Social Studies Essential Questions About Civics
History is vast, and without something around which to organize your curriculum it can be hard to determine what to inclue and what to exclude. Good essential questions are useful tools for organizing your curriculum and making connections between different eras.
This resource is a list of essential questions related to civics that you could use for planning lessons, units, and curricula in your social studies or history class.
List of Essential Questions About Civics
What is the purpose of government?
Why do we make governments and agree to follow their rules? Do we really need to have a government? What kinds of this does the government do or create? What would life be like in the absence of a government?
What does the government owe you, and vice versa?
How do you expect the government to treat you? What sorts of things do you think the government should create or maintain? Do you have any obligations as a citizen? What kinds of ways can you serve your country?
What Does It Mean to Be a Good Citizen?
What are some qualities of a good citizen? What kinds of things would you expect a good citizen to do? Do you think a good citizen has to follow the law all of the time? Are you a good citizen?
Use These Essential Questions In a Lesson
One way to utilize these essential questions is to use them as the foundation for an individual lesson. It's a great way to kick off the school year, get to know your students and start them thinking about civics.
Take each question in turn and use it as a discussion prompt for the class to discuss. You could also use a Think-Pair-Share or A/B writing assignment as a Do Now. The questions make great homework writing assignments, too, after the lesson.
You can use this Powerpoint to help facilitate the discussion, and you can read more about how to facilitate the discussion of these essential questions about civics here.
Use These Essential Questions In Curricular Design
You can also take these essential questions and use them to make connections between different units in your curriculum and different time periods. Simply select the historical topics and content that relates to these questions, and refer to them throughout the year.
Hammer home the importance of these themes by using them as a form of summative assessment. At the end of each unit, you can ask your students to answer one of the essential questions based on what they learned in that particular unit. A short paragraph might suffice, or you could wrap up the year with a whole essay.