Full course description
In each of the five modules that make up Teaching Civics for Justice Illinois you will engage learning, reflection, and creative exercises that prepare you to engage in what we have termed a Critical Civics education.
- Module 1 (Kasserian Ingera) aims to build your conceptual knowledge of what we have termed Critical Civics and Service Learning. You’ll learn about the framework and reflect on how it might apply to your practices.
- Module 2 (Tú Eres Mi Otro Yo) hopes to prepare you for community-rooted and community-responsive practices that engage in partnership with your students, their families, and the communities that make up your Civics and Service Learning classrooms. You’ll also learn about systems and power and oppression (which are part of the Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science) and build practices that support your students’ analyses of domination and partnership along their inquiry journeys.
- Module 3 (Reading and Re-Writing the World) aims to prepare you for student-driven inquiry, analysis, and action. You’ll learn from practicing Civics teachers and prepare for your role as a Civics and Service Learning facilitator.
- In Module 4 (Preparing for Critical Civics Instruction), you’ll create instructional tools and curricular revisions that meet the aims of Civics and Service Learning in Illinois.
- In the fifth, and final, module (From Theory to Action) of Teaching Civics for Justice Illinois you’ll reflect on the previous modules and consider how you might sustain your critical Civics and Service Learning practices beyond this professional learning series.
We estimate that it will take you 24 hours to complete each of the five modules within this professional learning experience. You can pause at any time. Be sure to save any work you have completed outside of Canvas and click submit when uploading assignments within Canvas.
Upon completion of each of the required activities, you will receive 24 Professional Development Hours (PDH) offered through the Illinois State Board of Education. During the last module, you will complete a survey that will ensure you receive the PDHs and they are uploaded to your Educator Licensure Information System (ELIS) account.
Should you have any questions or need support at any stage of this professional learning experience please reach out to socialstudies@education.illinois.edu