EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Why Do Workers Strike? (Chapter 11: "Los Aguacates/Avocados")
Make connections between Esperanza Rising and human rights with the activities outlined here. The instructional activity starts out with a brief quiz and review of the novel. After that, pupils circulate and share quote strips that you...
Curated OER
Human Rights
Students read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and then research countries which have had human right violations.
Curated OER
The Movement Before the Movement: Civil Rights Activism in the 1940s
Many educators focus on the civil rights movement as it occurred after Rosa Parks incited the bus boycott. Extend the understanding of the fight for civil rights in the United States with this post-WWII lesson. Learners examine and...
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Guest-Worker Program
The U.S. Guest-Worker Program and the H-2A visa are the focus of a social studies activity. First, class members assume the role of advisors who must present the president with four proposals that would amend the visas given to...
PBS
Cesar Chavez: Labor Leader and Civil Rights Activist
Cesar Chavez believed so much in the cause of farmworkers that he put his money where his mouth was. Chavez quit his well-paying job to organize them into labor unions. Using a speech, photograph, and short biographical video, pupils...
US House of Representatives
Hispanic-American Members of Congress in the Civil Rights Era, 1945–1977
Debates 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...
Curated OER
Bill of Right in Action
Groups reserach and write about topics given to them by their teacher dealing with the Bill of Rights.
Curated OER
You Can't Go Wrong with a Right Triangle 2
Upper graders use the properties of right angle trignonmetry to measure objects such as the school flagpole. They solve real world problems using these properties.
California Department of Education
Safe at Work
From minimum wage to minimizing injuries, young workers need to know their rights! The sixth and final lesson in a series of college and career readiness activities gets eighth graders thinking about safety and labor laws.
Curated OER
Keep Your Eye On the Prize
High schoolers learn about citizens who were actively involved in the civil rights movement, and the strategies they used to overcome the Jim Crow laws that were so prevalent in the 1960s. They investigate the voting amendments of the US...
Advocates for Human Rights
Migrants in the Media
Class members examine two documents—The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The Rights of Migrants in the United States—and then use reports in the media to assess how well the US is doing in ensuring these rights.
Curated OER
People behind the Civil Rights Movement
Learners identify the people actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement. In this United States History lesson, students watch the video "Eyes on the Prize" then participate in a class discussion about the video. Learners also...
C-SPAN
Last Days of Martin Luther King, Jr.
On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Four video clips reveal the events of that time, including the shift in the focus of the Civil Rights Movement, the aftermath of the assassination, and...
Curated OER
Property Rights: Soviet Farms
Students examine the problems with the collectivized agriculture program in the Soviet Union. They listen to a teacher-led lecture, participate in a property rights scenario activity, create a plan for maximizing the value of land, and...
Curated OER
Roofing and Right Triangles
Young scholars use models and symbols to represent properties of the Pythagorean Theorem. In this right triangle instructional activity, students connect real jobs to properties of right triangles. They solve word problems applying the...
Curated OER
Documents of Natural Rights: The Declaration of Independence and The Plan of Delano
Eighth graders analyze the philosophy of government in the Declaration of Independence. As a class, they discuss how this philosophy has caused other revolutions in history and how well it supports our natural rights. In groups, they...
Curated OER
Laws of Civil Rights
Young scholars investigate the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In this segregation lesson, students explore the rights that were guaranteed by the legislation as well as attempts by southerners to stop African Americans from voting. Young...
National Endowment for the Humanities
"Sí, se puede!": Chávez, Huerta, and the UFW
"Sí, se puede!" Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta believed organizing farm workers and changing their working conditions were possible. Scholars examine provisions of the Bracero Program, videos, and the United Farm Workers' (UFW) work....
National Woman's History Museum
Dolores Huerta: The Life and Work of a 20th Century Activist
Extra! Extra! High schoolers read about Dolores Huerta, the social activist who helped organize the United Farm Workers. Researchers read primary and secondary sources about Huerta's work and craft a headline, supported by three pieces...
Curated OER
The Supreme Court
Students examine the Fourteenth Amendment. In this Supreme Court lesson, students define due process and equal protection as they analyze the impact of the amendment and the Supreme Court on workers' rights in the early 20th century....
Curated OER
All Work and No Pay Makes Workers Angry
Students examine and react to a current cost-cutting dilemma faced by store managers. They then study the rights of worker and employers, and draft their findings in chapters of a book examining labor laws in the United States.
Curated OER
Workers' Compensation
Students engage in a lesson that is concerned with the process of establishing the rightful use of workers' compensation. They research the intent of the law and how it was established, maintained, and how people access the benefits....
National Woman's History Museum
Helen Keller--Citizen and Socialist
Do history books tell the full story of Helen Keller? The sanitized version of Helen Keller found in most textbooks leaves out her most provocative ideas. She was a socialist, fought for workers' rights, and advocated for the use of...
Curated OER
Basic Workplace Rights
Young scholars study basic workplace rights and the limits of those rights. They determine how many of the rights guaranteed in the Constitution only regulate governmental actions, not private actions. They examine the concept of at-will...