Language and Civil Society Civic Education.
The work on Civic Education is to be used for teachers who wish to improve language and writing skills through reading topics about civic education. The primary author for this series is Dr. Fredricka Stotler. This volume includes an introduction and ten chapters. The chapter to be discussed here is chapter seven; Societal Dilemmas : Finding a Balance. The complexity of civil societies is studied in chapter seven. Of particular interest.
Is the struggle between the *"values, needs, and interests" of the individual with those of the greater society. The lesson contains several problems that exemplify those tensions. Some of the examples for discussion include: *"Individual beliefs verses majority rule"; "The appreciation for cultural variety verses the need for cultural unity"; and *"Power of the people verses power of the government". .
Included in this and the other chapters is a section on classroom applications. Every 50-minute lesson spotlights a problem found in society. In the lesson plans is a list of materials needed, activities for groups and vocabulary needs. There are warm up activities, cool down activities, and approximate times for each. Each chapter ends with useful websites with information about the lessons.
This is a very useful site because it contains societal topics that are germane to the world today. They are easily understood, and no special equipment is needed to implement these lessons. I particularly enjoy the Lesson Extensions. These ideas contain wonderful topics for essays, debates, and survey questions for students to ask family members in order to report back their findings. My students would enjoy reading about the topics and doing group presentations to the class. This would make classroom discussions more pertinent to real life.
