CHV2O Unit 1: Thinking Politically

Students learn what civics is and what makes an issue a civic issue, the five steps of the political inquiry process and six types of inquiry questions. They learn the four concepts of political thinking (political significance, objectives and results, stability and change, political perspective), which every later lesson uses, and apply them to Ontario's school phone rules and to current-events briefs. They learn to judge the credibility and bias of sources, including social media, with a four-step check (Stop, Investigate, Find, Trace), and to discuss hard issues with respect, stating positions with reasons, evidence, values and fair attention to other views. The summative, Civic Issue Snapshot, asks them to investigate a local civic issue using the concepts and two checked sources.

Assessment of learning: Civic Issue Snapshot: a short inquiry into a local civic issue using the concepts of political thinking and two sources checked for credibility and bias.

Lessons

1. What Is Civics?
2. Thinking Politically
3. Sources, Bias and Social Media
4. Talking About Hard Issues

What you get

• A teacher lesson plan for every lesson: curriculum expectations, learning goals and success criteria, a timed sequence, differentiation, look-fors and answer guides
• Detailed slideshows (15 to 18 slides per lesson) with speaker notes on every slide: what to say, what to ask, what to look for and how long to spend, plus warm-ups, worked examples, model answers and answer-key slides
• Student handouts, organizers and exit tickets, with original scenarios and examples
• Editable Word and PowerPoint files, plus PDFs
• A unit overview and the summative task with a rubric and teacher guide

Built for the Ontario curriculum (Civics and Citizenship, Grade 10, Open, CHV2O, revised 2022) and Ontario's 2026 evaluation policy (65% classroom work, 20% final exam, 15% attendance and participation), and easy to adapt for any Canadian civics course.

Need just one lesson? Single lessons from this unit will also be available for CA$3.99 each.