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Civic Participation & Citizenship Collection

NELRC

Civics Teaching in Citizenship Classes
Written by Betty Simons, based on the work of
Mary Troeger, Norelys Consuegra, Baha Sadr, and John Darigan

The IIRI Citizenship Program

The Citizenship Program at the International Institute of Rhode Island (IIRI) has existed for almost 80 years and has undergone many changes during its long history. As immigrant populations change, program teachers and directors have to adapt materials and teaching practices to serve the diverse needs of learners who want to become U.S. citizens. Today the typical IIRI citizenship student needs intensive instruction in English as a second language, United States history and civics, citizenship test preparation, and knowledge about the citizen's role in government. Most IIRI citizenship students have limited education, low literacy levels, little or no experience participating in a democracy, and are focused on memorizing the famous "100 Questions for Citizenship" that they are required to study for the citizenship test. Because civic participation and community service are integral parts of the IIRI citizenship curriculum, teachers and coordinators have experimented with many projects to help new citizens become involved in their communities and government. Using the "Civic Participation and Community Action Sourcebook" in our citizenship context has provided us the opportunity to look for new and creative ways to integrate civic participation into classroom activities, and to think about how the IIRI experience could be useful to other citizenship preparation teachers.

(It is important to note that the citizenship team at IIRI has four teachers and a coordinator who have the opportunity to discuss program activities on a daily basis. The program coordinator provides support for all the projects and works with the teachers to plan and carry out activities. Over the past year, there were more than 200 students enrolled in citizenship classes who participated in the civic participation projects.)

IIRI Projects

The IIRI projects were all conceived with the purpose of helping students understand the material they are required to learn by presenting it in meaningful and realistic contexts of civic participation and community service activities. The IIRI teachers developed three individual projects and collaborated to present a voter education workshop to help new voters understand the primary election system. Because students are always concerned that they master the knowledge to pass the citizenship test, teachers made a point of highlighting the relevance of civic participation projects to the "100 Questions."

Understanding How the Government Works

Mary, the teacher of a multi-level morning class, designed a series of activities to help students understand the structure of government in the United States. (The morning class students are very diverse in terms of educational levels and English language abilities; they tend to be older students, may be retired or not working, often are in poor health, and generally face many challenges to master the skills necessary to pass the citizenship test.) The project was designed to relate voting to the bigger picture of how the government is structured and what the citizen's role is in determining how the government is run.

I did an exercise on voting to prepare the students for the pre-primary voter education workshop. My class had just studied the structure of city and state government as part of the citizenship curriculum. I developed a questionnaire…about voting in students' own countries (Laos, Cape Verde, and the Dominican Republic) that related to voting issues in this country, and students compared the responses for their own countries to those for the United States. This exercise provided new information for some of the students. For example, most assumed that women had always voted in their own countries until I told them about the history of women's suffrage in the U.S. Then they were not so sure, and I asked them to check. Students were very interested in the discussion generated by the questionnaire. One student pulled out her voter card from the Dominican Republic to show to the rest of the class, and most of them had basic information about their country's voting practices. All (except one who was not old enough at the time) had voted at least once in their native lands. Later, we studied the material on voting that students needed to know for the citizenship interview.

The Voter Education Workshop

The Citizenship team organized a voter education workshop and developed materials to help students understand both primary and general elections. The teachers and coordinator created a PowerPoint presentation that utilized interesting graphics, sound, animation, and easy-to-understand text that explained the process of choosing and electing candidates, described political parties, and introduced candidate profiles. Prior to the day of the voter education workshop, students were able to use the presentation in the Computer and Language Labs and familiarize themselves with the contents. All citizenship students and many new citizens attended the workshops, participated in an entertaining debate about the merits of different political parties, studied sample ballots, learned to mark the ballot for the voting machine scanner, and participated in a mock election.

Community Mapping

Mary's class project built upon the knowledge that students gained from the voter education activities. The teacher helped the students carry out a community mapping activity to help them understand the resources in their community, and helped students to learn to use the telephone book as a resource to find numbers for City Hall and local and national elected officials (including Rhode Island members of U.S. Congress).

In March…I carried out a community mapping exercise with my class. We each represented our community by showing the places we visited within the past week and the past month. We discussed our maps by answering questions such as "What is good about the community you live in and what would you like to change?" Afterwards, using a city Ward Map, I helped students locate the City Ward that they lived in and then identified the City Council representative from each of their wards. Through identifying their local councilpersons, students learned how to communicate problems or concerns to the elected person responsible for representing their individual neighborhoods in the city government.

The class used the Internet to visit web pages of local and national legislators, noted their political party affiliations, learned how to contact them by phone, e-mail, or letter, and looked at photographs of elected officials. Students enjoyed these activities because they were both fun and informative. Connecting names to faces, finding addresses and phone numbers of the people who make the laws, learning how to make one's voice heard, and understanding the power of one's vote help newcomers become proactive and confident in their new roles as U.S. citizens. Many of the people who participated in the project will be voting for the first time this year (2000), and the knowledge they acquired from this project will help them make informed decisions as they exercise the most important right granted to a citizen.

The voter education and community mapping activities brought to life many of the questions on the citizenship test, such as:
   • What is the most important right granted to a citizen?
   • What are the two major political parties in the United States?
   • Who is the chief executive of your city?
   • Who is the chief executive of your state?
   • Name two representatives from your state.
   • Name the two Senators from your state.
   • What are the three branches of government?
   • Name three rights in the Bill of Rights (i.e. freedom of speech).
   • Who can vote in the United States?
   • Name one amendment to the Constitution that addresses voting rights.
   • Name one benefit of being a citizen of the United States.
   • In what month do we vote for the President?
   • In what month is the new President inaugurated?
   • How many times may a Senator be reelected?
   • How many times may a Congressman be reelected?
   • Who is the Speaker of the House of Representatives?

Understanding the Legislative Branch of Government:
How a Bill Becomes a Law

Another teacher, Norelys, who teaches a higher-level class, worked very hard to help students understand the legislative branch of the United States government by working on a project designed to explain the legislative process-how a bill becomes a law. Even though every citizenship student can respond immediately to the question "What are the duties of Congress?" with the parroted response "To make laws," the student most likely has no understanding whatsoever of how a law is really made. The teacher designed a hands-on project to illustrate the complicated work of Congress and to help students gain a deeper understanding of the mechanics of the three branches of government. Also, if a new citizen knows that it is his or her right to voice an opinion that may influence the way a Representative or Senator votes on a particular bill, representative government becomes more relevant and comprehensible.

As a citizenship teacher, I find it my duty to provide my students with as much information as possible about the history of the United States and about our government in order for them to become effective and empowered citizens. Becoming a U.S. citizen is not just about passing the test; rather it is about a sense of belonging, a sense of responsibility to become active in our communities and in our government. Whether it is in our neighborhoods, in our cities, in our states or in our country, citizenship equals duty, civic duty.

I believe that to become a fully active participant in our communities, we need to understand how things work, especially when it pertains to laws. As we all know, we are a society of laws. In order to understand the how, the what, and the why of U.S. government, my students needed to know how the laws of this country are made. While many have a basic understanding that the legislative branch makes the laws and that Congress is composed of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate, many do not know how a law actually became a law.

Norelys selected bills that had been introduced in Congress by the Rhode Island Representatives and Senators. Because Rhode Island is a very small state, the names and faces of the Congressmen were quite familiar to most citizenship students, but what those elected officials were actually doing in the Congress was a complete mystery to them.

In order to help the students focus on a project that was relevant to the materials that they needed to learn, I presented my students with the following scenario: I asked them to imagine that they were already U.S. citizens and that it was Election Day. Because they were already familiar with the names of their representatives, I asked them for whom they would vote and to tell me why they would vote for that particular person. After they had made their choices and briefly explained the reasons for the choice, I asked them if they knew what each of these elected officials actually did in Congress. The answer was unanimous and in one voice, they responded, "He makes the laws." But as soon as I asked them "How does he make the laws?" there was no response. Seeing this, I decided to focus my Civic participation project on the work of the legislative branch of government. In class, I focused on explaining how laws become laws and on the duties of elected officials--to represent the interests of citizens in the best way possible. By becoming informed about the legislative process, my students gained a better understanding of how Congress functions and how citizens can effectively become involved in the process of making laws.

Students who became interested in the project started paying attention to news reports about pending legislation and began talking about bills with their families and classmates. By understanding the process, the students were able to grasp the importance of exercising one's right to vote for the person he or she considers best qualified to represent the people in the Congress.

As the class progressed, I provided students with handouts from the Sourcebook along with other information that explained the days in the life of a law. Using a lot of visual images, I was able to explain the legislative branch and the process that a bill undergoes before it becomes law. At the same time, as students gained understanding, I encouraged them to become directly involved in the process. I provided them with copies of actual legislation and encouraged them to contact their representatives to express their opinions regarding the bills, and several students wrote letters to either support or oppose pending legislation.

At the same time, students began to understand the consequences of voter apathy. Many of the students who participated in this project will be voting for the first time in the fall elections of 2000, and they will vote knowing that they can make an informed choice as to who can best represent them in the Congress.

Norelys designed a series of lesson plans for this project that included using charts and graphs, such as those in the Civic Participation and Community Action Sourcebook, and photographs of elected officials on informational flash cards. The lesson plans covered topics about congressional committees, actual legislation, writing letters regarding pending bills, and included plans for mock legislative hearings.

Even students who were not enthusiastic about studying hard-to-understand legislation became interested in this project. Once they understood the legislative process and how it related to them, they became more willing to tackle a very challenging task--understanding how they could make their own opinions known to the congressmen enacting the laws.

Even though all the students were very interested in the actual legislation, they were intimidated by the difficulty of the language used in the bills. Even though they were able to grasp the essence of the proposed legislation, many of them decided they would rather write letters to their legislators expressing opinions about other issues that were important to them. As a final activity, students wrote letters expressing their concerns and opinions about the issue of school prayer. Because Rhode Island congressmen are very good about answering all letters from constituents, the students could all expect to receive personal replies.

After investing the time and energy required to understand and comment on the legislation, the students had also learned, first-hand and in a very real way, the way one branch of government works and how it relates to the other branches. Instead of meaningless memorized responses to the civics questions they might be asked at a citizenship interview, they had acquired useful knowledge and understanding of the subject. Some of those civics questions include:
   • What are the three branches of government?
   • What are the duties of Congress?
   • Who makes the laws?
   • Who signs bills into law?
   • Who are the Senators and Representatives from Rhode Island?
   • How many Senators are there in the Congress?
   • How many Representatives are there in the Congress?
   • Who elects the Congress?
   • For how long do we elect the Senators?
   • For how long do we elect the Representatives?
   • Where does the Congress meet?
   • What is the United States capitol building?

Many native-born American citizens have a very limited understanding of how our government works and little interest in participating in the democratic process. By showing citizenship students how legislation can directly impact their own lives (remember the harsh effects that 1996 welfare reform and immigration laws had on many immigrants and poor people), teachers can generate student interest and a desire to learn more about the power that individuals have in a democracy. For students preparing to become citizens, knowing that they have the power to make their voice heard, through contacting legislators and by voting, civic participation becomes real and necessary for them. Civic participation gives a new dimension to the meaning of citizenship for all people--native born or naturalized--and is essential to the survival of our democracy.

Taking Action to Create a Safer Community

A third project involved learning about public and personal safety and how citizens can take action to address safety concerns in their communities. The project was generated by students' concerns about cars being vandalized in the school parking lot. Two teachers, Baha and John, worked together to develop the project, and their students collaborated in all the activities.

The students in Baha's class were at the beginning ESL level while those in John's class had much higher literacy and English skills. The citizenship test is an English test that determines the applicant's ability to speak, understand, read and write English.

My citizenship/ESL students are at a beginner level. Even though they have been here long enough to be eligible for citizenship (5 years as a legal permanent resident, or three years married to a U.S. citizen), they have never mastered the English skills necessary for citizenship. The majority of them are Dominican, almost all live in the neighborhood where the Institute is located, work in factories at low wages to support their families, and have limited education.

Learning to speak to a police officer, reporting a crime, identifying suspects, and answering questions are excellent ways for students to learn to communicate effectively in English. Through the activities that Baha and John created for this project, students learned what to say and how to act when approached by a police office, what to expect from the officer, and what are a persons rights when he or she is arrested. The activities were very useful for learning to communicate effectively in English.

The principal goals of the project were
   • to help students understand how citizens can take action to create a safer      community
   • to help understand the role that the police play in the community
   • to increase awareness of practical ways to increase personal and home safety
   • to help learners learn how to talk to law enforcement officials
   • to learn about how to report incidents to the police
   • to understand the citizen's role in maintaining a safe community
   • to learn about the court system

The teachers engaged the students in a series of discussions about safety in their respective neighborhoods and listed their concerns. They also talked about encounters with the police and the difficulties that new Americans face when interacting with law enforcement officials. Baha shared his experiences as an Iranian immigrant, which encouraged students to talk about their own encounters with the police and the courts.

Most immigrants, including myself, come here for better lives and opportunities. We work hard to make this dream come to life. One thing we have in common is that we all miss our original homes and neighbors and the security of familiar surroundings. True, we have accomplished a major goal-we are now in America-but we live in fear that our homes and property may be broken into or vandalized. We fear the younger generation and worry that they are angry and armed with weapons. All of this fear can easily creep into our homes and family life, worry our children, and destroy that peaceful image that we had about living in America. Every family wants to live in a safe neighborhood, and immigrant families constantly try to move to areas that are more secure. Then families find that the so-called safer neighborhood also can be dangerous, and they move again and again until some of them give up and return to their homelands.

Baha and John believed that if newcomers understood the roles of police and citizens in maintaining a safe community, it would be easier for them to take action to improve their neighborhoods.

The International Institute is a warm and welcoming place, and makes the students feel safe and at home. However secure the students feel at the Institute, there is no guarantee that the place is free from crime. One of my students, Maria, a single mother, discovered that her car had been stolen from the parking lot while she was in class. She came into the Institute shaking and crying, not knowing what to do or where to turn for help. This incident made me realize that even though we feel safe and secure in a familiar place such as the Institute, there are many occasions when we are reminded of the dangers outside. If we, as U.S. citizens don't take action to make our communities safer, all we are left with are walls and fear.

The teachers then went into different Providence neighborhoods and interviewed (and videotaped) residents about their concerns for their communities. Providence is a medium-sized city with many diverse ethnic groups. The International Institute is located in South Providence, an area heavily populated by immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Southeast Asia, Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. There are also many African Americans in the area, and more recently, college students have moved in to take advantage of affordable housing.

I realized that, in order to do a good job on the neighborhood and community safety project, I needed a better understanding of the communities in the area, and I needed to listen to what the residents had to say about crime. So, I went around with a video camera and asked residents a series of questions about safety in their Providence neighborhoods, a topic that I believe addresses one of the major concerns for newcomers to America.

Baha, in collaboration with John, carried out a series of activities to help the students learn about the legal steps they can take to improve neighborhood safety and how they can work with the community police to reduce crime. Students viewed the videotaped interviews and discussed what citizens can do to make their neighborhoods safer and better places to live. They also talked a lot about a recent high profile case in Providence in which a Black, out-of-uniform police officer was shot to death by fellow officers. Without dwelling on the topics of racism or police brutality, the teachers helped the students talk about:
   • encounters with the police
   • opinions about the Providence police
   • attitude of the police towards immigrants

The teachers provided handouts including picture vocabulary sheets to help students learn the words to describe crimes and to make reports to the police, informational pamphlets from the Police Department describing when and how to report crimes, and instructions for making 911 or emergency calls.

Because most of the students were beginners, it was necessary to do more than just provide the students with contact information and phone numbers for contacting police. We had to introduce the issues in many different ways to familiarize them with the vocabulary and help them to describe and discuss the situations they might be reporting. The best way to present the topic was to act out a crime scene, and John and I prepared a dramatic presentation to be acted out in the class.

Baha and John tried to arrange for a representative from the Community Police to come to talk to students, but it was not possible to schedule a workshop.

I wanted to invite a community police officer so that the students could talk about their concerns to a real policeman. I believe that most immigrants, including myself, are too intimidated to speak to an officer, and for that reason, many of their problems may never be heard by an authority figure.

Because they couldn't get a real policeman to come to the class, Baha and John prepared some dramatic presentations to demonstrate the role of the police, how to report a crime, and what to expect if one is arrested. John portrayed a police officer, Baha "stole" a purse, the "victim" reported the crime while a student recorded the presentation on videotape. The presentation helped students understand first-hand how to interact with a police officer, what actions are not tolerated by police and can get a person into trouble, what are important details when reporting a crime, and, most importantly, that the job of the police is to help citizens live in peace and safety-a sometimes difficult concept for many IIRI students who come from countries where the police are feared so much that crimes are often not reported.

The dramatic presentation was both amusing and thought provoking. The students responded very well and openly expressed their feelings about their neighborhoods, how their communities could work together towards creating a safer environment, and the role and involvement of the community police in their own neighborhoods. John was very convincing in his role as a police officer (some of the students thought that he worked for the police), so the question and answer session between the "officer" and the students was very lively. John and Baha acted out several scenarios, including skits that portrayed vandalism, domestic violence, theft, resisting arrest, reporting a suspicious person or activity, and late-night loitering.

After the activities, students expressed that they felt more comfortable approaching a police officer and were more confident that they could report a crime. Over all, I think that the activities helped students take an important step towards addressing safety issues in their neighborhoods, understanding the role of the police, and acknowledging that citizens have to play a big part in keeping their communities safe. New American citizens, by exercising their Constitutional rights, can voice their opinions and vote for the people that will work in the government to help all Americans lead safe and happy lives. As an immigrant and a new citizen, I think that citizenship classes should be about understanding the history and government of the United States. The knowledge should not be acquired just to pass the test, but be part of a bigger picture-finding ways to function in our new country and to make improvements.

In the classroom workshops and in the taped interviews, people often expressed that making a community a safer place to live happens when everyone takes responsibility and works together to improve neighborhoods. Understanding that the police work for the people and with the people to ensure that all Americans enjoy their rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is often a difficult concept to communicate to immigrants whose experience with law enforcement has been negative. This project generated a real interest in the roles and responsibilities of citizens in their communities and provided a forum for discussions about the ways Americans can take action to solve problems. The interactive dramatic presentations helped students understand and communicate using English in "real-life" situations. The videotaped interviews with neighborhood residents were easily understood by the students and generated a lot of discussion. (Tapes from the library that were made to help ESL students learn about the roles of police, citizen, and community were much more difficult for the students to understand and failed to spark interest in the subject.)

The activities that Baha and John created cover several of the "100 Questions for Citizenship."
   • What are the 3 branches of government? (Police are part of the local      executive branch.)
   • Who is the Chief Executive of your city government?
   • What is the Judicial branch of government? (The courts, including the local      police court.)
   • What is the Bill of Rights?
   • Name three rights or freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. (Freedom of      speech, peaceful assembly, right to a lawyer when accused of a crime, trial by      jury, etc.)
   • What are the first ten amendments to the Constitution called?

Conclusion

Becoming a citizen of the United States is one of the most important steps an immigrant takes towards becoming a fully invested member of American society. To become a naturalized citizen, one must show that he or she speaks, understands, reads, and writes English, and demonstrate a basic understanding of United States history and government. But we all know that true citizenship involves active participation in government, making one's voice heard, and working together with fellow citizens to solve problems. By integrating civic participation and community service projects into citizenship preparation programs, teachers can give new citizens the tools they need to participate effectively in a democracy. At the International Institute of Rhode Island, we have seen the positive results of our efforts to encourage new Americans to become proactive, informed citizens who are not afraid to speak out about issues that concern them. The people who came to our citizenship classes believing that becoming a citizen just involves memorizing the answers to the 100 questions and learning basic English discover that there is a lot more work involved in becoming a citizen than they might have thought. It is our goal to make sure that every citizenship student leaves class knowing that his or her role as a proactive citizen is extremely important and essential in a successful democracy.

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