To conclude their case study of media coverage of the shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer, class members consider the role of citizen watchdogs in a democratic society, develop strategies for combating...

Class members examine two documents—The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The Rights of Migrants in the United States—and then use reports in the media to assess how well the US is doing in ensuring these rights.

Examine the role of social media in social and political uprisings. Pupils listen to NPR audio clips about social media and the Arab Spring and read an article that proposes the idea that revolution will not happen through social media....

Students are introduced to the roles and influence of technology and the media on American representative democracy. They examine the effects of the Internet on citizens' role in government and the role and effects of media on the...

Discuss life in the 1930s in relation to the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, then do a cross-media analysis. Here you'll find background information on film maker John Ford, writer John Steinbeck, and 1930s America. You can compare the...

Students answer a variety of discussion questions about human rights and how they may apply to and influence formal literature, the media, educational textbooks, advertising, and commercial publications.

The attempts of journalists to verify the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown take center stage as individuals analyze three of the initial newspaper accounts of the story. The whole class discussion then focuses...

Discover what criteria creditors use for making loans (the 3 Cs of Credit), and impress upon your young adults the rights and responsibilities related to using credit. Pupils role play as individuals seeking or providing credit, as...

Students explore the concept of individual rights. In this McCarthyism lesson, students determine how government may affect the rights of individuals as they examine the Constitution, participate in class discussions, and research the...

One picture but a thousand stories. As a part of a case study of how the death of Michael Brown was reported by professional news sources and on social media class members examine the reactions of various groups to a photograph taken by...

High school student love discussing controversial issues like those brought up in this fourth amendment case study. They examine the 1928 Olmstead vs. U.S. prohibition court case, applying the fourth amendment to determine whether...

A 41-page curriculum guide tells the story of the untold stories of American Superheroines! Divided into three modules, the guide is designed to be used before, during, and after viewing the 2012 documentary Wonder Women! The Untold...

The First Amendment to the US Constitution protects people's rights to speech, the press, and religion. Using the resource, scholars discover how. They take a brief online quiz to determine how well they understand the First...

The Bill of Rights, and the First Ten Ammendments to the Constitution are the focus of this Social Studies presentation. Students view a presentation that nicely presents, not only what each Ammendment says, but examples of how they...

Who was Bayard Rustin? Pupils analyze a series of primary source documents to learn about this important figure in the civil rights movement. The lesson contains a short film to watch along with guiding questions and other resources...

Determine how African-Americans have broken barriers in this history instructional activity. Middle schoolers discuss the 15th Amendment and the American civil rights movement prior to analyzing Barack Obama's speech "A More Perfect...

What are the limits on freedom of speech? While a cherished right in the Constitution, it is not unbridled. Budding historians consider what checks should exist on this liberty using news stories, court cases, and College Board prompts.

Susan B. Anthony's speech "Is It a Crime for Women to Vote?" takes center stage in a lesson that asks class members to consider how they might respond to what they consider an unjust law. Groups work through the speech paragraph by...

Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were contemporaries. Both were gifted orators, both were preachers, both were leaders during the Civil Rights era, both were assassinated. But the two had very different views on violence and...

A powerful photograph of the Freedom Riders of 1961 launches an examination of the de jure and de facto injustices that the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s addressed. Young historians first watch a video and read the Supreme...

So many people fought for Civil Rights in the United States. Read about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and discuss what the act guarantees. Then pass out a slew of magazines and encourage them to observe how often minorities appear in...

Lesson 1 from a Refugees and Human Rights unit is based on the UNHCR video “Working with Refugees.” Pupils gain an understanding of the role the United Nations plays in protecting and assisting refugees worldwide and have an opportunity...

Disease prevention or designer babies? Use a set of slides to introduce the growing practice of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD. Teens read related articles and then break into groups to address different scenarios. Afterward,...

Young scholars analyze writings of Mr. Martin Luther King Jr. They read and discuss an article, and in pairs, research and analyze a written work or speech by Dr. King, create a mixed media collage to represent the text, and write an...