Classroom Activities

Activities will help students:

• understand how a cartoon uses irony to make a political statement
• interpret visual and written material in an editorial cartoon

People who are poor don’t have access to the kinds of resources—good jobs, high-quality education and health care, for example—that people with more money have. One thing they do have access to, unfortunately, is a disproportionate share of environmental problems. You can see why: People who can afford to, live in places far away from oil wells, factories and toxic waste dumps. People with less money more often live near those environmentally undesirable—and often dangerous—places. 

This final lesson of the series, I See You, You See Me: Body Image and Social Justice, which helps students think about their bodies and body image as related to broader issues of social justice and stereotypes.

Honoring the far-reaching contribution of women authors.

What would a neighborhood survey of businesses reveal about your community?

Measure your awareness of Native American influences in U.S. history and culture.

Use this excerpt from Lewis's Walking with the Wind to explore the Civil Rights Movement.

A media journal project exposes classism in contemporary politics.

Middle school students build their own Bill of Rights.

"The fight should be for all human rights - - religious, ethnic, sexual. We have to stop grouping people; they aren't pickle bottles and you can't stick labels on them."

"One must ask, 'Are you doing everything you can?' and I think if the answer is try 'Yes,' then you fell neither hopeless nor despairing."

"It started with five women, then 15, then 80, then 150. When it reached these numbers, I realized I had to do something for these women."

"We Africans may be impoverished, but we are not poor. ... We can learn things from others, but we also have a lot to offer the world."

"Now I would like to see Guatemala at peace, with indigenous and nonindigenous people living side by side."

"Everyone has to take responsibility and do whatever they can to avoid a nuclear war [even] contacting the US President."

Explore the separation of church and state with regards to school prayer and religious tolerance.

This activity helps students understand the injustice and dangers of scapegoating an entire group of people during a national crisis.

A high school teacher helps his students challenge their own racist beliefs.

This collection of primary resources and corresponding activities sheds light on the endurance of peaceful protesters in Montgomery, Ala., who overturned an unjust law.

This activity asks students to read and compare the language of two oral histories, asking them to think about prejudice, stigma and fundamental rights and freedoms.

Comic books are visual literature. This simple cooperative group activity allows students to identify confrontational issues within their own school and then imagine solutions.

As you read about Sacagawea and York, write a journal entry that imagines Sacagawea or York's first-person account.

Activities for all grades to build community in your class this year.

Discussion questions for Papalotzin and the Monarchs / Papalotzin y las monarcas.