Smithsonian Institution
Art to Zoo: Life in the Promised Land: African-American Migrants in Northern Cities, 1916-1940
This is a fantastic resource designed for learners to envision what it was like for the three million African-Americans who migrated to urban industrial centers of the northern United States between 1910 and 1940. After reading a...
Speak Truth to Power
Marina Pisklakova: Domestic Violence
After reading Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and discussing background material about domestic violence, class members create a map showing where in their community survivors of domestic violence can get help and...
Story Corps
The Great Thanksgiving Listen
StoryCorp provides a resource that captures and preserves the remembrances of family or community elders. Prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, class members select a person they want to interview, record the conversation, and then upload...
Curated OER
Social Studies: 9/11 Banners
Students explore the history of flags and design banners for their communities. their designs reflect sentiments shaped by the events of 9/11. In addition, they write phrases beginning with, "being an American means..." Students...
Stanford University
Observing Human Rights Day
How much intervention is appropriate for America to take in cases of human rights violations? Class members ponder a question that has lingered since the birth of America with a series of primary sources that reflect the degree to which...
Curated OER
Check Out Community Preparedness
High schoolers research storm preparedness in local community, identify ways citizens are notified of impending weather emergencies, contact city administrators to discuss disaster plan and whether it has ever been implemented, and...
PBS
A Time and Place: The Importance of Setting in To Kill a Mockingbird
A strong community acts as a family during difficult times. The evidence for the family aspects of Maycomb is abundant in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, and it is the focus of a lesson plan on the importance of setting as it relates...
University of Northern Iowa
Additional Folklife Information
Use a packet packed with ideas for how to celebrate the traditions of your country, state, community, and pupils's families. Suggestions for how to draw on oral and material traditions, customs, beliefs, music, and stories all find a...
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Prayer and Friday Night Lights? An Establishment Clause Case from Texas
Is a Christian prayer before a Friday night football game a nice gesture or the imposition of religion on the rest of the community? A resource asks the question using a clip from the popular movie "Friday Night Lights" and readings...
Curated OER
Social Studies: Our Town
Third graders examine all the features of communities, including an examination of their histories. They draw a mural that includes their community's unique features. Students also construct a replica of the main street of their town.
Curated OER
All About Groups And Community
Second graders examine the kinds of rules that different groups have. They work cooperatively in small groups to make rules for different groups and complete a worksheet imbedded in this plan. They have a greater understanding why rules...
Curated OER
All About Groups & Community
Second graders examine the various kinds of groups in our communities and lives. They make charts and drawings of different groups and complete a worksheet imbedded in this plan. The groups are a true cooperative format, with each...
Global Oneness Project
Communities on the Threshold of Change
Viewers of the short documentary Santa Cruz Del Islote consider how changes in climate and overfishing impact the life style of the 1,200 residents of a small island off the coast of Cartagena, Columbia.
Southern Poverty Law Center
Analyzing Gender Stereotypes in Media
Why might toy advertisers use gender stereotypes to sell their products? Young people think critically about media messages and its role in gender stereotyping with a thought-provoking lesson plan.
Curated OER
"CREATE YOUR OWN COMMUNITY"
Second graders, after spending several weeks developing skills necessary to become a "Community Development Team," create and build their vision of a community. Consideration is given for needs and wants, food, shelter, safety concerns,...
Curated OER
What is a Community?
Second graders write sentences in a graphic organizer about communities and what they include. In this community lesson, 2nd graders will also draw a picture based on their description.
Curated OER
My Community-My World
Students discover the meaning of philanthropy and ways in which it occurs in the home, at school, and in the community. Each student chooses one need in their own community, list opportunities to fulfill the need, then predict what might...
Curated OER
Community Locations - Police Station, Fire Station, Library, Post Office
Young scholars get excited about their community which can be extended through visits from members of the community or field trips. In this community helpers lesson, students demonstrate knowledge of the interaction of location, family,...
Stanford University
Lesson Plan: Montgomery Bus Boycott
Most of us have heard of Rosa Parks, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and Martin Luther King, Jr. But what about Claudette Colvin, Virginia Durr, Freedom Summer, or the Birmingham Children's Crusade? A five-lesson unit prompts class members...
Federal Reserve Bank
Once Upon a Dime: Middle School Lesson Plan
Once Upon a Dime ... a group of middle schoolers wanted to learn about economics! Teach them complex economic concepts like supply and demand through a resource that effectively simplifies the explanations. Pupils work through various...
Curated OER
Introduction to Philanthropy-Recognizing Good Citizenship and Philanthropy in Our Community
Students explore the term philanthropy and recognize it in everyday situations. They list three philanthropic activities occurring in their own home, in their classroom, or in their school. Students identify at least one act they might...
American Documentary
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Plea Bargains
The outcome of 90 percent of criminal cases in the US is determined by plea bargains. Clips from the documentary Better This World create the backdrop for an investigation of the benefits and drawbacks of the plea bargaining process....
Curated OER
Creating Civic Awareness Through Artistic and Literary Forms
Interpret current events using editorial cartoons and other print media. Middle schoolers explore the meanings of literary and artistic terms such as satire, irony, and caricature. They visit internet sites to develop an understanding of...
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
Franklin’s Philadelphia: Another Point of View
The impressive story of Benjamin Franklin, including his rise from a printer’s apprentice to a statesman, color upper-level scholars’ understanding of the possibilities of life in colonial Philadelphia. But not everyone had the...