Welcome to Building Democracy for All - an interactive, multimodal, multicultural, open access eBook for teaching and learning key topics in United States Government and Civic Life. Open access means these materials are “digital, online, and free of charge” (Billings, 2019). This book is available online to anyone with an internet connection. The eBook can also be viewed and printed as a PDF file. Designed as a core or supplementary text for middle and high school teachers and students, this eBook offers instructional ideas, interactive resources, primary documents, and multicultural and multimodal learning materials for interest-building explorations of United States government as well as students’ roles as citizens in a democratic society. It focuses on the importance of community engagement and social responsibility as understood and acted upon by middle and high school students—core themes in the 2018 Massachusetts 8th Grade Curriculum Framework, and which are found in many state history and social studies curriculum frameworks around the country. Building Democracy for All has been developed by a collaborative writing team of higher education faculty, public school teachers, educational librarians, and college students who are preparing to become history and social studies teachers. The primary editors and curators are from the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Education. Contributing teachers come from school districts in the Connecticut River valley region of western Massachusetts (Amherst, Gateway, Westfield, Hampshire Regional, and Springfield). As an open resource, the book is being revised constantly by the members of the writing team to ensure timely inclusion of online resources and information.
Type of Material:
Open (Access) Textbook
ALSO available as PDF download
Recommended Uses:
In class, homework, individual, team and self-paced learning
Technical Requirements:
Browser, software, Adobe Reader
Identify Major Learning Goals:
interest-building explorations of United States government as well as students’ roles as citizens in a democratic society.
importance of community engagement and social responsibility
Enable social and critical consciousness
Current and traditional topics – multicultural approach
Target Student Population:
Middle School, High School, College General Ed, Life-long learners
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Basic American history and civics
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
Superlative layout of major issues, with a place to explore specific isses,
There are questions, exercises, projects, and multiple links to expand each topic.
The exercises could be used for exams, semester long projects, and to evaluate comprehension of each topic.
Concerns:
none
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
An extremely interactive textbook for both teacher and student.
Links to Videos, audio, and plenty of resources.
Creative Commons:
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