CLOSE UP Preamble Project

Close Up is partnering with New Voice Strategies to offer the Preamble Project—free, immersive classroom materials for high school and middle school students that use an exploration of the Preamble to the Constitution to delve into such vital questions as: Who, in today’s America, are “We the People?” What aspirations inspire us? How do we pursue a “more perfect union?”
All materials will be released this summer in time for the lead-up to Constitution Day.

CIRCLE & CERG 4-day Summer  Institute

June 27-30 or July 11-4 
This professional development institute prepares educators to teach about the upcoming election and to support their colleagues' efforts to foster informed and equitable voting among students and their community.
This institute is being co-hosted by the premier research centers on K-12 civic learning in the United States: the Civic Engagement Research Group (CERG) at the University of California Riverside; and CIRCLE, part of Tufts University’s Tisch College for Civic Life.

Mikva Challenge Summer Institute

July 14-15
We are excited to once again provide an opportunity for educators to dive deep into high-quality Action Civics curriculum and inspiring professional development. Our annual Action Civics Summer Institute will return this July. Participants will explore ways to improve school culture and develop students’ academic and social-emotional skills. And, for the first time since 2019, it will be in person, in Chicago, Illinois! ​

NCSS IDM Summer Institute

July 11-12
Sponsored by C3 Teachers and National Council for the Social Studies, the two-day virtual IDM Summer Institute is back! This is our 8th year helping teachers learn about inquiry-based teaching and learning in general and the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) and designing inquiries in particular. ​

NCSS Summer Leadership Institute

July 19-20
During this two-day virtual event, NCSS members will learn about the current legal and political challenges confronting teaching social studies and work collaboratively on approaches, tools, and structures that we can put in place at the classroom, local, state, and national levels to navigate the current political landscape.

102nd NCSS Annual Conference​

December 2-4
The NCSS Annual Conference is the largest gathering of K-12 social studies classroom teachers, college and university faculty members, curriculum designers and specialists, district and state social studies supervisors, international educators, and social studies discipline leaders. 

Past Events and Related Resources:

WEBINAR: Teaching the Presidency in the Digital Age
Wednesday, January 11th
​4pm ET/1pm PT
The Teaching for Democracy Alliance is pleased to announce its first webinar of 2017 on the timely and important topic of "Teaching the Presidency in the Digital Age." The webinar will feature Professor Joseph Kahne of UC-Riverside, whose most recent work examines the connection between media literacy education and students' ability to spot fake news, as well as commentary by media literacy experts Dr. Katherine Fry of Brooklyn College and Dr. Paul Mihailidis from Emerson College. The webinar will also highlight free and innovative instructional resources to support teachers as they help their students make sense of the executive branch in today's digital climate.

• Stream the webinar recording HERE. 
• View the webinar slide deck, with links to many resources is to the right. 
• Kahne & Bowyer research article featured during the webinar. 
• Featured resource (to the right): CloseUp Foundation Lesson Plan: The 2016 Election: What Comes Next?

Wednesday, September 14th, 2016 at 7pm ET 
Teaching About the Presidential Debates

​Moderated by Dr. Belinha DeAbreu, the discussion will focus on how teachers can effectively bring the conversation about presidential debates into their classroom this fall. Renowned media literacy educator Frank Baker (Media Literacy Clearinghouse) and Kamy Akhavan from procon.org will join Dr. DeAbreu to share their expertise and resources. Stream the webinar recording here.

Tuesday, May 24th, 2016 at 7pm ET 
Registration Nation: Building voter registration among ALL 18 year olds
Professional Development Webinar on Facilitating Voter Registration in High Schools ​
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Tuesday, April 26th, 2016 at 7pm ET
​Teaching Controversial Topics
​Stream the webinar recording to the right. 
​

Tuesday, March 8th, 2016 at 7pm
Teaching for Democracy: We Got You Covered: Webinar about the Alliance, resources and discussion about the upcoming year. Stream the webinar recording here.  

 Monday, February 8th, 2016
“Bringing Elections to the Classroom”  on #sschat. See the archive here.