The following activities that can be done in the classroom to teach citizenship to students were taken from The Heart of the Matter Character and Citizenship Education in Alberta Schools.
-cooperative learning
-group discussion
– journals and learning logs
-role-playing
-graphic organizers
-literature response
– service learning
– issue-based inquiry
Using the BC Performance Quick Scales for Social Responsibility, the instructor can ask students to take a fictional character from a book, movie, video game, etc and assess the character with the quick scales. There are social responsibility quick scales for grades K-3, 4-5, 6-8 and 8-12. By asking students to assess a fictional character, they won’t feel singled out. Students are more familiar with a fictional character and can assess the character based on their observations. The link also includes ideas on how to come up with assignments or instructions on how to plan for students to meet the expectations of the BC government social responsibility quick scale.
Noddings (2006) provides examples of teaching several virtues such as honesty and loyalty to students by providing literature that implement the themes in the the stories. Fictional characters in the stories or real life stories about people who demonstrate the themes can be used as examples for students. For example, the characters in The Chronicles of Narnia and in Harry Potter display honesty, compassion, respect, compassion and courage. Teachers can ask students to provide examples of how characters in literature demonstrate or do not demonstrate the five themes of citizenship.
The Mind Up Curriculum books teaches students social responsibility and can be used in the classroom (Shore, 2015).
Here is the website for the Mind Up Curriculum books: http://thehawnfoundation.org/the-mindup-curriculum-now-available-through-scholastic/