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Learning for Justice Magazine Subscription

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Learning for Justice Magazine Subscription

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Subscribe to Learning for Justice Magazine

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Learning for Justice magazine is now an annual publication that brings you articles and content on a range of social justice and human rights issues affecting public education and the learning and well-being of young people. The magazine is free to educators, parents and caregivers, and all who are committed to inclusive education. It is available in print and online. Subscribers in the U.S. receive a print issue in the fall each year. International subscribers have access to all online content.

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Teaching Difficult Topics with Primary Sources

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Teaching the Tough Subjects | PBS LearningMedia

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Watch how educators present difficult topics involving human suffering in this episode of NJEA's Classroom Close-up. Teachers and community groups have created curricula on topics such as the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and school shootings. Middle school students made a website to raise awareness about modern day slavery.

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How to Set the Stage for Challenging Classroom Discussions

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Creating a safer space for students to engage with controversial topics starts with shared norms like "assume best intentions" and "show respect and courage."

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Preparing Students for Difficult Conversations

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Students establish a safe space for holding sensitive conversations, before introducing the events surrounding Ferguson, by acknowledging people’s complicated feelings about race and creating a classroom contract.

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About race. About identity. About the meaning of democracy and where we go from here. Tanya Huelett shares what she learned from leading difficult conversations at Facing History & Ourselves. These guiding principles can help you as you try to navigate the current climate or the latest tragedy.

Difficult conversations are a big part of my life. For almost nine years I've helped teach about atrocities and injustices in the past and present. I should have felt prepared when asked to facilitate a webinar on "navigating difficult conversations" for classrooms in Baltimore City Public Schools. Instead I felt overwhelmed and hesitant.

In the wake of Freddie Gray's death in police custody in 2015, the subsequent city-wide unrest and the trials to come, the school system wanted to equip their teachers with the tools and resources needed to create safe spaces for students to discuss the events around them. Facing History's theories and practices for doing this are strong and effective, but I was unsure how well they would hold up under the weight of such profound, painful, and local events.

I was cautious about conflating larger national conversations surrounding similar events with the particular experiences of people in Baltimore. Moreover, I wondered how to talk about justice in ways that inspired students to appreciate the importance of civic participation without unduly influencing their responses to local events. And yet I knew that people wanted to bring the conversations that dominated the world outside into their classrooms, to provide calming and constructive outlets for students who were experiencing a range of emotions.
I found comfort and clarity in four guiding principles for approaching difficult conversations of all sorts. Trust Yourself and Your Partners:
Your community, teachers, and students know what's best for your classrooms, schools, and larger communities. From a distance I couldn't know the personal connections to recent events. I had to trust that participants who knew the local climate would create safe and productive spaces to have these conversations.
Think Critically:
We must think critically about the messages we send to others. For this webinar we considered resources on justice, nonviolence, and stereotyping. The materials on nonviolence could provide examples of how to address injustice through nonviolent direct action. But we worried that some might think we were assuming that violence would be a part of their reaction to events in their community. It's important to share concerns like this and to examine the messages that might be embedded in resources you share with your community.
Find Appropriate Resources:
As leaders of difficult conversations, we should constantly evaluate our go-to practices, and make sure that we have the right tools for each unique job. This self-examination ensures we are creating the best possible space for others to process difficult events and emotions.
Practice:
We must regularly practice building and honoring a safe and productive community so we are better prepared to discuss topics that may pull more heavily on hearts and minds. We need practice having these conversations with one another so we can better see where the need for structure and sensitivity is, and more easily guide other people through these conversations.

How do you navigate difficult conversations in your classroom or in your own life? What lessons have you learned? Share them with us!

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How to Be an Upstander: Four Guiding Principles for Difficult Conversations

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About race. About identity. About the meaning of democracy and where we go from here. Tanya Huelett shares what she learned from leading difficult conversations at Facing History & Ourselves. These guiding principles can help you as you try to navigate the current climate or the latest tragedy.

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The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors

The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors offers an introduction to the history of Indigenous enslavement on land that is now the United States. As the featured historians point out, the enslavement of Indigenous peoples stretched from Alaska into South America. It predated and helped shape the system of African enslavement in New England, and it lasted until throughout the 19th century in the West. "This," explains historian Andrés Reséndez, "is our shared history."

Directed and edited by Howdice Brown III, The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors was produced by Marie Acemah and Alice Qannik Glenn. The runtime for this film is just over 12 minutes.

Watch Now

A described and captioned version of this film is available to qualifying students, family members, educators and support professionals through the Described and Captioned Media Program.

Key Concept Videos

In each Key Concept video, a scholar or historian explores one of 10 central ideas that serve as the foundation for Teaching Hard History: A Framework for Teaching American Slavery. These short videos help students understand concepts like the critical role slavery and the slave trade played in the early American economy and the revolutionary and everyday resistance of enslaved people to a system that would dehumanize them. Whether watched individually or in sequence, these videos offer ways for students to better understand the nation's development around slavery, that institution's impact on the lives of enslaved people, and the countless ways that enslaved people influenced the culture and history of what is now the United States.

Watch Now

Described and captioned versions of these videos are available to qualifying students, family members, educators and support professionals through the Described and Captioned Media Program.

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Teaching Hard History: American Slavery | Classroom Videos

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Skip to main content The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors offers an introduction to the history of Indigenous enslavement on land that is now the United States. As the featured historians point out, the enslavement of Indigenous peoples stretched from Alaska into South America.

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Recognizing white privilege begins with truly understanding the term itself.

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Debunk the misinformation students bring to school-and help them think for themselves.

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For Trinity Thompson, the decision of whether or not to address high-profile killings of Black people with her second-graders was a no-brainer. She was teaching in Harlem soon after Eric Garner was killed by a police officer in a nearby New York City borough.

"How do I respond to this?" Thompson recalls asking herself. "And then from there, it was like, How do I respond to this- again?" Each time news reports covered another Black person dying at the hands of police, her students-most of whom were Black-asked more and more difficult questions. A career-long social justice educator, Thompson was committed to a response that focused not only on the problem, but also on how people were resisting it and seeking solutions.

And that meant teaching second-graders about Black Lives Matter (BLM).

She knew it was risky. When the Black Lives Matter movement comes up in conversation, it is often characterized in one of two ways: as the work of strategic activists drawing attention to and combating issues that harm Black people, Black communities and humanity at large, or as a movement marked by violent outbursts and driven by an exclusionary, racist, anti-police agenda.

This split gives some educators pause when it comes to teaching about BLM. Others embrace the topic, recognizing it as an opportunity to teach about collective action and to link past racial justice movements to the present. But all educators, by virtue of the fact that their students have either direct or mediated exposure to Black Lives Matter, should know the basic facts about the movement's central beliefs and practices.

Not all of us are like Thompson; the students who sit in front of us daily are not always directly affected by the killing of unarmed Black people or any of the other injustices that plague our nation. But as teachers who function as caretakers, truth-seekers and advocates of justice, we can acknowledge how the threat of justice in one community is, to borrow from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a threat to justice in every community. We have a civic responsibility to be educated about Black Lives Matter and, as we learn, we must teach.

The Beginning and the Hashtag

The Black Lives Matter movement began with a commitment to ending police brutality and state-sanctioned violence and injustice against Black people. It is also dedicated to affirming Black people's "contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression," according to its founders. The movement was started by three Black women-Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi-following the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, a Florida man who had shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, the preceding year. Garza took to social media the night of that acquittal, stating in part, "Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter." A year later, Michael Brown, another unarmed Black teenager, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri; the officer was not indicted. Shortly thereafter, the internet was filled with messages of outcry and support that included #BlackLivesMatter.

Since the Ferguson action in 2014, BLM has taken shape as a multichapter national organization; 37 chapters currently operate in the United States, one in Canada. Many BLM chapters and other organizations that embrace the movement mobilize people to demonstrate in communities where police shootings have occurred and to convene at large gatherings-such as political rallies-to bring awareness to police brutality. The website of the original group, blacklivesmatter.com, also lists other types of local and national events, such as teach-ins, panels and Twitter chats, and encourages organizers to submit their own events.

In an October 2016 interview with TEDWomen, Cullors explained what the movement means to her.

"Black Lives Matter is our call to action. It is a tool to a reimagined world where Black people are free to exist, free to live. It is a tool for our allies to show up differently for us," she said. "I grew up in a neighborhood that was heavily policed. I witnessed my brothers and my siblings continuously stopped and frisked by law enforcement. I remember my home being raided. And one of the questions, as a child, I had was why? Why us? Black Lives Matter offers answers to the why."

Myths and Criticisms

People who don't follow Black Lives Matter usually become aware of the movement when news sites report on BLM actions or protests. What many people don't realize is that the leadership also embraces policy change and legislation as necessary elements to end oppression of Black people-and that the work and the leadership are not limited to the Black Lives Matter network.

One common misconception about the BLM movement is that it is leaderless. But there isn't one leader; there are many. "BLM is composed of many local leaders and many local organizations including Black Youth Project 100, the Dream Defenders, the Organization for Black Struggle, Hands Up United, Millennial Activists United, and the Black Lives Matter national network," organizers explain on the website. "We demonstrate through this model that the movement is bigger than any one person."

Another misconception is that the movement is solely a mechanism for protest. In fact, the many people and organizations with agendas and goals that overlap and align with BLM have produced detailed policy demands and proposals for institutional reforms. Campaign Zero, for example, outlines a list of policy proposals largely focused on ending police brutality. It is a strategy for addressing one of the most visible, damaging and deadly symptoms of systemic racism. The Movement for Black Lives, a collective of more than 50 organizations, advances a platform covering six areas of domestic-policy reform, including economic justice and investment in equitable education and health care instead of criminalization and incarceration.

Many people, however, view the BLM movement as violent, seeking to "sow a racial divide" and intent on interrupting the work of police officers commissioned to protect and serve the public. For example, Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, said in a television interview that the movement is "inherently racist" and "divides us." He further stated, "They don't mean 'Black lives matter'; they mean 'let's agitate against the police matters.'"

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Why Teaching Black Lives Matter Matters | Part I

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All educators have the civic responsibility to learn and teach the basic history and tenets of this movement for racial justice.

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Join NEA and Teaching Tolerance for our second of three school-climate webinars. This time, we will provide guidance on how to have relevant and rigorous conversations with students about race, racism and other important topics. Teaching Tolerance's resource Let's Talk! will serve as a foundation to help build your capacity to safely broach these issues, and you'll walk away with use-tomorrow strategies.

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Let's Talk! Discussing Race, Racism and Other Difficult Topics With Students

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Join NEA and Teaching Tolerance for our second of three school-climate webinars. This time, we will provide guidance on how to have relevant and rigorous conversations with students about race, racism and other important topics. Teaching Tolerance's resource Let's Talk!

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Learning for Justice is a community education program of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that centers civic and political action education for everyone.

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"I believe in the power of Facing History."

-Durias D., Facing History Alum

"I went to a Facing History workshop and it opened my eyes."

-Tareeq R., Educator

Facing History & Ourselves
uses lessons of history
to challenge teachers
and their students
to stand up to bigotry and hate.

Facing History & Ourselves is more than our name. It is an active and continuous process that calls on each of us to connect the choices of the past to those we face today. To build a more just and equitable future, we must face our history in all its complexity, Are you ready to face history with us?

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Facing History has thousands of research-based resources and professional learning events to support Social Studies and English Language Arts education.

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And hopefully, they will always remember what happened to us and make sure that it won't happen again.

Sonia Weitz, Holocaust survivor and poet

Sign up to download the PDF version of our textbook, Holocaust and Human Behavior.

Facing History students are 94% more likely than their peers to report that their class motivated them to learn.

92% of Facing History teachers agree that Facing History helps their students stand up for what they believe even when others disagree.

91% of elective teachers agree or strongly agree that their Facing History course promoted their students' abilities to ground reading, writing, and speaking in evidence from text.

Demand for our work is greater than ever. Make a 100% tax-deductible donation today and you'll help us reach even more teachers and students around the world, giving them the tools to stand up to bigotry and hate.

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Facing History & Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.

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We're committed to providing educators accessible, high-quality teaching tools. That's why all our lessons and assessments are free. Please consider donating to SHEG to support our creation of new materials. All gifts are made through Stanford University and are tax-deductible.

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In this new Private i History Detectives unit, Elementary students analyze primary sources to discover how Constitutional Amendments attempted to address slavery's wrongs, how the courts challenged unfair laws, and how individuals and groups fought for civil rights.

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In this new Private i History Detectives unit, Elementary students analyze primary sources to discover how Constitutional Amendments attempted to address slavery's wrongs, how the courts challenged unfair laws, and how individuals and groups fought for civil rights.

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How to Talk to Kids About Difficult Subjects

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In a world where even little kids learn about horrific subjects, it’s important for parents to put things in perspective, field questions, and search for answers together. Advice from Common Sense Media editors.

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How to teach kids to talk about taboo topics | Liz Kleinrock

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Michigan spent five years debating how to teach American history. One of the biggest questions was how to describe the nation's government.

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Becky Debowski, an eighth-grade social studies teacher, regularly has students assume roles of partisans throughout American history. Credit Credit Brittany Greeson for The New York Times

LANSING, Mich. - Bruising political fights are usual business in Becky Debowski's eighth-grade social studies classroom. From a model Constitutional Convention to a bare-knuckle debate in Congress over slavery, she regularly has students assume roles of partisans throughout American history, like Abraham Lincoln and John C. Calhoun.

After the exercises, the class comes back together to debate whether the nation lived up to what the state of Michigan calls "core democratic values," such as equality, liberty and diversity.

For decades, the values have been the heart of the state learning standards in social studies, a doorstop of a document that guides what teachers of history, civics, economics and geography cover in their lesson plans.

"I'm really proud of my students," Ms. Debowski said. "They can handle the complexity." So she was angry last year when she learned of a proposed revision of the state standards, in which the word "democratic" was dropped from "core democratic values," and the use of the word "democracy" was reduced.

The changes were made after a group of prominent conservatives helped revise the standards. They drew attention to a long-simmering debate over whether "republic" is a better term than "democracy" to describe the American form of government.

That the two sides in that tussle tend to fall along party lines, each preferring the term that resembles their party name, plays no small part in the debate. But members of the conservative group also brought to the table the argument that K-12 social studies should be based on a close, originalist reading of the United States' founding documents.

They contended that the curriculum ought to focus more on the nation's triumphs than its sins. And they pushed for revisions that eliminated "climate change," "Roe v. Wade" and references to gay and lesbian civil rights.

After a local publication, Bridge Magazine, reported the changes, the backlash in this political swing state was intense. In response, the state brought a broader group of Michiganders into the process to redraft the standards, which will be presented to the State Board of Education on April 9. The board, an elected body with eight members, will then vote on whether to adopt the document.

"Social studies is not rocket science," said Jim Cameron, who led the committee's work. "It's more difficult."

The United States, unlike many other developed nations, lacks a national curriculum that defines what students should know. Each of the 50 states can create its own learning standards.

These documents are closely examined. While schools can teach material not included in them, they shape the content in standardized tests, and many educators rely heavily on the standards as they craft lesson plans. Student teachers are trained to use them.

Activists have long seen influencing state standards as an effective way to shape the next generation of voters. In 2010, conservatives on the Texas State Board of Education removed the word "democracy" as a description of American government, prompting protests. Georgia has also debated the term, eventually settling, in 2016, on standards that use the phrase "representative democracy/republic."

The Michigan conservatives - who prefer "constitutional republic" - say their arguments are historical, not partisan.

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The kindergarten section of the new draft of the Michigan social studies standards. Previously, conservatives pushed for the nation to be called a "constitutional republic" founded on "core values," not "democratic values." The previous draft also used the term "roles of the citizen" instead of "civic participation."

"When you read Article IV, Section IV, it says you're guaranteed a republican form of government," said Patrick Colbeck, a Republican former state senator, citing the United States Constitution.

While the founders were indeed skeptical of direct democracy, mainstream historians, political scientists and legal scholars say that the United States is both a representative democracy and a republic - and that there is no contradiction between those terms.

A democracy is government by the people, who may rule either directly or indirectly, through elected representatives. A republic is a form of government in which the people's elected representatives make decisions.

Some of the country's political processes, like ballot referendums, are more democratic than others, like the Electoral College. Grappling with that complexity is key to understanding American government, according to social studies experts.

The Michigan Department of Education invited Mr. Colbeck to participate in the standards-writing process after he submitted a 13-page critique of a 2015 draft of the document. Mr. Colbeck, a former aerospace engineer who became active in politics through the Tea Party movement, saw liberal bias throughout the standards.

Asked to name the influences on his view of American history, Mr. Colbeck cited Dinesh D'Souza, the right-wing commentator, and a radio talk show hosted by Levon R. Yuille, a pastor and anti-abortion activist.

"I wanted to make sure there was a seat at the table for a conservative worldview," Mr. Colbeck said.

After the proposed revisions garnered local media attention, hundreds of people flocked to community meetings to voice their outrage about what they considered conservative bias. Thousands more registered their objections online.

Ms. Debowski, the eighth-grade social studies teacher, was among those against replacing "democratic values" with "core values." She was capable, she said, of explaining the difference between party names and political concepts. "It belittles my subject," she said.

Many of the students who protested were less worried about terminology than about the way the standards dealt with gender and race. Alex Hosey, a 16-year old high school sophomore in East Lansing, objected to what had been left out, such as any mention of redlining, which contributed to the racial segregation of Michigan cities.

"Hiding our nation's sins isn't the right way to do it," he wrote in a letter to the State Board of Education. "Teach us about everything - the good and the bad, so we can learn to think for ourselves."

Under fire, the state education agency asked for volunteers to help rewrite the standards yet again - for the third time in five years.

Out of 144 people who applied, 116 were selected. They included teachers, college professors, parents, students and retirees. They were placed on subcommittees dealing with every aspect of the document, from American history, civics and economics to "bias review," and sorted through thousands of pages of public comments.

They added depth to sections on indigenous peoples' history. Roe v. Wade, climate change and gay and lesbian rights were all restored. The bias review committee suggested the terms "enslaved people" or "enslaved Africans" instead of "slaves."

The overall goal was that every Michigan student - a third of whom are nonwhite - would be able to "see themselves" in the social studies standards, said Marsha Lewis, a Detroit assistant principal and a chair of the bias review group.

But in the days before the document was to be sent to the State Board of Education, fundamental questions about how to describe American government and citizenship had not been resolved.

It was not just that some Democratic-leaning committee members liked the term "democracy" while some Republican-leaning members preferred "republic." The debate was really about bigger disagreements that transcended party lines: about how to deal with populism and protest, and about whether the United States is a unified entity of citizens or a conglomeration of groups divided by race, class, language and other identities.

On March 7, the heads of all the subcommittees gathered at the Historical Society of Michigan in Lansing to go through the draft one last time. The laptop screen of the head writer, a district social studies consultant named Dave Johnson, was projected onto the wall as he made last-minute revisions in a Google document.

Should "responsible citizenship" be replaced with "civic participation," in an effort to include undocumented students?

Were elementary school students ready to learn about the right, stated in the Declaration of Independence, to "alter or abolish" a government?

"There's a treason clause in the U.S. Constitution," said Michael Libbee, a professor of geography at Central Michigan University.

"It's only treason until it works," replied Ellen Zwarensteyn, executive director of the Michigan Center for Civic Education.

In the end, "alter or abolish" was included, though the number of mentions was greatly reduced. The writers replaced many, but not all, instances of the word "citizenship" with "civic life" or "civic participation."

After lunch, Mr. Cameron, the committee leader and a state education consultant, tacked to the walls poster pages of handwritten suggestions from African-American and Asian-American community groups.

Among their suggestions were to add references to Korematsu v. the United States, the Supreme Court case that allowed Japanese internment during World War II. They also asked for mentions of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Flint water crisis, the #MeToo movement and Black Lives Matter.

Ms. Zwarensteyn took careful notes. Some of the most rigorous debates had occurred on the civics subcommittee she helped lead, where Michael Warren, a circuit court judge, was a strong conservative voice. Judge Warren preferred the term "first principles" to "democratic values," and had pushed for the civics standards to be based on a close reading of the founding documents.

The list of core values that the standards writers eventually agreed on was "equality; liberty; justice and fairness; unalienable individual rights (including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness); consent of governed; truth; common good."

And after months of sometimes bitter debate, the group decided these values could still be called "democratic." As part of a compromise, the nation's political system would be referred to primarily as "American government," but also, in some instances, "constitutional government" and - yes - "democracy."

Korematsu and the Flint water crisis made it into the standards. Redlining, the Chinese Exclusion Act, #MeToo and Black Lives Matter did not. Neither did James Madison, to the consternation of Mr. Warren.

Mr. Colbeck, the former state senator who had helped write the previous draft, was displeased. Calling the nation a democracy was not "politically neutral and accurate," he said.

There will still be time for public comment and revision. Education officials plan to introduce the new standards in "listen and learn" meetings across the state this spring.

If the Board of Education, which after November's election went from a 4-4 partisan split to a 6-2 Democratic majority, votes to adopt the document, the state will begin training teachers on how to use the new standards.

Then, most likely in the next decade, policymakers will outline new priorities for Michigan schools, and they will ask educators and experts to rewrite the standards once again. The process of retelling the nation's history - deciding what gets left out and who is heard from - never ends.

Dana Goldstein is a national correspondent, writing about how education policies impact families, students and teachers across the country. She is the author of "The Teacher Wars: A History of America's Most Embattled Profession."

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: A More Perfect Civics Lesson? 'Democracy' Itself Is Up for Debate. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Is the U.S. a Democracy? A Social Studies Battle Turns on the Nation's Values

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Michigan spent five years debating how to teach American history. One of the biggest questions was how to describe the nation's government. LANSING, Mich. - Bruising political fights are usual business in Becky Debowski's eighth-grade social studies classroom.

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Antibias, Antiracist Strategies for the Classroom, Workplace, and Community

Lets do the work together!

Welcome!

I am a transracially adopted Korean, Jewish, queer, antibias and antiracist nationally recognized educator, author, and consultant. My identity as an Asian American is complex-it has taken me a long time to grapple and reconcile the intersections of that identity.....

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Antibias, Antiracist Strategies for the Classroom, Workplace, and Community Lets do the work together! Welcome! I am a transracially adopted Korean, Jewish, queer, antibias and antiracist nationally recognized educator, author, and consultant. My identity as an Asian American is complex-it has taken me a long time to grapple and reconcile the intersections of that identity.....

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What is history and social science?

We believe the study of history and the social sciences is rooted in inquiry and relies on disciplinary practices such as asking questions, analyzing and evaluating artifacts and texts, and developing interpretations or arguments based on evidence. History-social science reinforces important ways of thinking, or disciplinary concepts, such as consideration of multiple perspectives, causation, context, civic virtue and democratic principles, human-environment interactions, and economic decision-making. Questions pursued in these disciplines highlight a range of disciplinary topics such as social, historical, geographic, economic, and civic issues as well as links between the past and the present. In history-social science, "content" is not just a list of fixed factual information; instead, "content" is a way of constructing interpretations of the past and present that is guided by disciplinary practices, concepts, and topics. We highlight such "high-leverage content" throughout these materials. .

What does teaching history and social science involve?

Teaching history and social science through inquiry means conducting investigations of issues or topics with students. Investigations involve engaging students in a topic and extending their background knowledge, modeling key disciplinary practices, selecting and preparing materials to fuel students' inquiry, giving students opportunities to work together as they analyze artifacts and texts, leading discussions that allow students to co-construct ideas, and providing ways for students to communicate their findings to others. Through history and social science inquiries, students learn disciplinary practices and develop conceptual understandings as they construct evidence-based arguments about specific topics. We use an instructional framework- Engage, Experience, Argue-to highlight the core components of inquiry-based history-social science lessons. Learn more.

In what ways does teaching history and social science advance justice?

History and social sciences give students opportunities to understand the world they live in today and its origins, including complex contemporary problems and histories of injustice and social action. In using a range of sources to learn about historical and social issues, students are positioned to think about multiple perspectives and experiences and both the variety and commonalities in human experience. In approaching history and social science as inquiry and evidence-based interpretation, students develop citizenship skills when they evaluate sources of evidence for their reliability, listen to the ideas of others, critique arguments, construct their own arguments, and communicate their ideas. Finally, inquiry work in social studies classrooms develops students' literacy practices such as reading and writing, practices that are often gatekeepers to advancement. Students ideally leave social studies classrooms ready to understand and learn about complex historical and social issues and sources, communicate with others about these issues, and ultimately, take action in response.

What does preparing new teachers of history and social science involve?

Preparing new teachers requires attention to the disciplines, pedagogy, and contexts that may or may not support inquiry-oriented instruction. Inquiry-oriented history-social science instruction relies on understanding of the disciplines (including disciplinary practices, concepts, and topics) as well as how to represent the disciplines in ways that support students' learning. New teachers must learn high-leverage teaching practices that allow them to represent history and the social sciences as inquiry-oriented subjects and to develop students' conceptual understanding and disciplinary practices through investigations. Because it can be challenging to teach history-social science as inquiry while using existing materials and standards, we adapted an instructional framework from science education to highlight key elements of history-social science investigations and to provide a structure for modifying existing materials in support of inquiry. .

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Skip to main content We believe the study of history and the social sciences is rooted in inquiry and relies on disciplinary practices such as asking questions, analyzing and evaluating artifacts and texts, and developing interpretations or arguments based on evidence.

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Read.Inquire.Write. supports middle school students' full participation in inquiry and argument writing in social studies across 6th through 8th grades, enabling them to develop disciplinary literacy along with disciplinary knowledge. It includes multiple supports for English learners-newcomers as well as more proficient bi/multilingual learners-and students who have experienced less success in school.

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PZ's Thinking Routines Toolbox | Project Zero

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The Toolbox organizes the Thinking Routines into categories that describe the types of thinking the routines help to facilitate. Some routines appear in more than one category, and some routines have different versions that offer modifications for specific age groups or more specific conceptual challenges.

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Geography Archives - PBS NewsHour Classroom

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News for Students and Teacher Resources 6-12 Grade Level

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National Geographic Maps hub including map products and stories about maps and mapmaking

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Index: Resources/Collections of Geography Lessons, The Five Themes of Geography, Geographic Features/Landforms/Biomes, Maps, Geography WebQuests, Oceans, Continents/World, Africa, Specific African Countries, Middle East, Asia, Specific Asian Countries, Oceania/Pacific Rim, Australia/NZ, Europe, Specific European Countries, Polar Regions, Latin America(Mexico, Central America, South America, Caribbean Nations), Canada, US Geography, Return to Educational Resources and Lesson Plans, Go to the NCSS National Standards for Social Studies
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For additional resources on China, Germany, Greece, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Russia, Spanish-speaking countries, and Sweden, go to the World Languages Page.

Resources/Collections of Geography Lesson Plans
National Geographic Education: Resource Library
A searchable index by grade, topic, and subject. Middle School World History and World Geography Free Lesson ResourcesFree lesson plans, worksheets, activities, Power Points, and notes from a middle school social studies teacher.A large, well organized collection of geography lesson plans and links from my friend Mr. Donn.

Buzzin' Around the World
Great pictures, places, and info for your geography lesson planning.

Maps and Globes Lesson Plans
Many lesson plans organized by grade level from World Maps Online.

Lesson Plans from the Illinois Geographic Alliance
Many lesson plans including some about Illinois, but also many on a wide variety of regions and topics.

Lesson Plans for Grades 9-12
Many lesson plans form the Geographic Alliance of Iowa.

Geography Lesson Plans
Many lesson plans from Teachers.net. Sometimes this site sends you to a page that says your source is not secure. If that happens, chick on advanced and then go to page.

Geography and Maps
Lesson plans from the Library of Congress using primary source materials.

A World of Learning
Lesson plans for Geography Week form Education World.

USGS Resources for Teachers
Click on a grade level, and then click on geography in the left-side menu.

The Five Themes of Geography Lesson Plans
5 Themes of Geography
Many lesson plans from my friend Mr. Donn.

Education World's Five Times Five
Five activities for teaching each of geography's five themes.

Teaching the Five Themes of Geography Using the Newspaper
Several activities from the Anderson County Schools (KY).

Five Themes of Geography
An "interactive notebook unit."

Five Themes of Geography: A Basis for Understanding Geography
A lesson plan for grades 5 through high school from the Arizona Geographic Society.

Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport
A 3rd-grade lesson plan examining the five themes of geography.

Finding the Five Themes of Geography
A lesson plan for grades 3/4 from Education.com.

Five Themes of Geography
An explanation and a secondary-level assignment to be given following definitions and examples of the five themes.

Exploring the 5 Themes of Geography
A lesson plan for grades 6-8.

Teaching the Five Themes of Geography: One Grain of Rice at a Time
A lesson plan for grades 7-12 designed "to help students understand the 5 themes of geography, and apply these concepts to an activity designed to donate rice to an area in the world to help feed the hungry.

Geographic Features/Landforms/Biomes Lesson Plans
Ecosystems-Biomes Links to information and lesson plans from The Teacher's Corner. Scroll down the page to find the lesson plan links.

What's It Like Where You Live?
Biomes of the world, freshwater ecosystems, marine ecosystems.

Biomes of the World
Lesson plans from The Wild Classroom.

Habitats of the World
An elementary lesson plan from Discovery Education.

Biomes of the World
An Internet-based middle school unit.

Biomes: Land of the Inuit
A computer-based lesson plan for grades 6-8 from Discovery Education.

Prairies
A 1st or 2nd-grade lesson plan using Peter Murray's book by this title. The lesson is from Opening Doors to Social Studies With Children's Literature.

Oceans
Many lesson plans and resources from my science page.

Jut Deserts
A "cross-curricular" lesson plan for grades 4-6. See also Desert Animals and

Maps Lesson Plans

Lesson plans and resources from Mr. Donn's pages.

Maps and Globes Lesson Plans
Many lesson plans organized by grade level from World Maps Online.

Map Lessons: The Route to Improved Geography Skills
Five lesson plans from Education World. Drylands/Deserts Themes Page.

Tall as a Mountain, Flat as a Plain
A primary-grade lesson plan from Scholastic. See also Mountains: Everything You Need for many additional teaching resources.

Where in the World Are We Vacationing?
A lesson plan for grades 3-8 in which students use longitude and latitude coordinates to locate vacation destinations.

. A Place of My Own: A Study of Maps
A 4th-grade unit integrating writing and math with map skills.

Topographic Map Resources for Teachers
Download free digital topographic maps from the USGS. See also 27 Ideas for Teaching With Topographic Maps

Google Maps
Get directions or see a satellite view.

National Geographic
Maps and information about magazine and TV features. See their lesson plan Map Skills for Elementary Students.

Geography WebQuests
Five Themes of Geography WebQuest
See also WebQuest Five Themes of Geography.

African Geography WebQuest
Ocean Explorer.

Ocean Portal - Educators' Corner
Lesson plans and more from the Smithsonian.

Jean-Michael Cousteau Ocean Adventures - For Educators
Lesson plans, games, videos, etc. from PBS.

Sea Semester
Many lesson plans for a variety of grade levels on oceanography, nautical science, and marine biology.

4 Ocean Song
For all grade levels.

Understanding Oceans
A lesson plan for grades 6-8 from Discovery Education.

Celebrate the Year of the Ocean
Many lesson ideas from Education World. See alsoAn Ocean of Activities.

Tsunami Lesson Plans
Links to lesson plans and resources from Teachnology.

Under the Deep Blue Sea
An interdisciplinary K-2 unit

Ocean Unit Study
From Eclectic Homeschool Online.

Continents/The World Lesson Plans

A lesson plan for grades K-5 from Discovery Education.

Calling All Continents
A 1st-grade lesson plan from Education.com.

The Seven Continents
A unit with twenty-two lessons from Fishtank Learning.

The Seven Continents
An elaborate unit from Core Knowledge UK.

Oceans Lesson Plans

Continents Lesson Plan with Maps and Globes
For younger students.
NOAA Ocean Service Education - Lesson Plan Library
Many lesson plans for a variety of subject areas. See also
A WebQuest in which students create a virtual scrapbook to illustrate their learning.

The Great Canadaian Webquest
For 6th grade.

Journey Across Asia: Encountering the People, Places, and Geography
A middle-grade WebQuest.

Latin American Geography WebQuest
See also South America: A Class Field Trip.

Australia: A WebQuest
See also Australia WehQuest.
Across the U.S.A.
A WebQuest for grades 4-9. European Passport WebQuest
For Grades 6-8. Around The World World Geograpy Games: Continents
An online game.

Countries of the World
Resource for information, flags, maps of virtually any country. The index is alphabetical.

Africa: It's Not a Country
A large collection of elementary lesson plans for teaching about a variety of topics including African geography, culture, folktales, arts, and languages

Fifty-Three Nations of Africa
One elementary lesson plan from the above site.

Learning Resources from Send A Cow
Teaching resources about Africa

Jambo Means Hello: An Introduction to Swahili
An elementary lesson from Africa: It's Not a Country.

Daily Life in Africa
Many elementary lesson plans.

Explore and Discover Africa with Safari Cards
From the California Academy of Sciences.

Angola Unit Study Lesson Plan: General Facts
Information and ideas for a lesson plan.

Cameroon Student Activity Book & Teacher Lesson Plans
From St Aiden's Home school South Africa.

Congo in the Classroom: A Resource for Teachers
Three lesson plans from RAISE Hope for Congo.

Ways to Teach About the Unrest in Egypt
From the NY Times Learning Network. See alsoBreaking News English: Violence Erupts Across Egypt.

Egypt's Pyramids: Monuments with a Message
A lesson plan for grades 3-5. For an elementary lesson plan about Cairo, seeThe Day of Ahmed's Secret. For lesson plans on ancient Egypt, go toEgyptian Antiquities (grades 6-8) orAncient History (many lesson plans).

The Achievements and Challenges of Egypt
A unit from The Odyssey: Teacher Zone.

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
An elementary grade lesson plan.

The Odyssey: Teacher Zone. See also Bringing Water to a Village in Lesotho NATO Campaign Begins in Libya As Unrest Spreads Elsewhere
The Achievements and Challenges of Mali
An elaborate web-based unit from Bambara in Mali.

Nigeria Theme Unit
A bunch of links that would be helpful in lesson planning.

The Rwanda Crisis 1994
An ESL lesson plan.

The Wilds of Madagascar
Lesson plans from NOVA including Madagascar - The Eighth Continent.

A simulation for the middle grades. See also Lesotho.

Liberia Lesson One: Beginnings
Go to lesson 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. See alsoLiberia and the United States: Historic Ties and Policy Decisions.

Lesson plans from the UN Refugee Agency.

A lesson plan for grades 9-12 from PBS. See also Africa: Country-Specific Information
A clickable index of African countries.

Middle East
See also World/Comparative Religions for resources and lesson plans on Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, and go toWorld Languages for resources and lesson plans on theArabic language.

Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Many lesson plans listed in alphabetical order.

The Geography of the Middle East
Two high school lesson plans from Teaching the Middle East (University of Chicago).

Middle East and North African Geography

Peace in the Middle East

Israeli Palestinian Conflict: Classroom Simulation Middle East WebQuest
See also Modern Middle East WebQuest.
A 7th-grade activity.
Another lesson plan from World Peace Society.
Middle East Primer
A lesson plan for ages 10 and up from the World Peace Society.

Middle East - Teachers Guide
Many lesson plans on a variety of topics from The Odyssey: Teacher Zone.

Middle East: Land of Contrasts
A lesson plan for grades 6-8 from Discovery Education.

The Basics: Understanding the Upheaval in the Middle East
A lesson plan from the NY Times Learning Network. Mapping the Middle East.

Geography of the Modern Middle East and North Africa
A lesson plan from Portland State University based on the Oregon Social Studies Standards. See their otherMiddle East Teaching Tools.

Exploring the Middle East: Hands-On Approaches
Three lesson plans developed during the 2002 Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute.

Jerusalem: History of the Holy Land
A lesson plan for grades 6-8 which explores the importance of Jerusalem to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

The U.S. Recognition of the State of Israel
Although this excellent lesson plan using Internet documents deals primarily with history, it is impossible to separate history from the geography of the region.

Asia
Asia for Educators
An extensive resource from Columbia University with many lesson plans.

East Asia in Geographic Perspective
One resource from the above site that includes 18 lesson plans.

Spreadsheet Driven Exploration of Pacific Asian Geography
A lesson plan from the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia.

at Northern Illinois University. Resources for Educators

Following the Great Wall
A lesson plan for grades 6-8 from Edsitement.
China: People and Places
An elementary-grade lesson plan from Discovery Education.
China and Europe, 1500-2000 and Beyond: What is Modern?
Lesson plans and a teacher's guide.

Geography of China
A lesson plan from Journey to China.

Chinese Geography: Readings and Maps
Information for a unit.

Lesson Plans on China
Another site with many lesson plans. This one is from NCTA Ohio.
Lesson plans and curriculum from the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University.

Southeast Asia Unit for Middle School Students
Ten lesson plans from the above site.

What is Southeast Asia?
A high school lesson plan in pdf format, also from NIU. See also Population Density in Southeast Asia.

World Geography Unit 3: Contemporary North Africa/Southwest Asia
An elaborate unit from Georgia Standards.

Asia: Tradition and Culture
A middle-grade lesson plan from Discovery Education. See also Asia's Global Influence.

Asian Countries Quiz

Specific Asian Countries (Organized Alphabetically):
Afghanistan Today: Civil War and Human Rights

Lesson Plans on Cambodia: Soul Survivors - Stories of Women and Children in Cambodia
Nine lesson plans for grades 8-12 from the Center for Southeast Asian Studies

Building an Empire: Mapping China
A lesson plan from the Asia Society in which s

India/Pakistan: Dispute Over Kashmir
A mini-unit for grades 6-12.

Five Themes of Geography and India
A middle-grade lesson plan.

Mapping Japan
A lesson plan from Crayola.

Geography of Japan
A unit planning guide for grades 9-10 from the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia - Ohio. See their other lesson plans on Japan. tudents understand China and its geography by creating travel brochures for China's nine distinct regions.

A lesson plan for the elementary grades. Geography and Natural Resources of Japan

Japan's Geography
Information and map exercises.

Japan: Images of a People
The first lesson in a 3-lesson unit from Smithsonian Education. It focuses on the geographic location and features of Japan.

Lesson Plans on Korea
Many lesson plan also from the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia, including Geography of Korea.

Korea's Geography: How Do you Describe a Nation
One lesson plan from East Asia in Geographic Perspective.

What's Mongolia Really Like?
A lesson plan adaptable to grades 3-8 in which students look at Mongolian culture through the eyes of a Peace Corps volunteer.

A Lesson plan in Geography
A 6th-grade lesson plan on the geography of the Philippines.

Lesson Plans on Turkey
Many lesson plans from the Turkish Cultural Foundation including Turkey via Five Themes of Geography. For additional information about Turkey, go to THUS About Turkey.

Geography of Vietnam
A lesson plan from Across Vietnam.

Oceania/Pacific Rim
Oceania and the Pacific Rim
Lesson plans from Mr. Donn. See a map of Oceania.

Oceania Unit Plan
For 9th grade.

Borneo: Island in the Clouds
Two lesson plans as well as information for teachers.

Guampedia Lesson plans
|Lesson plans about Guam for all grade levels.

Groovy Guam
A lesson plan for grades 2 and 3 from the U.S. Mint.

Window Into a Different Culture
A high school lesson plan from the Peace Corp World Wise Schools about cultural values in Papua New Guinea.

Australia and New Zealand
Australia

Lesson Plans for Australian Animals and Biomes
Many activities for grades 4-12.

Where in the World is Australia
A lesson plan for grades 6-8 in which students locate Australia on a world map and use an outline map of the country to complete a map-skills worksheet. It is one lesson from a unit titled Australia: Lessons about the "Land Down Under."

Australia Day Mini-Unit
A five-lesson unit aboutAustralia Day (January 26).

Melbourne Integrated Mini-Unit
A 5-lesson unit on this Australian City from Australian Curriculum Lessons: Geography.

Introduction to New Zealand
A lesson plan complete with 2 worksheets.

Leave No Trace New Zealand
Several lesson plans on New Zealand's ecology and culture.

Spot on News Lessons for Teens: New Zealand: Air Land and Sea
Elementary, intermediate, and advanced lessons. See also Maori Bird Kite and ESL/EFL Lesson on New Zealand's Maori Land Deal.

European Geography Lesson Plans and Information
Mr. Donn's European Resources and Lesson Plans
Many lesson plans and resources on Europe and European countries.

Physical Geography of Europe
Two middle-grade activities from National Geographic.

City Life in Europe
A lesson plan for grades 6-8 from Discovery Education.

Eastern Europe
Extensive information, discussion and study questions, as well as a geography quiz.

European Geography
A 30-minute high school lesson plan.

European Union - Resources for Teachers
Lesson plans and information organized by age level.

What Is the Brexit?
Resources and discussion ideas from National Geographic.

Exploring the Objectives of the European Union
A middle-grade lesson plan.

Lesson Plans for AP European History
From AP Central.

Specific European Countries (Organized Alphabetically)
Austria: Land of Waltzes and Polkas
A music-based lesson plan for grades 3-5 from the Smithsonian.

French Geography Classroom Games
A middle-grade lesson plan exploring Paris and its landmarks.

The Geography of Germany: Lessons for Teaching the Five Themes of Geography
Click on Download full text to see the lesson plans.

Welcome to Germany
An online activity.

Berlin: Division and Reunification
A lesson plan for grades 5-12.

Great Britain WebQuest
Appears to be for English language learners.

Edulinks
This site was developed for teachers in North Yorkshire LEA and includes many links that would be helpful for anyone interested in teaching or learning about Great Britain.

How Did the Geography of Greece Affect Early Civilizations?
A lesson plan in which students learn how the geography of Greece influence the way people lived and how they interacted with others.

Ireland Now
Good source of information. See alsoIreland: An Interactive Travel Guide. Forced to Flee: Famine and Plague
A middle school lesson plan on the Irish potato famine.

Ryan's Daughter
A lesson plan using the movie.

Ireland - One Island, Two Countries
A WebQuest. See alsoIreland WebQuest.

Italy: Life and Culture
A lesson plan for grades 2-4.

World of Wonders Project: The Norway Expedition
Great resource for lessons on Norway.

Poland - Life and Culture
A lesson plan for grades 2-4. See also WebQuest - Around Poland in 7 Days.

Lesson Plans: Portugal
Several lesson plans. See also Portugal Lesson Plan (from the BBC).

Face of Russia: Living Under Communism
A high school lesson plan. Scroll to the bottom of the page to access 4 other lessons from the Face of Russia unit.

Teaching Geography: Workshop 6 - Russia
Two lesson plans in pdf format.

Faces of Russia
A 5th-grade lesson plan.

Mr. Donn's Russia and Her Neighbors

Essays and lesson plans for a variety of grade levels from NOAA Ocean Explorer. Arctic/Antarctic
Many lesson plans, activities, and worksheets from ProTeacher.
The Arctic

Arctic Ocean Exploration
A lesson plan for grades 9-12 from NOAA Ocean Explorer.

Biomes: Arctic Wild
A lesson plan for grades 6-8 from Discovery Education. See also Biomes: Arctic Changes and Antarctica for other middle-grade lesson plans.

How Polar Bears Stay Warm
A 1st/2nd-grade lesson plan.

About Arctic Animals
Information and photos from the Arctic Theme Page of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

What is Antarctica?
An article from NASA for grades 5-8. Scroll to the bottom of the page an article for grades K-4.

Latin America
Flags of Latin America
A lesson plan for grades 6-8.

Reflections in a Latin American Mirror
An extensive unit intended for an integrated, literature based elementary curriculum.

Traveling Latin America
A WebQuest for 6th grade.

Curriculum Units and Lesson Plans
Many lesson plans for all grade levels from the Center for Latin American Studies at Cornell University. Border and Latin American Information
Excellent site for Latin American studies from the University of New Mexico.

Mexico
Mexico Lesson Plans, Games, and Activities
Links to many lesson plans and units from Mr. Donn.

Geography of Mexico and Central America
A lesson plan for grades 3-5 from the Discovery Channel School.

Mexico Geography
A 5th-grade lesson plan from TeacherLink.

Oaxaca Geography and Climate
A KWL lesson plan from a unit on the Mexican state ofOaxaca.

Central America
Lesson plans as well as printable maps and worksheets from ProTeacher.

Geography of Mexico and Central America
A lesson plan for grades 3-5 from Discovery Education.

Costa Rican Sea Turtles
A lesson plan for grades 3-6 from Scolastic.

Journey to El Salvador
Lesson plans for Pre K and Kindergarten.

The Achievements and Challenges of Guatemala
A unit exploring many aspects of Guatemalan life, history, and culture. though no grade level is specified, the unit seems appropriate for the intermediate grades and up. See also Easter in Guatemala for many other lesson plans.

The True Cost of Coffee
A lesson plan about growing coffee in Honduras.

Panama Canal
Background, lesson plans, puzzles, and games from Resources 4 Educators. Geography of South America
A lesson plan for grades 3-5 from the Discovery Channel School. See also Tour of South America for a middle school lesson plan from Discovery.

Let's Go to Argentina
A primary-grade unit on Argentine geography, culture, and language.

Learning About Argentina
Lesson plans and links from Homeschool Creations. SeeArgentina Home for a map and information.

Dinosaurs in Argentina
Not really that much about geography, but a cool middle grade lesson plan, nonetheless.

Bolivia's Geography
A 7th-grade lesson plan. Click on the link at the bottom to open the pdf file of lesson.

Bolivia: Teacher's Guide
From Discovery Education, this resource provides discussion questions and a lesson plan based on the video,South America Today: Bolivia.

A View of Brazil: The Culture and Geography
A lesson plan for grades 4-6.

The Brazil Page
A quiz and a lesson plan. See alsoLesson Plan/Brazil Unit.

Regions of Chile Using the Five Themes of Geography
A lesson plan for grades 7-12.
Learning About Chile

Galapagos: Beyond Darwin
An Internet-based lesson plan for middle-school students.

Caribbean Nations/Region
Isla
A 2nd-grade unit on the people and cultures of the Caribbean Islands using Arthur Dorros' book by the above title.

Geography of the Caribbean
A lesson plan for grades 3-5 from the Discovery Education.

El Sabor del Caribe (A Taste of the Caribbean)
A unit designed for a high school Spanish class in which students learn about the symbolism of food in the oral and written literature of the Caribbean.

Thawing Relations: Teaching About Cuba and the U.S.
A lesson plan from theNY Times.

U.S. - Cuba Relations
An Internet-based high school history and geography lesson plan.

The Heritage of Puerto Rico and Cuba
A four-lesson unit.

Puerto Rican Studies for Kids
Information, activities, printables, and quizzes for an elementary unit. See also Geography of Puerto Rico.

Touring the Dominican Republic
A middle school lesson plan.

Teaching About Haiti
See also Haiti in Ruins after Huge EarthQuake.
Statehood for Puerto Rico? You Decide!
A high school lesson plan.

Canada: Lesson Plans and Resources
Government of Canada Official Site
Get information on Canada and the Canadian Government from this official government site.

Atlas of Canada
Maps of everything Canadian. See theirLearning Centre.

Canadian Council For Geographic Education: Educaror Resources
Many ideas for classroom activities organized by subject.

The Canadian Social Studies Super Site
This annotated list of web sites for Canadian social studies teachers should also be useful for U.S. teachers and students.

Teaching Canadian Geography
From the Canadian Homeschooler.

Origins of Canada's Geographical Names A 3rd-grade unit from Core Knowledge. See also Canada, A Land Rich in Beauty and Culture
A great deal of information that would be useful for lesson planning.

Hands Across the Border

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Index: Resources/Collections of Geography Lessons, The Five Themes of Geography, Geographic Features/Landforms/Biomes, Maps, Geography WebQuests, Oceans, Continents/World, Africa, Specific African Countries, Middle East, Asia, Specific Asian Countries, Oceania/Pacific Rim, Australia/NZ, Europe, Specific European Countries, Polar Regions, Latin America (Mexico, Central America, South America, Caribbean Nations), Canada, US Geography, Return to Educational Resources and Lesson Plans, Go to the NCSS National Standards for Social Studies Didn't find it here?

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GLOBAL LEARNING & SUSTAINABILITY

It's all about people - how many of us there are, how we shape the world, and how we interact with each other.

Browse Resources

Human Population is increasing. See how quickly the number of people changes right before your eyes.

World Population

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330 Million in the USA

New 2020 resource! U.S. population takes center stage in this downloadable packet that includes 14...

Carbon Crunch

Students use a timeline to explore energy-related environmental issues through history then compare countries based...

Catch It If You Can

Students mimic the spread of disease by exchanging liquids in test tubes in a hands-on...

Drop in the Ocean

A visual demonstration models the limited ocean area where most ocean life is found, followed...

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Population Education - Population Education Resources for Teachers

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It's all about people - how many of us there are, how we shape the world, and how we interact with each other. Browse Resources Human Population is increasing. See how quickly the number of people changes right before your eyes. View Population Clocks Popular Resources 330 Million in the USA New 2020 resource!

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The first intersectional history of the Black and Native American struggle for freedom in our country that also reframes our understanding of who was Indigenous in early America

Beginning with pre-Revolutionary America and moving into the movement for Black lives and contemporary Indigenous activism, Afro-Indigenous historian Kyle T. Mays argues that the foundations of the US are rooted in anti-Blackness and settler colonialism, and that these parallel oppressions continue into the present. He explores how Black and Indigenous peoples have always resisted and struggled for freedom, sometimes together, and sometimes apart. Whether to end African enslavement and Indigenous removal or eradicate capitalism and colonialism, Mays show how the fervor of Black and Indigenous peoples calls for justice have consistently sought to uproot White supremacy.

Mays uses a wide-array of historical activists and pop culture icons, "sacred" texts, and foundational texts like the Declaration of Independence and Democracy in America . He covers the civil rights movement and freedom struggles of the 1960s and 1970s, and explores current debates around the use of Native American imagery and the cultural appropriation of Black culture. Mays compels us to rethink both our history as well as contemporary debates and to imagine the powerful possibilities of Afro-Indigenous solidarity.

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An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

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Amazon.com: An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States (Audible Audio Edition): Kyle T. Mays, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Beacon Press: Books

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Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy

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Buy Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy: Read Kindle Store Reviews - Amazon.com

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The Power of Teaching Vulnerably: How Risk-Taking Transforms Student Engagement

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The Power of Teaching Vulnerably: How Risk-Taking Transforms Student Engagement [Rockower, David] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Power of Teaching Vulnerably: How Risk-Taking Transforms Student Engagement

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A Queer History of the United States for Young People (ReVisioning History for Young People)

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Amazon.com: A Queer History of the United States for Young People (ReVisioning History for Young People): 9780807056127: Chevat, Richie, Bronski, Michael: Books

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Disability is not just the story of someone we love or the story of whom we may become; rather it is undoubtedly the story of our nation. Covering the entirety of US history from pre-1492 to the present, A Disability History of the United States is the first audiobook to place the experiences of people with disabilities at the center of the American narrative. In many ways, it's a familiar telling. In other ways, however, it is a radical repositioning of US history. By doing so, the book casts new light on familiar stories, such as slavery and immigration, while breaking ground about the ties between nativism and oralism in the late 19th century and the role of ableism in the development of democracy.

A Disability History of the United States pulls from primary-source documents and social histories to retell American history through the eyes, words, and impressions of the people who lived it. As historian and disability scholar Nielsen argues, to understand disability history isn't to narrowly focus on a series of individual triumphs but rather to examine mass movements and pivotal daily events through the lens of varied experiences. Throughout the book, Nielsen deftly illustrates how concepts of disability have deeply shaped the American experience - from deciding who was allowed to immigrate to establishing labor laws and justifying slavery and gender discrimination. Included are absorbing - at times horrific - narratives of blinded slaves being thrown overboard and women being involuntarily sterilized, as well as triumphant accounts of disabled miners organizing strikes and disability rights activists picketing Washington.

Engrossing and profound, A Disability History of the United States fundamentally reinterprets how we view our nation's past: from a stifling master narrative to a shared history that encompasses us all.

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A Disability History of the United States

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Amazon.com: A Disability History of the United States (Audible Audio Edition): Kim E. Nielsen, Erin Bennett, Beacon Press: Books

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Bring History and Civics to Life: Lessons and Strategies to Cultivate Informed, Empathetic Citizens

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Amazon.com: Bring History and Civics to Life: Lessons and Strategies to Cultivate Informed, Empathetic Citizens: 9781564849359: Nakatsuka, Karalee Wong, Aguilar-Kirchhoff, Laurel: Books

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Social Studies, Literacy, and Social Justice in the Elementary Classroom: A Guide for Teachers

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Amazon.com: Social Studies, Literacy, and Social Justice in the Elementary Classroom: A Guide for Teachers: 9780807767047: Agarwal-Rangnath, Ruchi, Sleeter, Christine E.: Books

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Language of Slavery - Underground Railroad (U.S. National Park Service)

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Note to readers: The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program is currently revising this webpage in order to reflect accurate and contextual ways to talk about slavery, freedom, and the Underground Railroad.

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Pedagogy of the Oppressed [FREIRE PAULO] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Pedagogy of the Oppressed

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"A wonderful, splendid book-a book that should be read by every American, student or otherwise, who wants to understand his country, its true history, and its hope for the future." -Howard Fast

Historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States chronicles American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official narrative taught in schools-with its emphasis on great men in high places-to focus on the street, the home, and the workplace.

Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research , it is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of-and in the words of-America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As Zinn shows, many of our country's greatest battles-the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women's rights, racial equality-were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance.

Covering Christopher Columbus's arrival through President Clinton's first term, A People's History of the United States features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history. This edition also includes an introduction by Anthony Arnove, who wrote, directed, and produced The People Speak with Zinn and who coauthored, with Zinn, Voices of a People's History of the United States .

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A People's History of the United States [Zinn, Howard] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A People's History of the United States

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History teachers provide an invaluable service year-round as they teach students the essential knowledge and skills required of engaged citizens.

The National Council for History Education aims to provides professional development and support to teachers to aid in their service.

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History teachers provide an invaluable service year-round as they teach students the essential knowledge and skills required of engaged citizens. The National Council for History Education aims to provides professional development and support to teachers to aid in their service.

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National Council for the Social Studies is pleased to offer a limited number of registration scholarships to educators who have never been able to attend the NCSS Annual Conference in the past for lack of financial support. Teachers from across the United States and its territories are welcome to apply.

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The Zinn Education Project is my compass in a sea of corporate textbooks, packaged common core curriculum and standardized testing. My entire curriculum is based on lessons that can be found on the Zinn Education Project.

High School Social Studies Teacher, Portland, Ore.

Your support is needed to help more students learn people's history. 100% of Zinn Education Project funding comes from individuals like you. Donate today.

By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca

From voter ID laws to voter-roll purges, gerrymandering to poll closures to the deadly in-person voting conditions during a pandemic, the right to vote is under attack and the stakes are high. It is critical that students learn about the fight for voting rights, past and present.

Nov. 30, 1924: Shirley Chisholm Born...

Teaching About the Violence in Palestine and Israel...

I can UNDERSTAND pessimism, but I don't BELIEVE in it. It's not simply a matter of faith, but of historical EVIDENCE. Not overwhelming evidence, just enough to give HOPE, because for hope we don't need certainty, only POSSIBILITY.

-Howard Zinn

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Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

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The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people's history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. Based on the lens of history highlighted in Howard Zinn's best-selling book A People's History of the United States, the website offers free, downloadable lessons and articles organized by theme, time period, and reading level.