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Michigan Teachers Can Use BRI’s Standards Alignment Tool

by Bill of Rights Institute on

A new tool is available to help Michigan teachers teach civics and history, thanks to the Bill of Rights Institute.

As part of BRI’s new aligned state standards tool, Michigan teachers have their own state-specific resource of curricula recommended by BRI to meet their state’s civics and history education standards. The tool allows teachers to filter their state’s standards by grade, subject, and the type of resource they want to use.

Michigan teachers can filter standards for grades 6-12 and for multiple subjects, including civics and government, U.S. History and geography, and public discourse, decision-making, and citizen involvement. They can also filter by Michigan’s standards, which include comparing and contrasting different ideas about the purposes of government in different nations, nation-states, or governments; analyzing the impact of treaties, agreements, and international organizations on global issues; and using compelling and supporting questions to investigate social scientific problems.

The tool links to recommended BRI resources under each standard that teachers can use, including activities, essays, podcasts, and videos from curricula like Being an American, Documents of Freedom, and Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (BRI’s comprehensive U.S. History digital textbook).

BRI held workshops to introduce our state standards alignment tool to teachers. Amanda Brown, a history teacher from Midland, Mich., described the workshop she attended as “honestly one of the best workshops I have attended.”

“I am walking away from the workshop with ideas that are relevant to my classroom instruction. This experience has made me a better teacher!” she said.

Brian DuFort, who teaches civics, economics, government, and history in Mt. Pleasant, Mich., said the workshop he attended will help him improve his classroom instruction in the future.

“This was very well done and one of the best professional development professional development experiences I have had,” he said.

Visit BRI’s state standards alignment tool page to learn more about the tools for Michigan and other states.