HS Civics and Government

The Michigan Content Expectations in Civics, aligned with National Civics Standards and NAEP have three interrelated components: knowledge, intellectual and participatory skills, and civic dispositions. The knowledge component is embodied in the form of five significant and enduring questions. These are questions that have continued to engage not only political philosophers and politicians; they are questions that do – or should – engage every thoughtful citizen. The five questions are: • What are civic life, politics and government? • What are the origins and foundations of the American political system? • How does the government established by the Constitution function to embody the purposes, values and principles of American constitutional democracy? • What is the relationship of the United States to other nations and its role in world affairs? • What are the roles of citizens in American society?

The Michigan High School Content Expectations for Civics includes processes and skills necessary for successful participation in our form of government. Analytical and research skills help students identify, describe, explain, and analyze information and arguments, as well as evaluate, take, and defend positions on public policies. The process and skills possibilities listed below are examples that may tie together content expectations with skills for lively and interactive civics classrooms. Translating the classroom experience into real life, knowledge, dispositions, Democratic Values, and participatory skills are intertwined to position students to be positive members of American society.

About the Curriculum

The Civics/Government curriculum enables teachers to:

• Concentrate on the craft of teaching, including customizing materials for student needs, instead of searching for resources and designing curriculum;
• Embed explicit reading and writing strategies in an inquiry-oriented course that prepares students for the demands of college-level study in the social sciences;
• Shift the teaching of the high school Civics survey course from presentational to inquiry mode, so that students perceive Civics not as facts to be memorized, but as events and issues to be interpreted using documentary evidence;
• Engage and motivate students by exploring genuine, challenging questions (that political scientists still grapple with);
• Complicate conventional stories and take a clear-eyed look at injustice, social conflict, and change so that students can better understand their present world, how it got that way, and what might be done to influence its trajectory.

Pacing Calendar