Educator Resources

As an engaging new way to teach civics, Citizen provides an array of non-partisan lesson and extracurricular opportunities across multiple aspects of the NCSS and Educating for American Democracy themes.

"It is clear that we need civic education more than ever in America for our democracy to not only sustain, but be successful. Educators need innovative tools to teach the content and to make it come alive and be relevant for their students. Citizen is an outstanding tool that leads to deeper student understanding of how Congress works, where influence is exerted, and the dynamics of power. Every classroom needs to be utilizing this resource!"

Dr. Randell Trammell, CEO
Georgia Center for Civic Engagement

Citizen and NCSS National Curriculum Standards Themes —

Citizen components and play experiences inspire student discussion, and offer grades 7-12 educators (and beyond) an array of lesson and extracurricular opportunities across multiple aspects of the ten National Curriculum for Social Studies Themes. By using real world examples from our history infused with a reality-based play mechanism that reflects the interplay of different forces in our democratic republic, Citizen is a hands-on, interactive Legislative Brand simulator.

Read our explanation of how Citizen engages the NCSS National Curriculum Standards Themes

Lesson Plan Opportunities with Citizen —

Teachers can simplify the game for classroom use by building sequential lessons around each card type, integrating them one by one, followed by full play at conclusion.

Dissecting and investigating the legislative branch components separately before putting them together for play puts theory into action. This creates conversation and understanding about the entities and forces at work in the Legislative branch, how they interact, and how as citizens we can find truth, engage our rights, and exert influence on the process.

Use Congress cards to compare and contrast the partisan divide, experience the impact of campaign finance, and explore the formation of caucuses.

Use Cause cards to explore the pro/con arguments of more than 30 different contemporary issues and invite students to create their own Cause card.

Use Citizen cards to craft lessons around the interactions between the categories on each card, investigate the pro/con examples of powerful industries and issues, and ask students to research and cite sources for their own examples of industries and issues represented in the card library.

Use Power cards to discover tactics that can be used to leverage an outcome, including those of ethical and more dubious nature ex. how Yellow Journalism has evolved into “Fake News”, the role of legislative tools (Closed Rule, Clean Bill, Veto), and the power of an Amendment.

Use Circumstance cards to understand long-term implications of events from across history (what happens to the bill that expands drilling rights if there’s a major oil spill?) and have students present other examples of major disruptive events.

Read our outline of Citizen Lesson Plan Opportunities