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Lesson Plan
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Anti-Defamation League

We Were Strangers Too: Learning About Refugees Through Art

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Did you know that "in the largest refugee crisis since World War II, more the 64 million people have been forced from their homes"? The Anti-Defamation League presents an activity that asks class members to examine a series of artworks...
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Lesson Plan
Anti-Defamation League

Social Justice Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Learners gain insight into how songs and poems express feelings of injustice. They also learn about literary devices and types of poems and make a personal connection when they write their own free verse poems about injustice.
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eBook
Core Knowledge Foundation

The Civil War

For Students 3rd - 8th Standards
A student reader shares information about the history of slavery, the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, women's contributions to the war, the Emancipation Proclamation, and reconstruction.
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Lesson Plan
University of Minnesota

Ways of Knowing: Apples as Models

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Use apples as a way of thinking about models. Young scientists consider how the word apple, a two-dimensional drawing, a three-dimensional image, a photograph, and plastic apples all model real apples in preparation for developing models...
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eBook
Core Knowledge Foundation

Early Presidents and Social Reformers

For Students 3rd - 8th Standards
An ebook by Core Knowledge features information about early United Stated presidents such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and social reformers such as Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglas.
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Unit Plan
C3 Teachers

Reparations: Why Are Reparations Controversial?

For Teachers 8th
To understand why the topic of reparations is controversial, young scholars gather background information by reading articles, watching videos, and examining cases where reparations were made. Learners consider the lasting repercussions...
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Unit Plan
C3 Teachers

Emancipation: Does It Matter Who Freed the Slaves?

For Teachers 11th
Scholars generally agree on the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States. This inquiry-based lesson asks high schoolers to consider more than the claims of who freed the enslaved people but the significance of the issues...
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Unit Plan
C3 Teachers

Black Genius: How Did Black Genius Help Build American Democracy?

For Teachers 8th
"How did the slavery system undermine the United States' democratic principles?" This question launches a study of how the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, and Article IV,...
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Lesson Plan
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Learning for Justice

The Color of Law: Creating Racially Segregated Communities

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
It is pointed, powerful, and painful! The first of three lessons about laws and practices that support inequality looks at how government policies created and reinforced segregated communities. Young social scientists read excerpts from...
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Lesson Plan
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Learning for Justice

The Color of Law: Winners and Losers in the Job Market

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The second lesson in "The Color of Law" shows how government policies supported economic inequality. Scholars read additional excerpts and respond to text-dependent questions from "The Color of Law" text, examine primary source documents...
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Lesson Plan
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Learning for Justice

The Color of Law: Developing the White Middle Class

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The final lesson in the "Color of Law" series explores the government's discriminatory economic policies. Young scholars watch videos, read primary source materials, and examine images to gather information. They discuss how what they...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Amid Rising Economic Inequality, Does America Need a Third Reconstruction?

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Young political scientists investigate the Poor People's Campaign protest held in Washington, D.C., on June 18, 2022. They research how the event was reported in various news outlets and consider their stance on whether "poverty is...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Explore Art and Movement Inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Panel 58 from Jacob Lawrence's "Migration Series" of paintings provides middle schoolers with an opportunity to sharpen their observation and analytical skills. After engaging in a warm-up activity that introduces the concepts of...
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Activity
PBS

Write a New Year Poem Inspired by Amanda Gorman’s "New Day’s Lyric"

For Students 6th - 12th
Here's a new take on a new year. After watching and discussing the video of Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman performing her "New Day's Lyric," young poets craft poems that reflect their feelings about the past year and their resolutions...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

History of Juneteenth and Why It’s Now a National Holiday

For Teachers 6th - 12th
June 19 is now a United States federal holiday. Young historians examine the background of the first Juneteenth celebrations and why on June 15, 2021, Congress finally approved "Juneteenth National Independence Day" as a federal holiday.
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech as a Work of Literature

For Teachers 6th - 12th
To appreciate the oratory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, scholars examine the rhetorical devices and influences that make the speech so famous. They examine background information, conduct a close reading of the...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech as Visual Text

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Young historians watch a video of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his "I Have a Dream" speech and answer questions that test their knowledge of the event. After discussing the fact sheet, they reread the speech, select a phrase or...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Let's Get S.M.A.R.T. - Goal Setting And Time Management

For Teachers 8th - 10th Standards
Advance U: Learning Strategies provides young scholars with a game that teaches them the importance of goal setting and time management. Players enroll in McLarin Academy and compete in three competitions requiring them to set Specific,...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Deconstructing Reconstruction: The Reconstruction Era

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
High schoolers examine the Reconstruction programs instituted following the American Civil War, the potential for change these efforts offered, and the realities that occurred. Guided by a PowerPoint presentation, class members read a...
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Interactive
DocsTeach

Compare and Contrast: School Photographs

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Separate and very unequal! An interactive presents learners with two images: a photograph of a boys' bathroom at a school in Gloucester County, Virginia, and a second of a girls' bathroom at a different school in the same county. The...
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Interactive
DocsTeach

African American Soldiers and Civil Rights During WWI

For Students 7th - 12th Standards
Young scholars analyze primary source documents and images to determine how African American soldiers were denied their civil rights during World War I.
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Rikki-Tikki-Types of Sentences: Indicative, Imperative, Interrogative Mood

For Teachers 7th - 8th Standards
Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and a song from the musical "Hamilton" allow middle schoolers to practice using punctuation to indicate whether sentences are indicative, imperative, or interrogative. 
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Interactive
DocsTeach

What is Patent Number 1,693,515?

For Students 4th - 8th
Scholars examine a document from 1928 featuring a mystery invention. Following their observations and discussion, the document reveals the invention of the permanent wave machine by Marjorie S. Joyner. Class members read about Joyner,...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Voices from the Past: History and Literature

For Teachers 10th - 11th Standards
Art can enhance the understanding of history. That's the big idea in a lesson that has young scholars read Randall Jarrell's poem "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" and an excerpt from John Hersey's Hiroshima, which provide a...