A free comprehensive course package for educators that provides entire unit plans to effectively deliver culturally-responsive and relevant Civics learning that emphasizes human rights, equity and diversity, and student voice.
Designed to meet the needs of educators who have extensive experience, some experience or no experience with teaching Civics, this is a ‘plug and play’ course outline and package with classroom-ready resources, activities, and assessment tools designed by Ontario educators.
All of the activities in the course package are aligned with the revised curriculum expectations and the frameworks referenced in the front matter, as well as Growing Success, and many relevant ministry documents and policies, like the Adolescent Literacy Guide, Learning for All, Literacy Alerts, and Ontario’s Education Equity Plan.
We want to take this opportunity to thank all of the volunteers and educators that have given their time to support Civics teachers in Ontario by creating or reviewing this course package.
Based on feedback we have revised many lessons and created NEW lessons.
Unit 1
Final Summative: Complete Step One
The Final Summative for this course focuses on Civic Action. There are three parts to the Final Summative. One part is completed in each unit, givings students an opportunity to gain valuable feedback throughout the process.
Lesson 1: Who am I and how can I contribute to the Common Good as a citizen of a community?
In this lesson, students will think about the idea of what it means to be a citizen in a community and how they can contribute to the common good after considering their own identity. Based on several sources they will generate a list of works used to describe Canada and come to a consensus on the top five most accurate to further develop their understanding of the Common Good.
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Lesson 2: Nation to Nation Relationships – What are the criteria for a good relationship?
NEW LESSON
Students will engage with complex and proper terminology in an effort to delve into what it means to be in ‘good’ relationship by exploring what treaties are and the Kaswentha/Two Row Wampum students will create criteria. In an activity they will explore how complex concepts connect using Hexagonal Thinking and then apply their new knowledge to a case study (in the extension activity).
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Lesson 3: Media Literacy – Why Verify?
Students will learn how information is created for a variety of purposes including news and social media. They will develop skills to evaluate their sources and ‘fact-check’ their information and assess their skills using game-based learning at the end. This lesson has been modified from the CIVIX Canada Ctrl+F program using the lesson, “Why Verify?”.
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Lesson 4: Concepts of Political Thinking
In this lesson, students will learn to investigate issues using the Concepts of Political Thinking, in particular “Political Significance” and “Political Perspectives.” They will use the political thinking concepts and annotate the text to understand complex political issues. Students will apply these skills on a mid-course assessment exploring a topic of choice.
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Lesson 5: How has Colonialism disrupted Indigenous Governance?
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In this lesson, students will explore how colonialism has disrupted Indigenous governance by exploring the history of Canada to set the context for colonialism in Canada. Students will engage in an investigation using a series of video clips to deepen their understanding of the impact of colonialism. They will complete an activity connecting key concepts. As an extension, students will explore Wet’suwet’en and the role of Band Councils and explore how some are resisting oppressive legislation. They will demonstrate their learning by adding to their Connecting Key Concepts task.
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Lesson 6: Do I feel reflected in how my community is governed?
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In this lesson, students will express their understanding of democratic values by completing a SEEI and applying their new understanding in a comparison of some Indigenous and Canadian values in democratic governance. They will explore the oldest, sustainable democracy in the world (the Haudenosaunee Confederacy) and make connections to the current Canadian system before rating which ways of governance best reflect their democratic values.
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Lesson 7: How do we take effective civic action in our communities?
(Start Course Culminating Task)
225 minutes (one 75-min period working together as a class, two 75-min work periods for the final course summative).
This lesson explores historic and contemporary examples of how people have taken action for change in their society. Specifically there is a whole-group focus on the Civil Rights movement in Ontario in the 20th century or an exploration of two case studies from Elections Canada. Students will also begin the first step of the Final Course Culminating Task.
Optionally, students will explore their own heroes of democracy who affected democratic change in their society.
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Unit 2
Final Summative: Complete Step Two
Lesson 1: How do we Balance Rights and Responsibilities?
In this lesson, students will learn how to identify different rights and their corresponding responsibilities in a democratic society.
Download Lesson Plan (PDF) / Google Doc
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Lesson 2: How are my views and values reflected in Canada’s political landscape?
In this lesson, In this lesson, students will learn about the political spectrum and the political parties. They will critically assess how various federal political parties reflect their values and beliefs.
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Lesson 3: How do we choose our representatives?
In this lesson students will explore how our electoral system works, alternatives to our system, and think critically about the best way to choose our representatives.
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Lesson 4: How is Government organized in Canada?
In this lesson, students will learn about governance in Canada including the three levels of government, what their responsibilities are, and about the different branches of government at the provincial and federal levels.
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Lesson 5: How can we include more voices in this democracy?
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In this lesson, students will determine if there is fair representation in our government and explore missing voices by engaging in an inquiry. They will explore the complexities and viewpoints of some Indigenous Peoples on voting and students will create a plausible solution for how to include more voices in Canada’s democracy.
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Lesson 6: Do government budgets reflect the values of your communities?
In this lesson, students will learn about sources of revenue for the government and critically examine how the government spends their budgets.
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Lesson 7: What are the complexities of making Laws?
In this lesson, students will learn about the legislative process (how laws are made) at various levels of government. They will also learn about the nature of municipal/local by-laws.
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Optional Lesson: Challenging Laws
Students will learn about the processes by which laws can be amended or repealed. Students will work in groups to investigate the Objectives and Results of the various laws and explore how those laws are subject to stability and change in a democratic society.
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Lesson 8: Active Citizenship – What makes activists politically significant?
In this lesson, students will work together to define active citizenship. They will then examine the work of Indigenous activists, determining political significance and sharing their findings.
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Unit 3
Final Summative – Create Your Action Plan
Lesson 1: International Human Rights – How are we connected globally? What are our responsibilities as global citizens?
In this lesson, students will review the role of the United Nations and Canada’s role in responding to human rights violations by examining its response to various refugee crises. Students will then learn about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and how it applies to the concept of the Universe of Obligation as a framework to understanding global citizenship.
Download Lesson Plan (PDF) / Google Doc
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Optional Lesson: UNDRIP Inquiry
In this lesson, students will learn about the political compass (or political spectrum), the political parties, and the electoral system and process. They will also have the opportunity to consider the notion of “voter apathy” and why one might not choose to engage in the electoral process, centring the voices of marginalized peoples.
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Lesson 2: Think Global, Act Local
In this lesson, students will learn about Civil Society organizations, including Non Governmental organizations, non-profit and service groups that contribute to the common good. Students will choose a registered, social service charity that is directly providing services or programming in your school’s local community and explain to their classmates how this organization contributes to the common good.
Download Lesson Plan (PDF) / Google Doc
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Lesson 3: Ontario Human Rights Code
In this lesson, students will be introduced to the Ontario Human Rights Code. This lesson is based on “Teaching Human Rights in Ontario” by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
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Optional Lesson: Global Sustainability
In this lesson, students will explore international issues relating to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They will learn about the SDGs as a model of setting objectives and measuring the results of a civic action plan that is directed towards the common good. In order to tie their learning to their unit summative and course summative projects, students will also practice making connections between the international, Canadian, and local contexts in which the SDGs can be applied.
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