Facing History and Ourselves
Tactics of Nonviolence
High schoolers analyze the direct action tactics of nonviolence. As a class, they distinguish between a strategy and a tactic and identify tactics used during the civil rights movement. They relate these tactics and how they might be...
Facing History and Ourselves
Decision-Making: Introduction to the Unit
Make your classroom a supportive and communicative place to be before beginning a unit on the Holocaust. Working together as a class, learners reflect on their previous experiences of classroom discussions before establishing a...
Facing History and Ourselves
Stereotypes and “Single Stories”
Help bring subconscious stereotypes to the surface to stop it in its tracks. Pupils first read an excerpt describing the experience of prejudice and analyze how this process connects to World War II. Then, they write a creative story...
Facing History and Ourselves
Do You Take the Oath?
Why did so many go along with Nazi policies during World War II? An investigatory unit includes four handouts, reading analyses, classroom discussion topics, and intriguing philosophical questions, helping learners understand the...
Facing History and Ourselves
Laws and the National Community
When it comes to the law, is justice always served? Teach scholars about how law sometimes enables prejudice of entire groups of people with a unit on World War II that includes a warm-up activity, analysis of primary sources,...
Facing History and Ourselves
Why Little Things Are Big
Often our decisions are impacted by a fear of how others see us. That's the big idea in a two-day lesson that asks how false assumptions, how our fear of how others may see us, impact how we act. After watching a video about such a...
Facing History and Ourselves
Speaking Up and Speaking Out
The final lesson in the Standing Up for Democracy unit offers class members a way they can stand up and speak out by crafting spoken word poetry, or Slam poetry. After analyzing several examples, individuals reflect on one positive...
Facing History and Ourselves
Responding to Difference
James Berry's poem, "What Do We Do With a Difference?" launches a instructional activity that asks class members to consider the ways people respond when they encounter someone different from themselves. After analyzing the poem and...
Facing History and Ourselves
Protesting Discrimination in Bristol
Using the Bristol Bus Boycott as a case study, class members examine the strategies and levels of power protesters used to effect change. The two-day lesson plan concludes with individuals reflecting on the actions they might take in...
Facing History and Ourselves
The Costs and Benefits of Belonging
Peer pressure and the desire for acceptance are powerful things. A thought-provoking instructional activity looks at the positive and negative effects of wanting to belong to a group. Class members examine the roles of the perpetrator,...
Facing History and Ourselves
When Differences Matter
Jane Elliott's controversial blue eyes/brown eyes experiment detailed in the film A Class Divided leads to a discussion of privilege, social power, and opportunity. Viewers note how the children react to the experiment, share their...
Facing History and Ourselves
Blending In and Standing Out
An excerpt from Sarfraz Manzoor's memoir about how his experiences as a Pakistani growing up in England shaped the way he though about his identify provides a stimulus for a discussion of how experiences can shape our concept of identity...
Facing History and Ourselves
Making Rights Universal
Class members continue their discussion of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). After examining an infographic the summarizes the document, groups examine four of the rights to decide if they are or are not universal, and if...
Facing History and Ourselves
Defining Our Obligations to Others
Introduce young learners to the concept of a Universe of Obligation, a term coined by sociologist Helen Fein, with a activity that asks learners to consider the extent to which they feel a responsibility for others. Class members read...
Facing History and Ourselves
Defining Human Rights
Eleanor Roosevelt leads the drive to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To begin a study of universal rights, class members create a definition of a right and compare it to the 1947 version. They then investigate Eleanor's...
Facing History and Ourselves
Public Art as a Form of Participation
David Binnington's mural commemorating the 1936 Battle of Cable Street is the focus of a lesson that looks at public art as a form of civic participation. After reading background material about the mural, individuals analyze a segment...
Facing History and Ourselves
Standing Up to Hatred on Cable Street
The final lessons in this section of the Standing Up for Democracy unit ask class members to consider ways they can help create a "more humane, fair, and compassionate environment" in their communities. For context, learners study how...
Facing History and Ourselves
The World the War Made
The United States Civil War forced Northern and Southern societies, as well as the people who made up those societies, to reconstruct their vision of themselves and their identities. A series of video-based web lessons look at the great...
Facing History and Ourselves
Insights on Democracy from South Africa
As part of their study of democracy, high schoolers listen to a podcast featuring two South African educators and their efforts to support the process of transforming the nation from apartheid rule into a democracy. Learners also read...
Facing History and Ourselves
Citizen Power Makes Democracy Work
Eric Liu's formula "power plus character equals citizenship" and his three strategies to making change happen model for high schoolers how to develop citizen power, how to get involved and participate to make democracy work. Class...
Facing History and Ourselves
Defining Democracy
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...
Facing History and Ourselves
Free Press Makes Democracy Work
A unit study of the importance of a free press in a democracy begins with class members listening to a podcast featuring two journalists, one from a United States public radio station and one from Capetown, South Africa. The lesson,...
Facing History and Ourselves
Interracial Democracy
Radical Reconstruction, the 10-year period referred to after Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, saw the establishment of manhood suffrage, men voting without any racial qualifications. Southern states also rewrote their...
Facing History and Ourselves
Reflection and Action for Civic Participation
Slacktivist or activist? Bystander or upstander? Positive social change requires involvement and commitment. After reading a series of articles about young people who chose to get involved, scholars examine a framework that helps peers...
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