GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Reports Show an Alarming Rise of Antisemitism in Europe
Several reports over the past few years have pointed to an increase in antisemitism in Europe, both in terms of hate incidents and anti-Jewish attitudes. Human Rights First (based in the U.S.), the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) (based in Vienna) and ADL all report higher levels of antisemitism compared to previous years;…
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On the morning of October 27, at Sabbath services—the holy day of the week for the Jewish community—Robert Bowers entered the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA and yelled “All Jews must die,” then opened fire upon the congregants. He was armed with an assault rifle and several handguns and killed eleven congregants and wounded six others, four of whom are police officers. When surrendering to law enforcement, Bowers told an officer that he “wanted all…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Columbus Day Controversy
Columbus Day is a federal holiday that commemorates Christopher Columbus’ landing in the Americas (the “New World”) on October 12, 1492. It became an official holiday in 1937. For many, the holiday honors Columbus’ achievements, celebrates Italian-American culture and heritage and pays tribute to patriotism. According to a 2017 poll, 58% of Americans…
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language In early September 2018, it was announced that Colin Kaepernick, former N.F.L. quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers, would be prominently featured as part of Nike’s 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign. The campaign’s slogan “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” is featured in the ad. Kaepernick…
Teach students about the gender allowance gap and have them express their knowledge and thoughts about it through a persuasive letter.
Engage students in reflecting on artworks that critique injustice and exploring other ways art can be used to inspire and communicate social justice.
Teach students about what is happening with family separations and detentions at the border and have them reflect on quotes about the current situation.
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening Antisemitism: Surging in the 21st Century
The ADL Global 100: An Index of Antisemitism™ is the most extensive poll on antisemitic attitudes and opinions toward Jewish people ever conducted. It consists of surveys of the general public in over 100 countries and territories gauging levels of antisemitic attitudes and adherence to traditional antisemitic stereotypes.
First conducted in 2014, ADL…
Teach students about the history of U.S. expansion and Indian policy and present the voices and perspectives of Native Americans on the Lewis and Clark expedition.
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening, Language How Often Do You See or Experience Bias?
It seems like we are seeing more and more news and social media stories about people experiencing bias as they go about their daily lives—riding the subway, shopping in a store, dining in a restaurant and hanging out with friends. Indeed, the surge of such stories makes it seem like racism, sexism and other forms of bias and discrimination are becoming…
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening In 1983, a social scientist named David Chambers published a research study on children’s drawings. The study summarized data from the late 1960s and 1970s in which teachers asked 5,000 children to “draw a scientist.” One theme appeared strongly: the scientist drawings were almost all men. Recently, researchers looked at 78 “draw-a-scientist” studies (from 1985 to…
Teach students about the U.S. Census in order to understand and reflect upon the controversy over the citizenship question and to express their own point of view on the topic by writing a persuasive letter.
Teach students about the plight of the Rohingya people and explore what can be done about the current situation.
Teach students about the Masterpiece Cakeshop SCOTUS case its related Constitutional principles and to explore different points of view about the case in order to write an opinion essay of their own.
Teach students what ableism is and the many ways it manifests and explore ways they can act as allies and take actions to confront and challenge ableism.
Teach students about the importance of diverse literature and engage them in a study on the diversity of books in their classroom or school library.
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language Race and racism are topics that regularly come up in the news and populate our social media feeds. Whether we are discussing the lack of representation of people of color in media, immigration policies, the racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system or the events in Charlottesville, race is part of our public conversation. Race is an integral part of our…
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening, Language Ageism is a term that was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler as a way to describe bias against older people; the term was patterned on definitions of sexism and racism. Ageism is most commonly understood to describe bias and discrimination against older people but it can also include bias against young people or even specific age groups like millennials. Ageism can take many…
Teach students about the First Amendment, how these freedoms originated and how they function today.
Updated December 2020
Natural disasters have dominated the news headlines lately with powerful hurricanes in North Carolina and the Caribbean, a forceful earthquake in Mexico and severe wildfires in Oregon, California and other western states. These events have had significant and damaging impacts on the people, buildings and natural environment in those locations and resulted in injury, death, destruction of homes and businesses, displacement and homelessness, loss of food, water and…