often the lifeblood of a community, and it’s also a wonderful way to learn real-world skills whilst adding to your resume.

Help your students find a place to volunteer on their own, or make a class trip out of it. You could visit a 

• Local soup kitchen, 
• Animal rescue, or 
• Retirement home 

to observe and to lend a helping hand.

3) Establish a meaningful community partnership

While you’re asking yourself what your students can do for their community, be sure to consider what their community can do for you. Are there local businesses or community resources that are willing to partner with your class or school for mutual benefit?

Community partnerships can offer opportunities like 

• Internships, 
• A place to volunteer, or even 
• Allow for cross-generational learning. 

Strengthening the ties between a school and the community can be mutually beneficial for everyone. 

Fostering reflection and long-term engagement in active citizenship

Now that you’ve explored active citizenship with your students and involved them in meaningful projects, how can you ensure they keep up the momentum? 

One sure-fire way to ensure your students continue to be active citizens is to have them reflect on the impacts they’ve made, and continue to search for new ways to make positive change.

Keep them thinking on their roles by:

• Having them keep a reflection journal,
• Requesting feedback from community partnerships,
• Collecting data from completed or ongoing community projects,
• Making current events a routine part of class time, and/or
• Asking them to find reliable sources and local news sites, and signing up for updates and newsletters.

Teaching active citizenship and fostering the skills necessary to take part in community engagement doesn’t have to be a chore! Once your students have discovered the difference they can make in their communities and the wider world, they’ll (hopefully!) be addicted to contributing to positive change.

Resources & further reading

1. Active Citizenship – civiced.org 
2. Active Citizens in the Community | Clickview    
3. Community | Clickview Teaching Civic Engagement: From Student to Active Citizen
4. Westheimer, J. and Kahne, J. (2004). What Kind of Citizen? The Politics of Educating for Democracy. American Educational Research Journal, 41(2), pp.237–269.
5. What Does It Mean to be an “Active Citizen”? The Limitations and Opportunities Posed by Different Understandings and Deployments of “Citizenship”