Community & Civic Engagement – Democracy in Action

Teaching social studies for democratic citizenship requires that we, as teachers, learn to facilitate
and coordinate our students learning about democracy by experiencing it. This semester while
we are learning about how to plan for and teach social studies lessons that include opportunities
for students to experience democracy in action, we’ll be required to participate in at least 1
service-learning opportunity.

The overarching goal of this assignment is for you in groups to experience democracy in action
and connect what you experience as volunteers with a local community partner of WSU and the
College of Education. Additionally, the goal here is that you will be able to experience some of
the everyday ways that core democratic values are enacted in the local community as you
design K-8 social studies curriculum for eco-democratic citizenship. In class, we will be
discussing the importance of fostering and developing relationships with long-term community
partners when you are teaching. A good social studies curriculum extends the learning to places
in the local community. This can sometimes be a challenge for beginning teachers so it’s
important, and okay, to start small which can begin with a day of service for your students and if
done well can grow into a long lasting and rich social studies curriculum.

We have learned about “Core Democratic Values” and in class discussed and co-constructed
working definitions of an “Eco-Democratic Citizen.” In this assignment, you will simply
participate as a volunteer with an arranged community partner. You will be required to complete
the “Democracy In Action” Curriculum Planning Worksheet.

Points Portfolio Component Due Date

___/ 100 Participate as Volunteer with a Community Partner

___/ 100 “Democracy In Action” Curriculum Planning Worksheet.

Total Score: ______/200

Core Principles of Eco-Democratic Citizenship & Decision-Making

1.) The right to equal participation in decision-making

2.) The responsibility to participate fully in the decision-making process
3.) The need to consider the well-being of the whole community as the bottom-line criterion
for the decision.

In Other words:

1.) Everyone has a voice and every voice is valued

2.) Everyone has the right to and obligation to participate in making decisions
3.) All decisions are made in the interest of the common-good.

Further guiding principles for Eco-Democracy

1. All species, people and cultures have intrinsic worth

2. The Earth community is a democracy of all life
3. Diversity in nature and culture must be valued and defended
4. All beings have a natural right to sustenance
5. Eco-democracy is based on socially just and sustainable economies—economic
democracy
6. Economic democracies are built on local economies
7. Eco-democratic citizenship values global peace, care, and compassion.

U.S. Core Democratic Values (National Council for the Social Studies - NCSS)

Life
Liberty
The Pursuit of Happiness
Common Good
Justice
Equality
Diversity
Truth
Popular Sovereignty
Patriotism

Additional Resources:

NCSS C3 Framework
OSPI Social Studies Standards
State of Washington Civic Engagement
 “Democracy in Action” Curriculum Planning Worksheet.

Name: Rebecca Leedham___________ Grade Level of Student Teaching: __3rd______

Community Partner (CP): ___Rotary Club of Silverdale___________________________

1.) Briefly (500-800 words) describe your service learning experience and the community
partner organization.

My community partner is the Rotary Club of Silverdale. This club devotes time throughout the
year to raise money through the community by hosting different events. With the money that
they raise each year, they build up the community through supporting businesses, students,
events, and many other parts of the community. Rotary has given back to the community in
many different ways that I have been able to personally witness. They have even given to me
personally as a student when I received a $500 scholarship from them my senior year of high
school. They continuously support the local YMCA, which further supports the community
through free classes and support for every type of person.
I have volunteered with the Rotary Club of Silverdale many times in the past 6 years, and this
year I was a volunteer for the annual Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot for the third year in a row. I
told my friend Julivete about this opportunity On Thanksgiving morning, I arrived at 7am to
assist in set up for the race. The race is held at the Kitsap mall in Silverdale, Washington. Inside
the mall, there are tables set up with a few informational venders such as a local financial
organization and a local health organization. I assisted with set up and clean-up of these vendors.
After setting up, I was stationed along the route of the race. I stayed at this station directing and
cheering on the runners for the entirety of the kids race, the 1K, and the 5K. When the race was
over, I assisted in walking around picking up cones. Following this, I cleaned the inside of the
mall by wiping tables, putting back chairs and tables, taking out trash and recycling, sweeping,
and assisting in vendor clean up. The Rotary Club of Silverdale put on, once again, a successful
event to bring people together on Thanksgiving morning while raising money to later support the
community.

2.) Reflecting on your service experience, Which three Core Democratic Values would you say
were most strongly being enacted in the community?

 Life  Liberty
 The Pursuit of Happiness  Common Good
 Justice  Equality
 Diversity  Truth
 Popular Sovereignty  Patriotism

3.) Rank the three values you selected from most to least.

1. _Common Good___________ (Most Evident)

2. ____Patriotism____________
3. ______Liberty_____________
 4.) Briefly (800-1200 words) Describe how one of these values relates to and works to
reinforce Eco-Democratic citizenship.

The core democratic value, Common Good, highly reinforces Eco-Democratic citizenship. This
value expresses the right to work together for the good of everyone and the creation of laws that
are in favor of everyone. Within my service with the Rotary Club of Silverdale, I volunteered my
time for the benefit of the people that were participating in the event and for the members of the
Rotary club. However, this common good will soon go further into the community as the Rotary
Club will eventually use the money that they raised for individuals and groups that they decide
are most in need throughout the community. This event was just one example of common people
of the community coming together for different reasons, whether it was participation or
volunteer, for the overall common good of the community and each of its members.
One of the core ideas of Eco-Democratic citizenship is that the benefit of all individuals are
taken into consideration when decisions are made. The Rotary Club of Silverdale is made up of
leaders within the community. These leaders are in charge of businesses, they work in the
education field and represent our schools, they run nonprofit organizations, and much more.
There are so many different voices represented in this club and therefore, it allows for a greater
benefit for the well-being of the entire community. The common good that Rotary provides
through their events highly supports Eco-Democratic citizenship through giving each of their
members a valued voice to make the best decisions to best benefit the community. Everyone has
an equal right to hold the responsibility to participate and make decisions and the common good
represented in Rotary represents this.

For the following tasks you will need to choose a grade-level to focus on (this will likely be your
student teaching placement) and review the OSPI Social Studies K-12 Learning Standards Unit
Outlines for that grade-level.

5.) What is your focus grade-level?

3rd grade

6.) Briefly (800-1200 words) describe how you might design a service learning experience like
the one you had as part of the grade-level social studies curriculum in the K-8 classroom.

One of the third grade social studies focus areas is cultures in our community. In this focus area,
students will learn about what a culture is and the importance of having different cultures. They
will compare cultures and see what they can learn about themselves and those around them
through their cultures. Teaching this curriculum, I would want students to understand how
supporting everyone and their cultures equally starts with getting to know other people. Each
community is made up of many different cultures and this is a big part of why the community is
the way that it is. The cultures in a community can affect the education system, food options,
housing options, economy, transportation and much more. Once students can understand how the
cultures within their community affect almost everything that they do, they will learn the
importance of getting to know everyone’s cultures and respecting them for their differences.
Geography: 3.2.2 Understands the cultural universals of place, time, family life, economics,
communication, arts, recreation, food, clothing, shelter, transportation, government, and
education.
Civics: 1.1.2 Understands and applies the key ideals of unity and diversity within the context of
the community.

Guiding my students into understanding their community and why it has shaped into what it is
today because of the cultures that take part in it, I would have them take action in the community
to experience the community first hand. With my experience volunteering at the Turkey Trot and
within my other experiences working with the Rotary Club of Silverdale, I have gotten to know
the community and its members better than through any other way. Rotary supports the
community as a whole and as individuals and this allows for every culture to appear at the events
that Rotary hosts. I would want my students to take part in a service experience that involves the
students communicating with individuals in the community who are likely different from
themselves.
There are many ways that students can serve people of the community while getting to know
them, but I think one of the best ways for students to get to know and reach out to others it to
work with kids that are their own age and they can therefore better understand and relate to.
After studying cultures and understanding that everyone comes from a different background,
students will understand that these differences are something to celebrate. I think that reaching
out to children who are in need could be a really effective way to get students involved in the
community. I would get in contact with the children’s hospital and have my students write the
local children there get well soon letters. We would also do a stuffed animal drive for the whole
school sending home letters to all families explaining what our third grade class is doing and
why. With the stuffed animals that are donated and the letters that my students wrote, we would
have them delivered to the children in the hospital.

7.) Drawing from your description of how you would design social studies curriculum connected
with the identified community partner and an experience for your students similar to the one you
had, which of the disciplinary tools and concepts apply?

Civics:
 Civic and Political Institutions
 Participation and Deliberation: Applying Civic Virtues and Democratic Principles
 Processes, Rules, and Laws

Economics
 Economic Decision Making
 Exchange and Markets
 The National Economy
 The Global Economy

Geography
 Geographic Representations: Spatial Views of the World
  Human-Environment Interaction: Place, Regions, and Culture
 Human Population: Spatial Patterns and Movements
 Global Interconnections: Changing Spatial Patterns

History
 Change, Continuity, and Context
 Perspectives
 Historical Sources and Evidence
 Causation and Argumentation

8.) Choose 3 of the Disciplinary Tools and Concepts that would be important to the lesson(s) you
are envisioning as connected to a service learning experience similar to the one you had.

1. Civics: Participation and Deliberation: Applying Civic Virtues and Democratic Principles
2. Geography: Human-Environment Interaction: Place, Regions, and Culture
3. History: Perspectives

9.) Briefly (800-1200 words) describe how the lesson(s) you are envisioning connect students’
learning about democracy in action with their development toward an Eco-democratic
citizenship?

Having the students take part in reaching out to members of the community allows them to see
that they have a voice that can be shared with others. Although writing letters is a small step,
they are communicating with people that they don’t know and that are very different from them.
This is a first step in helping them develop their voice and realize that it can be shared with the
community and they can make a difference in the lives of others. As a democracy, we all have a
shared right to use our voices to make a difference. Having students realize this while they are
young allows them to understand the power that their voice will have as they continue to grow
up in their community.
A big part of Eco-Democratic citizenship is making decisions and understanding your right to
make decisions for the betterment of the common good. Writing these letters and sending them
with stuffed animals to children in the hospital exemplifies how students can use their voice for
the common good. They would be making decisions on what to say to make someone feel better.
They would understand that this child is likely very different from them. Now knowing the
child’s culture or situation, they will have to make their own decisions on how to write to another
child with an open mind and soft heart.

10.) Lastly, use this worksheet and the descriptions you wrote to sketch out a lesson, or lesson(s),
using the attached lesson plan template.

Lesson Title: We all have different voices

Lesson Topic: Cultures within our community

Subject Area(s): Social Studies: Civics and Geography

Community Partner(s): The Children’s Hospital

Standards (NCSS C3 Disciplinary Concepts, OPSI GLEs):

Third Grade Social Studies Standards: Cultures in our Community

Geography: 3.2.2 Understands the cultural universals of place, time, family life, economics,
communication, arts, recreation, food, clothing, shelter, transportation, government, and
education.
Civics: 1.1.2 Understands and applies the key ideals of unity and diversity within the context of
the community.

Objectives/Big Ideas
Students/community members will…
Know/Understand:
- How to write a letter.
- How to communicate with people different from themselves.
- The importance of being a part of a community.

Be Able to Do:
What skills and habits of mind will this lesson help develop?

SWBAT understand how cultures vary and the importance of having different cultures within a
community.
SWBAT communicate with an open mind to someone they have never met.
SWBAT understand their right to use their voice to communicate within their community.

Core Democratic Values(s) in lesson:

How are you connecting the lesson to Core Democratic Values?

 Life  Diversity  Patriotism

 Liberty  Popular Sovereignty  Truth
 The Pursuit of Happiness  Common Good
 Justice  Equality

Eco-Citizenship Focus Area(s):

 Animal Habitat
 Arts
 Food Security/Sovereignty
 Land
 Water
 Other(s)
Essential Question

How can we use our voice to participate in the decisions that our community makes?

Sub-essential Questions

Who is a part of our community/what cultures do we see present in the people around us?
How do the cultures within our community play a part in the way society around us is run?
How can we use our voice to make a difference?

Materials Needed:

Paper and markers for students to write letters to the kids

Names of the kids in the hospital

Activities/Procedures:

Introduction/Discussion: I would begin the lesson by asking students about their culture and to
share something about their culture in a discussion. We would then continue to talk about how
important it is that we all have different cultures. I would bring the conversation into how the
people around us and their cultures shape the things around us such as jobs, food stores, housing,
and so much more. I would have the students brainstorm the different things that they think are
affected by the cultures within the community and write them up on the board to show
everything that is really driven by the people around us.

Service Project: Once the students understand how we are all different and how our differences
make up our community, I will introduce our service project.
- Explain how many kids are in the children’s hospital for a long time
- Converse: How can we use our voice to make them feel better?
- Introduce the stuffed animal drive and have students deliver the letters to the classrooms
for teachers to give for each of the students to take home
- Have students write letters to the kids on the list with positive words of encouragement to
make them smile.
- Collect the stuffed animals and the letters and have them delivered to the children in the
hospital.

Reflection: After the students have completed their service project, they will be assigned a short
reflection paper. In this paper, they will explain what they did and why they think this made a
difference. They will explain how they used what they knew about everyone coming from a
different culture when writing to a child that they didn’t know and how they used their voice to
make a difference in the community.

Assessment/Evaluation
How will I know what students have learned?

The students will submit their reflection papers and I will go over them to see if they understood
the importance of Eco-Democratic citizenship and how using their voice can actually make a
difference. I will also be able to tell how they felt about doing this service project.

Support
What do I need to teach this lesson? What might students need to learn within the lesson?

Curriculum/Instructional Coaching:

Community Partner support:

Other Support: