GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language Yom HaShoah: Remembering and Learning from the Holocaust Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day that has been set aside for remembering the victims of the Holocaust and for reminding each of us what can happen when bigotry and hatred are not confronted. This day is widely known as Yom HaShoah, which is a Hebrew term for “Holocaust Day”. The internationally…
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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 what white supremacy is and explore historical and current day examples.
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening, Language The noose, also known as the “hangman’s noose,” has been in the news lately because there have been several noose-related incidents. Recent examples include nooses being found in K-12 public schools and colleges, the U.S. Mint, a construction site and ironically, an exhibit on segregation at the National Museum for African American History. The hangman's noose has come to…
Teach students about Confederate monuments and the push to remove them.
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening In May 2017, it was reported that a charter school in Massachusetts was disciplining several Black girls, including sisters Deanna and Mya Cook, for wearing their hair in braids with extensions. The students had been given detentions and were prohibited from participating in after-school activities, including sports, for violating the school’s Hair/Make-Up policy, a policy that many, including…
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language Remember that when you say “I will have none of this exile and this stranger for his face is not like my face and his speech is strange,” you have denied America with that word. —Stephen Vincent Benét
Alien Registration Act: Required Fingerprinting of all Immigrants
When these words were published in 1943, the Alien…
Teach students about why slurs are and why they are harmful, helping them explore possible responses to slurs when they hear them.
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Two studies published by the American Psychological Association (APA) about perceptions and race led to these headlines: “We Think Black Men are Bigger than White Men (Even When they're Not)” and “Black Boys Are Perceived as Older and Less Innocent than Their White Peers.” These studies, one in 2014 and the other in 2017, found that people’s perceptions of African-American…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language We see symbols every day in all aspects of our lives. Symbols are used to convey ideas, qualities, emotions, material objects/products, opinions and beliefs. Unfortunately, symbols are also used to convey hate and bias. Lately, we have seen a lot of hate symbol graffiti in public spaces and specifically the swastika, which in most circumstances is understood as an expression of antisemitism. There has reportedly…
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening, Language The surge of antisemitic incidents in the United States is alarming to many. Several reported incidents include graffiti using swastikas, bomb threats, vandalism and shootings, targeting Jewish Community Centers (JCC) and institutions across the country. At the Chesed Shel Emeth Society cemetery, a historic century-old Jewish cemetery in University City, a suburb of St…
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: Preschool, Elementary School, Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language Incidents of violence, such as school shootings or terrorist attacks, raise many issues for parents and educators. How can we assure our children that they are safe in the world? How do we prevent the hatred that leads to violence and terrorism?
About this Curriculum Unit
This curriculum unit for grades PreK–12 provides grade-specific…
Teach students about cyberhate using two recent news stories and have them reflect upon the best way to confront cyberhate.
Teach students about genocides, what the world has done to achieve the ideal of “never again” and why these efforts have fallen short.
Teach students about the connection between anti-Muslim acts of bigotry and the misunderstandings and stereotypes about Muslim people and help them and identify ways they can act as allies.
Teach students about the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris to explore how Muslim people and Syrian refugees are being scapegoated as a result of theses attacks.
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening Misty Copeland is a thirty-three year old ballerina who recently became the first African American performer to be appointed as a Principal Dancer for the American Ballet Theater in its 75 year history. Copeland joined the studio company of American Ballet Theatre (ABT) in 2000, becoming a soloist several years later and starring in a range of productions such as The Nutcracker and …
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…