Civics Lesson
GRADE LEVEL: High School What is privilege? How does privilege impact the criminal justice system?
On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old Black teenager, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. The officer was not indicted. The story captured the attention of the nation and the media, and in many ways became the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement. Many stories like this occurred in the following years and continued…
22 Results
Civics Lesson
GRADE LEVEL: High School How Were Youth Involved in the Civil Rights Movement?
Throughout history, young people have stepped up and into leadership roles during different civil rights and social movements. This was never more evident than in the Civil Rights Movement, where young people were on the frontlines of the Montgomery bus boycotts, Freedom Rides and sit-ins. Given that student activism is on the rise again across the U.S., understanding how those young voices…
Civics Lesson
GRADE LEVEL: High School How Has the Media Responded to My Social Justice Issue?
Our current world offers a seemingly endless stream of media, from news stories to blog posts, Instagram feeds to social media memes, and more. Some media from news sites is fact-based straight reporting or opinion pieces advocating a particular point of view. Other pieces are thought provoking nonfiction informing us about our own communities, or places on the other side of the world. In…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening, Language The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution granted women the right to vote and was ratified on August 18, 1920.
Women's Suffrage Movement: Seeking the Right to Vote
Suffrage is the right or privilege of voting. In 1848, hundreds of mostly women and some men attended the first woman's rights convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y. to “discuss the social, civic and religious condition…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language Reflections of Biased Incidents in Basketball and White Privilege
In April 2019, Kyle Korver, a U.S. professional basketball player who plays with the Utah Jazz, wrote an essay on racism and white privilege that received a lot of acclaim and attention. In the essay, Korver, who is white, reflects on several biased incidents involving his African-American teammates and his…
Teach students about the U.S. women’s soccer team’s lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation and explore how sexism manifests in a variety of ways in women’s sports.
Explore with students the letters between Riley Morrison and Steph Curry and reflect on an experience with bias by writing a persuasive letter.
Teach students about athletes who have taken stands on political issues.
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.
Teach students about DREAMers/DACA and have them reflect on what it means to be “American,” culminating in them writing a persuasive letter to their representative in Congress.
Teach students about Confederate monuments and the push to remove them.
Teach students about the 2017 'Muslim Ban' executive order and the actions immediately following the signing of it.
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language In light of the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, ADL offers a four-part lesson that examines the debate over school integration within the broader context of the Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 and the desegregation of Central High School in Little…
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language Teaching Opportunity: Exploring the Electoral Process
Political debates can provide important learning opportunities. When election time comes around—whether it be a presidential election or a local contest for mayor, city council member, governor or member of Congress—these debates give teachers an opening to explore candidates, issues and the electoral process with…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Racial Discrimination and Safeguarding the Right to Vote
In August 2015, we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act which was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. The Voting Rights Act is landmark federal legislation that was enacted during the Civil Rights Movement and was intended to prevent racial discrimination in voting. Prior to that, even though Black…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening In March 2015, we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights, which led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act later that year. The anniversary provides a good opportunity to teach about activism and voting rights then and now. After the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which largely addressed racial discrimination and segregation, voting rights…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language, Mathematics “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
These celebrated words from the Brown v. Board of Education Majority Opinion ushered in an unprecedented era of civil rights and school restructuring in the United States. In 1954, when this…
Teach students about the situation in Ferguson, MO in 2014 when Michael Brown was shot by the police.
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening, Language Arts This lesson provides an opportunity for students to discuss the homicide of Renisha McBride, who was shot to death while seeking help after being in a car accident. Similar to Trayvon Martin, both victims were black and in both cases, the shooter was white. Also similar was the perpetrator’s claim of self-defense. Students will learn more about these cases and analyze the role of…