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

138 Lessons

Mass Incarceration as a Form of Racialized Social Control

What is the “new Jim Crow”? Throughout its history, the United States has been structured by a racial caste system. From slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration, these forms of racialized social control reinvented themselves to meet the needs of the dominant social class according to the constraints of each era.
Grade Level
Subject
Social Studies
Civics
History
Social Justice Domain
October 13, 2014

Dismantling Racial Caste

What is needed to end mass incarceration and permanently eliminate racial caste in the United States? Legal and policy solutions alone are not enough to dismantle racial caste because the methods of racial control within this system are “legal” and rarely appear as outwardly discriminatory. A social movement that confronts the role of race and cultivates an ethic of care must form or else a new racial caste system will emerge in the future.
Grade Level
Subject
Social Studies
Civics
History
Social Justice Domain
October 14, 2014

Food Deserts: Causes, Consequences and Solutions

Increases in obesity and diet-related diseases are major health problems in the United States. During the last 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in the nation’s obesity rates, correlating with increased rates of cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, Type 2 diabetes, increased health-care costs, reduced quality of life and increased risk for premature death.
Grade Level
Subject
Social Studies
Economics
Science & Health
Social Justice Domain
October 17, 2011

Before Rosa Parks: Susie King Taylor

The title “Before Rosa Parks” loosely links a number of lessons that address African-American women who were active in the fight for civil and human rights before the 1950s. This lesson highlights Susie King Taylor, the only black woman who wrote a narrative about her experiences working with soldiers during the Civil War.
Grade Level
Subject
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
History
Social Justice Domain
July 6, 2009

Stereotypes and Tonto

This lesson revolves around Sherman Alexie’s poignant yet humorous and accessible essay, “I Hated Tonto (Still Do).” It explores the negative impact that stereotypes have on the self-worth of individuals and the damage that these stereotypes inflict on pride in one’s heritage. The reading is supported by a short video montage of clips from Western films. The clips offer students the opportunity to evaluate primary sources for bias and bigotry, as well as providing context for the protagonists’ experiences in the essay.
Grade Level
Social Justice Domain
March 17, 2010

Girls’ Attitudes About STEM Careers: Similarities and Differences Among Race/Ethnic Groups

This lesson presents excerpts from a recent Girl Scouts Research Institute study showing girls may be more interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers than previously thought. Students compare and contrast white, African-American and Hispanic girls’ perceptions of STEM fields.
Grade Level
Subject
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
Science & Health
Social Justice Domain
April 6, 2012
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