TIP SHEET

Creating Holistic Learning Activities in the Citizenship

Classroom: A Step-by-Step Guide

Introduction

Think back to when you were in school to

the most memorable learning experiences

you had. Chances are that they did not involve

sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture

while watching a PowerPoint presentation. For

learning to go into long-term memory, it has

to be memorable.

Teachers of English as a second language (ESL)

are usually quite skilled at making a lesson

“come alive” due to their natural tendencies

to know how to convey a word denition

or concept through the use of non-verbal

actions and props. Making these denitions

and concepts “stick” involves

creating classroom activities that

align with how the brain learns

best, naturally. Before we discuss

the types of activities, however,

we need to discuss the USCIS

Citizenship Content Standards located on the

Citizenship Resource Center (CRC) at www.

uscis.gov/citizenship.

Education Standards

The Guide to the Adult Citizenship Education Content

Standards and Foundation Skills: A Framework for Developing

a Comprehensive Curriculum, assists adult education

program administrators and teachers in developing

a citizenship curriculum and thematic lessons,

choosing textbooks and supplemental materials,

and creating effective learning activities. This guide

is organized around three naturalization content

areas with correlated progress standards. The guide

emphasizes the importance of foundation skills

necessary for students to learn citizenship-specic

content. Using the foundation skills and content

standards outlined in this guide, teachers can link

the skills and knowledge their students need for the

naturalization interview and test with classroom

instruction.

It is important for teachers to become familiar with

the content and progress standards before creating

their lesson plans and classroom activities. The goal

of a lesson plan should be to teach one or more of

the progress standards, and the goal of a classroom

activity should be to help students understand a

concept, learn it, remember it, and know how it ts

into the larger theme.

Step 1: Selection

Decide which words and concepts within your

lesson could benet most from classroom activities

to reinforce your instruction. Not everything

requires an activity, nor would there be sufcient

class time to do so. So knowing what words and

concepts to reinforce is critical. A few criteria

to employ to make the decision is (1) Will my

students have to know the word(s) or concept

for the interview and at what level? (2) Is this a

word(s) or concept that is likely above the English

level of the majority of my students? (3) Is the

word(s) or concept crucial for the understanding of

a broader content area. If the answer is “yes” to one

or more, you should consider developing one or

more classroom activities.

One example of words that appear together often

in the N-400 Application for Naturalization is “have

you ever.” Because this verb phrase appears so often

and its meaning is so important, you might want to

develop one or more activities to reinforce your relevant

interview lesson.

Step 2: Deconstruction

Once you have decided on the word(s) or concepts

that will require activities, you will need to deconstruct

them by answering the following questions:

For a word or phrase, you will ask:

• What definitions are needed?

• Are there grammatical elements that need to be

taught?

For a concept, you will ask:

• What vocabulary words will need to be defined?

• Are there concepts within the concept that will need

to be explained?

• Are there grammatical elements that will need to be

taught?

Using our example, we know that “have you ever” is

a combination of the present perfect and the adverb

“ever” as in the sentence, “Have you ever been to Canada?”

We know we use the present perfect tense to talk about

unnished actions that began in the past, but continue

into the present. For the ESL class, the teacher would

emphasize how to form the present perfect tense,

how to use it, its meanings and nuances, etc. For the

citizenship class, the main goal is for the students

to understand that when the USCIS ofcer asks your

student one of the many “have you ever” questions from

the N-400, he or she means, “from the time you were born

until now.”

Step 3: Development

Once you know the focus of your lesson and all the

vocabulary, sub-concepts, and grammatical elements you

will need to include in the reinforcement activities, it is

time to develop them.

The brain learns best when activities include certain

elements, such as getting students up and moving, using

patterns and categories, incorporating the ve senses,

having students work in groups, allowing students to

see the meaning in what they are learning, adding color,

building on prior knowledge, using music, etc.

When constructing your activities, keep time in mind.

First, the activity should not take too much time from

your schedule unless it warrants the time commitment.

Second, the brain gets tired and stops learning as

efciently if activities go much beyond 15-20 minutes.

To develop an effective activity for our example,

combine movement, building on prior knowledge,

patterning, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic into one

activity. Using cardstock, the teacher creates a timeline

on the white board. When the teacher asks students

questions using vocabulary words they have already

been taught, each student comes up and draws a line

with a colored dry-erase marker starting on the date

the activity began, to the date it ended. If the activity is

still going on, the student would draw the line to “now”

and make it an arrow pointing toward the future. For

example, the teacher might ask, “Have you ever studied

English?” “Have you ever had a dog?” “Have you ever

worked?” If the answer is “no” to any of the questions,

the student has to stand and say, “I have never…”

Step 4: Trials

Once you have your activity developed, run through

it yourself to make sure your instructions are clear,

your handouts are accurate and there are enough, and

supplies are on hand. Then try out the activity with your

students. Keep mental notes about what is working well

and what you would like to work differently.

Using our example again, make sure you have your date

cards made, questions prepared, and color dry-erase

markers available for students.

Step 5: Revision

After class, jot down what you would like to change

about the activity if anything. Make the revisions and try

again. Sometimes it takes several tries before the activity

works exactly the way you want it to. Even then, due

to the varying dynamics of each class, activities may

not always have the same results. However, once you

have the activity where you want it, you can add it to

your activities library connected to the relevant lesson

plan(s).

So you tried out your activity and found that some

questions worked well and others did not. Because

your timeline cards contained only years—1971, 1972,

1973, etc., students were confused when they did an

activity containing only one time word within a year.

For example, “Did you ever visit the Statue of Liberty?” When

you revise the activity, you may decide that for this

activity, students should only be asked questions that

would be longer in duration—usually multi-years, or

could be answered with “no.” You can then develop other

activities that accommodate shorter periods of time.

To nd additional citizenship education materials and instructional resources, visit the Citizenship Resource Center

at www.uscis.gov/citizenship.