Celebration of Learning Fall 2019, Civics: Communities and Citizens in Action
我们单位学习给我们的庆祝活动chance to observe a trimester’s worth of shared study in panorama: noting threads, perspectives, connections, and evolving understandings around a common topic. This Integrated Study Unit — Civics: Communities and Citizens in Action — challenged students todiscover how citizens organize and act to achieve community goals.
Students considered: what fairness means (equal vs equitable); how civic action confronts injustice in both the past and present; what impact young children can affect by working with local government and civic organizations; how art, in various media, is a powerful tool for change; how a democratic government is designed to represent the interests of citizens; and how community helpers work together to keep our towns running smoothly and our citizens healthy.
Lower Primary
1st and 2nd graders decided by vote to work this trimester to make a difference for the animals in their community. After considering how shared spaces in the community are managed by government agencies, they conducted a needs assessment of a local dog park, brainstormed changes, designed interactive models of their proposals and invited the Riverhead Town Supervisor to their classroom to present their recommendations. She was impressed! Her parks team will be implementing their proposed changes this winter.
Middle Primary
To understand how our government and civic structures are organized and how they function to represent and respond to citizen concerns, Middle Primary students mobilized around an issue of shared concern in their classroom: the encroachment of human development on native turtle habitats and the resulting harm done to turtles. MP students wanted to make their voices heard by people with the power to make the changes they sought, and they got to work. Students:
learned the national and local political structures and divisions of power of our national and local politic systems
conducted researched the challenges faced by turtle populations to speak accurately and with authority
created persuasive letters to the appropriate towns and county officials, outlining their concerns as well as their recommendations
studied the work of fellow student activists around the globe and used multimedia art to advocate for a global issue of concern to them.
(We’re happy to report that, as of the end of the trimester, and according to MP’s recommendation,three new turtle crossing signshave been installed in high-fatality areas identified by MP’s research!)
Early Childhood
Early Childhood focused on the community helpers — fire fighters, police, postal workers, doctors, and dentists — who keep citizens safe and health and help communities function smoothly during this trimester’s Civics study. EC students welcome these community members into their classroom to speak about their roles and responsibilities, show students some of the tools they use to do their jobs, and talk about what life is like when you are a community helpers.
PCS’s youngest learners integrated what they saw and heard from their visitors in a trimester of imaginative and constructive play: they built fire trucks, mail boxes, walkie-talkies and a village scene, and took on the roles and responsibilities of community helpers during dramatic play.
Upper Primary
Upper Primary students concluded their unit with a comparative study of historic activist movements and a critical look at how and if communities have progressed in education, housing, and criminal justice.
Kindergarten
During this trimester’s Integrated Unit “Civics: Communities and Citizens in Action,” Kindergarten used storytelling to figure through the concepts of fairness and equity and to think about how communities and citizens work together to understand and achieve fairness for all.