NS1 Middle School Civics 8

Middle School Civics 8 096001N Regular This course satisfies the Middle School Civics graduation requirement prescribed by Illinois state law. The law requires that students receive instruction and content that focuses on government institutions, the discussion and current and societal issues, service learning, and simulations of the democratic process prior to graduating 8th grade. Additionally, the course must be aligned to the Illinois Social Science Standards. This civics course will help young people acquire and learn to use the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives. In this course students will seek to answer the questions: what knowledge, skills, and dispositions does a person need in order to be a powerful civic actor in our democracy and in civic society; and how will I use my rights and responsibilities to promote the common good in our democracy and society. Students will build knowledge towards these two questions by engaging in culturally sustaining, rigorous, and relevant critical reading and writing tasks. Upon completion of this course, students will have experienced high quality, inquiry-based, authentic learning experiences in their social science classroom that center on reading and analyzing complex texts, engaging in community, action research, forming arguments and supporting them with relevant evidence, and communicating conclusions through argumentative writing tasks. Students will also engage in community action research and real world application of the knowledge that they build during the course which will culminate in a service learning project.