Plan an activity
Getting involved in a citizenship project
After thinking about what could be improved in their local communities, students now get the chance to plan their own active citizenship project.
Although there are many links with geographical fieldwork, you may need to adapt the ideas below to make them suitable for a geography lesson.
Activity One: Could you do this?
Aims
- Students assess what they do in the community and discuss and evaluate what more they could do in their community
- Develop skills of enquiry and communication
Instructions
Students should work in groups of approximately five. Distribute a selection of 'could you do this' cards to each group.
Download: 'Could You' Cards (PDF, 133k)
Ask each group to sort the cards into three piles: Yes – I could do that in my community, No – I couldn't do that in my community and Not sure. Encourage them to share their thoughts. Share your own thought with the class and suggest other ideas on how they can improve their community.
Ask students to write a list of the challenges relating to running a citizenship activity, and another list of how they could overcome these challenges.
Activity Two: Plan your project
The ultimate activity is to get students involved in an active citizenship project.
This could be undertaken in class time, as homework, or as an after school activity. You may find that activities will work better if your school makes time and resources available to help students run their project.
Aims
- Brainstorm ideas and plan an active citizenship project
- Negotiate, decide and take part in school and community based activities
- Teamwork
Instructions
Enthuse your students about carrying out an active citizenship project. You could tell them it's a chance to make a difference, learn about their community, have fun and do something different.
This activity can take anything from 45 minutes to several hours depending on how deeply the students plan.
The Project Planning Sheets are designed as a framework to help students discuss, negotiate and plan an active citizenship project. Encourage them to consider specific locations whilst working through the sheets.
Download: Project Planning Sheets (PDF, 288k)
Students may need some extra paper to log extended ideas.
Arrange students into groups of approximately five, although they could plan activities individually.
Project ideas
Here are some project ideas that could be used as a starting point for brainstorming - try to think of particular places in your local area to really engage your students. You could also encourage them to be creative and come up with their own ideas relating to their community.
Download: Ideas for short-term projects (PDF, 5.1k)
Download: Ideas for long-term projects (PDF, 5.8k)
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