ELL / ESL

In this lesson, students will learn that race is a factor often connected to poverty and that institutions can create obstacles for the poor—and for people of color who live in poverty—that block participation and achievement.

This activity is to accompany the Teaching Tolerance article “Story Corner: An Unlikely Friendship.”

This activity is to accompany the Teaching Tolerance article "Defining Moments."

This activity is to accompany the Teaching Tolerance article "Identity."

This lesson is the second in a series of lessons called “Issues of Poverty.” Students explore the causes of poverty in the United States and the structural factors that perpetuate it. Students will examine the ways poverty is closely related to economic and political policy, and will work to discover why it disproportionately affects members of non-dominant groups—that is, groups that have historically oppressed groups.

This lesson is the first in a series of lessons called “Issues of Poverty.” Students explore the causes of poverty in the United States and the factors that perpetuate it. The four lessons aim to challenge the idea that poverty is simply the result of individual shortcomings. Students will examine the ways poverty is closely related to economic and political policy, and will work to discover why it disproportionately affects members of non-dominant groups—that is, groups that have historically been oppressed.

This lesson is the fourth and final in a series called “Family Tapestry.” One goal of these lessons is to help students recognize and accept differences among themselves and within the larger community. Another is to recognize how each student’s unique family contributes to a richer society. As students begin to understand themselves better, learning opportunities to explore biases and prejudices will likely emerge. In this lesson, students will synthesize everything they’ve learned throughout the series to create a quilt that tells the story of their families and how those families contribute to their overall classroom community.

The Augusta Films documentary The Loving Story recounts an important and often-overlooked element of the struggle to end racial segregation in the United States. Mildred and Richard Loving, married in 1958, were arrested because he was white and she was part African-American and part Native American. In Virginia, where they lived, their marriage was illegal. Their desire to live together as husband and wife in their home state led to a Supreme Court ruling that declared state laws that prohibited inter-racial marriage unconstitutional. 

This lesson is the second in the series “Family Tapestry.” One goal of these lessons is to help students recognize and accept differences among themselves and within the larger community. Another is to recognize how each student’s unique family contributes to a richer society. As students begin to understand themselves better, learning opportunities will likely emerge to explore biases and prejudices. In this lesson, students explore how their family’s ethnic and cultural journey contributes to their lives and to their community.

This lesson is the first in the series “Family Tapestry.” One goal of these lessons is to help students recognize and accept differences among themselves and within the larger community. Another is to recognize how each student’s unique family contributes to a richer society. As students begin to understand themselves better, learning opportunities will likely emerge to explore biases and prejudices. In this introductory lesson, students explore the definition of family, learn about different kinds of family structures and explore what makes their own family unique.

This lesson, the second in a series, encourages students to think and talk openly about the concept of beauty, particularly as it overlaps with issues of race and racial identity.

This lesson is the first in a series called “The Different Colors of Beauty.” The overall goal of these lessons is to help students develop their racial or ethnic identities in a safe and open classroom environment, while being conscious of our multicultural, diverse world.

Through songs, stories and paintings, students explore how and why communities tell stories about heroes and heroines.

In 2011, 20 states permitted corporal punishment in public schools. Many students who live outside those states find it hard to believe that corporal punishment still exists.

The purpose of this activity is to discuss the bullying of LGBT students. It uses the Mexican tradition of El Paseo to begin that discussion.

Each year in my elementary art classroom, students learn about a diverse group of black men and women in honor of Black History Month (this activity, though, is relevant throughout the year).

Individuals of all ages can find it difficult to identify and express their feelings in a positive way.

This is the final lesson in the Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice series. Preceding lessons explored a variety of social justice issues through the lens of photographers and their pictures. This activity will offer students several different options for showcasing their understanding.

In A Time for Justice, four-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Charles Guggenheim captured the spirit of the civil rights movement through historical footage and the voices of those who participated in the struggle.

The photo shows two students collecting signatures to protest the treatment of women at the university. This lesson is part of the Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice series.

Teaching Tolerance is proud to present this teacher’s guide designed to support and supplement the HBO documentary Sergio. The film chronicles the extraordinary life and tragic death of United Nations diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello. Vieira de Mello was a Brazilian humanitarian who served the UN for more than thirty years in a variety of roles all around the world. He was killed in a hotel bombing in Iraq in 2003.

In this lesson, students analyze a photograph of Mildred Jeter Loving and Richard Loving—the interracial couple that took the case of their marriage all the way to the Supreme Court—as a springboard for exploring the case, and for thinking about analogous issues today. This lesson is part of the Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice series.

In this lesson, students analyze a photograph from the freedom riders’ protest. This lesson is part of the Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice series.