Curated OER
Just an Environment or a Just Environment?
This lesson explores the multiple causes of racial segregation and environmental racism, and helps students understand the perpetuation of institutional racism in the post-Civil Rights era. Students will perform a mock tribunal in which...
Curated OER
Whitewashing History
Students revisit issues of civil rights in the U.S. They use the recent national discussion of retiring Senator Strom Thurmond's 1948 Dixiecrat Presidential campaign as a starting point.
Curated OER
Documents Related to Brown v. Board of Education
Students analyze photographs taken at schools during the Civil Rights Movement. They take a few minutes to examine a photograph, and write down everything they saw in the photograph. After a few minutes, students share their findings.
Curated OER
The Home Front (Circa 1863)
Students interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary resources. In this American Civil War instructional activity, students examine sources and then write personal accounts of the war.
Curated OER
Breaking the Unjust Law
Students consider the concept of civil disobedience. In this lesson on changing unjust laws, students use primary sources to understand how Gandhi and King changed the law. Students will then list laws that they feel are unjust and plan...
Curated OER
Divided We Fall
Students examine the Bill of Rights. In this U.S. Constitution instructional activity, students write essays for perform plays that feature the importance of the first ten amendments. Students imagine the United States without 1 of the...
Curated OER
Supreme Court Decisions and Their Effect On Us
Consider five Supreme Court cases and how their outcomes have directly affected the American population. Government students research and compose a 1-2 page pager outlining the examples of our daily life that have specifically been...
Federal Judicial Center
Amistad and Dred Scott—a Comparative Activity
What do slaves fighting for their freedom on board a ship and a slave fighting for his freedom in a courtroom have in common? Budding historians investigate the two different cases of the Amistad slave revolt and the Dred Scott argument....
Curated OER
American Minority Groups
Explore the contributions individuals have made in the lives of American minority groups. Twelfth graders write a five-page expository piece providing a social history, examples of discrimination, and patterns of assimilation for an...
Curated OER
Take a Walk in Their Shoes: Great Leaders of Our Time
Research the characteristics of leaders who have used nonviolence to change society. The class then applies this information to their own community to find leaders with these same characteristics, creating a wall collage of pictures and...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
A Mini lesson on Semicolons
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" serves as an exemplar for a mini-lesson on semicolons. Working alone or in small groups, class members first circle all the semicolons in the letter, and then consider how this...
Curated OER
An Act of Courage, The Arrest Records of Rosa Parks
Young scholars research accounts on Rosa Parks and look for differences between the modern form and an older report on Parks. They discuss why information about race and nationality are collected on these and other forms.
Curated OER
the Rights of Detainees At Guantanamo Bay
High schoolers identify the legal issues involved in the case of the detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay and surrounding the existence of the base itself. They explain the clash between civil liberties and national security during...
Curated OER
Education Evaluation
Eleventh graders examine their human right to an education. In this American Law instructional activity, 11th graders evaluate how well the world is doing when it comes to providing a free, equal, quality education to our...
Curated OER
All Our Relations: A Learning Experience
Students participate in a group activity in which they each represent various components of a story about culture, collective human rights, and indigenous rights. As the story is read they create a life-size story web with yarn. Then...
Curated OER
Actors, Artists, Storytellers, and Poets
Twelfth graders in groups select a human rights issues and create a presentation that examines it through art, storytelling, poetry, or acting. The activity helps students use different modalities of learning. Student personal expression...
Curated OER
My Brother, My Enemy
Pupils visit the West Virginia Museum, with the goal of creating and publishing a newsletter that demonstrates learning. Students complete vocabulary activities, and are given web site resources to this end. Pupils choose from 5...
Curated OER
The Gettysburg Address
Students explore the implications of the Gettysburg Address. In this Civil War lesson, students read a handout regarding Gettysburg Address, analyze an excerpt of the speech, and complete the provided worksheet activities.
Curated OER
Constitutional Resources
Students explore the REpublican Era and the writing of the constitution and Billof Rights through various links and activities included in this collection.
Curated OER
Hip Hop and Political Activism
Young scholars identify and employ non violent methods/tactics to bring about social change as exemplified in hip hop culture. They examine hip hop as a form of political activism.
Curated OER
On the Other Side of the Color Barrier: Segregation and the Negro Leagues
Students study segregation that occurred in the past and that is currently occurring. In this equal rights lesson, students use primary source documents to student segregation of the past. In a culminating activity, students find or draw...
Curated OER
Arguments Against Ratifying the Constitution
Young scholars define federalism, Federalist, and Anti-Federalist, debate issue of ratification in classroom convention, and take vote on whether to add bill of rights. Three lessons on one page.
Curated OER
The Glorious Revolution, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution
Students relate the Glorious Revolution, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution through web based research and scenarios.
Curated OER
Farewell to Manzanar
Students investigate themes of justice and rights while reading the novel Farewell to Manzanar. They research contemporary civil rights issues and write reports. They also research the background of internment camps during World War II.