Teaching Civics Through History: The Reconstruction Era and Today

This seminar is full, applications are now closed.

How can history help our young people to be civically engaged and reflect on the importance of democracy and civil rights? This seminar will model our history-based approach to the teaching of civics and provide materials to support teaching a civics elective that uses our 3-week unit “The Reconstruction Era” as a case study. The seminar will also draw on our current events teaching resources to help educators explore the legacies of Reconstruction and make connections to issues our nation faces today. Finally, participants will explore civic participation projects as part of teaching civics as an elective. The seminar is designed to help educators who are preparing students for the New York Seal of Civic Readiness; however, any 6-12 educator who wants to teach civics through history or teach Reconstruction will find this to be a valuable professional learning experience. 

In this workshop you will:

• Learn Facing History’s approach to teaching civics
• Engage with the history of the Reconstruction Era as a case study
• Engage with teaching materials designed to teach civics through history and current events
• Explore Civic Action Projects as part of teaching civics

We will provide classroom-ready resources, including:

• Access to the curriculum for the new civics elective: Pursuing Democracy: The Unfinished Work of Reconstruction
• A copy of Facing History’s Reconstruction unit: The Reconstruction Era: The Fragility of Democracy
• Access to Facing History’s Online Current Events Resource Collection

This workshop is intended for middle and high school educators interested in teaching a Civics Course or Elective, or Reconstruction.

This event will be hosted  in-person at the New-York Historical Society.

Address: 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024