Last Updated on March 14, 2024 by TrayKay
The following free resources can be used to build your own civics and U.S. government course or unit studies for middle- and high school age learners. To provide a framework for your course or unit, you can follow the structures laid out in these resources:
American Government Course: This full course from Georgia Virtual Learning has 8 online modules, including text, civics worksheets, videos, slideshows, and suggested assignments. You can use the course as is, or just the pieces you want.
We the People: Free, open course; self-paced; about 6 weeks
Civics & Economics Textbook: This McGraw Hill full textbook includes 26 chapters, index, and reference handbook, and glossary. This free companion workbook has worksheets for each of the chapter sections, with an answer key included at the end.
iCivics: This site has a full U.S. government curriculum with free lesson plans, online games, and civics worksheets for middle- and high-school students. Topics are broken into units of study, so, again, you can choose the pieces you want. Click here for the high school scope and sequence which outlines a variety of activities that are provided within each of the units. iCivics also has a new elementary civics curriculum called Private i History Detectives, with units on communities, leaders, maps, free speech, and other topics.
CPalms: These online civics tutorials for grades 6 – 8 feature such topics as the three branches of government, how laws are made, political parties, the constitution, and a bunch of others. There are 47 tutorials in all.
PBSLearningMedia: This site’s civics and government section has videos, interactive lessons, documents, etc. on many topics. Filter by grade and resource type. A section on the U.S. Presidency features 60-second videos on the Presidents, presidential portraits and biographies, and information on the duties and powers of the President, first ladies, and speeches. There are teachers guides on select Presidents and first ladies.
Awesome Stories: This site has a variety of video, audio, and text resources that explore different forms of government.
60-Second Civics: Podcast about the government and history.
The Constitution Explained: 35-episode video series
