Students will build empathy to be “helpers” and make a difference in the lives of others through consideration of two questions: How can we listen effectively to better understand people’s stories, and how can we respond to and communicate effectively to peoples’ stories? Students will then propose opportunities to take action to improve our community response to support all students and their communities.

In this Animating Civic Action lesson, from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and Washington State Governor's Office of the Education Ombuds, students listen to the story of Jared, a student experiencing homelessness. Students are asked to examine what it means to be homeless, to identify how homelessness affects people and to and to consider ways they can act to take action against homelessness in their school community.

Washington State passed legislation in 2021 to send a statue of activist and humanitarian Billy Frank Jr. to National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.Billy Frank Jr. dedicated his life advocating for equality, justice, and environmental protections. He fought to protect tribal treaty rights, native cultures and traditions, and the natural resources they are based upon. This resource links to information regarding the creation of the statue and associated educational materials provided by the Washington State Arts Commission (Arts WA) and the Nisqually Indian Tribe.

In this activity students will analyze the Oaths of Senators for the Impeachment Trial of William Jefferson Clinton and identify how the document demonstrates content contained within Article I, sections 1-7 of the Constitution in action.

This activity is designed to prepare students for the Constitution-in-Action Lab at the National Archives in Washington, DC. It is a part of a package of activities associated with the lab experience.

In this activity students will analyze the Declaration of Intention for Albert Einstein and identify how the document demonstrates content contained within Article I, sections 8-10 of the Constitution in action.

This activity is designed to prepare students for the Constitution-in-Action Lab at the National Archives in Washington, DC. It is a part of a package of activities associated with the lab experience.

Students learn about the controversial history of a mural in Anacortes, WA, and consider what it would take to create a more inclusive and accurate mural in Anacortes today. Then students learn about the tribes, immigrants, and settlers in the region where they live and how their stories are represented in local murals in public spaces. Students draw on what they have learned to respond to the unit driving question: What decisions and whose stories define Washington state? Then, drawing on local resources such as tribal members, historical societies, and museums, students work in teams to propose a new mural that tells an inclusive story of the people and place where they live.

Food! is a freely available community research guide developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) in partnership with the InterAcademy Partnership as part of the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project. These Smithsonian Science for Global Goals community research guides use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to focus on sustainable actions that are defined and implemented by students.

Food! is a module broken up into seven parts. Each part contains a series of tasks to complete. Each task contains additional resources to support that task. We have provided a suggested order for the parts and tasks. However, the structure of the guide hopefully allows you to customize your learning experience by selecting which parts, tasks, and resources you would like to utilize and in what order you would like to complete them.

This inquiry by Amy Johnson, Longview Public Schools, is based on the C3 Framework inquiry arc. Students will look at multiple points of view on an assigned Intolerable Act. After researching primary sources, student will create a newspaper using BEST evidence from their sources that answers the question, "Why would this event the colonists to revolt?"

These lessons are part of the Reform to Equal Rights K-12 Disability History Curriculum from Emerging America, part of the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Consortium.

This unit works particularly well in a course on civics and government. The intro lesson introduces key information and can be useful to check student knowledge and experiences. Lesson 1 is essential to introduce the unit's study of disability. Lessons 2 & 3 delves into work for disability rights, including transformative legislation. In lesson 4, students apply what they have learned about civic action to research, plan, and carry out their own civic engagement project. (This lesson is also used for Grades 9-12.) Lesson 5 can stand alone or fit within the unit; it adds disability rights as an option for study of historic Supreme Court cases

Grades 6-12 - Intro Lesson: Introduction to Disability History
Grades 6-8 - Lesson 1: What Are Disability Rights?
Grades 6-8 - Lesson 2: Disability Rights Activism
Grades 6-8 - Lesson 3: Disability Rights Legislation
Grades 6-8 - Lesson 4: Inclusive Civics Project - Disability Rights
Grades 6-8 - Lesson 5: Supreme Court Case: Olmstead v. L.C.

Reform to Equal Rights uses 250+ primary sources. Most are in the public domain. Many others come from public online collections. For the rest, Emerging America secured permission so that teachers can use all these sources in creative ways. https://www.emergingamerica.org/disability-history-curriculum
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This collaboration with New American History, Field Studio, and Virginia Public Media/PBS Learning is a series of open educational resources for grades 6-12 based on the Field Studio/PBS series, The Future of America's Past. Each episode in the series has an OER learning resource taking students behind the scenes to the spaces and places where untold history happened. This episode, filmed on location at Manzanar and the Japanese American National Museum, includes representations of Japanese incarceration in public spaces, archives and the arts.

This inquiry takes students through analysis and evaluation of the Compelling Question “Should Washington State Ban the use of Native American mascots in their schools?” Students will be learning about the persuasive techniques of Political Cartoons, analyzing articles and images, reading interviews, and watching YouTube videos. The summative performance task is writing a letter to the Washington State Board of education stating their claim on whether or not they should or shouldn't allow schools to use Native American mascots.

Students begin this unit by exploring the themes of humanity and community as they discuss  the many factors that influence the development of personal identities. They unpack together how we show versus hide different parts of ourselves, and how our identities can be both fixed and ever-changing. Then, students listen to oral histories by Vietnamese Americans in Washington to learn how displacement and resettlement have impacted them personally and shaped their outlook on helping others. Using evidence from these firsthand accounts, students answer the question: What can the experiences of displaced people teach us about community, resilience, and humanity? Throughout this unit, students work in teams to create a podcast where they reflect on their collective responsibility to stand in solidarity with displaced people.

Students learn how young people in Washington exercised their rights and responsibilities through “fish-in” protests to fight for tribal fishing rights in the 1960s. Students use this example of civic engagement to reflect on their rights and responsibilities today, then begin to consider the unit-driving question: How can we use social media to engage community members on issues of injustice? Working in teams, students examine a case study on one of three critical issues: natural resources, the environment, or hazard preparedness. The case studies help students understand how social media can be used to raise awareness and promote action. Finally, teams create a social media campaign that engages their local elected officials and community on an issue of social and environmental justice.

These Teacher Guides were developed by Washington educators to accompany the League of Women Voters of Washington's book The State We're In: Washington (Grade 3-5 Edition). Each chapter guide is  aligned with Washington Social Studies Learning Standards and includes a launch activity, focused notes, text-dependent questions, and an inquiry lesson developed using the C3 Framework. 

These Teacher Guides were created by Washington educators to accompany the League of Women Voters of Washington's book The State We're In: Washington - Your guide to state, tribal and local government.Each chapter guide is  aligned with Washington Social Studies Learning Standards and includes a launch activity, focused notes, text-dependent questions, and an inquiry lesson developed using the C3 Framework. 

This is a Teacher's Guide for The State We're In Washington: Your guide to state, tribal and local government. These quides are developed by members of the Washington State Social Studies Cadre.

Chapter 2 of the State We're In: Washington explores the design of today's democracy. The resources here may be implemented separately or together to guide students toward a deeper understanding of the content therein and to develop important social studies skills.

This is a Teacher's Guide for The State We're In Washington: Your guide to state, tribal and local government. These quides are developed by members of the Washington State Social Studies Cadre. Chapter 7 focuses on local government: counties, cities, towns and special districts and their role, organization, duties and services they provide to communities.

In this lesson from the World Affairs Council of Seattle - Global Classroom Program,  students explore United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #4: Quality Education. Students will learn about why access to quality education is an essential human right that promotes life-long learning opportunities. They will identify and discuss some of the barriers (economic, political, and social/cultural) faced by youth in different contexts through video clips, reading personal stories, and engaging in additional research activities. Students will examine Article #26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and discuss whether they would change any part of the statement (and why). Then, students will work collaboratively to develop a proposal for achieving greater access to quality education in specific local or global communities. In this activity, students will consider what they have learned about the impact of education on people’s lives and describe how their proposal would advance efforts to reach the targets of SDG #4.

This unit is focused on the examination of a single topic, in this case, the Native Americans of the inland Northwest and conflict that arose when other non-native people started to settle in the northwest, and to specifically address the native populations that lived in the inland northwest. The materials were created to be one coherent arc of instruction focused on one topic. The module was designed to include teaching notes that signal the kind of planning and thinking such instruction requires: close reading with complex text, and specific instructional strategies or protocols are described that support students’ reading and writing with evidence are described in enough detail to make it very clear what is required of students and how to support students in doing this rigorous work. Materials include summative assessment of content and process, central texts, key resources, and protocols that support and facilitate student learning.