Teaching Tolerance
Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice | Confronting Unjust Practices
A powerful photograph of the Freedom Riders of 1961 launches an examination of the de jure and de facto injustices that the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s addressed. Young historians first watch a video and read the Supreme...
US Institute of Peace
Effectiveness of Nonviolent Civic Action Simulation on Colombia
With new leadership comes new hope! After years of violence, the people of Colombia elect a new president ... could this mean an end to conflict? Civics scholars take part in a large group role-playing exercise designed to illustrate the...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Feeling Faces
A lesson help scholars identify emotions through facial expressions. After a friendly puppet reads scholars a poem all about feelings, learners act out how they would feel when a specific action happens to them. Participants watch and...
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Feelings and Emotions
The focus of the second in a 10-session course on Social, Physical, Emotional, Cognitive and Spiritual (SPECS) health is on learning to express and manage feelings appropriately. Class members learn different ways of identifying, coping...
Museum of the Moving Image
What Makes an Effective Ad?
As an introduction to a series of related resources that examine political advertising and commercials from 1952-2012, class members use the provided rubric to analyze and rate the effectiveness of the emotion, persuasion, factual...
Health Smart Virginia
Mental and Emotional Health
Working in groups, sixth-graders identify internal factors that negatively impact them. Then, explain how they could change that factor into a positive influence. Finally, individuals create personal mind maps that identify their...
Overcoming Obstacles
Using Communication Skills Effectively
Miscommunication is often the basis of conflict. To improve their communication skills, pupils first review what they learned about assertive (as opposed to aggressive or passive) communication, role-play several scenarios, and then...
Health Smart Virginia
Mental and Emotional Health
Middle schoolers learn about stressors, effective stress management techniques, and the role of resilience and tolerance in handling stress. Individuals then create a personal mind map that includes their own mental/emotional management...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Sally’s Super Day
After having a bad day, Sally took scholars' suggestions and had a super day. Pupils listen to her newest short story then discuss the events that occurred. They sort each event by what was in her control and what was not. Participants...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Dealing with Peer Influence: What Are Bullying and Harassment?
Scholars examine examples of peer pressure and discuss how specific actions negatively affect one's well-being. Learners gather in small groups to write two scenarios in which peer pressure is used. They reference the STAR method in how...
Missouri Department of Elementary
The Many Roles I Play in My Community
Small groups brainstorm their roles in the community. Then, individually, complete a community roles web worksheet. Peers share their completed product and extend the conversation to include the feelings and character traits that go...
Missouri Department of Elementary
My Feelings
Encourage self-awareness with a lesson that challenges scholars to identify feelings—happy, sad, mad, and scared. Using a feelings thermometer, similar to that of a bar graph, pupils discuss how they would feel in specific scenarios then...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Acting Out Respect and Compromise
Puppets showcase the importance of being a good friend. Following a discussion about positive character traits, scholars create a paper-bag puppet and role-play scenarios with a peer.
Missouri Department of Elementary
Conflict Mediation – Part 2: Practice
A lesson challenges scholars to prove their understanding of conflict mediation. Small groups role-play scenarios using two mediators and two disputants. Peers observe then discuss their findings. A worksheet outlines groups'...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Ingredients of a Relationship Recipe
An eye-catching hook makes a smart analogy between ingredients for a food recipe and ingredients for quality relationships. Scholars discuss and list qualities they feel contribute to positive interactions. Pupils create a recipe card...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Respect for All Kinds of People Inside and Outside the School
Why is it important to embrace diversity? Scholars explore the topic by learning about the CARE acronym: Collaboration, Acceptance, Respect, Empathy. They also complete a diversity puzzle worksheet and play a collaborative game that...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Respect for Self and Others—Giving and Getting the Big R
Tween find out what it means to give and get respect. After reviewing the Recipe for Relationships studied in a previous lesson, groups create a dramatization of two-minute scenario in which an individual behaves inappropriately in a...
Missouri Department of Elementary
How We Are Alike And Different
Scholars develop social awareness by exploring the concept of similarities and differences. Learners examine two beverages and use a Venn diagram to identify similarities and differences. They tally each item to identify if they are more...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Friendship Line Dancing
Develop social awareness with a instructional activity that challenges scholars to properly communicate with their peers. Standing in two lines, participants practice introducing themselves, asking how their partner is feeling, asks if...
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Drugs Awareness
The final lesson in a series of 10 focusing on Social, Physical, Emotional, Cognitive and Spiritual (SPECS) health investigates the effects of legal and illegal substances, their risks, and the consequences of their misuse.
US Institute of Peace
Nonverbal Communication
What is your body saying that maybe your words aren't? Scholars explore the vast world of the subtle, and not-so-subtle, nonverbal communication cues through group and individual work. Lesson seven in a series of peacebuilding exercises...
Overcoming Obstacles
Communicating Constructively
Some types of verbal communication are just more difficult that others. High schoolers engage in a series of activities that are designed to help teens make difficult conversations easier and more effective.
Holly Middle School
Leadership 101
A four-week leadership class is designed to help scholars develop the skills they need to become effective leaders. Pupils study the habits of highly effective people and apply these concepts to leadership. They investigate paradigm...
Facing History and Ourselves
Protesting Discrimination in Bristol
Using the Bristol Bus Boycott as a case study, class members examine the strategies and levels of power protesters used to effect change. The two-day lesson concludes with individuals reflecting on the actions they might take in face of...