World Civilizations – A Yearlong PBL About the Evolution of Citizenship

Step 1:  Individual students will explore their ideas about citizenship by completing the Independent Practice Questionnaire on Citizenship using their tablet, and recording their responses on Nearpod.

Step 2:  Using the Nearpod graph which will be based on student responses, the teacher will lead the class in a discussion on citizenship, providing students the opportunity to orally explain the reasons behind some of their responses.

Step 3:  The teacher will place students in groups of  3 to 5 people.

Step 4:  The students will research and identify common elements of citizenship, coming to consensus within their group.

Step 5:  The teacher will open the application, Recap, inviting students to respond to the question: What are elements of citizenship? The teacher will ask groups to post their responses either through typing, or using a video response.

Step 6:  Using Nearpod, the teacher will create a class questionnaire using the elements posted on Recap. Individual students will choose the elements they feel best describe citizenship.  The teacher will discuss citizenship based on the responses of the students. The teacher will post the choices the majority of the class chooses. The elements of citizenship chosen will be used throughout the year. 

Step 7:  The teacher will introduce the essential question students will work on throughout the year. He/She will explain that students will explore this question for each of the time periods discussed. 

Step 8:  Using the class elements of citizenship, students will work with their originally assigned group to answer the following guiding questions about each of the time periods studied:

Answer the Guiding Questions for each time period:
•    Did communities, nations, or empires have requirements for citizenship? 
•    Was citizenship tied to freedom?
•    Did individuals have to fulfill certain responsibilities to be granted citizenship?
•    What responsibilities did the government have to its citizens? 
•    Were the rights given to citizens also extended to noncitizens?
•    How did citizenship relate to gender or race?

Step 9:  For each time period each group will be required to answer a driving question/questions using their guiding questions as a basis for their answer. The driving question(s) will be turned in to the teacher so that a class infograph, which is tied to the specific time period and each group’s response, can be created. A link for creating infographs is found in Resources. The teacher will print and post a class infograph for each time period. 

Step 10:  Listed below are the five primary time periods studied in 6th grade World Civilizations. With each period there is listed a Driving Question(s). This driving question will be answered by the groups and turned in to the teacher so that the class infograph for the time period can be created. 

Time Periods

World Civilizations to 550   
•    Early river valley civilizations (Indus, Tigris-Euphrates, Yellow, Nile)
•    Ancient Greece and Rome
DQ - What are the common elements of citizenship for this particular time period?

World Civilizations 550–1450 
•    Islamic and African Civilizations
•    Empires of Asia
•    Empires of the Americas
•    Middle Ages – Europe
DQ - What are the common elements of citizenship for this particular time period?
DQ - How did citizenship change from the previous time period?

Atlantic World from 1450–1760
•    Renaissance
•    Reformation
•    Empires of the Americas
DQ - What are the common elements of citizenship for this particular time period?
DQ - How did citizenship change from the previous time period?

Global Exchanges promoting revolution from 1760–1919
•    Scientific Revolution/Enlightenment
•    English Civil War
•    Industrial Revolution
•    American Revolution
•    French Revolution
•    Latin American Independence
•    World War I
DQ - What are the common elements of citizenship for this particular time period?
DQ - How did citizenship change from the previous time period?

Global Interdependence in the period 1920–present 
DQ - What are the common elements of citizenship for this particular time period?
DQ - How did citizenship change from the previous time period?

Step 11:  At the end of the year the teacher and the groups will review the five infographs that have been created throughout the year. Based on what is observed in the infographs, and what students have learned from completing the guiding questions for each time period, the groups will answer the essential question about citizenship:  Why has the concept of citizenship changed over time?

Step 12:  Each group must answer the question by creating five panels that show why the concept of citizenship has changed over time. Students have many options on how this can be accomplished; however, there must be a distinction in the five time periods. Students can make their own choices on how these periods can be distinguished. Some choices include: 

•    A 5 panel cartoon of the 5 historical periods
•    A Prezi timeline of the 5 historical periods 
•    Thinglink with 5 pieces of art or historical photographs that represent the 5 historical periods

All projects must be approved by the teacher. Links to sites that allow students to create cartoons, infographs, Prezi, and Thinglink are found in Resources.
 

Please note that this lesson was created using the 2020 proposed Social Studies Standards. The current standards have been applied and are listed on the lesson. Although it was intended as a comparison lesson, showing the evolution of citizenship through time, the lesson can easily be applied to one or more time periods if the teacher chooses not to complete a year-long PBL.

Presentation Rubric-World Civilizations - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bJLlvZSiFGixHwlq25tnE6XPiXR-aB8ngZp8_QgpkY0/edit#
The rubric will also be found under resources