Toolkit
Democracy and Current Events
This toolkit provides lessons and strategies for helping your students make sense of issues in the news related to democracy.
At a Glance
Language
English — USSubject
- Civics & Citizenship
- Social Studies
Grade
6–12- Democracy & Civic Engagement
Overview
About This Toolkit
We live in a time of great tension and conflict in democracies around the world. Elections in recent years—both inside and outside of the United States—have revealed and exacerbated deep divisions within many democratic societies, raising fundamental questions about the strength and fragility of democratic institutions. The resources in this toolkit can help your students learn about the concept of democracy, the forces that strengthen or weaken it, and make connections to issues of democracy in the present.
Preparing to Teach
A Note to Teachers
Before teaching with the resources in this toolkit, please review the following information to help guide your preparation process.
Inside This Toolkit
Assessing the Strength of Democracy
This mini-lesson provides students with an opportunity to deepen their understanding of democracy and a framework for making meaning of news stories about the tensions and conflicts in democracies today.
Free and Fair Elections
This Explainer describes the standards that governments need to meet before, during, and after an election to ensure that the election is "free and fair."
How Can We Evaluate If an Election Is Free and Fair?
This mini-lesson uses our Free and Fair Elections Explainer to help students reflect on the importance of elections, define the phrase “free and fair elections,” and learn about electoral systems in their region.
Political Polarization in the United States
This Explainer defines the term political polarization and provides information on how it impacts US politics and society.
Voting Rights in the United States
In this mini-lesson, students learn about the history of voting rights in the United States and consider how current voting laws in different states impact voters today.
A New Generation of Young Voters Emerges
Explore why young people tend to vote at lower rates and how they can get more involved in elections.
What Happened During the Insurrection at the US Capitol and Why?
This mini-lesson guides students to use an iceberg diagram to synthesize the events of January 6, 2021, and outline the complex array of causes at work.
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 mini-lesson trains students to use this technique to evaluate the credibility of the news they encounter on social media feeds or elsewhere online.
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.
News Article Analysis
Help students identify and analyze the key characteristics of the three most common types of news articles.
How are you planning to use this resource?
Tell Us MoreAdditional Resources
Current Events in the Classroom
Explore classroom resources for making connections between current events and your curriculum, including activities and discussion strategies for high school and middle school students.
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Activities to Connect and Celebrate at the End of the School Year
These six activities help students reflect on the past school year, celebrate their school community, and look ahead to what comes next.
Mob Violence, Human Behavior, and the Capitol Insurrection
This mini-lesson on the Capitol insurrection invites students to reflect on how seemingly small choices made by individuals can contribute to larger acts of injustice and violence.
Introducing the Concept of Race
Use this lesson to help your students understand more about the origins of race as a socially constructed concept and racism as a force that shapes society.
Addressing Racist and Dehumanising Language
Use this lesson when your students are engaging with a text that contains racist and dehumanising language.
Creating a Society in Which Everyone Can Thrive
Use this lesson to help your students explore the impact of racism in the UK and what can be done to challenge it.
People's Assembly
Students participate in a people's assembly centered on the question, how might we challenge all types of racism in the UK so that everyone can thrive?
Discussing Race and Racism in the Classroom
This unit is designed to help teachers in the UK have conversations about race with their students in a safe, sensitive, and constructive way.
Resources for Civic Education in Massachusetts
Explore resources that meet the Massachusetts History and Social Science Framework.
Resources for Civic Education in New York
This collection features all the Facing History resources recommended in the New York Department of Education’s Civics for All curriculum.
Resources for Civic Education in California
Explore resources that meet the California History–Social Science Framework standards.
Navigating Jewish American Identity
Students use the ideas of W.E.B Du Bois and historian David Kennedy to explore their own Jewish identities and consider how they coexist with their identities as Americans.
Unlimited Access to Learning. More Added Every Month.
Facing History & Ourselves is designed for educators who want to help students explore identity, think critically, grow emotionally, act ethically, and participate in civic life. It’s hard work, so we’ve developed some go-to professional learning opportunities to help you along the way.
Exploring ELA Text Selection with Julia Torres
On-Demand
Virtual
Listen to #DisruptTexts founder Julia Torres about taking a critical lens to text selection in ELA classrooms.
Working for Justice, Equity and Civic Agency in Our Schools: A Conversation with Clint Smith
On-Demand
Virtual
Issues of equity and education have long existed in our country and continue to manifest today. How can writing and the power of one's voice help us respond to these disparities? Listen to writer and educator, Dr. Clint Smith, where we hear his poetry and reflections on working for justice, equity, and civic agency in our schools.
Centering Student Voices to Build Community and Agency
On-Demand
Virtual
Explore approaches to centering student voice, building authentic relationships and cultivating community with Molly Josephs, the creator of This Teenage Life, a youth-driven, story-sharing podcast that started as a school club.
Using the strategies from Facing History is almost like an awakening.
—
Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif
