Empathy and academics need not be mutually exclusive. In fact, a focus on empathy can increase student achievement. This toolkit for “Empathy for the ‘A’” shows teachers how to build empathy into their practice with a few adjustments to the things they already do.
In West Virginia, many teachers are frustrated with the state legislature's attitude toward public education. By taking collective action with a statewide strike, these teachers model for students how to stand up and speak out for their rights.
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.