This Teaching Idea is designed to help students reflect on how the movies, shows, and books we consume can reinforce stereotypes about Muslims and the harmful impact stereotyping has on people's lives.
Teaching Idea
Antisemitism & Religious Intolerance
Responding to Rising Antisemitism
Inform students about the rising number of antisemitic incidents in the United States and explore the story of one teacher’s response to an antisemitic incident involving high school students in her community.
Teaching Idea
Democracy & Civic Engagement
Justice & Human Rights
The Equal Rights Amendment: A 97-Year Struggle
This teaching idea provides an overview of the ERA and a look at the history behind the struggle to ratify the amendment that would formally guarantee women equal rights to men under the US Constitution.
Teaching Idea
Antisemitism & Religious Intolerance
Race in US History
Acts of Hate in Schools
Use this Teaching Idea to inform students about recent episodes of racism and antisemitism in schools across the US, probe their causes and impact, and consider positive ways that communities can respond to hate.
Blog
Antisemitism & Religious Intolerance
Responding to Contemporary Antisemitism in the Classroom
As the nation reacts to the wave of antisemitic attacks that have occurred in cities including New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago in recent weeks, educators are faced with unique c
Teaching Idea
Justice & Human Rights
Who Are the Kurds?
The Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without a state, and they often play important roles in politics and conflicts in the Middle East. This Teaching Idea helps students answer questions like “Who are the Kurds and why are they divided among so many countries in the Middle East?”
Blog
Antisemitism & Religious Intolerance
Countering Narratives of Hate in the UK
This past fortnight has seen an alarming number of antisemitic and racist incidents in the news: in Germany, two people were killed and many more terrorised in a mass shooting attempt that targeted a synagogue; in Bulgaria, football fans taunted players with racist chants and Nazi salutes; in Hertfordshire, a teacher allegedly “joked” about sending primary school pupils who failed to complete their work “to the gas chamber”(and then told them not to tell anyone); and in politics, another Labour politician resigned from the party citing the rise of antisemitism as the reason for her departure.
Teaching Idea
Race in US History
Justice & Human Rights
Indigenous Rights and Controversy over Hawaii’s Maunakea Telescope
Provide students with historical context for understanding the protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope on Maunakea and help them explore the reasons why many Native Hawaiians oppose its construction.
Teaching Idea
Race in US History
Democracy & Civic Engagement
Justice & Human Rights
The Debate over Reparations for Racial Injustice
With reparations in the news, this Teaching Idea helps students define the term, learn what forms reparations can take, and consider what reparations should be offered for slavery and other racist policies.
Teaching Idea
Global Immigration
Justice & Human Rights
Different Perspectives on Migrant Detention
Deepen students’ understanding of the issue of migrant detention by having them consider the diverse perspectives of detained migrants, an immigration lawyer, a border guard, and an immigration judge.
Teaching Idea
Global Immigration
Justice & Human Rights
What Is Our Obligation To Asylum Seekers?
Help students understand how the United States’ complex asylum process works. Invite them to consider the question, who has an obligation to asylum seekers?
Explainer
Race in US History
Antisemitism & Religious Intolerance
Explainer: White Nationalism
This explainer describes key characteristics of white nationalist ideology and clarifies related key-terms, such as “alt-right” and “white power.”
Pages
Current Events Teaching Tools and Strategies
Use these teaching strategies and resources to strengthen your students' media literacy skills.
Teaching Idea
Democracy & Civic Engagement
Media Literacy
How to Read the News Like a Fact Checker: a Media Literacy Strategy
Reading “laterally” is a key media literacy strategy that helps students determine the quality of online sources. This Teaching Idea trains students to use this technique to evaluate the credibility of the news they encounter on social media feeds or elsewhere online.
Teaching Strategy
News Article Analysis
Help students identify and analyze the key characteristics of the three most common types of news articles.
Page
Democracy & Civic Engagement
Plan Ahead With Our Teacher Checklist
View our teacher checklist for preparing to teach current events to middle and high school students. We include recommended news sources, key questions to ask yourself as you plan, and strategies for navigating emotionally difficult or complex topics.
Unit
Democracy & Civic Engagement
Media Literacy
Race in US History
Facing Ferguson: News Literacy in a Digital Age
Help students become informed and effective civic participants in today's digital landscape. This unit is designed to develop students' critical thinking, news literacy, civic engagement, and social-emotional skills and competencies.
Page
Media Literacy
Partner Resource: Checkology
Our partners at the News Literacy Project developed the media literacy resource Checkology, a set of lessons designed to help students learn how to critically evaluate and interpret news sources.
Teaching Idea
Media Literacy
Where Do We Get Our News and Why Does It Matter?
Explore media bias using recent news coverage of controversial events and help students think about what healthy news habits they want to adopt.
Past Highlights
Explore past teaching idea resources we created to address breaking news stories.
Teaching Idea
Democracy & Civic Engagement
After Parkland, Students Choose to Participate
As students take action after Florida's school shooting, introduce a framework for civic participation in your classroom. Facing History has also created suggested discussion questions to help you have the difficult conversations that follow traumatic violent events. Use these questions as a starting point to spark a dialogue around the ways youth can get involved, be Upstanders, and make their voices heard in their own communities.
Teaching Idea
Democracy & Civic Engagement
The Kavanaugh Hearings
Provide students with a chance to process, reflect, and deliberate with others about the US Senate hearings in the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court.
Teaching Idea
Antisemitism & Religious Intolerance
Responding to The Tree of Life Shooting in Pittsburgh
The mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue capped off a week of hate crimes and political violence in the United States. These teaching ideas help teachers and students process the events and reflect on what they mean for them and their communities.
Teaching Idea
Race in US History
Democracy & Civic Engagement
Understanding #TakeaKnee and Athlete Activism
Explore the origin and legacy of the Take A Knee protest in the NFL, the significance of the more recent athlete boycotts, and the long history of athletes protesting racial injustice in the United States.
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Everything you need to get started teaching your students about racism, antisemitism and prejudice.