An interactive learning tool using primary sources to explore how our government works. Help students understand separation of powers, voting rights, federal budget, state’s rights, and more.
An interactive learning tool using primary sources to explore how our government works. Help students understand separation of powers, voting rights, federal budget, state’s rights, and more.
Engaging Congress teaches students the key concepts of representative government and citizenship. In each module, students focus on different civics concepts by analyzing a variety of primary sources. Each component of this learning tool, primary sources, content videos, mini-games, can be used on its own or as a part of a thematic module. The variety of primary sources (maps, charts, photos, documents) can be adjusted to meet the needs of all learners. Use Engaging Congress for in-person, hybrid, or remote learning. Students can play individually or in groups. Help prepare your students to be engaged and informed citizens.
Topics
Documents
Images
Video
African American History
America at War
Citizenship
Civics & Government
Civil Rights
Economics
Founding Documents
Human Enslavement
Journalism
Voting & Suffrage
Women in History
Alignments
NCSS Standards
C3 Framework
State and Common Core standards information at engagingcongress.org
KidCitizen offers a growing set of interactive episodes that engage K–5 students with primary source photographs to explore Congress & Civic Engagement.
KidCitizen offers a growing set of interactive episodes that engage K–5 students with primary source photographs to explore Congress & Civic Engagement.
Each KidCitizen episode focuses on one or more related photographs from the Library of Congress, with topics ranging from Community Helpers to how Congress works.
The episodes capitalize on the active and social nature of young children’s learning, using primary sources for rich demonstrations, interactions, and models of literacy. The hands-on activities make academic content meaningful, build on prior experiences, and foster visual literacy and historical inquiry.
Teachers can also create and share their own episodes using the KidCitizen Editor.
Analyze and collect evidence from primary sources.
Engage in primary source inquiry, using critical literacy skills to address challenging topics.
Teacher Experience
Choose from 9 episodes that focus on historical thinking and inquiry-based learning with primary sources.
Easily access episodes from kidcitizen.org on any device.
Introduce the initial episode as part of whole class or small group guided instruction, then allow for independent revisits.
Find implementation ideas as well as suggested children's literature to support cross-curricular connections in the teacher’s guide that accompanies each episode.
Create your own episodes with the cloud-based KidCitizen Editor and share them with students.
Student Experience
Use visible thinking strategies to progress through phases of careful observation, analysis, drawing conclusions based on collected evidence, and reflection that propels the students into further inquiry.
Engage in incremental learning and authentic interaction with a primary source.
Build conceptual knowledge and develop increasingly complex historical-thinking skills
Receive guided mentorship from in-game character, Ella, who assists children in interpreting the past and simulates the collaborative conditions that optimize students’ construction of knowledge and meaning.
Relive the suffrage movement, learn about key events and figures, and explore primary documents to learn all about the fight for women's right to vote.
Relive the suffrage movement, learn about key events and figures, and explore primary documents to learn all about the fight for women's right to vote.
In Voices for Suffrage, students use primary sources to explore, replay, and engage with the women’s suffrage movement. Students will learn about the tactics, arguments, key people, and historical events that led to women gaining the vote and they’ll have fun doing it.
Topics
Documents
Images
Maps
Civics & Government
Voting & Suffrage
Women in History
Alignments
NCSS Standards
Learning Objectives
Analyze primary sources and extract information from them in order to answer questions or form a narrative.
Learn more about the important people, places, and events related to the movement and the eventual ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Learn how to use search terms, filters, and tags to locate content in a large database.
Teacher Experience
Use as a research tool when developing suffrage-related lesson plans using the included primary sources and other content.
Assign any of the Guided Tours or game chapters to be reviewed/played by students which can then be followed up with written questions or an in-class discussion.
Find resources to learn more about the Inquiry Design Model, the C3 Social Studies Framework, and working with Primary Sources (https://voicesforsuffrage.com/resources)
Student Experience
Voices for Suffrage is a great research tool for students when completing suffrage-based assignments or projects.
Guided Tours and the They Persisted game are fun ways for students to interact with the content.
The scrapbook format allows students to click through artifacts such as pins and flyers to learn how they contributed to the movement.
Exploring the movement by engaging with timelines, navigating guided tours around key themes, and exploring a database of information and sources.
Replay the movement: put yourself in the shoes of a suffragette, join a party, and find out how you might respond to key events guided by primary sources.
