Mrs. Mooney's Teaching World: Active Citizen Project 2013

Two years ago, the 8th graders (in the 2011-2012 class) did our first Active Citizen Project. It was a huge hit: The Patch did a story on them, equal rights groups posted their gay-rights commercial, and the students really enjoyed picking from a "menu" of project options.

This project challenges students to showcase their knowledge from our government unit in a way that shows how they are members of a participatory democracy. Combining our objectives, tech skills, and real-world knowledge, students set out to show their active membership in our democratic society.

So before winter break, we wrapped up our government unit with this same project, with a few modifications to update some of the tech pieces to 2013 standards. The students were challenged with picking two to three projects from the project menu that added up to 100 points. There were many different project choices the students could pick from (check out the options below), and they were given a few days in class to work on their projects (as well as whatever they needed to finish up at home) to get their projects completed. This time, to turn in their projects, students created an "Active Citizen Project" folder in their Google Drive, shared it with me, and the uploaded all of their projects to this folder whenever they finished them.

Overall, (once again!), I was completely blown away by the projects these students created. The political cartoons were great, the commercials were informative and engaging, and the letters were heart-felt and about real issues that were important to the students. Check out a sampling of some of the projects below. Enjoy!