Summary
In this lesson, students explore the responsibilities of citizens. Students begin by brainstorming what it means to be a good citizen. They then analyze two documents that provide further information on the responsibilities of citizens, including participating in the democratic process and protesting injustice, within a democracy and summarize their learning in a graphic organizer. Students further extend their knowledge by analyzing a study from the Pew Research Center about citizenship and connecting the study to other texts, the world around them, and their own lives. To conclude the lesson, students rank the most important responsibilities of citizens and justify their rankings.
Essential Question(s)
What does it mean to be a good citizen of our democracy? What are the responsibilities and rights of citizens in our democracy?
Snapshot
Engage
Students create a word cloud by identifying the traits of a good citizen.
Explore
Students read, analyze, and compare two documents to understand what it means to be a good citizen.
Explain
Students complete a graphic organizer about the responsibilities of citizenship based on their understanding of the two documents they read.
Extend
Students analyze a Pew Research Center study about citizenship and make connections between the survey and the texts, their own lives, and the world around them.
Evaluate
Students rank the most important responsibilities of citizens and justify their rankings.
Materials
Lesson Slides (attached)
Four Corners Signs document (attached; one set)
Document Analysis Packet handout (attached; one per student; print two-sided, staple)
Document Analysis Packet (Teacher) handout (attached; optional)
Responsibilities of Citizens Graphic Organizer handout (attached; one per student; print two-sided, staple)
Responsibilities of Citizens Graphic Organizer (Teacher) document (attached; optional)
Making Connections Between Texts, Self, and World handout (attached; two versions available; one per student)
Making Connections Between Texts, Self, and World (Teacher) document (attached; optional)
Student devices
Pens or pencils
Highlighters
Large chart paper
Sticky notes (two per student)
Engage
5 Minute(s)
Use the attached Lesson Slides to guide the lesson. Organize students into groups of 3–4. Display slide 3 and ask students to consider the question on the slide, “What does it mean to be a good citizen of our democracy?”
Introduce students to the Collaborative Word Cloud instructional strategy. Have students use their phones or school devices to navigate to menti.com. Have students enter the code on the slide to access the prepared word cloud. Have students respond to the question within Mentimeter. As students enter their responses, use the “Presentation” mode in Mentimeter to display the word cloud on the board as it is being created.
Once students submit their responses, call on individuals to share out their observations about the ideas in the word cloud. Additionally, you can offer your own insights.
After students share their initial thoughts with the class, display slide 4. Explain to students that they are going to continue exploring the following essential questions:
What does it mean to be a good citizen of our democracy?
What are the responsibilities and rights of citizens in our democracy?
Consider also sharing slide 5 with students to introduce the learning objectives for the lesson.
Explore
45 Minute(s)
Display slide 6 and give each student one copy of the attached Document Analysis Packet handout and one highlighter. Tell students that, in order to begin answering the essential questions, they should read the pair of articles included in the packet.
Draw students’ attention to the first article in the packet, “Responsibilities of U.S. Citizens.” Introduce students to the Why-Lighting instructional strategy and have them highlight important information that helps them answer the question “What does it mean to be a good citizen in our democracy?”
Tell students that, for any information they highlight, they should make notes in the document margins explaining their reasoning for why they highlighted the information. If you think students need additional structure for this activity, consider asking them to Why-Light at least three, or another number of your choosing, pieces of information with annotations. Allow them adequate time to Why-Light the document.
Bring the whole class back together and display slide 7. Call on multiple groups to share out some of the ideas they highlighted along with their reasoning.
Display slide 8 and draw students’ attention to the second document in the packet, President Obama’s Farewell Address. Tell students that presidents traditionally give a farewell address or speak to the nation one last time to offer insight based on their experiences serving as president. Share that this tradition dates back to George Washington’s presidency, noting that students previously studied his farewell address.
Consider also reviewing some of the main ideas from Washington’s Farewell Address. These main ideas include avoiding foreign alliances, keeping the national government strong, limiting the power and influence of political parties, promoting education of the nation’s citizens, etc.
Have student groups read President Obama’s farewell address and ask them to Why-Light information in the document that helps them answer the question “What does it mean to be a good citizen of our democracy?” Tell student that, for each piece of information they highlight, they must make notes in the document margins explaining the reasoning behind why you highlighted each piece of info. If you think that it would be helpful to provide students with additional structure for this activity, consider asking them to include at least three (or another number of your choosing) Why-Lighted annotations.
Bring students back together as a whole class and display slide 9. Call on several groups to share some ideas that they highlighted and why.
Display slide 10 and transition to the final page of the handout, “Comparing the Texts.” This section contains questions based on the New York Times’s “Comparing Two or More Texts” handout. Ask students to consider both texts in the packet and select one of the four questions listed both on the page and the slide.
Once students select a question, introduce a modified version of the Four Corners instructional strategy. Have students take their Document Analysis Packet handouts and move to a corner of the room, marked with one of the Four Corners Signs, based on which question they selected from the packet. Students should be in a corner of the room with others who chose the same question. For example, all students who chose the first question should be in the corner of the room marked with a sign that displays the first question.
Display slide 11. Allow student groups a few minutes to discuss how they would answer their selected questions. Invite a representative from each group to summarize what their group discussed for the whole class. Summarize the discussion by reviewing and synthesizing major points discussed in this part of the lesson.
At this point, you may choose to move to the next section of the lesson. Alternatively, you may choose to have students record their responses to the questions on the handout in addition to the discussion. Consider encouraging students to record responses of at least four complete sentences in the space provided in the packet, however, you may wish to adjust these expectations. Clearly communicate with students about your expectations for their responses.
Explain
40 Minute(s)
Display slide 12 and distribute one copy of the attached Responsibilities of Citizens Graphic Organizer to each student. Explain to students that they should work within their groups to complete the graphic organizer using information from the Document Analysis Packet. Have them first summarize each responsibility of citizenship in their own words, then have them explain why each responsibility is important to our democracy. Students should use 1–2 complete sentences to fill in each section of the chart.
When students finish their graphic organizers, assign each group one responsibility to share out during the whole-class discussion. Encourage students to modify the responses on their organizers based on the feedback they receive during the discussion.
Summarize the discussion, noting that each of these responsibilities is important for citizens to carry out to ensure that our democratic government thrives. Explain that, however, people might feel that some responsibilities are more important than others.
Extend
20 Minute(s)
Explain to students that in 2018 the Pew Research Center conducted a survey to gauge how the American people felt about some of the responsibilities of citizenship and which responsibilities they viewed as most important. Distribute copies of your chosen version of the attached Making Connections Between Texts, Self, and World handout to students. Display slide 13 and draw students’ attention to the survey results on the first page of the handout.
Allow students a few minutes to discuss their observations in their small groups. Consider asking students prompting questions like the following:
What trends do you notice?
What surprises you about the results?
What does not surprise you about the results?
What are your general reactions?
Bring students back together as a whole class and invite several students to share out their observations. As they share, synthesize major points and share an additional information you believe to be necessary.
Display slide 14 and questions on the handout. These questions are based on the activity from Facing History and Ourselves. Ask students to work individually to make a text-to-text connection and either a text-to-self or text-to-world connection.
Explain to students that they should make a text-to-text connection between the Responsibilities of U.S. Citizens survey results and either President Obama’s Farewell Address or the “Responsibilities of U.S. Citizens” article.
Tell students that if they choose to make a text-to-self connection, they should consider how the survey results relate to their own lives, ideas, and experiences. Tell them that if they choose to make a text-to-world connection, they should consider how the survey results relate to the broader world in the past, present, or future. Have students complete their responses digitally, on the handout, in a notebook, or in another format of your choosing based on the handout you selected. Encourage students to write responses of 3–5 complete sentences and to use the sentence starters on the handout to help them create responses.
When students finish writing their responses, call on students to share out for each type of connection: text, self, and world. Synthesize students’ main ideas and offer any additional insight.
Evaluate
15 Minute(s)
Display slide 15 and introduce the Sticky Bars instructional strategy. Tell students that they should now participate in a new survey about the responsibilities of citizenship.
Give each student two sticky notes. Ask students to consider everything they learned during the lesson and their own beliefs about citizenship. Have students determine which two responsibilities are the most important for democracy to thrive and write each responsibility on a sticky note. Have them also include their name and a brief explanation justifying their choice on each sticky note.
Have students place their sticky notes above the corresponding responsibilities on the Sticky Bars display. The end result should be a visual respresentation of which responsibilites of citizenship are most important to the class. To provide students an example of what this representation should look like, display slide 16.
Consider discussing the final Sticky Bars results as a class. Conclude the lesson by reminding students that democracies get their power from the people. Tell students that, because of this, it is extremely important that all citizens participate in democracy and take their responsibilities seriously.
Resources
bamlou. (n.d.). USA map made of red stickman figures [Image]. Getty Images. https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/map-made-of-red-stickman-figures-royalty-free-illustration/1212542267
Facing History and Ourselves. (2021, March 15). Text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world. https://www.facinghistory.org/sites/default/files/TexttoText_handout_v.final_.pdf
K20 Center. (n.d.). A-CLAP. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/183
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K20 Center. (n.d.). Google docs. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/2327
K20 Center. (n.d.). Mentimeter. Tech Tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/645
K20 Center. (n.d.). Paired texts H-chart. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/132
K20 Center. (n.d.). Sticky bars. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/129
K20 Center. (n.d.). Why-Lighting. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/128
Kutz, K. (2020, September 20). Obligations of citizenship [Video]. Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics/x231f0f4241b58f49:citizens-us-gov-civics/x231f0f4241b58f49:what-are-the-rights-and-responsibilities-of-citizenship/v/obligations-of-citizenship
The Learning Network. (2018, January). Comparing two or more texts [Worksheet]. The New York Times. https://static01.nyt.com/images/blogs/learning/pdf/2013/13-1553_K12_CompareText_LearnNet_RP2.pdf
Obama, B. (2017, January 10). President Obama’s farewell address [Speech transcript]. Obama White House. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/node/360231
Packer, A. (2016, March 15). Creating informed citizens should be education’s goal. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-creating-informed-citizens-should-be-educations-goal/2016/03
Pew Research Center. (2018, April 26). The responsibilities of citizenship. The Public, the Political System, and American Democracy. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/04/26/9-the-responsibilities-of-citizenship/
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (2017, May 31). Rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizens. Newsela. https://app.newsela.com/view/ck9noog3y046t0iqjjtgspqv7/
Washington, G. (n.d.). Farewell address [Speech transcript]. National Archives. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-20-02-0440-0002 (Original work published 1796)
