Civics Education is essential to encouraging civil and nuanced discourse.

The 4 P's of Civics are:"

1. People: the people involved and/or impacted by political decisions, conflicts, etc.
2. Power: power struggles (e.g. natural resources, trade, labor, etc.)
3. Problems: the conflicts and problems that occurred for specific groups of people and governing bodies and how they were resolved
4. Places: the physical environments where political events and struggles occurred

How to use...

When you want to prepare your students for a discussion about a civics related topic, have them use this graphic organizer while they read different sources with the focus of analyzing how the 4 P's of Civics are present or not present in each source.

Ask them questions like:

• Who were the people included and not included in your research?
• Which places were in dispute between [group 1] and [group 2]?
• Why did [insert the problem] occur?
• Who were the people who were in power? How did they use their power?
• Who were the people who were not in power? What did they want from the people in power?