ABSTRACT

Young Citizens of the World takes a clear stance: Social studies is about citizenship education that is informed, deliberative, and activist—citizenship not only as a noun, something one studies, but as a verb, something one DOES. Its holistic, multicultural approach is based on this clear curricular and pedagogical purpose. Straightforward, engaging, and highly interactive, the book encourages students (and their teachers) to become informed, think it through, and take action. Each chapter is written as a civic engagement which is teacher-ready for use in elementary classrooms. A set of six teaching strategies that are constructive, inquiry-driven, dramatic, and deliberative bring the curricular framework to life through intensive, integrated meaningful studies of special places, important people, and significant times. Readers are invited to rehearse the projects in their social studies education courses and then to reinterpret them for their classrooms. The projects are supported by important resources for teaching, including supportive children’s literature, links to internet sites, and visual sources and by a Companion Website that enhances and extends the text.

chapter One|20 pages

Citizenship as a Verb

Teaching Democracy-in-Action

chapter Two|22 pages

Democracy Project

Empowering Student Voice

chapter Three|28 pages

Worldview

Developing World-Mindedness

chapter Four|24 pages

History Mystery

Rediscovering Our Past

chapter Five|28 pages

Biography Workshop

Composing Citizens' Life Stories

chapter Six|24 pages

Supermarket

Making Everyday Economic Choices

chapter Seven|32 pages

Explore

Investigating Place and Space

chapter Eight|24 pages

Engage

Living One's Civics