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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reformers versus Residents in Five Points: A Role Play

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Social Studies and role-playing can go hand in hand. Learners use supporting evidence found in primary and secondary source material to develop a character from the Five Points neighborhood in the 1850s. Each student takes on the role of...
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Unit Plan
J. Paul Getty Trust

Picturing a Story: Photo Essay about a Community, Event or Issue

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Picture this. Class members follow in the footsteps of W. Eugene Smith, Dorothea Lange, James Nachtwey, and Lewis Hine by creating their own photo essay about a local event or issue.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Presidential Election Year: Major Issues

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Whether or not it's a presidential election year, this debate activity will spark research on current political issues. Split your government scholars into 4 groups and assign each a political party. One person will be the "candidate"...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Global Environmental Issues: Air and Water Pollution

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Thinking about designing a project for your social studies or environmental science classes? Use an overview of a project that prompts class groups to research an environmental issue.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Investigation of a Key Public Policy Issue

For Teachers 12th
Twelfth graders select and analyze a public policy issue. In groups, they create a hot list of web sites that have been explored and investigated as a result of a web search. Using their research, 12th graders individually produce a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Are the Important Issues?

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Students determine the most important issue of the current campaign. They follow a multi-step voting process to determine the most important issue(s) of the current campaign. They document the final vote on five important issues by...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Are the Social Studies?

For Teachers Higher Ed
Identify core social studies subjects with adult learners. They will discuss key issues from twentieth century American history and identify key social studies concepts taught at elementary grade levels. They then modify this activity to...
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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...
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Lesson Plan
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Classroom Law Project

What are some of today’s voting issues? Voting in Oregon, youth vote, and technology

For Teachers 7th - 12th
The youth vote. Rock the Vote. Vote-By-Mail. Electronic voting. Class members investigate issues facing today's voters, and the ways they have adapted over the years to optimize voter turnout.
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Lesson Plan
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Constitutional Rights Foundation

Issues of Unauthorized Immigration

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Unauthorized immigration is a complex and hotly debated topic. Class members read an article that examines the issues that motivate unauthorized immigration. Teams then assume the role of special interest groups and present their stand...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Teaching Social Studies in English

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Case studies, an examination of images, and readings of passages from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are used to spark conversations in ESL/ELD social studies classes about this highly-charged topic. Using a variety of...
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Lesson Plan
Canadian Civil Liberties Education Trust

That’s Not Fair!

For Teachers 1st - 6th
As part of a series of critical thinking exercises, kids consider issues of social justice, especially the factors that must be considered when trying to balance conflicting rights and freedoms.
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Lesson Plan
PBS

“He Named Me Malala”: Understanding Student Activism Through Film

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Malala Yousafzai has become the face of social activism. After watching He Named Me Malala and short student-made films about what young people can do to become instruments of change, class members reflect on what it means to be an...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Controversial Issues

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Hot topics are often engaging and can get heated. High School young scholars engage in an academic discussion were they must learn to engage with a person holding a different view than their own. They practice discussing different...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Documenting the Great Depression

For Teachers 10th - 11th
Students compare and contrast two photographs from the Great Depression, and identify the ways in which the photographers depicted the hardships of everyday life during this period. They hypothesize about the story behind each photograph...
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Lesson Plan
Media Smarts

Media Awareness Network: Hate or Debate?

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Discuss the difference between legitimate debate on a political issue and arguments that are based on hate through a science-fiction scenario that shows how a controversial issue can be discussed in both ways. Then learn how purveyors of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Issues of Gender

For Teachers 11th - 12th
High schoolers study the issue of gender. Here, they are invited to view works of art, and read pieces of literature through history to show how the issue of gender has evolved over time. The works of Robert Harris are used extensively...
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Lesson Plan
Missouri Department of Elementary

How Does a Friend Act?

For Teachers K Standards
Two puppets showcase social skills while scholars decide whether their actions are positive or negative. Learners take turns with the puppets, acting out scenarios with a peer while the rest of the class decide if they're being a good...
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Lesson Plan
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Teaching Tolerance

The War on Drugs—Mechanisms and Effects

For Teachers 9th - 12th
The war on drugs doesn't have definite results. An interesting lesson examines the social, political, and economic effect of the war on drugs. Academics learn how the war on drugs has led to mass incarcerations and negatively affected...
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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 plan focuses on positive role models and what motivates individuals to...
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Lesson Plan
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Facing History and Ourselves

Citizen Watchdogs and the News

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson: Skin Fruit: Propaganda of the Deed

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Art can express acts of injustice and move society to action. Upper graders analyze contemporary art relating to specific moments in history. They discuss propaganda, anarchy, sociology, and violence as activism. After researching and...
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Lesson Plan
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Facing History and Ourselves

Verifying Breaking News

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
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 on the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Us and Them

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Young scholars identify/analyze a variety of strategies to explain, create artworks and write about persistent issues involving the rights, responsibilities, roles and statue of individual citizens from a global perspective. A variety of...

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