Lessons
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These robust, ready-to-use classroom lessons offer breadth and depth, spanning essential social justice topics and reinforcing critical social emotional learning skills.

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“[Learning for Justice] provides me with the means to promote social justice, challenge bias, and engage students in discussions about diversity that would perhaps not happen otherwise.”

Grade Level
Social Justice Domain
Subject
Topic

126 Lessons

STEM at Work

In this lesson, students explore the varied work of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians, and discuss character traits common to all of them. Students meet a diverse group of scientists—inventors, problem-solvers and those who explain the world around us.
Grade Level
3-5
Subject
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
Math & Technology
Science & Health
Social Justice Domain
April 18, 2016

Exploring Young Immigrant Stories

This lesson helps students appreciate diversity among their peers and the diversity of immigrants all over the world. Through hands-on exercises, students will discover similarities and differences they share with other children.
Grade Level
3-5
Topic
Subject
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
Geography
ELL / ESL
Social Justice Domain
September 12, 2016

Before Rosa Parks: Frances Watkins Harper

The title “Before Rosa Parks” loosely links a number of lessons that discuss African-American women who were active in the fight for civil rights before the 1950s. This lesson highlights Frances Watkins Harper, who challenged power structures in the South by talking to free former slaves about voting, land ownership and education—and fought segregated public transportation.
Grade Level
Subject
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
History
Social Justice Domain
July 6, 2009

Analyzing How Words Communicate Bias

This lesson, part of the Digital Literacy series, focuses on teaching students to identify how writers can reveal their biases through their word choice and tone. Students will identify “charged” words that communicate a point of view. Students will understand how writers communicate a point of view implicitly by writing their own charged news stories.
Grade Level
6-8
Subject
Digital Literacy
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
Social Justice Domain
September 12, 2017

The Early Republic

In this lesson, students examine voting rights in the early years of the United States and the causes and effects of the first major expansion of voting rights, which took place in the late 1700s and first half of the 1800s. By the end of the lesson, students will be able to explain where various groups of Americans stood regarding the right to vote before the Civil War, and will hypothesize about what they expect happened next.
Grade Level
Subject
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
Civics
History
Social Justice Domain
October 21, 2011

Chapter 1: Editorials

An excerpt from A Whale Hunt, How a Native-American Village Did What No One Thought It Could by Robert Sullivan. This piece is to accompany "Holding Onto Heritage: Native Whale Hunts & Diversity" lesson.
Grade Level
Subject
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
Social Justice Domain
July 14, 2017

Choosing Reliable Sources

This lesson, part of the Digital Literacy series, addresses the importance of locating and verifying reliable sources when working with online information. This lesson is aimed at a young audience and operates on the assumption that many students in the class are not yet reading and writing independently.
Grade Level
K-2
Subject
Digital Literacy
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
Social Justice Domain
September 11, 2017