Lesson Plan
Teaching for Change

Selma in Pictures: Socratic Seminar

For Teachers 9th - 12th
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...
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 plan 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

A Day for the Constitution

For Teachers 6th - 12th
The "Constitution Day and Citizenship Day" law requires schools receiving any federal funding to provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution. The lesson plans, materials, videos, questions, and activities...
Lesson Plan
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Facing History and Ourselves

Defining Democracy

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
For democracies, it is both the best and the worst of times. As part of a study of the challenges facing democracies, young political scientists seek first to define democracy, and then to consider the relationship between democracy and...
Lesson Plan
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Teaching Tolerance

Modern-Day Heroes: People Who Are Making a Difference

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Not all superheroes wear capes. An engaging lesson delves into the world of modern-day heroes and activists for change. Academics learn there are many different ways to be a hero as well as explore what makes a person a hero. The...
Lesson Plan
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Learning for Justice

Change Agents in Our Own Lives

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Everyone has the power to change their own lives. Young historians learn how they can become agents for change in their own lives and the community. The lesson focuses on positive role models and what motivates individuals to promote...
Lesson Plan
2
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Teaching Tolerance

In Our Own Words: A Story Book with a Purpose

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Academics turn into storytellers in an engaging activity on activism. The activity focuses on promoting social change in local communities with stories. Young historians plan a storybook to target a specific audience and social issue and...
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!: Simulating the Supreme Court

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Students have freedom of speech—or do they? Using an actual court case and research materials on the Supreme Court, young legal scholars examine the Supreme Court's role and history. Then, they argue a case the court declined to hear and...
Activity
PBS

Presidential Leadership and the Goal to Unify | America’s Great Divide: From Obama to Trump

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Traditionally, a United States President's Inaugural Address establishes the tone and vision for his presidency. It has stressed the goal to unify the country and bring the political parties together after what are often divisive...
Lesson Plan
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US House of Representatives

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Groups select a photograph from one of the four eras of African Americans in Congress and develop a five-minute presentation that provides background information about the image as well as its historical significance. The class compares...
Activity
Digital Public Library of America

The Watsons Go To Birmingham—1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
A primary source set of photographs, videos, newspaper articles, and FBI reports provides insight into race relations during the 1960s, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing, and the murder of Emmitt Till. Designed to be used to...
Lesson Plan
Facing History and Ourselves

After Charlottesville: Contested History and the Fight against Bigotry

For Teachers 9th - 12th
History doesn't always reflect all sides. Academics discover how the remembered history of the Civil War differs for White and African Americans. The lesson explores how Civil War monuments and celebrations have racist connotations for...
Activity
Academy of American Poets

Teach This Poem: "Black Laws" by Roger Reeves

For Teachers 6th - 12th
After investigating the Black Lives Matter movement, class members do a close read of Roger Reeves' "Black Laws." They write down words and phrases that rhyme, consider the kinds of rhymes used and their function in the poem. Scholars...
Performance
Curated OER

The Odyssey: Narrative Writing

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Help readers make a personal connection to Homer's The Odyssey with a narrative writing assignment. Scholars select one of three prompts and craft a first-person narrative rich in sensory details that describes an experience they had...
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Oklahoma and Segregation

For Teachers 9th - 11th Standards
It was not just the states of the Deep South that practiced segregation. Young historians investigate the history of segregation and desegregation in Oklahoma. They begin by reading, annotating, and analyzing an article about the impacts...
Lesson Plan
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National Endowment for the Humanities

Societal Schisms and Divisions

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The final lesson in the Crime and Punishment unit looks at the societal injustices depicted in Dostoyevsky's novel. Scholars examine the schisms between men and women, between wealth and poverty, between religion and skepticism, and...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Exploring Identity and Intersectionality in Poetry

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Just as Kermit the Frog notes, "It isn't easy being green!" it isn't easy occupying "multiple Identity spaces." Class members read and discuss poems by writers detailing what it is like when their identities are "oppressed."
Study Guide
Penguin Books

The Discussion Guide to the Inaugural Poem: The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed Standards
National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb," featured at the 2021 inauguration of President Joseph Biden, is the focus of a six-page guide. The guide includes before reading, during reading, and after reading...
Study Guide
Penguin Books

Teacher's Guide: When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed Standards
Julie Otsuka's haunting novel, When the Emperor Was Devine, is the subject of a 14-page teacher's guide. The guide includes the text of an interview with Otsuka, background information about Japanese immigration to the United States, and...
Study Guide
Penguin Books

An Educator Guide to Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed Standards
Call Us By What We Carry, a poetry collection by Nation Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, is the focus of a 10-page teacher's guide. 
Lesson Plan
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Anti-Defamation League

Bringing It Home

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The "Bringing It Home" lesson asks scholars to investigate segregation and diversity in their school. They research, collect, and analyze local demographics. After reflecting on their personal experiences with cliques and social...
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 plan 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...
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...
Lesson Plan
Anti-Defamation League

Major League Baseball and the Negro Leagues: Correcting an Injustice

For Teachers 6th - 9th Standards
It's been a long time coming! In 2020, MLB Commissioner Robert D. Manifred, Jr. stated that "the Negro Leagues would be recognized as official major leagues." Middle schoolers investigate the history of the Negro Leagues and use evidence...

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