Students review films related to a theme in the central text, then plan, prepare for and host a community film festival.

In this lesson, students will use the case of Park51’s Islamic Cultural Center as a starting point for a discussion about whether religious freedom is absolute and if religious freedom requires respect for other religions.

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.

In this lesson, students will use a primary source—an NBC news report from 1961—to investigate the Freedom Rides. The lesson will also explore segregation in the South and the tenets of nonviolent protest.

This lesson explores the concept of health disparities for socially disadvantaged groups (e.g., youth of color and LGBT youth). Students are encouraged to examine the causes and impact of these disparities and to create possible solutions for overcoming them.

In this lesson, students consider what it means to be an American, using an opinion piece about the “American Identity Crisis” and several related videos as central texts. They answer a series of text-dependent questions, debate their opinions, write a brief constructed response, and make their own video that reflects their interpretation of “the face of America.”

This lesson focuses on copyright and fair use. Students will discuss these concepts and then complete a project demonstrating what they learned.

In this lesson, students will examine their digital footprints, discuss the positives and negatives of having a footprint, and determine how they can most safely manage their footprints.

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.

Students interview one another, then draw or paint portraits containing symbols that represent the subject’s identity, beliefs, values or areas of interest.

Students create visual self-portraits that contain symbols representing the student’s identity, beliefs, values or areas of interest related to diversity, anti-bias or social justice.

The familiar children’s tune “If You’re Happy and You Know It” can take on a pro-social dimension if you change the lyrics. Singing “If you’re angry and you know it” provides an opportunity to explore appropriate responses to anger.

I’ll be the Judge asks students to demonstrate their argumentative and comparative writing skills.

In Conversation asks students to demonstrate their narrative skills when applying different points of view in writing.

This is the fourth lesson of the series “Dealing with Dilemmas: Upstanders, Bystanders and Whistle-Blowers,” which is designed to help students think about the importance of standing up for what they believe in despite both external and internal obstacles.

In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander explores complex questions about the criminal justice system and the history of race and racial justice in the United States.

Students invent a product or process that solves a social problem discussed in the central text.

“Issues of Poverty” is comprised of four lessons with two overarching goals. First, the lessons aim to help students understand that poverty is systemic, rooted in economics, politics and discrimination. Second, the lessons provide evidence to show that poverty, far from being random, disproportionately affects Americans who have traditionally experienced oppression—African Americans, Latinos, immigrants and children.

This lesson is part of The Role of Gay Men and Lesbians in the Civil Rights Movement series.