Teach students about this history of Barbie, reflect on their own experiences with Barbie and consider what identity groups may be missing from Barbie's collection.
19 Results
Teach students about data from Pew's survey about teens and social media, help them reflect on their own social media use and explore how race, gender and socioeconomic status impact online use.
Civics Lesson
GRADE LEVEL: High School What are Ways to Enter the United States with Documentation?
What are the Experiences of those with Green Cards?
Against the backdrop of the recent refugee crisis and the overall increase in immigration, people have asked how one enters the United States with documentation. One way is to apply for a Green Card which leads to formal naturalization and citizenship in the United States if the application is approved. Gaining Green…
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language Using Bitmoji to Build a Virtual Backdrop
As soon as teachers received the news that many schools would start the 2020-21 school year in virtual spaces, educators across the country began creating “bitmoji classrooms” to share with their students. These virtual classrooms, created on a Google or PowerPoint slide, enable teachers and others to design and…
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening, Language Seeing a Positive Reflection of Yourself in Media
O’Plérou Grebet, a 22-year-old digital artist from the Ivory Coast, was recently in the news because he created his own emojis, reflecting life in contemporary West Africa. In an interview with CNN, he stated, "I noticed that media and most articles about Africa were talking about the bad sides of the continent only. They reduced the…
GRADE LEVEL: High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening, Language Polls and Opinion Surveys are Part of Our Daily Lives
From responding to surveys on social media to reading results from the latest election poll, we are inundated with information about what the public thinks about a variety of topics and issues. During elections, polls are used to provide information to the general public and for candidates to gain insight into their standing in the race. During the…
Teach students about the conditions in the detention facilities and reflect on the impact this has on migrants and those seeking asylum.
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening The post-millennial generation, or “Gen Z,” is the most racially diverse generation in U.S. history. According to a Pew Research analysis of Census data, this generation, born between 1997 and 2012, is the most racially and ethnically diverse generation, with 48% identifying as people of color. In early 2019, The New York Times did a call-out asking Gen Zers to respond to the question, …
Teach students about the migrant caravan and understand what political asylum is, reflecting on the people’s stories and situations.
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.
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 importance of diverse literature and engage them in a study on the diversity of books in their classroom or school library.
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: Middle School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening In November 2014, the National Center on Family Homelessness reported that one child in every thirty — or 2.5 million children in the U.S. — were homeless at some point in 2013. Many advocates blame the country’s high poverty rate on a lack of affordable housing, among other causes. Even though the child homeless rate is at an all-time high, people who are homeless are typically…
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening The First Girl to Pitch a Shutout in the Little League World Series
In 2014 Mo’Ne Davis, a 13-year-old girl, made news headlines as the first girl to ever pitch a shutout in the Little League World series. At that time she was considered the “most talked about baseball player on earth right now” according to many observers in the sports world. Mo’Ne (pronounced Moh-nay…
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Over the years, student dress codes have sought to address a wide range of issues and have incited different degrees of controversy. For example, in the late 1960s and 70s, young men with long hair were sometimes physically attacked by their classmates and, as a result, many schools required boys to wear their hair cut to their ears or shorter. In the 1990s, there was a push for dress…
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language Using Poetry to Teach about Identity
Reading and writing poetry can provide an opening for young people to explore the various aspects of their identity, including their name, race and ethnicity, physical characteristics and more.
April is National Poetry Month, a good opportunity to explore poetry with your students. Because poetry does not require strict sentence structure or the usual grammar rules…
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening César Chávez was a Mexican American labor activist, civil rights advocate and leader of the United Farm Workers. During the 1960s and 70s, he was a leading voice for migrant farm workers. His leadership focused national attention on these laborers’ working conditions, which eventually led to improvements. In 2008, President Obama proclaimed March 31 Cé…
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School In celebration and memory of the life of Nelson Mandela, this special edition of the Current Events Classroom provides students the opportunity to learn, in several ways, more about Nelson Mandela and his extraordinary life.