Actively Learn is a digital literacy platform designed to help you and your students engage deeply and meaningfully with what you’re reading. Get the most out of the platform as you teach We the People by reviewing these quick tips!
Tip 1: Connect with the Center for Civic Education
We the People is a complete civics curriculum for elementary, middle, and high school published by the Center for Civic Education. There is much more to We the People than the textbooks, including state and national simulated congressional hearing competitions, lesson plans, and teacher trainings. The Center for Civic Education has state coordinators in all 50 states to support teachers in their area.
Can someone from the Center for Civic Education get in touch with me about their additional resources?
Tip 2: Assign one section of the book at a time
When you assign the We the People Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 books to your class, you will be prompted to assign the entire text or to choose specific sections. We suggest that you choose the specific sections you want to assign. This will make the large textbook more manageable for both you and your students.
Note: If you have already assigned the entire book, you will need to unassign the book from the class. Then, you will be able to reassign it using this new “section-assign” feature.
Tip 3: Help students focus on the questions that matter most to you.
Center for Civic Education (CCE) created all of the questions in the We the People textbooks. The curriculum designers at CCE suggest that students focus on just a few questions rather than trying to answer them all.
Here are two quick steps to get the most out of the questions provided by CCE:
- Prior to assigning a section of the textbook to your students, delete the questions you want students to skip.
- Change the Settings in your class so that questions do not require a response. If you do not do this, students will be required to answer each question before moving on.
Tip 4: Create other assignments to complement what you’re studying in We the People.
- Explore the articles we have curated to compliment the We the People textbooks (find them here).
- You can add your own videos, Google docs, and articles from around the web by going to "My Imports."
Tip 5: Give immediate feedback to students
From your gradebook, you can see student responses, assign grades, leave comments, and allow revisions.
Tip 6: Show students how to use the tools available to them on Actively Learn
Students tell us that they love to hear passages of the text read aloud to them. They also tell us that they love seeing other students’ responses to questions. Some students find it particularly useful to be able to define words, translate passages, view the article in dyslexic mode, and reply to their teacher’s comments.
The problem is, some students don’t know that you can do all of this on Actively Learn!
Help students learn about everything they can do by showing them this quick video introduction (you can pause at 2:30).
Let us know how it goes! We would love to hear any ideas or suggestions for how we can help improve your experience. You can email us at help@activelylearn.com.