Join the Chicago History Museum (CHM) for a hands-on session that explores activism for social change. Discover how advocates changed the trajectory of the city through three key events: the 1963 Chicago Public Schools boycott, the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago, and the mayoral election of Harold Washington in 1983. Dr. Elizabeth Todd-Breland, author of A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago Since the 1960s (UNC Press, 2018), will join us to share her insights on the topic.

Build your content knowledge through CHM’s photographs, documents, and online exhibitions and leave with strategies and resources for your classroom instruction. Recommended for middle and high school teachers. Session includes a 1-hour lunch break. 

WHEN: Thursday, July 27, 9:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

WHERE: Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60614

COST: FREE; earn 5 PD hours

REGISTER TODAY

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:

Teaching About the Asian American Experience: A Primer for Grades K-5

• August 10 from 9:00-11:00 a.m.(online)
• September 26 from 4:30-6:30 p.m.(online)
• October 16 from 4:30-6:30 p.m.(online)
• November 4 from 9:00-11:00 a.m.(online)
• December 4 from 4:30-6:30 p.m.(online)

Teaching About the Asian American Experience: A Primer for Grades 6-12

• July 19 from 10 a.m. to noon- Chicago History Museum (Chicago)
• September 27 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. (online)
• October 22 from 9 to 11:00 a.m. (online)
• November 14 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. (online)

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

Join K-12 educators throughout the state of Illinois as we explore how to prepare our youngest citizens for civic life across the disciplines K-12. 

Learn from leading civic education providers including:

• Amercian Bar Association
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice
• CivXNow
• Civic Education Research Group
• Chicago History Museum
• Constitutional Democracy Project
• Facing History and Ourselves
• Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
• Mikva Challenge
• Retro Report

Explore how ALL teachers are civics teachers across disciplines, with breakout sessions that include:

• Investigating Social Justice Issues in the Math Classroom with the Democracy Schools Network
• How to Create a School-Community Partnership with a Speaker Series featuring Glenbard Parent Series
• Embracing SEL Across the Curriculum with the DuPage ROE and Area 1 SEL Hub
• Media Literacy 101: Navigating the Digital Age with the Learning Technology Center of Illinois
• Learning to Teach with AI—One Small Bite at a Time with Shawn McCusker
• Water Quality: A STEM and Society Issue presented by the DuPage Regional Office of Education STEM Squad

The full-day convening will be held on Thursday, September 28 from 8am–2:30 pm at the DoubleTree Inn and Conference Center located at 3003 Corporate W Dr, Lisle, IL 60532.

Registration includes a light breakfast and box lunch.

Active members of the Illinois Democracy Schools Network and their K-8 feeder schools can register for FREE. Contact Sue Khalaieff at skhalaieff@gmail.com for more information or use links provided in the June DSN newsletter. This is open to ALL educators ACROSS disciplines.

Non-DSN members can register HERE!

Thousands of high school students walked out of classes in East Los Angeles in 1968 to protest inequality for Mexican Americans in the public education system. Among the students' concerns were classes that omitted Hispanic history, a lack of bilingual teachers, and a system that steered Chicano students to vocational training rather than college-prep classes. 

After school administrators ignored students’ demands for improvements, the students planned a series of walkouts in protest. As many as 15,000 people joined in, including students from other high schools, teachers, parents, and community activists. The protest, one of the largest by students in U.S. history, set the stage for a Chicano movement seeking a broad array of civil rights reforms for Latinos.

This 11-minute video is accompanied by a lesson and activity suitable for E.L.A. and social studies classes. They analyze civil rights issues and the impact of civil disobedience. The student activity culminates in the writing of a structured essay.

Explore Resources

Which Justice was Quaker? How many Lutherans have served on the Court? How many justices were from Georgia at the time of their appointments? How many from New Jersey? How many justices were affiliated with the Whig Party at the time of appointment? How many were Federalists? Which justices had no prior judicial experience? Which served the longest as judges on state or federal courts prior to appointment? The answers to these questions can easily be found in a series of tables that encapsulate information about the justices at the time of their appointment to the Supreme Court.

Richard A. Glenn, Chair and Professor of Government, Policy, and Law at Millersville University, has updated the tables for use in teaching federal judicial selection in his courses. The tables are now available for use on The Supreme Court Historical Society website.

• Appointments of the Justices
• Backgrounds of the Justices



Street Law has added 28 activities to supplement their core Rule of Law for All curriculum. They are appropriate for use in middle and high school classrooms.

The extensions range from 20-75 minutes and fall into four categories: Foundational documents, U.S. history, and current events..

The new extension activities and the core Rule of Law for All curriculum can be accessed for free in Street Law’s Resource Library.

Get the Extensions

This workshop is designed to showcase a collection of LGBTQ-inclusive lessons created by teachers that meet the requirements of the Illinois Inclusive Curriculum law. The workshop will provide practical strategies for implementing LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum in middle and high school classrooms. Discussions will focus on how best to incorporate this content into what is already being taught.

This workshop is FREE. Lessons will be provided to participants. Lunch is included.

WHEN: Friday, August 4, 2023 9:00 am- 2:00 pm

WHERE: Conviser Law Center - Chicago-Kent College of Law, 565 W. Adams Street, Chicago, IL 60661

QUESTIONS: contact Dee Runaas at drunaas@kentlaw.iit.edu

REGISTER HERE

CERG and CIRCLE are hosting a public webinar series this summer to inform and prepare K-12 educators to engage in nonpartisan teaching about voting and elections. The series will also equip educators to understand their role in ensuring all young people are ready to participate in our democracy.

There are two webinars remaining in the series:

• July 18th: Dynamics That Constrain Equitable Voting
• July 25th: Dynamics That Constrain Informed Voting

Webinars will be held virtually over Zoom at 7pm ET / 4pm PT. 

Click here to learn more.

"Warning signs for the health of the American democracy abound. These challenges have multiple manifestations and multiple roots, but media and the Internet, more broadly, are implicated in prominent ways. Schools, the institutions charged with educating current and future generations, have a role to play in supporting the preparation of an informed citizenry."

Click here to read the article written by Daniela DiGiacomo, Erica Hodgin, Joseph Kahne, Samia Alkam, and Caitlin Taylor in the Journal of Children and Media.

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.

• NEW: Constitutional Democracy as Content and Practice—Learn from academic experts Dr. Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, Dr. Shawn P. Healy, and Dr. Bonnie Laughlin Schultz as you explore how the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap can help teach constitutional democracy as both content and practice across disciplines K-12.

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.