EngageNY
Main Ideas in Informational Text: Analyzing a Firsthand Human Rights Account for Connections to Specific Articles of the UDHR
Lesson 10 in a series of human rights lessons focuses on the skills of finding evidence and summarizing. Your young readers work to compare the two texts they have read in this unit: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Learning About the Historical and Geographical Setting of Esperanza Rising (Chapter 1: “Aguascalientes, Mexico, 1924”)
Set up your class to read Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, through a class read-aloud and exploration of the setting. The detailed instructional activity outlines each step. First, class members read over the first few pages and...
EngageNY
End of Unit 1 Assessment: On-Demand Analysis of a Human Rights Account
The last instructional activity in this unit about human rights consists of a final assessment. To demonstrate the skills your class has acquired throughout this unit, they will work with a new article entitled "From Kosovo to the United...
EngageNY
Connecting Informational Text with Litearature: Building Background Knowledge About Mexican Immigration, California, and the Great Depression
Help your class transition as the setting in the novel Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, moves from Mexico to California. Beginning with prior knowledge, and moving into jigsaw research groups, class members add to and create posters...
Curated OER
Rights or Fights
Students identify and explain the four doctrines of groundwater use law. Students compare and contrast the doctrines of groundwater use law; Students also research and decide on a groundwater case based on the groundwater use law. ...
Public Media for Northern California
An Educator’s Guide to Teaching Gun Control Issues | The Lowdown
The topic of gun control is vast, controversial, and difficult to introduce to students. This gem of a resource covers both sides of the issue and provides topic background, various multimedia and print resources, analysis questions, and...
NPR
Civil Rights of Japanese-American Internees
Prompted by a viewing of Emiko and Chizu Omori’s Rabbit in the Moon, a documentary about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, high schoolers examine a series of documents, including the Bill of Rights and the UN’s...
Curated OER
Whose Rite Is It?
The class explores and debates, from multiple perspectives, a petition to allow Hopi Indians to take golden eagle hatchlings from a federal wildlife sanctuary for use in a religious ceremony. Pupils defend their personal views on the...
Curated OER
Searching for Answers
How does a judge in the federal judicial court decide on a verdict? Give your middle and high schoolers a better idea of how final decisions are made in the judicial system. Then split your class into four groups, assigning each group a...
Curated OER
Reading: Games
In this games worksheet, students read the names of 5 common games. Students then read 5 paragraphs that describe the origin of a game. Students guess the name of each game and write it in the blank space.
Curated OER
Speaking and Writing about People with Disabilities
Ninth graders explore the differences in language for referring to people: disabled, handicapped or challenged. In this people with disabilities lesson, 9th graders define the words and discuss common usage. Students complete a...
Curated OER
Political Movement: Political Parties
Students explore politics by researching Australian government law. In this political parties lesson, students define the different active parties in Australia and their roles within the country. Students complete a word bank activity...
Heritage Foundation
Crime and Punishment
You wouldn't give someone a 10-day timeout for eating a piece of candy. The US government, too, does not believe in unreasonable punishment. A variety of exercises exploring the clauses of the US Constitution prompts class members to...
ProCon
Net Neutrality
Should net neutrality be restored? Scholars prepare for a class debate on the topic using the included website. After reading a brief introduction to the issue, they review the main pros and cons in an attempt to arrive at an informed...
ProCon
Illegal Immigration
Should immigrants who illegally reside in the United States be eligible for citizenship? With information about undocumented immigrant population estimates, sanctuary cities, and unaccompanied immigrant children, pupils consider the pros...
Speak Truth to Power
Elie Wiesel: Speaking Truth to Genocide to Power
Invite your learners to discover the efforts of Night author Elie Wiesel to promote awareness of genocide in the world. After watching and reading an interview of Elie Wiesel, high schoolers work to create a living Holocaust museum by...
Read Works
First Thanksgiving Meal
Cranberries, oysters, lobster, deer, and cabbage were just a few of the foods found on the table at the First Thanksgiving. After reading a two-page passage about the historic meal, class members respond to 10 reading response questions.
Curated OER
The ABCs of the Holocaust
The ABC book format is used to organize information found in a Holocaust research project. Class members use the library and/or online resources to collect information and organize their findings under key terms, places, or names. Before...
Curated OER
Verbal Versus Nonverbal Communication
Young scholars create a multimedia presentation. They will complete a verbal versus non-verbal communication chart to create a multimedia presentation which will include the different types of communication strategies. Then answer a...
Curated OER
Minorities in Mainstream American Society
So many people fought for Civil Rights in the United States. Read about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and discuss what the act guarantees. Then pass out a slew of magazines and encourage them to observe how often minorities appear in...
Institute for Humane Education
In Your Face: Reclaiming Billboards
Ads here, ads there, ads everywhere—but what do they communicate? Pupils discuss this topic and develop a list of personal values. They then work as creative directors at an advertising firm to create billboards that reflect community...
ProCon
Penny
Twenty-nine percent of Americans want to abolish the one-cent coin, which begs the question: Is a penny saved really a penny earned? Scholars read fascinating facts about the history of the penny in preparation for a class debate or...
Curated OER
Citizenship Test: Principles of American Democracy, Questions 1-12
Prepare your English learners for their upcoming citizenship test with this presentation. Addressing common questions about the American government and Constitution, this slideshow could be a good study guide for students who struggle...
Curated OER
English Exercises: Verb Tense and Pandas
For this verb tense and pandas worksheet, 6th graders read a long passage about panda and interactively select the correct word to fill in 44 blanks in the story, with immediate online feedback.