• Pacing Guide
• Overview of Units/Big Ideas
• Unit 1: Bill of Rights, Human Rights
• Unit 2: Rule of Law
• Unit 3: Elections
• Unit 4: Cultural and Economic Freedom; Foreign Policy (Choices materials)
• Unit 5: Service Learning (Project Citizen materials)

• ACLU Speaker Bureau
  The ACLU has assembled a speaker bureau for educators. The bureau is a listing of guest speakers that are willing and able give presentations in classrooms on current events topics, civil liberties issues and more. For details about what topics teachers can request for their classes, please visit: http://www.aclu-co.org/education/speakers_bureau.htm . Anyone who would like a speaker should fill out the short Speakers Bureau Intake Form at the bottom of the page. This way the request is in writing and can be easily forwarded on to volunteers.
  
• Colorado Closeup, http://coloradocloseup.com/
  This is the only civic education program at the State Capitol that provides high school students with an opportunity to learn about an issue confronting Colorado and how they can get involved through all three branches of government in responding to them. Want to talk to your senator about a problem in your town? Would you like to be a Supreme Court Justice and decide a case involving youth? How about talking to other students from around the state about issues that concern you? Would you like to have breakfast with your legislators while you share your conclusions about how to fix a problem in your community? You can do these things and much much more! They welcome all high school aged youth who want to become informed and caring democratic citizens and be the leaders of tomorrow! Parents and teachers can get involved as well as chaperones and volunteers. Scholarship funds are available from State Farm insurance and may also be avaiulable from the Colorado Bar Foundation and other sources. No student has ever been rejected in 24 years because they lacked the funds to participate. Get your school involved NOW!
  

Denver Civics in Schools Alliance: Professional Development and Project-based Resources for Civics Education
This group of civics education organizations want to assist Denver teachers in providing the kinds of learning experiences that enable all students to study, practice and engage in active democratic citizenship.  In order to help teachers choose the professional development, program and/or materials that are best suited to your needs, they have created this matrix to help you navigate the resources and easily find what fits your needs and grade level.

Center for Civic Education  
The Center for Civic Education is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational corporation that specializes in civic/citizenship education, law-related education, and international educational exchange programs for developing democracies. Competitions promote civic competence and responsibility by focusing on the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights; American political traditions and institutions at the federal, state, and local levels; constitutionalism; civic participation; and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.

Center for Education in Law and Democracy
The Center for Education in Law and Democracy is a non-profit educational organization in Colorado offering several programs for teachers and students through grants and contracts with national and state government and non-governmental organizations. CELD is the state coordinator for Project Citizen.  Find local resources and programs that will enhance your civics courses.

Resources on the Constitution
Get links to many of the best lessons and resources on the US Constitution here.

Democracy Education Committee, Denver Bar Association  offers teachers access to over 100 volunteer attorneys to come to your classroom.  Click here to find out more about the types of expertise and resources DBA attorneys can offer.

The Bill of Rights Institute
Lots of resources here such as lesson plans on the bill of rights, landmark cases, current events and ideas on how to use them in your classroom and articles pertaining to constitutional issues.

Constitutional Rights Foundation http://www.crf-usa.org/
CRF develops, produces, and distributes programs and materials to teachers, students, and public-minded citizens all across the nation, most of it free!  

Project Vote-smart
Track legislative bills as they move through congress, keep track of your representatives' voting record, and find lessons and ideas for your classroom (be sure to look under the "Political Resources" tab at the top for teaching resources).  A very rich site that helps students demystify the political process and understand how to get involved politically.  They also have a research hotline staffed with people that are willing and able to answer any questions in a very prompt mannner.

Elections...The American Way from American Memory is a unit on how US elections have changed over time.  Gives an excellent overview of how the electoral process works, from primaries to the electoral college.

Landmark Supreme Court Cases
While not a comprehensive list, this site offers links to the full-text of the opinions to some of the landmark cases, as well as lessons, activities and other resources for teachers.

WAR WITH IRAQ: Primary sources related to the War With Iraq  The Dartmouth College Library's Department of Government Documents has compiled this list of resources regarding the war on Iraq.

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
An excellent resource for the study of comparative government.  The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to nurture and support sustainable democracy world-wide. Global in membership and independent of specific national interests, IDEA works with both new and long-established democracies, helping to develop the institutions and culture of democracy.

The New York Times Learning Network
Excellent source of lessons for current events, searchable by subject, topic or grade level.  Each lesson plan is a thematic unit, and is linked to a New York Times article.  Lots of resources for both teachers and students.   Be sure to look at the "Issues in Depth" section, which provides resources on controversial issues.

Navigator  Be sure to browse this "Navigator" page when you're on the NYT Learning Network site.  The Navigator is a list of resources the NYT had compiled as a reference for their journalists to research their stories.  It is somewhat difficult to find it on the site, so I've included it here as a separate link.  It is a very broad and comprehensive reference list of web links. The list includes categories on search engines, government sites and investigative links, pop culture, sports and much much more.

THOMAS Legislative Information on the Net
An excellent gateway site to the legislative branch from the Library of Congress.  Find all the congressional information you need here.  Find your US senators and representatives, committees they serve on, bills, voting records and much more.  

Colorado General Assembly Find ballot issues, district maps, text of bills and statutes and much more.

DenverGov.org is the official site of the city and county of Denver

Mock Trials/Colorado Bar Association
Get information on Mock Trial competitions and a schedule of activities, as well as the actual case itself for this year and for last.

FirstGov.gov  is the official U.S. gateway to all government information.  You can find links to all other government agencies, online information, services and resources from here.  The site is available in Spanish too. While not as extensive as the English version (not all agencies have made their sites available in Spanish), teachers of ELLs will still find it very useful.

Political Cartoons  This is Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index of political cartoons from newspapers across the nation.  You can easily search by various popular topics that are in the news.  There are several cartoons for each topic, and there is even a Teachers' Guide!

Professional Resources

Colorado Department of Education
Find the state's standards, model units and assessments, details on recertification and much more.

Civic Mission of Schools

National Council for the Social Studies
Social studies educators teach students the content knowledge, intellectual skills, and civic values necessary for fulfilling the duties of citizenship in a participatory democracy. The mission of National Council for the Social Studies is to provide leadership, service, and support for all social studies educators.  Extensive resources for all social studies teachers will be found here.

Colorado Council for the Social Studies  Our local affiliate is now online!  Find links to many resources.

Policy on Teaching Controversial Issues  Just because it's controversial doesn't mean you shouldn't address it in the classroom. See the board's policy for some general guidelines and things to keep in mind when teaching controversial issues.  Click here for the Board's policy.  For a more in-depth look at how to get the most out of teaching controversial issues and debating them in class, see the article by Laurel Singleton, "Following a Tragic Event: A Necessary Challenge for Civic Educators" in the National Council for the Social Studies web site. Far from advancing a single perspective about recent events, teachers need to encourage discussion and debate in the classroom.

Educational Resources Services at 1330 Fox St. has a Classroom Library with resources for teachers, such as classroom sets of books, including Spanish-language materials, educational posters, art and other materials to reinforce your instruction. They also have a Professional Library with resources for teachers, administrators and librarians to promote and support your professional development.

HPR*TEC
The HPR*TEC mission is to help teachers and other educators create, share, or find solutions to problems they encounter when integrating technology into education. Find excellent tools for online collaboration and instruction using advanced telecommunication technologies.

RubiStar: A rubric generator
This innovative site makes the work of creating rubrics for project-based learning activities as simple as choosing the criteria from a wide range of lists.  THere are sample rubrics for almost any type of activity you can think of.

History/Social Studies for K-12 Teachers
A very large collection of links to social studies resources for teachers.  Some inactive links, but with such a vast collection of resources, it won't really matter.

G.E.M.
The Gateway to Educational Materials is a Consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to thousands of educational resources found on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites.  The site is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.

AskERIC
AskERIC is a personalized Internet-based service providing education information to teachers, librarians, counselors, administrators, parents, and anyone interested in education throughout the United States and the world.  Follow the above link to find lessons on social studies.

The FREE (Federal Resources for Educational Excellence) Social Studies Web Site More than 30 Federal agencies formed a working group in 1997 to make hundreds of Federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find. The result of that work is the FREE web site.

Return to Social Studies Home