Working and Writing in a World of Bias

Date: May 15, 2023
Time: 7:00-8:30 pm ET
Speaker(s): Amanda Krause, Notice News
Chat Moderator/Facilitator: Emily Voss

Program Description: Once students are equipped with quality sources, then comes the hard part: reading them for their inherent biases but also recognizing that such biases exist in all of us and affect our interactions with sources. In this professional development co-led by the Center for Civics Education and Notice News, teachers will learn to help their students uncover biases beneath the surface and, more importantly, determine how to allow that knowledge to guide their writing. Through discussion and activities involving multiple lenses and the practical science behind our biases, teachers will grow more comfortable with guiding students to recognize bias in themselves and the media to increase the quality of our research and engagement with resources.

Program Objectives:

• Provide multiple strategies for how students can recognize bias in themselves and media resources. 

• Offer practical context for working with bias, harnessing it to utilize sources effectively. 

• Simulate role-play methods to involve students in engagement with bias to increase their daily application of media literacy.

About Notice News: NOTICE News is an interactive video platform for middle and high schools that delivers the latest news while teaching critical thinking and media literacy skills.


Speaker Bio: Amanda Krause is Director of Education for NOTICE News. She is publicly licensed in Secondary and Elementary Education, and works as the Director of Journalism at Lake Forest Academy in the Chicago area, where she teaches introductory and advanced journalism courses, serves as a member of the English faculty, and runs the student paper. She earned her B.A in English and American Literature from New York University in 2009 and completed her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Concordia University, Wisconsin, in 2012. For several years, she has helped lead an Oral English Training Program in China for the professional development of teachers in Jiangxi Province and Chengdu. Recently, she earned a Certificate in Women’s Leadership from Cornell University and is beginning her Masters of Education Leadership at Harvard Graduate School of Education this summer.

PD for Media Literacy: Research with Reliable Sources

May 8, 2023

Students conducting research can often get lost amid the vast amount of information before them and then find it challenging or too time-consuming to evaluate the quality of their sources–whether they be print, visual, or social media texts. In this professional development webinar co-led by the Center for Civic Education and NOTICE News, teachers will engage with the reality of why students can often be too dependent on sources that seem reliable and learn to equip them to evaluate the quality of news and current event resources and the usefulness of the content within them. Teachers will also be given tools and activities to demonstrate to their students how valuable it is to ensure their research is of the highest quality.

Program Objectives:

• Connect for students how the quality of the resources they use leads to higher quality and more time-efficient output.
• Provide a framework to evaluate the purpose of a source and how the content within the source functions.
• Offer resources for fact-checking media sources in a world where articles cannot necessarily be taken at face value.
• Bring high-level analysis to general research skills in interacting with sources.

About Notice News: NOTICE News is an interactive video platform for middle and high schools that delivers the latest news while teaching critical thinking and media literacy skills.

Speaker Bio: Amanda Krause is Director of Education for NOTICE News. She is publicly licensed in Secondary and Elementary Education, and works as the Director of Journalism at Lake Forest Academy in the Chicago area, where she teaches introductory and advanced journalism courses, serves as a member of the English faculty, and runs the student paper. She earned her B.A in English and American Literature from New York University in 2009 and completed her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Concordia University, Wisconsin, in 2012. For several years, she has helped lead an Oral English Training Program in China for the professional development of teachers in Jiangxi Province and Chengdu. Recently, she earned a Certificate in Women’s Leadership from Cornell University and is beginning her Masters of Education Leadership at Harvard Graduate School of Education this summer.

Teaching 9/11 and the Constitution: Free Speech and Civil Liberties

September 9, 2021

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the Center for Civic Education offered a free webinar for teachers titled “Teaching 9/11 and the Constitution: Free Speech and Civil Liberties” featuring presentations by David Hudson of Belmont University, Jennifer Lagasse of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, and Maria Gallo of the  Center for Civic Education. First Amendment scholar David Hudson spoke about the constitutional issues surrounding the federal government's reaction to the 9/11 attacks.  Jennifer Lagasse demonstrated free educational resources that support teachers in both commemorating the milestone 20th anniversary of the attacks and teaching about their enduring repercussions for a generation with no memory of the event. Maria Gallo will  explored a new lesson related to 9/11 that teachers can also use for Constitution Week, September 17-23 (high school, elementary).

Bending Toward Justice? Teaching Voting Rights and Representation with iCivics + We the People

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

In this webinar by iCivics and the Center for Civic Education, Henry L. Chambers, Jr., Emma Humphries, and Mike Fassold explain the long and troubled history of voting rights in the United States and share tips for teaching representation and the expansion of suffrage.

Mike Fassold, an educator from Fishers Junior High School in Indiana, explains how he teaches the expansion of voting rights using the We the People middle school curriculum. Fassold is followed by Professor Henry Chambers, the Austin E. Owen Research Scholar & Professor of Law at the University of Richmond, who discusses the 2020 Census, apportionment, and gerrymandering. Finally, Emma Humphries, the Chief Education Officer at iCivics, explores compelling new infographics and Web activities on the census, gerrymandering, and voting that will engage your students.

Duration: 1 hour, 20 minutes

The Center for Civic Education conducted two webinars on how to teach the We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution for high school and middle school teachers. Recordings for both webinars are available below.

Introduction to Teaching We the People at the High School Level

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

In this video from the Center for Civic Education, Maria Gallo explains the fundamentals of teaching the We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution program to high school students. Maria is the director of professional development and special programs for the Center. She is joined by Mark Gage, director of publishing and digital content, who explains the wide variety online resources that support We the People. For more information about We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution, visit https://www.civiced.org/we-the-people.

Duration: 1 hour

Introduction to Teaching We the People at the Middle School Level

Thursday, September 24, 2020
 
In this video from the Center for Civic Education, Maria Gallo and Patience LeBlanc explain the fundamentals of teaching the We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution program to middle school students. Maria is the director of professional development and special programs for the Center. Patience is an instructional coach at Frisco High School near Dallas, Texas, and has been a We the People teacher for twenty years. Maria and Patience are joined by Mark Gage, director of publishing and digital content, who explains the wide variety online resources that support We the People. For more information about We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution, visit https://www.civiced.org/we-the-people.

 

Duration: 1 hour

The Center for Civic Education conducted two webinars this summer for teachers seeking advice on how to teach We the People and other civics and government content in our new and challenging world of social distancing and blended or online learning in the 2020–21 school year. Recordings for both webinars are available below.

Meeting the Challenge of Teaching in a Brave New World

Wednesday, August 5, 2020

In this webinar, hosted by the Center for Civic Education, teachers shared their plans for teaching civics, government, and history with a focus on the We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution program during the 2020-21 school year in the uncertain context of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaker: Robert S. Leming, National Director, We the People Programs, Center for Civic Education

Duration: 1 hour, 12 minutes

Teaching We the People Online Using Actively Learn

Wednesday, July 22, 2020
 
This webinar from the Center for Civic Education explained in detail how to use the We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution high school and middle school ebooks on the Actively Learn platform. The webinar was conducted by Amanda Kropp, a twelfth-grade government teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, who has taught We the People using the Actively Learn ebook since 2017.

Speakers: Amanda Kropp, Teacher, T.C. Williams High School, Alexandria, Virginia, and Robert S. Leming, National Director, We the People Programs, Center for Civic Education

Duration: 1 hour

How a country responds to a national crisis reveals a lot about its people and their governments. American responses to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 provide just such a window revealing issues of federalism, separation of powers, and civil liberties. This webinar series, "Teaching in Realtime: How Well Does the American Federal System Respond to Public Health Crises?" was presented by Stephen Schechter, professor emeritus at Russell Sage College and Thomas Vontz, professor and director of the Center for Social Studies Education at Kansas State University in June and July 2020. This series was sponsored by Kansas State University, the Johnson County First Amendment Foundation, and the Center for Civic Education.

Video 1

A webinar series presented by Stephen Schechter, professor emeritus at Russell Sage College and Thomas Vontz, professor and director of the Center for Social Studies Education at Kansas State University. It is provided as a public service of Kansas State University's Center for Social Studies Education, the Center for Civic Education, and the Johnson County First Amendment Foundation.

Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Video 2

How a country responds to a national crisis reveals a lot about its people and their governments. American responses to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 provide just such a window revealing issues of federalism, separation of powers, and civil liberties. "Teaching in Realtime: How Well Does the American Federal System Respond to Public Health Crises?" is a webinar presented by Stephen Schechter, professor emeritus at Russell Sage College, Thomas Vontz, professor and director of the Center for Social Studies Education at Kansas State University. This webinar is sponsored by Kansas State University, the Johnson County First Amendment Foundation, and the Center for Civic Education.

Duration: 1 hour, 32 minutes 

Video 3

This is the third class in the four-part webinar series, "Teaching in Realtime: How Well Does the American Federal System Respond to Public Health Crises?" presented by Stephen Schechter, professor emeritus at Russell Sage College, and Thomas Vontz, professor and director of the Center for Social Studies Education at Kansas State University. This webinar is sponsored by Kansas State University, the Johnson County First Amendment Foundation, and the Center for Civic Education.

Duration: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Video 4

This is the fourth and final class in the webinar series, "Teaching in Realtime: How Well Does the American Federal System Respond to Public Health Crises?" presented by Stephen Schechter, professor emeritus at Russell Sage College, and Thomas Vontz, professor and director of the Center for Social Studies Education at Kansas State University. This webinar is sponsored by Kansas State University, the Johnson County First Amendment Foundation, and the Center for Civic Education.

Duration: 1 hour, 33 minutes