Educator overview GenerationNation

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GenerationNation.orgGenerationNation.org
Educator Overview

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Connect GenerationNation.org
@GenerationNation
@GenNation
facebook.com/GenerationNation
linkedin.com/company/GenerationNation

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Today’s goals
Learn about GenerationNation
Explore civics in action
How can GenerationNation help you?

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Builds civic literacy, leadership
GenerationNation is a Charlotte-based nonprofit. We help K-12
students to build civic literacy and leadership.
Nearly 1 million Charlotte students have built and applied civic
literacy, knowledge, and skills through GenerationNation programs.
Launched in 1992 as a mock election event, GenerationNation has
worked with educators and other community stakeholders over the
past 5 years to launch new programming to educate and engage
young citizens and leaders every day of the year. Voting is just the
beginning!
GenerationNation's programs, including K-12 civic literacy curriculum
and resources, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Youth Council, Youth
Leadership Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Kids Voting, and other initiatives,
combine classroom education with real-life experiences that help
students to put civics and leadership into action and narrow the
learning opportunity gap.

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Student outcomes
Gain essential knowledge for academic success
including graduation requirements, Civics and American
History - linking to STEM, reading, writing, arts.
Grow as confident citizens and leaders who can read
and analyze information, communicate, think critically,
collaborate, solve problems and make decisions.
Build civic literacy, understanding how their governments
and communities work – and the leadership skills and
know-how to make a difference.
Why does it matter? Students need to understand how their
governments and communities work, and how and why they can
aspire to make a difference. Current events, education trends, and
learning opportunity gaps make that task more difficult - and more
important than ever.
Today's students will become the leaders of our schools,
communities, businesses, and nation. What and how they learn
NOW matters. Through GenerationNation, students prepare for
college, career, and civic life.

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50,000 local students in 2014-15 activities
• 180,000 in 2012-2015, including Election 2012
15,000 contact hours of programming
100+ standards-based lessons and tools
for classrooms in 170+ schools
The first phase of GenerationNation's expanded work has targeted
high school students. In addition to support for high school
classroom teachers, GenerationNation's youth learning opportunities
include educational sessions, dialogues, service-learning, field trips,
and other hands-on experiences.
Students regularly interact with public officials and civic leaders,
engage in local government, learn about and apply knowledge to
solve community issues, and meet and collaborate with youth from
other schools and backgrounds. Future strategies will also target K-8
students, program alumni, and teachers.

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In the classroom
Easily and effectively integrate civic literacy +
civic learning opportunities
Interdisciplinary
Standards-based
Easy to use
Flexible, adaptable
Non-partisan
Relevant
We know that can be hard to make civics and history seem relevant
and fun for your students. GenerationNation emphasizes local
government, local issues, and local action to bring civics and
leadership alive – and impactful for your students.
GenerationNation has been partnering with teachers and schools for
over 20 years. That gives us a good understanding of your needs,
your goals, and your challenges.
Classroom resources are standards-based, easy to use, smart, fun,
and engaging. Useful tools connect real-life experiences and current
events with classroom education to increase student interest and
comprehension.
It is interdisciplinary, integrating the study of civics, government,
citizenship, news literacy, leadership and other concepts into
different contexts.

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GenerationNation.org/learn
Standards-based, C3 framework,
21st century skills
Themes include
– Civic literacy
– Civic participation
– Democracy
– Elections and Voting
– Government (local, state, federal,
three branches, etc.)
– History
– Law
– Leadership
– News literacy
– National events/ holidays
– Reading, writing
GenerationNation's educational tools and programs are vertically
aligned to build civic literacy from an early age. Students in
kindergarten through high school a wide range of opportunities to
learn about government, citizenship, leadership and more.
Classroom activities introduce K-8 students to civic learning through
social studies, math and language arts and further strengthen civic
knowledge and skills in high school civics, history, and other
courses.
You can find the resource hub, which we call the Learning Center, at
generationnation.org/learn. It is easy to use and frequently updated
with local resources, ways to incorporate news and primary sources,
resources from our partners in the National Action Civics
Collaborative, and other helpful information. The curriculum is
organized in one place so you don’t have to search the web for
content.
We’re tweaking the site this semester, and will begin to add election
2016 resources soon.

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Connecting your classroom to real
issues and experiences
Curriculum and tools
Hands-on learning opportunities
– Mock election and tools
– Youth Council
– Youth Leadership
– CLT-Meck 101
– Speakers Bureau
– More!
Professional Learning Network
E-News
In addition to the curriculum hub, GenerationNation offers your
students a variety of hands-on learning opportunities…
and you with a Professional Learning Network, email tips and
updates, and ideas for connecting your classroom with the
community.

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Narrowing the learning opportunity gap
Discuss issues with public officials
Find out how and why a city grows
Write news headlines
See how local government works
Deliberate policy in a mock city council
Create and deliver a team presentation
Read and prioritize a budget
Build civic leadership and interests
Analyze a speech and speaker’s skills
Cast an informed mock vote on real topics
Plan a city
Collaborate with different kinds of people
Learning opportunities connect students with real-life experiences for college,
career, and civic life
Pitch an economic plan for the city
Learn legislative process in Raleigh
See where and how people do their jobs
Negotiate a deal
Share solutions with civic leaders
Interview a business leader
Explore different parts of the city
Follow and understand news
Learn law through a courtroom mock trial
Get leadership lessons from leaders
Report on civic issues and events
Be an active citizen
Learning opportunities connect students with real-life
experiences for college, career, and civic life.
Students explore the city, interview business leaders, share
their views with the mayor, present to the school board, cast
a mock vote, and plan a city, and more.
In doing this, they learn how their governments and
communities work, about the key issues, the roles of
citizens and leaders, and gain the knowledge, skill, and
interest to make a difference.

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Experiencing elections
EDUCATING FOR DEMOCRACY Students vote on real candidates and
issues; learn about local, state, and federal government; develop knowledge,
habits and skills for a lifetime of active, engaged, informed citizenship.
Our mock election, currently named Kids Voting, enables Charlotte-
Mecklenburg students to personally experience elections and voting.
Students learn about and cast their own votes for real candidates
and issues. While the votes aren’t official, they are counted and
publicized. It is a great way to use a current event that covers civic
literacy, history, all levels of government, media literacy, and more to
help students to build knowledge and skills and engage in Local
Election 2015 as well as Election 2016.
The vote will be offered mid-October through Election Day.
Charlotte students will also have the opportunity to be pollworkers
and to visit and vote in real polling places.
Resources for the local election include a student candidate guide,
youth candidate forums, and rate the candidates tools.
For Election 2016, we’re already posting debate watch materials and
will hold a presidential primary in March.
These activities are fun and easy to implement at your schools.

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Civic leadership, action, voice
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Youth Council
Youth Leadership
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
CLT-Meck 101
Student voice
High school students have civic leadership opportunities through the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Youth Council and Youth Leadership
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, can build civic literacy through CLT-Meck
101, and make their voices heard on important civic issues.
Hundreds of students participate in these hands-on programs each
year, building civic literacy and leadership while transforming their
schools, neighborhoods, and community for the better.

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Charlotte-Mecklenburg Youth Council
– Advise community leaders
– Learn about issues and perspectives
– Collaborate to solve problems
– Build lifelong interests, skills, and friendships
Students learn how the community works and about the key issues.
They meet regularly with public officials to share youth perspectives
on a variety of issues. This year, they are working with the
superintendent to get an ex-officio role for a student on the school
board. Each spring, members of the youth council participated in the
NC Youth Legislative Assembly in Raleigh. It is a great way to
experience the legislative process, learn about different viewpoints
and issues, and get to know student leaders from communities
across the state.
GenerationNation offers free CATS/LYNX passes to help with
transportation. We would love for your students to participate.

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There are other ways your students can get involved in local issues
GenerationNation offers opportunities and tools to help students
watch, attend, or even speak at a government meeting…
Use Student Voice to report on local issues and highlight youth
perspectives…
Students can even use social media and texting to make their voices
heard…
GenerationNation’s Speakers Bureau can help you to bring in real-
world voices and experiences into your classrooms…
We can help in many ways! GenerationNation is your champion for
civics and leadership into action

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Student impact
Build and apply real-world knowledge
Solve problems
Positive interactions with adults in
government, business, civic life
Collaborate with peers from other backgrounds
Demonstrate higher levels of 21st century
skills for college, career, and civic life
The combination of classroom learning and hands-on activities
impacts students through adulthood.
You have information about GenerationNation’s programs in your
packet, plus some helpful reference material about state and local
government. We will be in touch with additional details.

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Framework for active citizenship
Learn
Think and analyze
Decide
Act
Stay engaged and reflect
Our framework for active citizenship
Learn – collect the dots
Think – connect the dots
Decide – focus on an issue, candidate, or action
Act – take personally meaningful action (note - does not mean a big
or action unrealistic action)
Follow up – stay engaged and reflect

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Exploring local data
Create Google Maps, analyze, compare with other
cities or periods in history
Good sources for local data
– CLT-Meck Quality of Life Explorer www.mcmap.org/qol
– Opportunity Nation www.opportunitynation.org
– CMPD Crime stats www.crimemapping.com
– UNCC Urban Institute http://ui.uncc.edu/data
– Census www.quickfacts.census.gov
To help students to learn, think, and take action, we suggest they
explore local data. One way to organize it is through maps. We are
developing an activity using Google My Maps. We will send the
lesson to you and help you with questions. It is easier than you think!
Your students can pull in data from a variety of sources to create
their own maps to visualize and analyze local issues, demographics,
crime, news, and more. This is a good tool for projects and regular
tracking through the semester. There are many great tools that your
student can use to gather and use local data.
Here are a few examples of the data available. In the Quality of Life
Explorer, you can view a wide range of information for the entire
community or a single neighborhood. (Demonstrate)
From there, you can access the data sets and upload that into the
Google map. It is a good tool to visualize data, see patterns, make
connections, and more.

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A few ways to put civics into action…
Civic literacy
– Be informed about
government and issues
– interview a community
leader or official
– Attend or speak at a
government meeting
Elections and voting
– Vote in the mock election
or issues polls
– Volunteer in the polls to
help children to learn about
democracy
Civic leadership
– Share your solutions for
school/civic issues
– Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Youth Council and Youth
Leadership Charlotte-
Mecklenburg
Student Voice
– Use social media and
school media to highlight
student voice on current
issues; write a letter to the
editor; text your voice
How can students put civics into action? Here are a few ways
GenerationNation can help. What are your ideas?

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What’s on your wish list?
How can GenerationNation help YOU?
As we wrap up this workshop, we want to hear from you. How can
GenerationNation help you? What’s on your wish list? What are the
resources, tools, lessons, and activities that you would love to see?
Let us know!

Educator overview GenerationNation

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