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This article is a great tool for teachers to become more educated. The article discusses civic education. It talks about what civic education is, the components that make a good civic education, and the evidence to improve civic education.

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Americans also should realize that civic education is essential to sustain our constitutional democracy. The habits of the mind, as well as "habits of the heart," the dispositions that inform the democratic ethos, are not inherited.

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This websites offers information on citizenship rights and responsibilities. This is a good source for teachers to have knowledge on the rights and responsibilities of citizens. To be able to teach about good citizenship and rights and responsibilities, teachers should have a basic understanding of these concepts. This website lists examples of rights and responsibilities.

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This article discusses how to teach good citizenship based on five themes. The five themes are honesty, compassion, respect, responsibility, and courage. The

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Activities from the editors of Weekly Reader can help develop K-6 students' understanding of the five good citizenship themes---honesty, compassion, respect, responsibility, and courage.
Advocating the five themes of citizenship -- honesty, compassion, respect, responsibility, and courage -- is not enough. Exploring those themes, talking about them, and making connections between those themes and your students' lives are the keys to developing a true understanding of the concepts. The activities below, which will help develop those themes, a re divided by grade levels:
Activities for Students in Kindergarten and Grade 1 Activities for Students in Grades 2 and 3 Activities for Students in Grades 4, 5, and 6
But first, let's have a few words about each of the themes:

Honesty is the basic theme of good citizenship. A person must be honest with others, and with himself or herself, in order to be a good citizen.

Compassion is the emotion of caring for people and for other living things. Compassion gives a person an emotional bond with his or her world.

Respect is similar to compassion but different in some ways. An important aspect of respect is self-respect, whereas compassion is directed toward others. Respect is also directed toward inanimate things or ideas as well as toward people. For example, people should have respect for laws. Finally, respect includes the idea of esteem or admiration, whereas compassion is a feeling people can have for others they dont necessarily admire.

Out of honesty, compassion, and respect comes Responsibility, which includes both private, personal responsibility and public responsibility. Individuals and groups have responsibilities. Responsibility is about action, and it includes much of what people think of as good citizenship. You may wish to point out that one of the main responsibilities of students is to learn. They must educate themselves so that they can live up to their full potential.

Finally, the theme of Courage is important to good citizenship. Human beings are capable of moving beyond mere goodness toward greatness. Courage enables people to do the right thing even when its unpopular, difficult, or dangerous. Many people---including Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony, and Mohandas Gandhi---have had the courage to change the rules to achieve justice.

Activities for Exploring the Five Themes of Citizenship: Kindergarten and Grade 1

A large part of the learning experience in kindergarten and first grade is socialization. Children 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. For kindergarten and first graders, learning the five themes as distinct concepts is less important than beginning to recognize that good citizenship behavior is based on certain principles. Here are a few activities that might help promote that recognition among your students.

Classroom Rules (Use as a discussion starter and a writing/drawing prompt.)
Start a discussion about the rules that should be followed in your classroom. Write each rule as it is discussed on the board or a chart. Talk about why each rule is important. If students don't suggest anything like the following rules, which relate to the five themes, you can add them:

Tell the truth.

Be caring.

Respect others.

Be responsible for what you do and say.

Be brave enough to do the right thing and to ask for help when you need it.

Sharing Stories (Use as a discussion starter.)
One way of exploring the five themes is simply to ask students to tell about their experiences. You may wish to use the following prompts:

Tell a story about a time you told the truth, even though that was a difficult thing to do.

Tell a story about a time you felt happy or sad for somebody or something.

Tell a story about someone you respect.

Tell a story about a time you took responsibility for something you had done or said.

Tell a story about being brave.

What Could Happen Next? (Use as a prompt for discussion, drawing, or writing.)
Ask students to discuss, draw, or write in response to the following questions:

You find money on the playground. What could happen next?

Everybody is in a hurry. A kid near you trips and falls down. What could happen next?

Your teacher asks the class to be quiet after somebody said something really funny. What could happen next?

You borrowed a pencil from the teacher's desk and lost it. What could happen next?

You think somebody is being cruel by making fun of a kid on the playground. What could happen next?

Activities for Exploring the Five Themes of Citizenship: Grades 2 and 3

In general, second- and third-graders have a pretty firm grasp on what does and what does not constitute good behavior. They should recognize the rights of others, know that they should work and play by the rules, and make decisions concerning right and wrong with increasing independence.

The following activities may help students further refine their thinking about good behavior by exploring the five themes of citizenship in realistic situations.

The Homework Truth (Use as a discussion starter or a role-playing activity.)
For last night's homework, you were supposed to read a story and be ready to tell it to the class today in your own words. You didn't read a story last night because you were having too much fun playing video games. You figured you could remember an old story. When your teacher calls on you, you are suddenly nervous and can't remember any stories at all. What should you do?

Call for Compassion (Use as a writing prompt or a discussion starter.)
A teenage neighbor is responsible for you while your parents go to a movie. Your neighbor wears a hearing aid because he is partially deaf. Tonight, he tells you his hearing aid isn't working very well. The telephone rings, but your neighbor doesn't hear it, so it goes to your parents' voicemail. When your neighbor isn't watching, you play the message back. The message is from your parents. They had forgotten to tell your neighbor your bedtime. You realize you can get away with staying up later. When your parents find out, they'll blame your neighbor for not getting the message. What thoughts go through your head? What do you do?

Respect (Use as a discussion starter or a role-playing activity.)
You're at a school picnic and there's a long line for buying cold drinks. You're really thirsty. You see a friend of yours way ahead of you in line. Should you ask your friend if you can cut in line? How is the idea of respect for others connected to this situation? How do others in line feel when somebody cuts in line?

Responsibility---Whose Is It? (Use as a discussion starter or a writing prompt.)
You borrow a great book from your classroom. It's a lot of fun to read. By accident, you spill chocolate milk on the book. It's a mess. 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?

Brave on the Ball Field (Use as a discussion starter or a writing prompt.)
You are in a dodgeball game. One kid is throwing the ball too hard. A couple of kids have already quit the game, but most don't want to because they think quitting would make them seem weak. What do you do? If you say something, what do you say and to whom do you say it? (Note that sometimes a person needs to be brave enough to walk away from a bad situation.)

Activities for Exploring the Five Themes of Citizenship: Grades 4, 5, and 6

In general, fourth through sixth-graders have a pretty good understanding of the concepts of honesty, compassion, respect, responsibility, and courage. Whether they behave honestly, compassionately, and so on is another matter, but that's true for people of all ages: Everyone finds it challenging, from time to time, to live up to those high ideals.

One key reason for this is that citizenship ideals sometimes conflict with one another or with other values. With young people, peer pressure -- the desire to make and keep friends at almost any cost -- often competes with other ideals. Following are some activities that can help students explore some of the problems in living up to the five themes of citizenship.

Truth in Friendship (Use as a writing prompt, a discussion starter, or a role-playing activity.)
Imagine that a friend is going to do a comedy act in a talent contest. He tells you the jokes from the act. The jokes are awful. Do your tell him? If so, how do you say it?

Test Your Compassion (Use as a writing prompt or a role-playing activity.)
You find out that a friend had no time to study for a test because she had to help around the house when her mother was sick. So your friend cheats on the test. What do you say to her? What do you do? Do you tell the teacher? (Discuss after writing or role-playing.)

Respect (Use as a writing prompt or a role-playing activity.)
Imagine that you live near an elderly couple. Two or three of your friends are visiting you and they see the two old people. Your friends start making fun of the elderly people behind their backs. What, if anything, do you say to your friends? What might happen if your neighbors overhear what is going on? (Discuss after writing or role-playing.)

Fulfilling Small Responsibilities (Use as a writing prompt or a discussion starter.)
Lots of little things make up good behavior, such as not littering, keeping quiet when people need to concentrate, and returning library books on time. Make a list of small responsibilities. (That part of the activity might be done in small, cooperative groups.) Then try to think of a situation in which you fulfilled one of the small responsibilities. Think of another situation in which you did not fulfill a small responsibility. Are the "little" things really that important? Why or why not?

It Takes Guts (Use as a writing prompt.)
Imagine you're playing basketball with a friend. Some kids come up and take your friend's basketball. Create more specific details about this kind of situation, and then describe what you would do. (Discuss and role-play based on the additional circumstances students describe in their writing. Note that sometimes a person needs courage to walk away from a situation.)

Article by Gary Hopkins
Education World® Editor in Chief
Copyright © 2017 Education World

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Activities from the editors of Weekly Reader can help develop K-6 students' understanding of the five good citizenship themes---honesty, compassion, respect, responsibility, and courage. Advocating the five themes of citizenship -- honesty, compassion, respect, responsibility, and courage -- is not enough.

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This is a lesson on what a good citizen is. Students will understand why we have rules and need to follow them. Students will work in groups to think of different scenarios that display good citizen and bad citizen qualities. Students will create a skit and present to the class.

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Students will be able to understand what makes a good citizen, why we have rules, and why we need to follow authority.

Ask students what they think it means to be a good citizen.

Ask them for examples on how to be a good citizen.

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What is a Good Citizen? | Lesson Plan | Education.com

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Students will be able to understand what makes a good citizen, why we have rules, and why we need to follow authority. Ask students what they think it means to be a good citizen. Ask them for examples on how to be a good citizen.

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This video discusses how students can be good citizens. It shows various ways of how students can help one another in school. It also shows how working together, being neat, and keeping the school safe is apart of being a good citizen.

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Shows the importance of being neat and careful and of helping in such ways as picking up another's coat and making a new child feel he belongs to the group. What makes a good citizen at school?

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This article discusses how you can be a good citizen. It goes past citizenship. The article talks about small acts that can make big impacts. Being a good citizen does not take much, just small acts can make a huge difference.

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More than just citizenship

Whether you're born with citizenship or earn it after immigration, there's more to being a Good Citizen than just having that legal piece of paper. It's about how you conduct yourself as a person, how you interact with your community and society, and how you pass what you know and learn on to others. This isn't a discussion of patriotic brainwashing or anything along those lines; this is a discussion of the education, interpersonal skills and common courtesies needed to keep the country moving smoothly and strongly.

Starting with education

People who know more understand more. You don't have to be a PhD student in an Ivy League University, but you have to cultivate a habit of learning-- ignorance leads to fear, and fear leads to easy manipulation. A Good Citizen isn't easily manipulated, but understands what's going on and can make rational decisions.

A few useful topics to keep up on: Politics, both local and national; Education; the Environment; Energy Issues and what can be done at home about them; How things like banks and investments work; the actualities of Tax and tax Reform, not just the hype; How the government works and the best ways to vote it to work better; Heathcare; All the ways a ruling body helps it's citizens-- schools, hospitals, community groups, local clean-ups, the Postal Service, and so on.

Sometimes these things are boring, but understanding how they work will keep you from being snowballed over later.

Meanwhile, find a few topics you really care about on any subject, and keep learning. Research their histories, follow their trends, know their inner workings and become active in their communities: Know your passions and all the facts, and you can defend them when other things start infringing. Know how things worked and went in the past, and you can see them repeating in the present. All learning expands your view of the world and how it works, so keep learning always, and keep up with a rapidly changing world.

Social and Community Responsibility

A Good Citizen has to think about the nation as a whole as well as their local community and their own families. Americans tend to be sort of self-centered and short-term thinkers, but if more people thought about how their actions and their decisions affected the rest of the nation, we'd have better planning and more reasonable long-term goals, instead of being reactionary and scrambling to fix unforeseen damage made by short-term planning.

Aside from being informed and educated, and helping your kids to be the same, here are a few ideas for societal thinking:

Recycling saves money for the city and the nation, cleans up the streets, lessens dependence on outside resources, and puts them firmly in our own borders and our own control.

Cleaning up local parks and wild places, and learning to not litter as well as buying less of the things that have all the packaging that gets littered, preserves the integrity of the local ecosystem, keeping air and water safer, protecting your kids and your friends and family, and making the area nicer to live in, which raises property value and gets the government and investors to see that your area is worth investing in.

Being friendly and knowing your neighbors personally builds social support systems, increases neighborhood and therefore city safety, protects the children and other helpless factors, and enriches lives, which leads to healthier and longer lifespans and lowers dependence on hospitals, medication, and public works.

Raising your kids to be bright, polite, responsible and reasonable leads to kids who can take care of themselves when they're old enough to be out alone, who are less likely to be either kidnapped or coerced into crime, will work harder and take more pride in their first jobs, and will lead to social stability and enrichment-- rather than instability and violence.

Supporting local businesses will keep your hard-earned money in the local economy, keep the individual character and flavor of your own city alive and healthy, and will slow the problems of homogenization and lack or loss of engagement of the public with the local City Council, keeping the city alive and vibrant and worth living in.

Getting involved in movements to make the lives of your fellow city dwellers better-- community gardens, clean-ups, local fairs, protests and marches, celebrations, homeless-shelters, volunteer groups, clubs, social gatherings, all these sorts of things-- will improve the overall lives of the whole city, and will stand as an example to other cities of how it can be, which will in turn lead to people all over the country having a better life.

Stay as healthy as you can: healthy people work harder and better, learn better, behave better, and rely less on the public for food and income. Keep your job as healthy as it can be, and you'll protect the workforce, which keeps the whole country going strong.

The key ideas are to think about how your own life in the city can affect the rest of the city and the country, to make yourself and your life an example of how it should be, and to raise your kids to carry on the trend. Think about ensuring the future, and their future, and the future after that, not just about yourself and the rest of the world be damned.

Small things make big impacts

The people that most need to see how the world could be are those at the bottom, those who are most likely to rebel and those who are least able to do anything about it. The people who are most likely to be destabilizing the community by being inconsiderate are those at the top who are used to ignoring everyone else. So, a few personal tips on being a nice person, for everyone:

There is no reason to be a jerk to the person behind the counter; no matter how much money you have, you aren't any more important than the person behind you, and everyone, regardless of which side of the counter they're on, deserves the same respect. They're just doing their job as best as they know how. If something can't be done, politely leave it alone. Service Industry does not equal servant, and you have no right to demand things that aren't available.

Always tip well-- the person receiving the tip likely needs it, and you'll be remembered and get better service next time; a happy waitress is much more likely to be helpful, and there are enough angry people in a day without you adding to the mess. Additionally, happy employees make for more stable working environments, higher quality goods and services, and more informed staff.

Be polite in all the old ways: Open doors for people who don't have a free hand or are much older than you, give up your seat for old people and pregnant ladies, say please and thank you, excuse yourself when you run into someone, say bless you when someone sneezes, ask questions politely (especially if you're asking something above and beyond of someone), and don't cut in line. All of the things your grandparents want you to do are social lubricant: they make peoples lives just a little happier and easier, and it will, in turn, make your own life happier and easier. No one needs to be screaming and fighting with the whole world all the time.

Teach through example, especially if you have kids. Kids are little sponges, and the way they see people around them acting and handling situations is the way they'll do the same as they get older; ensure that their strongest examples are good ones, and they'll grow up to care about the world and how it works.

Being a Good Citizen (in a Nutshell)

Good Citizens know where they fit into society and how to do the best they can to keep that place clean, healthy, well-managed and informed.

They care about what happens to other people around them, and how things going on now will affect the lives of their children and their children's children.

They're nice to people because nice people are better to live around than mean ones, and that makes the area a nicer place to live.

They support the local area to enrich the nation.

They understand how the world works so they can take action to fix things when they go wrong, and to maintain things that are going right.

They stay informed on important topics.

They devote time to improving the world so they leave it better than they found it.

They understand that everyone working together is much more powerful than everyone working only for their own betterment.

They understand that making yourself a better person makes the world a better place.

They care about the world and what happens to it.

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Whether you're born with citizenship or earn it after immigration, there's more to being a Good Citizen than just having that legal piece of paper. It's about how you conduct yourself as a person, how you interact with your community and society,...

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This website offers many different lessons. The lesson that this is discusses community. The lesson allows students to identify the people and places that make their neighborhood special. The lesson has a warm up activity of closing your eyes to think of your neighborhood. Then, the teacher does a read aloud, and activity to follow. Students will make a map or picture of their neighborhood and its gifts.

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Learning for Justice provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners—who work with children from kindergarten through high school.

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Citizens and Government in Our Diverse Community

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Citizens and Government in Our Diverse Community

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This website offers multiple different lessons on roles of citizens. The lessons discuss diversity, community, fairness, how to find solutions through activism, and more. I found the fairness fair to be appropriate for the kindergarten level. Students work in groups to tell stories and role play situations that relate to diversity, community, and fairness themes. Students will then share their skits to the class.

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The freedom riders, black and white, joined together to effect change. Traveling across the South while enduring ridicule and pain, they helped ensure that doors were open to all people, regardless of skin color.

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Citizens and Government in Our Diverse Community

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The freedom riders, black and white, joined together to effect change. Traveling across the South while enduring ridicule and pain, they helped ensure that doors were open to all people, regardless of skin color.

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This lesson shows how students can be activists and change can happen. They will learn what community activism is and the purpose of it. Students work in small groups to come up with as many terms that define community, activism, and art. After the students create their poster, they will share with the class.

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Overview

Art and Activism is a series of 12 mini-lessons in which students look at, think about and make art together. Each lesson prompts children to examine how art relates to community, leadership, and activism. Note: These mini-lessons can be used individually or together, and are not dependent on sequence.In this lesson, students are introduced to the concepts of art and community activism and have a chance to discuss their understanding of these terms.

Most children have some experience with being part of a community through connections with their family, their school, and their neighborhood. They need opportunities to think about what community means before they are able to think about the leadership roles in a community. Talking about activism, activists and leaders, helps children understand how change can happen in a community. This lesson will give students a chance to think about what these concepts mean and to consider the relationship between community activism and the visual arts.

Vocabulary

activism [ak-tuh-viz-uh m] (noun) vigorous action or involvement as a way to achieve political or other goals, sometimes by demonstrations or protests

activist [ak-tuh-vist] (noun) a person who is very involved in supporting a cause, especially a political cause

community [kuh-myoo-ni-tee] (noun) a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and may have a common cultural and historical heritage

Suggested Procedure

1. Assign students to work in three small groups. Give each group a piece of poster board with one word written in the middle of each: community, activism, art. Instruct students to work cooperatively and write as many words as they can think of that connect to, define, or question the word on their chart. (Note: Students may also draw pictures or you may choose to lead this lesson as a whole group shared writing activity.)

2. Allow each group to share the poster they have created with their classmates. Then help students come up with definitions of the three terms. Guide them by explaining that these words are not easy to define. Offer some variation of the following explanations: "We often think of community as a group of people living or working together and sharing some common ideas. Activism is a way of working for change or for what you believe in. And we can say that art is a creative way of showing people, feelings, stories and ideas." Continue the discussion until your students are comfortable using these terms.

3. Optional: Assign students to work in pairs, matching each student with someone who had a different term. (For instance, if a student was part of the "activism" group, pair him with a student from "art.") Note: If you did the first step as a shared writing activity, you can pair up any students. Ask each pair to collaborate on sketching a picture that shows how the two terms relate to each other. Ask: "How does activism relate to community? How does art relate to community? How does activism relate to art?" Encourage students to be creative and take risks with the their picture. Emphasize that the questions do not have right or wrong answers. Challenge your students to think of examples from their lives to illustrate relationships or connections. After students have had ample time to create their illustrations, ask them as a whole group to discuss the illustrations each pair created.

Common Core State Standards: ELA-Literacy. CCRA. W.2; W.4; SL.1; SL.2; SL.3; SL.4; L.1; L.2; L.4

Extension Activity

Encourage students to be more aware of the art that they see in their everyday lives and think about the role it might play in the different communities they are part of. Ask students to think about the way community, art, and activism relate to each other. Ask them to return to school ready to share examples of the way the three different ideas can be connected.

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Talking about activism, activists and leaders, helps children understand how change can happen in a community. This lesson will give students a chance to think about what these concepts mean and to consider the relationship between community activism and the visual arts.

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This lesson discusses the difference between rights and responsibilities. There is a video that talks about rights and responsibilities and how you can be a good citizen in your community. This is a great way to incorporate technology using this interactive video in the classroom.