How can I build my skills to become an active citizen?
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can identify skills needed for active citizenship and explain how these will help me.
Key learning points
- A range of specific skills are needed to be an active citizen and a changemaker.
- Skills include communication, critical thinking, analysis, evaluation, research, teamwork, confidence and resilience.
- They also include creating reasoned arguments, decision-making, advocating for others and persuasion skills.
- These skills all help active citizenship projects to be successful.
Keywords
Skills - abilities or expertise gained through practice or experience to perform tasks effectively
Active citizen - a person who actively takes responsibility, becomes involved in areas of public concern and tries to make a positive difference in their community
Changemaker - someone who wants change in the world and, by gathering knowledge and resources, makes that change happen
Common misconception
Citizenship skills are only important for politicians, activists, or people with a lot of power.
Citizenship skills are important for everyone, because even small actions help strengthen communities and make a difference. These skills help ordinary people stand up for their rights, support others and create positive change in everyday life.
Teacher tip
If pupils struggle to identify and think about their own skills, encourage them to think of hobbies, other lessons or even how their friends might describe them.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Mary is thinking about her place within her village. What community is she thinking of?
Q2.Larry is thinking about his place as a year seven pupil at Acorn Academy. What community is he thinking of?
Q3.China has high levels of pollution and waste, some of which is due to the global demand for what?
Q4.Which area in the UK is sometimes viewed as being unfairly favoured in terms of money, jobs and activities?
Q5.What type of crime suggests discrimination is still an issue nationally?
Q6.Order the words to complete a definition for community. A community is a group of people living in the same place...
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Maisie has met with her headteacher to talk about how their current school uniform is discriminatory, she is trying to make him agree with her. Which of these skills does this specifically describe?
Q2.Tom, Liam, Noel and Stan are working together well, they are listening to each other, considering each other's strengths and supporting each other. Which specific skill are they demonstrating?
Q3.If you are providing a voice for other people, what are you doing? Put the words in the correct order to find the answer.
Q4.This is a skill which will be needed if a project is taking a long time or there isn't much progress being made.
Q5.Order and complete this description of the skill, analysis. Breaking down complex...
Q6.Judging the success of actions and suggesting improvements is describing which skill?
To help you plan your 10 citizenship lesson on: How can I build my skills to become an active citizen?, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 10 citizenship lesson on: How can I build my skills to become an active citizen?, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 citizenship lessons from the How can I be a changemaker in my community? unit, dive into the full secondary citizenship curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.