Kellie Melancon

EDU 551
September Assignment
Teaching Democracy and Participatory Citizenship
There is more to teaching than just teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. Teaching
reading, writing, and arithmetic alone will not prepare our students to be contributing members
of our democratic nation. The NCSS task force suggests that the traditional skills of reading,
writing, and computing are necessary but not sufficient for young citizens to participate or even
survive in a world demanding the kinds of independent and Cooperative problem-solving
required to deal with complex social concerns(Dynamic Social Studies: The Subject you Will
Teach, Pg.17). There are three components that have been identified to help students accomplish
what subjects such as reading, writing, and arithmetic cannot do. The first component is
knowledge. Students learn about the world of the past and the world of the future. This will give
them a better understanding of the institutions within the society and learn about roles within
groups. The second component is skills. The skills that are primary to social studies are those
related to maps and globes, such as understanding and using location all and directional items.
The third component is values and beliefs. In early elementary educators should first start with
teaching values and beliefs: Values and beliefs focuses on: justice, individual rights, truth, the
common good equality of opportunity, and diversity), especially in terms of the smaller social
entities of the family classroom and community (Dynamic Social Studies: The Subject you Will
Teach, Pg.17). Values and beliefs should be taught first in early elementary because they are the
foundation of our democratic values and it will teach our students how to be good citizens.
To lay down the foundation of values and beliefs it is important to foster a classroom a
classroom community; where everyone feels accepted and is individually encouraged. If students
are in an environment where they feel unwelcome or unwanted they will intern feel unmotivated

to participate in academics tasks like reading, writing, and arithmetic. Each individual student
needs to feel validated and feel like they are an important part of our classroom community. I
will always express the notion: We are a community of people here to learn together, and to help
and support one another. Teaching young children is a huge honor and responsibility. The lessons
that children learn today and the role models that they have in their lives will shape who they
become as adults. As a teacher and role model to children I will always be pragmatic of how my
teaching will impact and shape my students.
It is critical for students to be personably responsible citizens. Students need to
understand how their actions can positively or negatively impact their classroom community. In
early elementary students are learning to cooperate and share with peers, to take part in group
activities and talks, and to take responsibility for their own actions and for their own learning
(Education World, 2004) . Students need to understand that they each can personally can make a
difference everyday in their classroom community. Teachers can assign different jobs in the
classroom for students to do such as: sharpening pencils. If the student does not do his or her job
their peers will not have sharpened pencils. He or she will learn that they were not responsible
and the effect that their actions had on their peers. This will invoke the idea of responsibility and
how we all need to work together and do what is expected of us so our classroom can function
smoothly. (Citizenship and Elementary Education, 2015) Another way in which a teacher could
foster responsible citizenship is creating discussions or writing prompts on responsibility. For
example, a prompt could be: You borrow a great book from your classroom. By accident, you
spill chocolate milk on the book. You take the book out of your book bag as soon as you get to
your classroom. The teacher is busy. You could just take the book back to the shelf and leave it
there. What should you do? Why? (Education World, 2004). This will prompt the students to

ask themselves: What should a responsible citizen do? Also, encourage students to participate in
community service projects such as recycling, picking up litter, and volunteering is another way
teachers can foster responsible citizenship. Finally, it is important that students learn how to
treat others the way you would want to be treated. Have conversations and role play how their
actions can negatively or positively impact a person. Make sure the role playing is between two
adults rather than two students. Then, you can ask the students what they might have done
differently in a situation. The goal of fostering responsible citizens and a classroom community
is to build character and personal responsibility by emphasizing honesty, kindness, integrity, selfdiscipline, and hard work.
It is imperative that teachers create a curriculum that encourages the knowledge, skills,
attitudes necessary for students to make informed decisions not only for their school but also for
the nation. Educators need to go beyond having students memorize the important dates of battles
and the names of famous war generals; and instead have students understand the significance of
why they are learning these events. Students need to understand the importance of why they are
learning these events and how these lessons will help them in the future. Knowledge does not
refer to the predetermined collection of facts for students to memorize but to the understanding
that students construct by connecting new learning to previous experience in and out of
school(Dynamic Social Studies: The subject you Will Teach, Pg.18). Teaching with the World
Peace Game, by John Hunter allows students to have a hands on learning experiences. Through
this game students learn to collaborate and communicate with each other to resolve conflicts in
the game. Students will learn how compromise while accommodating for different perspectives
and interests. Most importantly, students will discover that they share deep and everlasting
interest in taking care of each other. I envision creating activities in my classroom that goes

beyond the minutiae of fact memorizing and actually allows students to have authentic hands on
learning experiences. Activities that allow my students to collaborate, problem solve, and build a
caring community for one another. I also envision fostering a literacy curriculum that is
committed to social justice and understanding literacy as a sociocultural practice. Incorporating
social texts will allow students to learn fundamental morals that they then can apply in their own
lives. Over all, the texts and novels that I expose my students to will be engaging, will have
prior knowledge of, and will relevant to their lives. When making curricular decisions,
consider, value, and build on the diverse prior learning experiences of your students(Creating
Classrooms for Social Justice, 2014). I will provide diverse activities such as: Save the Last
Word For Me, Four Corners, and book talks. These activities will open our students lens to a
world that is a more culturally and accepting place to live.
Teaching democracy and participatory citizenship is imperative to equip our students with
the necessary skills, knowledge, values, and beliefs they will need to be a contributing member
not only in our community but our nation. In order to foster democracy and participatory
citizenship it is imperative that your classroom has a classroom community. I believe that
children learn best when they feel part of a community, where everyone feels accepted and is
individuality is encouraged. When a classroom functions as a community, children can feel safe
and accepted and make positive connections with others. The opportunity to participate as a
contributing member of a community helps children to become successful learners, problem
solvers, and decision makers. As educators it is crucial that our classrooms promote opportunities
and structures by which students can help and support one another. It is very important for
students to get to know each other and see each other as individual people. Students can learn to
respect and appreciate differences and commonalities with their peers. This adds a great deal to

the feeling that we are a family of people here to learn together. Helping students to develop
respect for themselves, others, and their environment occurs through an open sharing of ideas
and a reasonable approach to discipline where students realize how their actions can positively or
negatively affect others. I believe that to be a teacher of young students is a privilege, an honor,
and a huge responsibility. The lessons that children learn today and the role models that they
have in their lives will shape who they become as adults. I view teaching as an exciting
challenge, filled with possibilities and opportunities to make a difference in the lives of our
future American citizens.
Annotated Bibliography
(2004). Education World: Teaching Good Citizenship's Five Themes. Retrieved September 11,
2016, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr008.shtml.
This source focused on themes of citizenship. I liked this source particularly because it
has different tabs you could click for certain grade levels. I am in a Kindergarten
placement so I liked this website because it had specific resources that I could use to
foster citizenship in kindergarten. From this website I learned the importance of students
learning to be responsible citizens and how their actions can positively or negatively
impact others. I also found great activities for fostering citizenship such as the What
Could Happen Next? activity. (I mentioned this activity in my paper) Another activity I
liked which I did not mention in my paper was an activity where students would share
experiences that they had that pertained to the five classroom rules. The five classroom
rules are: tell the truth, be caring, respect others, be brave enough to do the right thing
and to ask for help when you need it, and be responsible for what you do and say. For
example, a teacher could say: tell a story about a time you told the truth, even though
that was a difficult thing to do. There were many great activities in this articles to foster
citizenship. From this article my big take away was the idea that students need to
understand what it means to be a personally responsible citizen. If they do not follow the
rules or complete their classroom jobs their actions will affect the flow of our classroom.
(2015). Citizenship and Elementary Education- how do you teach that? | iCivics. Retrieved
September 11, 2016, from https://www.icivics.org/news/citizenship-and-elementary-educationhow-do-you-teach.
This source has many great ways for teachers to integrate citizenship into their
curriculum. I found that this website geared more for upper elementary but it did reaffirm
the importance of creating a classroom community and the idea of responsible citizenship
within a classroom community. From this website I found the idea of creating classroom
jobs within your classroom. By creating classroom jobs students will learn how they can

positively or negatively impact their peers. If Shelly does not do her pencil sharpening
job then the whole class will not have sharpened pencils. This will invoke the idea of
responsibility and how we all need to work together and do what is expected of us so our
classroom can function smoothly. I also loved the idea of having a classroom constitution
where students set up roles that the class needs to abide by and then the students would
sign it. I wish the website would have explained more on how teachers could implement a
class constitution with Kindergarteners. I think creating a constitution would have to
happen later in the year because kindergarteners are just learning what school is all about
and how to do trivial things such as: asking to go to the bathroom or raising their hand in
the first couple months of school. Overall this source was great I was able to see the
importance of creating jobs in your classroom community so students can understand the
importance of being a responsible citizen.
Dynamic Social Studies: The subject you Will Teach 8th Edition by George Maxium
This source is where my frame work of my philosophy really began. I learned students
need more than reading, writing, and arithmetic to prepare them for life. Students need to be
exposed to social studies to fulfill what other subjects cannot do. Social studies has three main
components. Which are: knowledge, skills, values and beliefs. From this source I found that it
was important in early elementary to first focus on values and beliefs and then from there build
on knowledge and skills. In my kindergarten placement it is especially important to start off with
values and belief because for many of the students this is their first time ever stepping into
school or even interacting with a big group of peers. So, students need to be taught what good
citizenship means and looks like. I also learned the importance of incorporating hands on
activities instead of students memorizing facts. After all what does memorizing the dates of the
battles really teach our students about life.
(2014). John Hunter: Teaching with the World Peace Game | TED Talk ... Retrieved September
11, 2016, from https://www.ted.com/talks/john_hunter_on_the_world_peace_game/transcript.
This source allowed me to see what a powerful tool hands on learning can be. John
Hunter creates an interactive game where students learn to collaborate and communicate
with each other to resolve conflicts in the game. Students learn how compromise while
accommodating for different perspectives and interests. This Ted Talk video showed me
the importance of students having real hands on learning take place. Students who have
more intrinsic motivation will learn more because they be invested in what they are
learning about.
(2014). Creating Classrooms for Social Justice | Edutopia. Retrieved September 11, 2016, from
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/creating-classrooms-for-social-justice-tabitha-dellangelo.
This source was a great resource on how to incorporate social justice into your classroom.
From this resource I found that it is imperative that educators build off of prior learning
experiences. This article, again, reinforced the importance of creating a classroom

community within your classroom. Also, the notion that when we are at school we are a
classroom family and we need to trust, care, and support each other everyday. This source
validated my thoughts on classroom community as well as the importance of building off
of prior knowledge when teaching social justice.