National Week of Conversation was created by the Listen First Project to engage all Americans, across our many differences, into conversations that can rekindle relationships and help us relearn how to be the “we” we know we can be.

Experts around the globe endorse guided, face-to-face conversations as one of the most powerful tools to remove biases, stereotypes, and misperceptions before they have the opportunity to rip societies apart. By engaging 1:1 and in small groups, we remind ourselves that the “other” is – just like us – a person with family, friends, hopes, fears, values, and worth. National Week of Conversation provides a simple, powerful, and proven opportunity for Americans to gain this fresh and healing perspective – either directly or vicariously.

To learn more about #NWOC, visit https://conversation.us/.



Discover how women have organized to challenge the status quo. Join the Chicago History Museum to explore what the vote did and did not accomplish and for whom, learn the various issues that led women down the path to fight for voting rights, and see how that activism continued beyond suffrage. Explore how these powerful narratives can be used to implement the revised social science standards and civics course mandates, as well as history course mandates.

You can visit the ICH Professional Development page for more opportunities to enhance your practice.

This past July, the revised Illinois Social Science standards and new course mandates went into effect for the 2022-23 school year.

Our work to support the implementation of the revised standards and course mandates continues this spring with a series of Administrator Academies offered virtually to give school-based teams equitable opportunities to enhance their practice. Our next academy is:



• 4/18- AA #3930- Deconstructing the IL Social Science Standards and Course Mandates for Curriculum Design (Online)

These Academies are open to administrators and teachers for either Academy credit or PD hours. School-based teams are encouraged to participate and will have an opportunity to collaborate and reflect on learning through each session. Individual participants will have the opportunity to work with affinity groups in breakout rooms.

Visit the Illinois Civics Hub for more information on professional development to support rigorous and relevant civic learning.

Jason Artman, regional civics instructional coach for LaSalle, Putnam, Marshall, Woodford, Peoria, Tazewell, and Mason counties, loves using moot courts in his classroom. Moot courts are a simulation of democratic processes required by the middle and high school civic course mandates and develop many of the competencies of the revised Illinois Social Science standards.

Jason's lesson plan uses the recent SCOTUS case Jack Daniels Properties v. VIP Products, LLC to explore the essential question, "How do we balance some people’s rights with other people’s protections?"

Check out the lesson plan and other resources here!



Quotes taken out of context can completely change the meaning of what someone says. This tactic is commonly used to spread misinformation with potentially serious consequences, such as provoking violence or providing fake evidence to spread conspiracy theories.

In this lesson from PBS Newshour Classroom, students will learn how quotes have been manipulated to spread conspiracies about the 9/11 attacks in 2001, and read upstream to get at the truth behind a quote that’s been taken out of context.

Check out the lesson plan and other resources here!



On April 4, join Retro Report to examine free resources for teaching about global water issues. This webinar will include videos, lessons, and student activities from Retro Report and a presentation from a United Nations water expert. This webinar is conducted with assistance from the United Nations Outreach Division. 

Who is this for? Geography, Science, and Current Issues educators. Resources will also be shared from the Environmental Education collection that will work in Civics & Government and U.S. History classes.



Register at https://bit.ly/RR-WaterWebinar



April is Financial Literacy Month! The Bill of Rights Institute Building Blocks of Progress curriculum showcases the role economic principles, as well as people and government, play in a free society. The curriculum features six parts that focus on prosperity through a variety of lenses, including choices and consequences, the economy, and the role of constitutional government. This resource is available to you and your students from BRI in partnership with the Hoover Institution.

Click here to learn more!



The Civic Summer Institute for Learning and Teaching aims to create a powerful learning community of civics teachers from across the country who will share effective practices and distill guiding principles that can inform and enrich civics education for educators across the country. 

The Democratic Knowledge Project at Harvard University will host a group of 12 eighth-grade and high school teachers at a one-week, expenses-paid Civic Learning Institute at the Schoodic Institute campus in Acadia, Maine: Sunday, July 30 – Saturday, August 5, 2023.

Educators will participate in an intellectually engaging and emotionally restorative learning context in which they can: 

• Reflect on and deepen their understanding of their own roles as civic participants.
• Deepen their understanding of and capacity to support deeper civic learning for their students.
• Share their promising practices and challenges with one another in ways that can inform future professional learning for civics teachers. 
• Have free time to pursue additional topics.

Learn more about this opportunity and register via this link.

The National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) is now accepting applications for the Elizabeth "Libby" Kingseed Teaching with Deliberation Memorial Award for the grant period of July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024.

This $500 award is open to any K-12 teacher who is inspired to implement deliberation or deliberative pedagogy in the classroom and who is new to using the practices. The teacher should have a demonstrated commitment to fostering the civic development of students, though it is not necessary they be a civics or social studies teacher. All K-12 teachers are encouraged to apply.  

Learn more about the award on the NIF website.

Kick off class and help students get ready to learn with iCivics' bell ringer videos. These short, purposeful videos introduce students to the people and processes they need to know. The videos are a great way to transition into class time and help students focus. Use them to introduce a topic, spark discussion, or create a launchpad for further research. Each video includes:

• Learning objectives and suggestions for use 
• Closed captions that can be turned on or off
• A downloadable Teacher’s Guide with additional information and activity suggestions

Hoping to ignite the flame that inspires young readers to make a difference, the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader have released the slogan for this year’s Children’s Book Week, “Read Books. Spark Change.”

The 2023 event, which will be held May 1–7 and November 6–12, marks the fifth year of hosting two week-long celebrations, with a special educator kit offered in the fall.

Each Book Week participant is eligible to receive two free posters, which will be distributed to libraries, schools, and homes, amounting to an estimated 15,000 posters.

The poster and accompanying activities can be viewed on the event’s website. Bookmarks will be available in early March and will feature activities designed by K. O’Neill, Alfreda Beartrack-Algeo, Briana Mukodiri Uchendu, Lian Cho, and Jey Odin. Online registration for Book Week is currently under way.



To supplement your own strategies—and inspire your own ideas—Teaching American History of the Ashbrook Center offers free tools and materials, designed for teachers by teachers, in the Resources section of their website.

• American History Toolkits: Topic-focused collections of resources help teachers begin—or continue—the transition away from textbooks. 
• Exhibits on American History: Find primary and secondary source materials, maps, images, and other resources to give you and your students a deeper experience of American history.
• Webinar Archives: Browse vast webinar archives, available on video.
• We The Teachers Blog: Read short articles on forgotten episodes and major events in American history. Learn about upcoming program opportunities. Read about the inventive instructional approaches of teachers in our programs. 



Being able to differentiate between weak and strong evidence (and shades in between) is an ability students need across nearly every subject. How can you help your students understand how to determine and cite credible evidence?

One approach is to use a trio of new resources exploring levels of scientific evidence, produced by the News Literacy Project in partnership with Dr. Katrine Wallace. “Dr. Kat” is an epidemiologist, educator, and science literacy influencer. (Maybe you or your students have caught her on TikTok?)

These classroom tools are interrelated and complement each other—you can use them in a single class period or work them in throughout the semester.

• An infographic defining eight distinct levels of scientific evidence. The levels are ordered from weakest to strongest and reflect a spectrum of quality, so students can visually grasp differences.
• An engaging 20-minute Checkology tutorial featuring Dr. Kat explaining the above infographic. The tutorial uses short, TikTok-style videos to walk students through the infographic.
• An interactive 25- to 30-minute Checkology mission, recommended as an assignment after students have read through the infographic and viewed the tutorial. Dr. Kat asks students to put their skills to the test as they help her identify types of scientific evidence that various claims are based on. Real-life examples are taken from TikTok, Twitter, and other digital sources of news and information.

Reflecting forty years back and projecting forty years forward, RISE 2023: The Nation’s Next Horizon will examine America’s recovery and resilience, grounded in the seminal Nation at Risk report released during the Reagan administration. RISE will examine policy and practice from early childhood through post-secondary education and beyond.

RISE will operate in a hybrid capacity, convening a number of thought leaders, current and former administration officials and members of congress, state leaders, students, and educators both virtually on May 24 and in-person on May 25. You are invited to register for in-person attendance through this link. If you can't join us in person, please register through this virtual registration link.

Virtual field trips educate young people on the history and lessons of the Holocaust and genocide, as well as broader topics of social justice and civic engagement. Pre and post-visit activity aid educators in extending students’ learning and fostering meaningful learning experiences.

Group size: Limited only by your technology capacity

Times Offered: Asynchronous tours available at any time. Synchronous tours are available, based on docent availability. Synchronous tours require a three-week notice, for staffing purposes.

Tour Length: Virtual tours are approximately 45 minutes with an optional live Q&A with a docent for 15 minutes.

All field trips listed below support Common Core State Standards in English/Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Illinois Social Science Standards, and the C3 Framework for Social Studies.

• Stand Up, Speak Out: Grades 3-4
• Make a Difference: Grades 5-6
• Shanghai: Safe Haven During the Holocaust:Grades 6-12
• In Our Voices: Grades 7-12
• Take a Stand: Grades 7-12
• Children of the Holocaust: Grades 7-12
• Ghettoization During the Holocaust: Grades 7-12
• Nazi Propaganda: Fueling Hate & Genocde: Grades 7-12
• Spiritual Resistance: Grades 7-12
• Ghost Army: The Combat Con artists of WWI: Grades 6-12

Find out more on the ILMEC site.

Financial Assistance is available for qualifying schools through the Opportunity Scholarship program.

With its historic passage in April of 2021, the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (T.E.A.A.C.H.) Act amended Illinois School Code, ensuring every public elementary and high school student in Illinois learns about the contributions of Asian Americans to the economic, cultural, social, and political development of the United States.

The Illinois Civics Hub is partnering with Asian Americans Advancing Justice to offer FREE PD hours to K-12 educators looking to deepen their own understanding of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) history as well as classroom resources to support cross-cultural education for all students in Illinois aligned with the revised social science standards.

Educators can click the links below to choose from the following webinar opportunities:

• 4/11-  Teaching about the Asian American Experience: A Primer  for Elementary K-5 (Online)
• 4/19-  Teaching about the Asian American Experience: A Primer for Secondary 6-12 (Online)
• 4/24-  Teaching about the Asian American Experience: A Primer  for Elementary K-5 (Online)

Be sure to visit the Asian Americans Advancing Justice site for more resources to implement the T.E.A.A.C.H. Act.



The Illinois Civics Hub has partnered with the Lou Frey Institute at the University of Central Florida to provide educators the opportunity to earn their microcredentials in the proven practices of civic education embedded in the middle and high school civics course requirements in Illinois. Courses include:

• Current and Controversial Issue Discussions—Learn from academic experts Dr. Diana Hess & Dr. Paula McAvoy as you explore the purpose, role, and function of discussion strategies as pedagogical tools to equip young people to be engaged citizens. This course will enhance the practice of educators with strategies and resources to create a classroom climate in which there are equitable opportunities for ALL students to engage in dialogue about essential questions across the curriculum.

• Simulations of Democratic Processes—Learn from academic experts Dr. Walter Parker & Dr. Jane Lo as you explore how democratic processes and procedures occur as part of the regular functioning of government, in each of the three branches of government, and at each level of government. This course will guide you through the purpose, planning, and implementation of three simulations: town hall meetings, legislative hearings, and moot courts.

• Informed Action through Service Learning—Learn from academic experts Dr. Joseph Kahne and Jessica Marshall as you explore the purpose, role, and function of informed action through service learning as a pedagogical tool to equip young people with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be active members of their community. In this course, you will interact with strategies and tools you can use in your classroom to support student-centered informed action through service learning.

Registration information is available on the Guardians of Democracy homepage. Those who successfully complete the 5-week online course will earn a Bronze Certified Guardian of Democracy Educator badge via Badgr and the University of Central Florida Center for Distributive Learning.

Participants can earn 15 PD hours through the DuPage Regional Office of Education for an additional fee.

There are three strands of courses for each proven practice of civics education. Graduate credit is available through the University of St. Francis for completing all three courses. For more information, please visit the Guardians of Democracy homepage.



The Council for State Social Studies Supervisors has compiled a list of the wealth of professional development opportunities available to social studies educators in the summer of 2023. A special thanks to all of the organizations who contributed to this work and the many organizations offering high-quality social studies professional development for social studies teachers across the country. Many of the opportunities are offered for free or at a low cost. Please email Stefanie Wager at stefanie.rosenbergwager@gmail.com with any questions, comments, or to add programs to this list.