Teaching Tolerance
Changing Demographics: What Can We Do to Promote Respect?
America has always been seen as a melting pot to the world. Scholars research the concept of blending cultures in the United States and how it is changing over time. The final lesson of a four-part series analyzes the changing...
Advocates for Human Rights
Human Rights Defined
Class members continue their investigation of the factors that influence migration with a lesson on human rights. As they examine the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and selected US Constitutional Amendments, learners compare the...
Smithsonian Institution
Borders and Community: Early 20th Century Chicago Neighborhoods and Ethnic Enclaves
Chicago is one city, four neighborhoods, and countless nationalities. The lesson explores the ethnic division of Chicago in the early twentieth century. Academics read primary sources, analyze maps, and tour an online exhibit to...
University of Arkansas
Promises Denied
"Promises Denied," the second instructional activity in a unit that asks learners to consider the responsibilities individuals have to uphold human rights, looks at documents that illustrate the difficulty the US has had trying to live...
K20 LEARN
Whose Manifest Destiny? Westward Expansion
Your land is my land! Young historians investigate the concept of Manifest Destiny used by the United States government to justify western expansion. Jigsaw groups read primary source documents to gain an understanding of the movement...
National Endowment for the Humanities
David Walker vs. John Day: Two Nineteenth-Century Free Black Men
What was the most beneficial policy for nineteenth-century African Americans: to stay in the United States and work for freedom, or to immigrate to a new place and build a society elsewhere? Your young historians will construct an...
Delegation of the European Union to the United States
Cultural Identity
How does cultural diversity impact political identity? That is the question researchers face as they continue their examination of the European Union and the programs it has developed in its attempt to achieve unity in diversity. To gain...
US House of Representatives
Hispanic-American Members of Congress in the Civil Rights Era, 1945–1977
New ReviewDebates around immigration in the news are not new, but they are a defining feature of the Hispanic American experience throughout the twentieth century. Looking through the lens of Hispanic Americans in Congress, class members explore...
Northeast Georgia Regional Educational Service Agency
Who Were the Tired, the Poor, the Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free?
Elvira Woodruff's The Orphan of Ellis Island: A Time Travel Adventure is the core text in a interdisciplinary unit study of immigration at the turn of the century.
Gobal Oneness Project
A Tapestry of Multicultural Diversity
New York City is a perfect place to begin a study of multicultural diversity. The largest and the most culturally diverse city in the United States provides the backdrop for a photo essay that features images of cultural and religious...
American Bar Association
What Is Separation of Powers?
Who has the power? Scholars investigate the creation of the three branches of government in the United States Constitution. They analyze just why the framers created the branches the way they did.
ProCon
Gay Marriage
The first legal gay marriage in the United States occurred in Massachusetts in 2004. Since then, countless others have tied the knot. Scholars decide whether gay marriage should be legal by reading a history of the issue, analyzing the...
Curated OER
WWI Propaganda Choice Activity
World War I propaganda techniques employed by the United States government are the focus of this lesson plan. The resource includes an excellent handout of propaganda techniques, ranging from appealing to authority to repetition, lying,...
American Documentary
Confucianism in a Changing Society
The Last Train Home, a 2009 documentary about China's migrant factory workers, provides viewers with an opportunity to explore how China's emergence as a global manufacturing force is challenging Chinese traditional values like filial...
NPR
Chinese American Women Lesson Plan
The National Women's History Museum provides a plan designed to accompany their online CyberExhibit, Chinese American Women; a History of Resilience and Resistance. After examining a series of primary and secondary source documents,...
Annenberg Foundation
Global America
It's not really a small world after all! The 21st lesson of a 22-part series on American history researches the impact of globalization on the United States. Using photographic and written references materials, as well as video sources,...
DocsTeach
The SS Quanza and European War Refugees
World War II not only resulted in major loss of life, but it also displaced thousands of people. An eye-opening activity uses primary documents to explore the refugee crisis during World War II. Scholars compare the event to modern-day...
US House of Representatives
Exclusion and Empire, 1898–1941
New ReviewOften forgotten and written off as the model minority, Americans with heritage in Asia and the Pacific Islands have played an essential role in American history, including Congress. Budding historians reclaim history by researching the...
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
Conditions in China: Why Might One Leave Home Forever?
Primary source texts provide scholars with the background information they need to understand why Chinese peasant farmers were driven to emigrate. After underlining keywords, phrases, and/or lines in the texts, individuals craft a...
Anti-Defamation League
What Is the Dream Act and Who Are the Dreamers?
The DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act) is the focus of a lesson that asks high schoolers to investigate the act's provisions and read statements by individuals who support and oppose the act. They then...
PBS
Latinos at the Ballot Box
Latinx people have had a profound effect on voting patterns, going back to the 1950s. Using video clips from the PBS series "Latino Americans," scholars work to assemble a timeline of the interesting history. Then, pupils consider the...
Teaching Tolerance
Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice | Exploring Identity
Even without captions, photographs can tell amazing, involved, and complex stories. Viewers analyze two photos, consider what the pictures reveal about the subjects' identity, and determine the social justice issues represented in the...
News Literacy Project
News Goggles: Lionel Ramos, Oklahoma Watch
Given all the recent criticism of the news media and coverage, it's crucial that young people are given the tools they need to evaluate what they see, hear, and read about current events. A video interview from "News Goggles" introduces...
Anti-Defamation League
‘Migrant Caravan’ and the People Seeking Asylum
The controversies surrounding migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. have recently been a hot topic. To understand some of the issues involved, young scholars investigate the Migrant Caravans of 2018. A 10-page packet, including photos, a...