Social Studies

In this lesson, students will use the case of Park51’s Islamic Cultural Center as a starting point for a discussion about whether religious freedom is absolute and if religious freedom requires respect for ...

In this lesson, students will learn about other religions as a starting point to promote religious tolerance.  Activities will help ...

In this lesson students will explore the language of the immigration debate. First, students will learn the definitions of some of the commonly used terms. Next, they will learn the difference between a word’s ...

This lesson helps children identify their own strengths and struggles. Students will work on ways to bring all their strengths together to build a classroom community. Building a ...

In this lesson, students will explore what teen rights actually are. They will also read about some recent cases where teens felt their rights were violated. Students will debate the nature of rights ...

This lesson has students distinguish between charity (volunteering in a soup kitchen) and justice (working to end the inequalities that make soup kitchens necessary). It asks students to think about root ...

Web Exclusive activities for What is Rural America? (page 28-31) from Teaching Tolerance No. 38. Activity #1: Defining Key Vocabulary in Visuals Essential ...

In April 2010, an environmental catastrophe occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. A deep-sea oil-drilling rig exploded, and millions of gallons of oil continued to gush into the Gulf for several months. The disaster ...

In this lesson, students will study Morgan’s speech to better understand the civil rights movement and the value of speaking out against injustice. On Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963, four ...

I am an eighth-grade language arts teacher in Durham, New Hampshire. My students have grown up in an environment where there is very little exposure to ethnic, racial or LGBT communities. They are ripe ...

Each year in my art room, I introduce a unit of study focused on the art and culture of another country or region. This year I decided to focus on Islamic art and culture. Since I provide art instruction to ...

This is one of my favorite tolerance activities. It helps students think about leaving others out of groups and tolerating differences within the classroom. You will need many small self-adhesive stars of six ...

Here is an activity that is fun and teaches kids to recognize the problems associated with bullying. They learn to use critical thinking and empathy skills to come up with ...

Sometimes students get stuck on superficial notions of identity, both in understanding themselves and in looking at their classmates. This activity uses literature to challenge stereotypes and help children ...

As an elementary school counselor, I am continually amazed at the number of students who do not know how to give and receive a compliment. Students seem to have no trouble, however, with the occasional teasing ...

The beginning of the school year is such an exciting time. Students and teachers arrive   full of dreams, goals and enthusiasm. There are the prospects of new friends, interesting learning and becoming part of ...

Friendship circles are groups of people who share some common interests or values. They can be healthy, nurturing and supportive. Being bonded to others because of a shared love of sports, music or ...

Bullied is a documentary film that chronicles one student’s ordeal at the hands of anti-gay bullies and offers an inspiring ...

Using Editorial Cartoons to Teach Social Justice is a series of 14 lessons. Each lesson focuses on a contemporary social justice issue. These lessons are multidisciplinary and geared toward middle and high ...

Activities will help students understand strategies used in editorial cartoons and create an editorial cartoon that focuses on a social justice issue. This is the final lesson in the ...

Objective Activities will help students understand how artists use titles to bring context to editorial cartoons  This is the twelfth lesson in the series " Using ...

Activities meet the following objectives: understand how a cartoon uses words and images to make a political statement learn about gender discrimination and Title IX ...

Activities will help students: understand the use of dialogue in editorial cartoons question why one group might blindly hate another group This is the thirteenth lesson ...

Activities will help students understand how artists use images to represent an idea. This is the tenth lesson in the series " Using Editorial Cartoons to Teach Social Justice ...

Activities will help students: understand how a cartoon uses irony and caricature to make a political statement understand a cartoon in its historical context connect past and present debates about ...

Activities meet the following objectives: understand the importance of context in decoding an editorial cartoon understand how a cartoon uses satire to make a political statement ...

Activities will help students explore how editorial cartoons often use familiar adages or idioms in new ways to make a point about something. This is the seventh lesson in the series ...

Activities will help students: understand how a cartoon uses idioms and puns (plays on words) to make a political statement interpret visual and written material in an editorial cartoon ...

Activities will help students see how artists can use cartoons to express their opinions about society and culture. This is the fifth lesson in the series " Using Editorial ...

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, ...