Activity
Teaching Tolerance

Photo Essay Exhibit

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Let the pictures do the talking. Children tell their stories using provided guidelines for a photo essay exhibit. Discussion questions and checklist materials help pupils brainstorm and create photo essays to help inspire social change.
Lesson Plan
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Facing History and Ourselves

Speaking Up and Speaking Out

For Teachers 6th - 12th
The final lesson in the Standing Up for Democracy unit offers class members a way they can stand up and speak out by crafting spoken word poetry, or Slam poetry. After analyzing several examples, individuals reflect on one positive...
Lesson Plan
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Facing History and Ourselves

When Differences Matter

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Jane Elliott's controversial blue eyes/brown eyes experiment detailed in the film A Class Divided leads to a discussion of privilege, social power, and opportunity. Viewers note how the children react to the experiment, share their...
Lesson Plan
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Facing History and Ourselves

Making Rights Universal

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Class members continue their discussion of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). After examining an infographic the summarizes the document, groups examine four of the rights to decide if they are or are not universal, and if...
Lesson Plan
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Facing History and Ourselves

Standing Up to Hatred on Cable Street

For Teachers 6th - 12th
The final lessons in this section of the Standing Up for Democracy unit ask class members to consider ways they can help create a "more humane, fair, and compassionate environment" in their communities. For context, learners study how...
Activity
Teaching Tolerance

Oral History Project

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Get up-close-and-personal with history using guidance for an oral history project. An engaging resource takes pupils through brainstorming through feedback for a project to interview and collect oral histories from members of their...
Lesson Plan
Constitutional Rights Foundation

What Is Constitutional Democracy?

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Rediscover the values at the heart of American democracy and what makes it unique with your pupils. Use a reading and discussion questions—in addition to an analytical activity—on the preamble to the Constitution. An additional activity...
Lesson Plan
Colorado Education Initiative

Grade 6-8 Decision Making

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Thoughtful decisions versus everyday decisions. Impulsive decisions versus thoughtful decisions. The decisions tweens must make become more and more complex as they age. Help them develop the skills they need to make thoughtful,...
Unit Plan
University of Oklahoma

Advocating For My Needs After High School

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
A three-lesson unit teaches learners with special needs how to advocate for their needs after high school. Class members review appropriate was to disclose their disability during interviews and applications, and how to request...
Unit Plan
University of Oklahoma

Advocating For My Needs in High School

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
High schoolers enrolled in resource and special needs classes learn and practice how to schedule and conduct a self-advocacy meeting with a teacher to request accommodations in that subject area class. In lesson one they review and...
Lesson Plan
Teaching for Change

Stepping into Selma

For Teachers 6th - 12th
The 1964 Selma to Montgomery, Alabama voting rights marches are the focus of a lesson designed to introduce learners to people who took part in the Civil Rights Movement. Class members set into the role of one of the participants,...
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Doing Oral History with Vietnam War Veterans

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Get the story from those who experienced it. Engage learners with a structured oral history project involving Vietnam War era veterans. By conducting thoughtful interviews, class members learn what it was like to serve in the...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Symbolism and the Use of “New Language” in The Handmaid’s Tale

For Teachers 11th - Higher Ed Standards
Words matter. Words frame thought. Words are symbolic. Readers of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale examine how the words In Gilead's "New Language" reinforce the power of the government and provided insight into the symbolic level...
Lesson Plan
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National Endowment for the Humanities

Planning for Treaty Negotiations

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
The party is over. Now it's time to get to work! Learners acting as agents for a country during the modern Age of Empires develop proposals to negotiate trade deals between the rising global powers. Using research from previous lessons,...
Lesson Plan
PBS

The Symbolism of Castle's Bedroom in Ghost

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
To conclude a unit study of Jason Reynold's Ghost, class members examine how Castle's feeling about his bedroom change over the course of the novel. Groups use the provided graphic organizer to identify the plot of the novel and then use...
Lesson Plan
PBS

The Symbolism of Sneakers in Ghost

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed Standards
As part of a study of Jason Reynold's Ghost, readers take a close look at sneaker culture and how Reynold uses sneakers as a symbol in his award-winning young adult novel. Groups explore links to "Sneakerology 101", a Carnegie...
Interactive
DocsTeach

Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
While most Americans connect the celebration of Thanksgiving to a colonial celebration of pilgrims and Native Americans, the national holiday was actually the product of a war-time measure by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War....
Interactive
DocsTeach

Suffragist Susan B. Anthony: Petitioning for the Right to Vote

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
What is the best way to get a point across: a petition or a protest? Using primary sources, including a petition from Susan B. Anthony and a photo of a White House protest from the early 1900s, young historians examine what women did to...
Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Heroes Are Made of This: Studying the Character of Heroes

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
What makes heroes and villains? A six-part unit plan asks young scholars to explore the concept of heroism and the characteristics they consider heroic and unheroic. Groups create character maps that focus on how characters are shaped by...
Lesson Plan
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Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Conditions in China: Why Might One Leave Home Forever?

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
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...
Lesson Plan
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Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Film Screening: Carved in Silence

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Director Felicia Lowe's film Carved in Silence splices together re-enactments, interviews, and actual film footage to tell Angel Island Immigration Station's story. Viewers use a film matrix to record new information they learned from...
Lesson Plan
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Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Interview a Family or Community Member: Taking Oral Histories

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Young scholars gain insight into how historians record events by engaging in an oral history project. In preparation, class members brainstorm open-ended interview questions and take part in and debrief a mock interview simulation....
Interactive
DocsTeach

Analyzing a Photograph of a Young American Indian

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
A true glimpse of the past, Angelic La Moose smiles back from more than 100 years ago. Young learners examine the picture of a young girl on a Montana Native American reservation from 1913 to comb it for historical details. A form, which...
Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

Teach This Poem: "In cold spring air" by Reginald Gibbons

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Reginald Gibbons' poem "In cold spring air" provides learners with a chance to develop their noticing skills. As a warm-up, class members watch Paul McCartney's video singing "Blackbird" and note words and phrases that stand out. They...

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