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

139 Lessons

The Rich Tapestry of Religion in the United States

“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.
Grade Level
3-5
Topic
Subject
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
Math & Technology
Social Justice Domain
March 1, 2013

Bayard Rustin: The Fight for Racial Justice and Gay Rights

This lesson centers on the invaluable work and activism of Bayard Rustin. Rustin was not only dedicated to orchestrating the civil rights movement; he was also one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest advisors, and the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
Grade Level
Subject
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
History
Social Justice Domain
January 22, 2013

I See You, You See Me: Body Image and Social Justice

This series help students think about their bodies and body images in a social justice context. Each lesson looks at a different aspect of the relationship children have with their bodies. The series helps students take ownership over their own feelings and attitudes and develop an activist stance in terms of understanding body image and also looking after their own physical and emotional wellbeing.
Grade Level
Subject
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
SEL
ELL / ESL
Social Justice Domain
November 27, 2012

The Little Rock Nine and the Children’s Movement

This lesson focuses on questions of justice and the role youth have played in social and political movements. By reading a combination of primary and secondary sources, students will learn how the Little Rock Nine came to play their important role. These teenagers’ participation in school integration stemmed not from the prodding of the parents or activists, but from within themselves.
Grade Level
Subject
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
Civics
History
Social Justice Domain
September 11, 2012

Reading Ads with a Social Justice Lens

Children are surrounded – and targeted – by advertisements: on television, the computer, even on their journeys to and from school. Children need specific strategies for reading and talking about advertisements and their impact. Reading Ads with a Social Justice Lens is a series of 13 multidisciplinary mini-lessons that provide such strategies and build critical literacy. The lessons are designed for students in grades K-5 and include suggestions for simple adaptations. These lessons open up important conversations about the relationship between advertisements and social justice. Children will see that they have the power to decide how media will influence them. They will also engage in social justice projects that address some of the unfair messages they find in advertising.
Grade Level
Subject
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
Economics
ELL / ESL
Math & Technology
Social Justice Domain
June 7, 2012

Mary McLeod Bethune

In this lesson, students will read an excerpt of an interview given by Mary McLeod Bethune and will learn that she founded the Daytona National and Industrial School for Negro Girls (now Bethune-Cookman College) in 1904. Through close reading, they will explore and discuss connections between events from Bethune’s life experiences and their own lives, and connections between past and current events.
Grade Level
Subject
Reading & Language Arts
Social Studies
History
Social Justice Domain
May 17, 2012