Media Literacy Challenge: Writing Your Own Argument

This lesson will challenge learners to critically read and evaluate news articles presenting different positions on a single issue that the learner takes interest in. The learner will then be challenged to formulate their own opinion by refining their own argument on the issue. The target audience of learners for this lesson constitute the Career and College Readiness Standards Grade Level E (9-12) in their reading and writing abilities. Learners will hone practical skills by engaging in this lesson, such as how to critically engage with news and media, being able to succinctly summarize larger pieces of information, and using information to write a structured argument based on their own opinions. These skills will have practical applications for everyday life, reading and writing the GED, and when applying for jobs that require information processing.

Material Type: Homework/Assignment, Reading

Author: Amit

Media Literacy: News Literacy Project

News Literacy Project is a nonpartisan national education nonprofit, that provides programs and resources for educators and the public to teach, learn and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information and equal and engaged participants in a democracy. 

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson, Reading

Author: Amit

Deepfakes: Exploring Media Manipulation

Students examine what deepfakes are and consider the deeper civic and ethical implications of deepfake technology. In an age of easy image manipulation, this lesson fosters critical thinking skills that empower students to question how we can mitigate the impact of doctored media content. This lesson plan includes a slide deck and brainstorm sheet for classroom use.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson, Lesson Plan

Author: Shana Ferguson

Hands-On AI Projects for the Classroom: A Guide on Ethics and AI

In this guide, students’ exploration of AI is framed within the context of ethical considerations and aligned with standards and concepts, and depths of understanding that would be appropriate across various subject areas and grade levels in K–12. Depending on the level of your students and the amount of time you have available, you might complete an entire project, pick and choose from the listed activities, or you might take students’ learning further by taking advantage of the additional extensions and resources provided for you. For students with no previous experience with AI education, exposure to the guided learning activities alone will create an understanding of their world that they likely did not previously have. And for those with some background in computer science or AI, the complete projects and resources will still challenge their thinking and expose them to new AI technologies and applications across various fields of study. Project 1: Fair's Fair Project 2: Who is in Control? Project 3: The Trade-offs of AI Technology Project 4: AI and the 21st Century Worker Visit the ISTE website with all the free practical guides for engaging students in AI creation: https://www.iste.org/areas-of-focus/AI-in-education.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Unit of Study

Authors: General Motors, International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

From open data to civic engagement

Where does our money go? Who are the beneficiaries of public funding? Which projects get funded? When and how do publicly funded projects deliver concrete results? Are they effective enough? The Scuola di OpenCoesione (ASOC) is an educational challenge and a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course), designed for Italian high-school students. It has three main objectives. First, to find out how public money is spent in a given local area or neighbourhood; second, to follow the projects and investigate how they are progressing and what challenges are they facing and third, to involve local communities in monitoring the effectiveness of public investment.

Material Type: Case Study

Authors: Chiara Ciociola, Luigi Reggi

Stages of Genocide

The Stages of Genocide Toolkit contains six case studies of historical genocide:• Armenian Genocide• Genocide in Cambodia• Genocide in Guatemala• The Holocaust• Genocide of Native Americans in the United States• Genocide in RwandaThese specific case studies were chosen for their wide geographic range and their place in modern historical chronology. It is important to note that these genocides are not the only examples of genocide that one can find throughout history, nor do the authors of this toolkit consider them to be “worse” or more important than those that are not included in this toolkit. We believe strongly that there is no place for a “hierarchy of suffering” in genocide education. Additionally, these summaries are not meant to be comprehensive histories of each genocide. They were written to align with Dr. Gregory Stanton’s Ten Stages of Genocide and as such, there are many historical details that are not included in the summaries.

Material Type: Homework/Assignment

Author: Amit

The New York Times and the Armenian Genocide

A Lesson Plan based on The Armenian Genocide – News Accounts from the American Press, 1915-1922This curriculum extracts articles from the book, “The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts from the American Press,” compiled by Richard Kloian (available from GenEd and can be ordered for $25 by emailing). Including 200 New York Times articles, other journalistic accounts, U.S. Ambassador Morgenthau’s personal account of the genocide, survivor accounts, telegrams from the genocide perpetrator, photographs, and more, the book presents a compelling chronicle of the systematic deportations and massacres of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire, perpetrated by the Turkish governing authorities between 1915 and 1922. The lesson allows students to:Discuss the significance of the language used in the articles as it relates to a modern definition of genocideComprehend the extent to which American readers/public were aware of the persecution against Armenians by Ottoman rulers.Understand the importance of media in exposing and preventing human rights abuses

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Amit

Armenian Genocide Additional Resources

Links to additional resources on the Armenian Genocide

Material Type: Case Study, Homework/Assignment

Author: Amit

STUDYING THE HOLOCAUST: BUILDING A FOUNDATION

The first in a series of units and lesson plans from Echoes and Reflections. The web page includes embedded links to videos, note-taking sheets, maps, and other handouts. 

Material Type: Lecture Notes, Lesson Plan, Primary Source, Reading

Author: Amit

Oregon Territory & Native Genocide

The documents and questions may be used for classroom investigation or as a unit assessment. Documents can be distributed and assigned as a jigsaw or as a complete set. Students read the document and apply historical investigation skills. Students should have access to prior learning about the nature of Indian and white settler contact.Updated video link for Broken Treaties

Material Type: Case Study

Author: Amit

The Holocaust and The Diary of Anne Frank (by playwrights Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett)

This lesson focuses on the twelve-year period from 1933-1945 in which Jews faced restrictions, were imprisoned, worked as slaves, and were starved, tortured, and murdered.  Six million Jews died during the Holocaust.  They will also read the play The Diary of Anne Frank which protrays a thirteen year old gilr's view of her daily life when she and her family went into hiding before being deported to a Nazi concentration camp.  Anne Frank was born to a Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929.  Her family immigrated to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, when she was four.  Anne had a happy childhood until 1940 when German forces invaded and occupied the Netherlands.  Anne and her family went into hiding in the attic above her father's business, where they lived for two years.  Students will review the elements of drama incuding dramatic structure such as characters, conflict, climax, and resoultion. They will also learn about dialogue and stage directions.  

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Dr. Diane Schnoebelen-Kramer

Anne Frank in the World, 1929 - 1945, Teacher Workbook

This Anne Frank unit is designed with several lessons of various lengths. These lessons are usable in many different disciplines. Using one, several, or all of the lessons will address the unit's objectives to some degree. Students will accomplish some or all of the objectives depending on the number and nature of the lessons in which they participate.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study

Anne Frank

Anne Frank’s writing in her diary became one of the most recognized accounts of life for a Jewish family in Europe during World War II. This resource is from a collection of biographies of famous women. It is provided by the National Women's History Museum, and may include links to supplemental materials including lesson plans about the subject and related topics, links to related biographies, and "works cited" pages. The biographies are sponsored by Susan D. Whiting.

Material Type: Reading

Author: National Women's History Museum

Anne Frank: Writer

This lesson concentrates on Anne Frank as a writer. After a look at Anne Frank the adolescent, and a consideration of how the experiences of growing up shaped her composition of the Diary, students explore some of the writing techniques Anne invented for herself and practice those techniques with material drawn from their own lives.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Anne Frank: One of Hundreds of Thousands

Drawing upon the online archives of the U.S. Holocaust Museum, this lesson helps students to put the events described by Anne Frank into historical perspective, and also serves as a broad overview of the Nazi conquest of Europe during World War II. After surveying the experiences of various countries under Nazi occupation, the lesson ends with activities related specifically to the Netherlands and Anne Frank.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Auschwitz-Birkenau and Anne Frank's Father

The German Nazis were responsible for the systematic killing of millions of Jews.  Hitler called it “The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.”  There were concentration camps set up throughout German controlled territories.  This project will focus on the largest and most notorious camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, located in German-controlled Poland. Anne Frank and her family were discovered and arrested in August 1944. In September 1944 they were sent from the Westerbork Camp in the Netherlands to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Anne’s father, Otto Frank, survived and was liberated from Auschwitz-Birkenau in January 1945. 

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Joan Upell

EDUCATOR RESOURCES TO ADDRESS ANTISEMITISM IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Resouces for educators addressing antisemitism.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Student Guide

Author: Amit

Exploring Anne Frank’s Diary

Students will examine Anne Frank’s diary as both a historical and a deliberately created literary text and will understand how the Holocaust affected the lives of the Frank family.

Anne Frank

Jewish Anne Frank hid in 1942 from the Nazis during the occupation of the Netherlands. Two years later she was discovered. In 1945 she died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. These lessons explain more about Anne Frank's life and the historical context around Anne Frank's diary.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Primary Source

Author: Anne Frank House

And Justice for All: the Trail of Tears, Mexican Deportation, and Japanese Internment

Many textbooks mention the Trail of Tears, but fail to mention that this early displacement of an ethnic minority is only the one of many legally-sanctioned forced relocations. This lesson will address the displacement of American Indians through the Trail of Tears, the forced deportation of Mexican Americans during the Great Depression, and the internment of Japanese American citizens during WWII.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Patricia Camp