Citizenship: Rights and Responsibilities

Target Curriculum: History and Social Science

Target Grade: 3 - 3

SOLs: HSS.1.13   HSS.2.9   HSS.3.11   HSS.3.12  
Time: 1 -2- weeks

Objective:
1. The students will understand the meaning of citizenship.
2. The students will understand that citizens have rights and responsibilities and will explain the relationship between rights and responsibilities.
3. The students will recognize that rules, laws, and constitutional mandates protect the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
4. The students will understand the consequences for breaking rules, laws, and constitutional mandates is punishment.

Purpose:
To give third grade students the hands-on opportunity to gain an introductory understanding of the role of citizenship, its rights and responsibilities, and the consequences for breaking rules, laws, and constitutional mandates.

Materials:
Chart paper for "Class Bill of Rights"
Yertle the Turtle - Dr. Seuss
A Children's Chorus - UNICEF staff
Horton Hatches the Egg - Dr. Seuss
Reference materials for "Look Who's Made a Difference"
Story frame: I use to ___________. But now I _______________.
Construction paper for creating "Super Citizen" Wanted Poster
T Chart for showing relationship between rights and responsibilities.
Available children's games
Chart paper for "Class Rules"
Supplies for Citizenship Celebration (optional)

Procedure:
1. Begin your study of citizenship by telling the students that a citizen is a member of a special community or group of people. Explain that a person can be a citizen of a very large community like the United States and a person can also be a citizen of much smaller communities like a classroom, a neighborhood, or a city. Explain to the students that to become a citizen, special requirements must be fullfilled. For example, a classroom citizen must be enrolled in school, attend class regularly, and follow the established rules. Emphasize that being a citizen is a privilege and responsibilities come with that privilege. Have the students generate a list of qualities of a responsible classroom citizen.
Guide the students to define citizenship as the privilege and responsiblitiy of being a member of the United States.
2. Ask the students for ideas on what rights they should have as students in your classroom. Discuss and decide on them as a class. The final list could be posted as the "Class Bill of Rights".
(This activity could also be done as a small-group activity where each separate group makes its own list and then the class come together to discuss and decide on a class list.)
Guide the student to define right as a liberty protected by the government. Note: Two children's books, Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss and A Children's Chorus by UNICEF staff nicely support the concept of rights and could be used as an introduction or as a conclusion to the study and meaning of rights.
3.a.) Introduce the concept of responsibility by reading aloud Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss. In this story, Horton the elephant takes over Mayzie bird's job of sitting on an egg while she flies south for a vacation. At the conclusion of the story, ask students to describe Horton's responsible behaviors. An extension activity from this book, might be to have each student be responsible for an egg to take care of in school and at home. Students could describe the responsible behaviors they exhibited as they cared for their egg. ("Egg-ceptional" students)
b.) Have the students refer back to the "Class Bill of Rights" and generate a list of responsibilities that go along with each right. Classroom helpers are a wonderful way to develop responsible classroom citizens.
c.) Set up a "Look Who's Made a Difference" reference center where students can be on the lookout for news stories, books, and magazines about men, women, and children - " ordinary" citizens past and present - who have made a positive difference in their communities, states, and nation. Extend the activity by encouraging the students to recognize acts of responsibility by their fellow classmates, friends, and students. The students could create awards for those people they selected.
d.) Have the students think about what it was like when they were younger in regard to being responsible and what it's like now. Help them see how they have become more dependable. They could complete the following frames comparing the past and present: I used to _______________. But now I _____________.
Guide the students to define the word responsibilty as a duty to take care of self: respecting the rights of others; obeying rules and laws.
e.) At the conclusion of studying citizenship, rights, and responsibilities have the students create a "Super Citizen" wanted poster. Have them imagine the type of citizen they would want to have in their community. How would the person act? What qualities should that person have? Hang these posters in the classroom and review the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
4. To help the students understand the relationship between rights and responsibilites have them create a T Chart with the following information:
Rights
Freedom of speech
To go where you want to go
Choose one's job

Responsibilties
Using appropriate language shows respect for others.
Obey traffic laws
To do your job well
5.a.) To begin the class study of the reasons for rules, laws, and constitutional mandates have the students complete the following activity. Bring several card or board games into your class to play. Have the students get into small groups (four or five per game). Be sure that the students use a game they have not played before. Then, do not give them the instructions! Give the students 15 minutes or so to figure out the game then stop. Ask them what kinds of problems they are having. How did they decide who goes first? Which cards or pieces did they use, and how did they use them? What was the object of the game? How do rules make the game easier? Can they see how difficult life would get without rules?
b.) Refer back to the "Class Bill of Rights" and have the students list a rule that goes along with each right. Discuss with the students how rules protect our rights. The students could generate a list of "Class Rules" to go along with the "Class Bill of Rights." Consequences could also be added as an extention of what happens when rules are broken.
c.) Organize the class into small groups and have each group create a simple citizenship booklet for themselves and any new student that might come into their class. Their booklet should include an introduction, a list of classroom rights and responsibilities with specific examples of each, and a list of classroom rules and consequences.
d.) Lead the class in a discussion about why laws are necessary. Have the students form three groups to explore the importance of laws. Assign each group one of the following "What If....?" questions: What if we did not have traffic laws? What if we did not have laws to protect our personal property? What if we did not have laws to protect our public property? Have each group explore all the things that could happen without laws and then develop and perform a skit, or write a newspaper headline and story to present their conclusions.
e.) Guide the students to understand the reasons for rules, laws, and constitutional mandates:
* protect rights
* describe how people should behave
* keep people safe
f.) Guide the students to understand that the consequences for breaking rules, laws, and constitutional mandates is punishment.

Observations:
This mini civis unit would be an opportune time to review civics SOLs K.7, 1.13, 2.9 covered in earlier grades. The students could also review patriotic symbols and patriotic activities.

Conclusions:
At the end of this unit, students should have a better understanding of citizenship and its rights and responsibilites.

For Your Information:
The following websites have additional civics information and activities related to SOL 3.12:
http://www.civiced.org
http://civnet.org

Extension:
Culmiinate your study of civics with a citizenship celebration! Encourage the students to invite their parents to your classroom festivities. The guests can see the students' star-spangled projects, such as "Look Who's Made a Difference", "Super Citizen" posters, "Egg-ceptionally" Responsible Student Reports and Citizenship Booklets. You could serve a patriotic snack of blueberries, sliced strawberries, and banana wheels. Conclude the celebration with a presentation of citizenship awards for each student. Students will feel especially honored to be recognized for their citizenship efforts in the presence of their guests.

Class Discussion Questions:
Included in the procedures above.

Cautions and Concerns:
These activities will hopefully guide your students to understand the role of citizenship in balancing rights and responsibilities. More than one activity is provided under each of the areas in the SOL and teachers will need to choose which activity is best suited to their class.