These products and resources are developed to improve public understanding of representative democracy and encourage Americans to play a responsible role in their government; strengthen classroom teaching about representative democracy; provide legislators and staff with resource materials to help improve public understanding of their institutions; and support research on public views about Congress and state legislatures.
View a complete list of classroom materials.
The lesson plans, online activities and videos are correlated to state curriculum standards.
Lesson Plans
Representative Democracy in America
The Center for Civic Education’s new curriculum is Representative Democracy in America, a six-part video series on DVD to help middle and high school students understand our system of representative democracy. The six programs, each approximately 15 minutes in length, and the instructional guide are available from the Center for Civic Education. More
Fundamentals of Representative Democracy: Lesson Plans for High School Civics, Government and U.S. History Classes
These lessons about the fundamentals of representative democracy are designed mainly for civics and American government courses taught at the high-school level. They can also be used in American history courses. The lessons relate to core themes that lie at the very center of American government and politics, and practically every lesson needs to be built on it. They are adapted to state standards for civics and government. More (PDF--66 pages) To view PDF files, you must install Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Am I Missing Something?
New videos and lesson plans help students learn about American Democracy. More
Online Interactive Learning
Learn About Congress Modules
Developed for students as well as the general public, these interactive learning activities are designed to give you a fresh perspective on how the United States Congress works, your role in the process, and peoples' perceptions about Congress. More
Teaching with Primary Sources
The purpose of Teaching with Primary Sources is to engage students in learning about Congress, representative democracy, and citizen participation. To accomplish this, we are developing an extensive suite of interactive online activities to help teachers access and use the digital primary source materials of the Library of Congress and the Center on Congress Web site. More
Democracy Kids
Geared for upper elementary students, this site offers fun interactive activities to teach young people some basic concepts about our system of democracy. More
Classroom Resource Materials
America’s Legislators Back to School Program Materials
Learn About Congress Resources