Teaching Tolerance
Community Newsletter
What does it take to develop and publish a newsletter? Young academics create a newsletter with original artwork for their school or community. They explore social justice themes and spread messages of tolerance and inclusion. Scholars...
Teaching Tolerance
Fairness Fair
How can we create a more fair world? Chances are, class members have some ideas! After reading a text about fairness, individuals create skits around the ideas of fairness. Extend the learning and make their presentations a...
Canadian Civil Liberties Education Trust
That’s Not Fair!
As part of a series of critical thinking exercises, kids consider issues of social justice, especially the factors that must be considered when trying to balance conflicting rights and freedoms.
Judicial Branch of California
Where We Fit In: The Judicial Branch
An interesting resource addresses the role of youth in civic participation and community events. It also explains the role of the justice system in creating boundaries and how citizens play a part in the judicial process. Pupils...
Teaching for Change
Selma in Pictures: Socratic Seminar
Photographs from the freedom movement in Selma, Alabama serve as the basis of two Socratic Seminars. Class members prepare for the seminars by closely observing the images, form a hypothesis, and use evidence from photo to support a...
Curated OER
Art and Literature: What's the Point?
Eleventh graders analyze the social/political purpose(s) of art and literature. They create written and visual texts that bring attention to a social/political concern. Presentation and discussion of art and literature in connection with...
Curated OER
Literature Study Guide: To Kill a Mockingbird
Teaching tools designed to support student-centered literature study. Geared toward homeschoolers reading Harper Lee's book To Kill a Mockingbird, I would use these in my classroom. The materials are applicable to any text: graphic...
Curated OER
Lesson: Skin Fruit: Propaganda of the Deed
Art can express acts of injustice and move society to action. Upper graders analyze contemporary art relating to specific moments in history. They discuss propaganda, anarchy, sociology, and violence as activism. After researching and...
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast Night to Life is Beautiful
After reading Elie Wiesel's Night, watching the movie Life is Beautiful, and researching World War II, class members write a comparison essay on the book and film. This includes a prior knowledge activity, discussion in whole and small...
Curated OER
Art as Social Commentary
Young scholars view artworks that make a statement about social conditions. They discuss the artworks, write about them and present their ideas to the class. They create socially conscious art pieces of their own.
Pulitzer Center
"Voices from Haiti": Using Poetry to Speak up for a Cause
Explore a real world use of poetry with your class! Young language arts pupils consider the concept of advocacy and how journalism, photography, and poetry can raise awareness for a cause. They read several poems about individuals...
Free Library of Philadelphia
Resources for Ghost Boys
Jewell Parker Rhodes, the author of Ghost Boys, wanted to bring the historical legacy of Emmett Till and the current topic of racial prejudice into today's young readers' mindsets. Use a reading guide and set of discussion questions to...
Southern Poverty Law Center
Choosing Reliable Sources
It is more important than ever that 21st-century learners develop the skills they need to become savvy consumers of media. Young learners locate and identify reliable sources of information with a helpful media instructional activity.
Curated OER
RBG Dr. Martin Luther Jr. Studies Lesson Plan-Guide
Explore Martin Luther King Jr. Students listen to a speech given by Martin Luther King, and interpret his message. They discuss civil rights and how Martin Luther King Jr. exhibited good citizenship, then brainstorm ways in which...
NPR
The History of America’s Weed Laws
To understand the laws regarding marijuana use in the United States, you can go all the way back to the 1800's to learn about farming hemp, or you can go back to 2018 when California became the sixth state to legalize recreational...
Curated OER
Civil Rights Leaders; Past and Present
Learners explore the concept of social justice. In this Civil Rights lesson, students fulfill the Rubric for Historical Research requirements as they conduct research on a Civil Rights or Anti-Apartheid Movements leader.
Curated OER
A Day in the Life of a Homeless Person
Learners examine the day in the life of a homeless person. In this humanitarian activity, students examine the life of a homeless person while discovering the importance of social justice in our society.
Stanford University
Letter from Birmingham Jail: The Power of Nonviolent Direct Action
What strategies are most effective in changing an unjust law? Class members examine the tactics used in the Birmingham Campaign of 1963 (Project C) to achieve social justice and social transformation. After examining documents that...
Media Smarts
Challenging Hate Online
Looking at the different ways organizations disseminate their messages using digital media leads to developing a digital anti-hate media campaign. Although some of the resources reflect the Canadian developer, the links provide...
Curated OER
Exploring the Life of Martin Luther King Jr.
A discussion of Martin Luther King Jr. can lead to an exploration of history, civil rights, and social justice.
Curated OER
Conflict Resolution Lesson Plan
Fourth graders investigate conflict and social justice. In this conflict resolution lesson plan, 4th graders consider conflicts they have experienced and think about how they could have applied conflict resolution strategies to change...
Carolina K-12
Are You a Democrat or a Republican? Are You Really?
Have new or soon-to-be voters examine different political parties and their platforms as they figure out which one aligns most with their beliefs. After taking a few online quizzes, students split into pairs to discuss and then...
Curated OER
Confronting the -Isms
Students keep "Mindwatch" diaries to chart their own prejudices and stereotypes. In this social justice instructional activity, students monitor their own reactions to people who are different from themselves. Students identify and...
Curated OER
Ceremony
Students complete multiple lessons to identify the human rights and social justice for Native Americans. In this human rights lesson, students complete fifty one days of activities to a lesson titled "Ceremony" about the Native...