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...

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...

Learners research press freedoms in various countries such as Iran and North Korea. They create a freedom of the press report card for the countries examined.

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...

Reporting the news is easy, right? Think again! Show young scholars the difficult choices journalists make every day through a lesson that includes reading, writing, and discussion elements. Individuals compare the language and sources...

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.

It is so important to help special needs individuals know the difference between dating and friendship. They define friendship, differentiate between friends and strangers, role-play, practice greetings, then talk about dating. This...

Students discuss what the media portrays as the perfect physically active image. They discuss how this affects them. Students watch a video on body image. They look through a magazine to find one misleading advertisement and explain why...

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...

Fake news is a hot topic right now ... but what is it? Intrepid young investigators track down the facts that separate journalistic mistakes and misinformation through reading, research, and discussion. Part three in a five-lesson series...

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...

As the saying goes: there are no new stories. Standard 9 for reading literature in the Common Core addresses this fact and requires that students be able to analyze how authors use the themes, stories, and characters of earlier works....

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,...