Lesson Plans

GRADE LEVEL: Middle School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening, Language SEL STANDARDS*: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision-Making What are Reasons and Explanations for Challenging and Banning Books? Challenging and banning books goes back centuries. In recent times, children’s and young adult books have been challenged and banned. The reasons and explanations are many and varied and include profanity, “values,…

GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening, Language SEL STANDARDS*: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision-Making What can we do about hate and harassment taking place in online games? Video games are widely used and enjoyed by adults and young people alike. In fact, of all American adults, 67% play video games and among young people under age 18, 76% play video games. In ADL’s…

GRADE LEVEL: Middle School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language SEL STANDARDS*: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision-Making What does the FINA ban of the soul cap in the Olympics say about inclusivity and representation, especially in competitive swimming? The “Soul Cap,” invented in England by two friends, Michael Chapman and Toks Ahmed-Salawudeen, provides Black swimmers with a…

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…

GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language SEL STANDARDS*: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision-Making 7-Year-Old Morgan Bugg Advocates for More Diversity in Avatars In April 2021, seven-year-old Morgan Bugg of Tennessee was using an educational gaming app called Freckle, which is used by more than 900,000 teachers in the U.S. This app gives students a chance to win coins while…

GRADE LEVEL: High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language SEL STANDARDS*: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision-Making In May 2020, George Floyd was killed by then Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, while Floyd pleaded for his life, continually stating that he could not breathe. The killing was recorded on video by a bystander and the…

GRADE LEVEL: High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language SEL STANDARDS*: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision-Making Georgia's Restrictive Voting Law (SB 202) In March 2021, the Georgia State Legislature passed a major law (SB 202) that restricts and suppresses voting across the state. Democrats, voting rights groups and other advocates criticized and condemned the law, saying it limits voting rights…

Civics Lesson GRADE LEVEL: High School How is Dialogue Different than Debate? Technology is enabling students to be increasingly aware of news and current events. Along with this increased awareness, we see more and more students becoming actively engaged in conversations around hot-button topics. While students often talk in digital spaces about current events that concern them, they also continue the conversation in person. When disagreements happen in those conversations, what…

Civics Lesson GRADE LEVEL: High School What Does it Mean to Be an “American”? What is Civics?   Young people are making their voices heard in public discussions, protests, social media posts and writing about current events, elections, policies and issues that they believe directly affect their lives and communities. This climate has heightened a call for comprehensive civic education, already emergent in a “politically divisive time,” so that…

Civics Lesson GRADE LEVEL: High School What Needs to Change to Increase Voter Turnout? After every election, regardless of the outcome, people wonder how many people showed up at the polls to vote. The number is never as high as people would like, especially during midterm elections. In the 2016 Presidential election, 60.1% of the population eligible to vote showed up to the polls. During the midterm elections in 2018, only 50.3% of those eligible voted. While thousands of dollars…

Civics Lesson GRADE LEVEL: High School On What Grounds, If Any, Should an Adult U.S. Citizen Be Prevented from Voting? Should There Be Felony Disenfranchisement Laws?   During the 2018 midterm elections, Florida voted on whether to allow those who have been incarcerated to gain back their right to vote. Florida was one of a handful of states that did not allow previous felons to have their voting rights restored following completion of their prison sentences…

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 What is My Role in Creating and Participating in a Brave Space for Myself and Others? Everyone wants a welcoming classroom where every student feels appreciated, supported and able to express their ideas. While creating a safe space has been the focus for a long time, we are now calling on educators and students to create “brave spaces.” These are spaces where everyone feels that they can contribute, that they will be heard and…

GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language SEL STANDARDS*: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Responsible Decision-Making Baseball and Segregation In December 2020, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that they will correct a longtime injustice in the game’s history by officially elevating the Negro Leagues (of 1920-1948) to “Major League” status. For historical context, in the…

Civics Lesson GRADE LEVEL: High School What is the Electoral College? How is the Electoral College Democratic or Not? In the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, President Donald Trump won even though he did not win the popular vote. Why? He won the Electoral College vote. In other moments in U.S. History, the presidential candidate who won the popular vote was not elected, as the other candidate won via the Electoral College (including George W. Bush in 2000). These election results…

Civics Lesson GRADE LEVEL: High School What is Bias? What is Implicit Bias? In What Ways Could Bias Have an Impact on Your Civic Participation?   The U.S. Constitution embodies ideals of equal opportunity and fair treatment for all and is reinforced by laws like the Civil Rights Act and Title IX. Yet, marginalized people who have experienced discrimination and unfair treatment historically, continue to do so in the present day. The current surge of stories in the news…

GRADE LEVEL: High School What is the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? What was Frederick Douglass’s Argument for Why Black Men Should Have the Right to Vote?   During the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War, large questions loomed about the futures of four million formerly enslaved people. The 15th Amendment, one of three crucial amendments passed in the immediate wake of the Civil War, was essential to securing voting rights for African-American men. One…

Civics Lesson GRADE LEVEL: High School What is “Hashtag Activism”? In What Ways Does “Hashtag Activism” Help and Hinder Social Movements? #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, #IceBucketChallenge, #ThisIsOurLane and so many other hashtags are appearing on Twitter and various social media sites. With every hashtag posted, webs of content are created and individual voices are connected. For some people, their activism begins and ends with the use of a hashtag. For others…