Inspiring Ideas for Integrating
21st Century Themes and Skills

21st Century Theme

Civic Literacy

According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, civic literacy is a skill that students need to master in order to succeed in work and life in the 21st century. Civic literacy involves participating effectively in civic life through knowing how to stay informed and understanding governmental processes. Civic literacy also involves exercising the rights and obligations of citizenship at local, state, national and global levels; and understanding the local and global implications of civic decisions.

Here are more resources for developing your students’ civic literacy.

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The lesson plans on the 1forAll website are drawn from materials prepared by the Newseum and the First Amendment Center. The lessons are intended to draw young people into an exploration of how their freedoms began and how they function in today’s world. In the lessons, students discuss just how far individual rights extend, examining rights in the school environment and public places. The lessons may be used in history and government, civics, language arts and journalism, art and debate classes. They may be used in sections or in their entirety. Many of the lesson plans indicate an overall goal, offer suggestions on how to teach the lesson and list additional resources and enrichment activities.

Rights, Obligations, Democracy

The Center for Civic Education produces curricular materials that provide K–12 students with the skills needed to participate as effective and responsible citizens. The center’s programs are supported with free professional development and web-based classroom resources.

We the People: The Citizens & the Constitution explores the philosophy, history and fundamental principles of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Project Citizen promotes competent and responsible participation in local and state government by teaching students how to monitor and influence public policy.

Representative Democracy in America: Voices of the People is a national project that introduces citizens, particularly young people, to the representatives, institutions and processes that serve to realize the goal of a government of, by and for the people.

Congress has exercised its implied constitutional power to investigate since the earliest days of the Republic. Notable Senate investigations have probed issues such as interstate commerce, Ku Klux Klan activities, the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic, Wall Street banking practices, organized crime, antiunion activity, the sale of cotton, the Vietnam War, Watergate and steroids in baseball.

Investigative Responsibility

The United States Senate website presents A History of Notable Senate Investigations, which explains the origins of Senate investigations, the process of performing an investigation, the challenges to Congress’s investigative power and a selective list of investigations, beginning with the Harpers Ferry (1859–1860) inquiry and including the Watergate Committee (1973–1974). Some of the investigations on the select list are linked to pages that allow for deeper exploration.