University Freshmen Teach Elementary Civics

A group of freshmen students from Nicole Krassas’ American Government and Politics class at Eastern Connecticut State University engaged in a service learning opportunity last fall. They volunteered to teach civics lessons to third and fourth graders at W.B. Sweeney Elementary School in Willimantic. The elementary students learned the processes of the United States government, including how laws are created and the branches of government.

The college students prepared the curriculum and each had an opportunity to teach. Their lesson plans included movies, Power Point presentations, reading assignments and worksheets. Many students from Krassas’ class aspire to become elementary school teachers and believed this opportunity was very beneficial. “I want to become a teacher,” said student Amanda Barney. “This experience was challenging and it required me to use different ways of teaching to fit the various needs of the students. Some had trouble reading so we worked in groups to complete the worksheets we had developed.”

Krassas’ course is a part of the First Year Program’s learning communities called “clusters,” which encourage first-year students to develop relationships with their peers as they take three classes together and participate in related activities on and off campus.

Krassas, associate professor of political science, arranged this service learning opportunity through Eastern’s new Center for Community Engagement (CCE). The CCE encourages and assists professors with the incorporation of service opportunities into the syllabus that parallel what students are learning in the classroom. These can range from developing an inventory tracking system for the local food pantry to developing advertisements and artwork for a local business or community.