Review the role of media-produced messages and their impact on our understanding of ideas associated with civic engagement. Generate examples of advertising and discuss what their implied message is. Collectively decide on what the ad places value on as being important to an individual (e.g., Virginia Slims ad with the tagline “You've Come A Long Way Baby”: the perceived sense of independence and disregard for negative consequences to one's health is more important than practicing a healthy lifestyle or following guidelines meant to protect us).

• Reconsider the posted messages of value and importance from the songs. Discuss how music can influence one's feelings or understanding of ideas associated with civic engagement. Brainstorm what other forms of media influence values we hold as individuals and as a community.

• In order to prepare for the next day's class, ask students to watch for billboards on their way home that night, consider what messages and values they are promoting and how those messages may impact the community.

• Day Two: Discuss the billboard examples, highlighting the value message it sends and how viewers could interpret the community's values and identity from these messages.

• Distribute Core Values of American Constitutional Democracy ( Attachment One ) and discuss Fundamental Beliefs and Constitutional Principles so that the learners are clear on the difference. List these values where they can be seen easily and saved for future reference throughout this lesson and unit.

• Divide the class into small groups. Have students analyze a variety of media examples, including examples produced for a local audience and a national audience. The group should complete the Message and Value Analysis Sheet ( Attachment Two ) for each example.

• Day Three: Continue the work of small groups analyzing media examples (if needed).

• Day Four: Ask students to share their results by listing

• the values promoted in the media examples they worked with, and

• the core values of civic engagement that were not supported in the messages.

• In a large group discussion, focus on the following questions:

• Are we, as a community, promoting the core values of civic engagement?

• If we are, how does this impact our community?

• If we are, how does this impact the practice of democracy?

• If we are not, how does this impact our community?

• If we are not, how does this impact the practice of democracy?

• Ask students to write an informal response to the following prompt: “Taking on the perspective of a recent immigrant who has sought political asylum in America, if you found yourself confronted with these promoted values associated with civic engagement, would you feel that you were entering a caring, democratic community?”

In order to prepare for the next day's class, ask students to reflect on how they are or are not individually supporting the core values of civic engagement.

• Day Five: Ask the learners how becoming civically engaged impacts other individuals and the community. Have them respond to one of the following scenarios by completing two journal entries for each - from the perspective of a person experiencing the scenario when no one else practices civic engagement, and from the perspective of a person experiencing the scenario when the majority of individuals practice civic engagement.

• Scenario 1: a person who is left alone when everyone else has been taken away.

Read the following poem, "First They Came for the Jews" by the German anti-Nazi activist, Pastor Martin Niemöller, to the learners.

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out - because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Scenario 2: a person who is suddenly evicted, having been laid off a week earlier, with no relatives, where the Housing Authority is full with a three-month waiting list.

• Scenario 3: a city which decides to use excess tax funds to build the mayor a new house even when the schools have lost federal funding for the school lunch program.

As a large group, discuss possible implications of individual participation in civic engagement on the community, as well as lack of individual participation in civic engagement in the community. Remind students to include examples they gathered from their parents or a community member.

• In order to prepare for the next day's class, ask students to reflect on how their community not only promotes the values of civic engagement but also supports them. Students should choose at least one source of information to review: The Yellow Pages, local city government's website, or one of their own selection, to do this.

• Day Six: Assign small groups to analyze the data from the teacher created local needs information sheet. Remind students that this will help the group respond to the question: “How does our community not only promote civic engagement but support it as well?”

Day Seven: Small groups should share and compare with the whole group their data analysis. As a group, draw conclusions from the information that was compiled.

• Discuss the possible implications these conclusions hold for the work of the entire community and for individuals who want to commit to participating in civic engagement. Generate “To-Do,” “Stop Doing,” and “Keep Doing” lists for involved parties to sustain and support the continued growth of the community and strength of democratic values.

• Day Eight: Spend a few minutes reflecting on the lists created by the group yesterday.

Discuss how the collection of ideas and act of critiquing ourselves and the community is an important part of becoming responsible community members. Point out that if individuals would only talk about problems and how to fix them – without acting on these ideas or working for change – the value of this act would be lost.