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Why choose Close Up for professional development?
“Close Up’s PD provided great ideas about how to address specific issues or scenarios that may arise and some of the nuances. This was an AWESOME professional development.” –Teacher, Philadelphia Public Schools
As instructional experts with over 50 years of experience in nonpartisan, issue-centered education, Close Up offers professional development trainings, both online and on-site, that provide middle school and high school educators with the strategies and resources needed to engage students in meaningful discourse about current controversial issues.
We provide interactive trainings for teachers, schools, and districts.
Our innovative PD sessions are relevant, impactful, and informed by Close Up’s decades of expertise, helping teachers navigate challenging conversations about social and political issues. Each PD includes ready-to-use lesson plans, activities, and digital resources designed to promote thoughtful discourse, critical thinking, and engagement with multiple perspectives on issues. All sessions below can be adapted to school curricula and grade levels.
Tutorial on Close Up’s Current Issues Resources
This tutorial gives teachers direct instruction for using Close Up’s Current Issues resources and civic readiness curriculum. In this session, you will:
Navigating Challenging Conversations at School
This training is designed to help teachers and administrators across all disciplines frame and respond to discussions about complicated social and political issues. In this session, you will:
Facilitating Productive Civil Discourse in Your Classroom
Teachers will gain practical tools and explore resources and strategies for taking a multipartisan approach to complicated issues such as criminal justice reform, immigration reform, climate change, and economic inequality. In this session, you will:
Media Literacy and Citizenship
Teachers will examine the concepts of media literacy and participate in activities that help students engage with a wide range of media sources, read critically, apply media literacy concepts to social and digital media, and identify efforts to mislead. In this session, you will:
Community-Engaged Classrooms
Using a proven framework for action from Close Up’s Impact programs, teachers will learn to foster students’ civic and political efficacy and help them take real-world action on issues they care about. In this session, you will:
30-Minute On-Demand Workshops
Our short, on-demand sessions are ideal for individual educators looking for self-paced training and PD recertification.