Classroom Resources

The purpose of these lessons is to help students think about how to resolve difficult ethical decisions related to injustice. By role-playing, researching people who have made courageous ethical decisions, and writing about their own role models, students will come to understand the importance of standing up for what they believe in.

This is the first lesson of the series “Dealing with Dilemmas: Upstanders, Bystanders and Whistle-Blowers,” which invites students to examine how they would respond to everyday dilemmas that test their character and value system. By working through three or four scenarios, students will figure out where they stand, literally and figuratively, when conflicts arise. What would they do? What choices would they make? They will also have the opportunity to think about how and why the actions of their classmates influence their choices.

This lesson is part of a series called “The Rich Tapestry of Religion in the United States.” The overall goals of the series are to help students explore the similarities and differences among different faith systems and practices, learn that there is no one “right” belief system, identify the positive and negative implications of living in a country with religious diversity and freedom, and consider their own responses to those who believe differently than they do. 

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. 

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 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 understand how artists use images to represent an idea.

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 strategies used in editorial cartoons and create an editorial cartoon that focuses on a social justice issue.

“The Rich Tapestry of Religion in the United States” features three lessons that help students assess the religious diversity of the United States, explore different religious and non-religious worldviews, and consider how freedom of religion relates to their own lives and the lives of others.

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

“Taking a Closer Look at Religions Around the World” offers a starting point for exploring religions and faith traditions, creating an ongoing respectful dialogue about religious tolerance. By understanding where and how varying faiths began and developed, it’s possible to better comprehend the reasons behind divergent national and international origins in religion. Building knowledge and comprehension of context can assist our compassion and consideration for other people and faiths.

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 is the third 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 learn the concepts of “same” and “different,” read and answer questions about two types of families, and create a “same and different” graphic organizer that reflects similarities and differences between their family and a classmate’s family.

Students often learn the importance of respecting people of different religions, and of respecting religious beliefs that are different from their own. But what about people who do not hold religious beliefs at all? Too often the right not to believe is excluded from lessons about tolerance.

The history of a proud indigenous people during WWII.

This lesson is part of The Role of Gay Men and Lesbians in the Civil Rights Movement series. This series introduces students to four lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people of African descent, and their allies. All four—James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Pauli Murray, Bayard Rustin—were indispensable to the ideas, strategies and activities that made the civil rights movement a successful political and social revolution.