Address today's global challenges with lesson plans focused on current events including the refugee crisis and contemporary antisemitism.
In the second step of the Facing History Scope and Sequence, students examine the ways that humans so often create “in” groups and “out” groups and the consequences of creating those groups. Who are “we”? Who are “they”? The answers to these questions can have profound consequences, because they define who belongs and who does not.
The resources on this page examine this behavior and explore how and why important ideas about human similarities and differences—such as race, religion, and nation—have greatly influenced the way many societies have defined their membership in the past several centuries.
Topic
- Antisemitism & Religious Intolerance Apply Antisemitism & Religious Intolerance filter
- Bullying & Ostracism Apply Bullying & Ostracism filter
- Civil Rights Movement Apply Civil Rights Movement filter
- Democracy & Civic Engagement Apply Democracy & Civic Engagement filter
- Genocide & Mass Violence Apply Genocide & Mass Violence filter
- Global Immigration Apply Global Immigration filter
- Holocaust Apply Holocaust filter
- Justice & Human Rights Apply Justice & Human Rights filter
- Media Literacy Apply Media Literacy filter
- Perpetrators and Mass Murder Apply Perpetrators and Mass Murder filter
- Pre-war Jewish Life Apply Pre-war Jewish Life filter
- Race & Membership/Eugenics Apply Race & Membership/Eugenics filter
- Race in US History Apply Race in US History filter
- South Africa Apply South Africa filter
- The Armenian Genocide Apply The Armenian Genocide filter
- The Nanjing Atrocities Apply The Nanjing Atrocities filter
- The Reconstruction Era Apply The Reconstruction Era filter
- Transforming Germany in the 1930s Apply Transforming Germany in the 1930s filter
- World Responses Apply World Responses filter
Subject
- Civics/Citizenship Apply Civics/Citizenship filter
- English Language Arts Apply English Language Arts filter
- European History Apply European History filter
- History Apply History filter
- Jewish Education Apply Jewish Education filter
- Music, Art, and Culture Apply Music, Art, and Culture filter
- Psychology Apply Psychology filter
- Religion Apply Religion filter
- Social Studies Apply Social Studies filter
- US History Apply US History filter
- World History Apply World History filter
Resource Type
- Audio Apply Audio filter
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Book
- Confronting Apartheid Apply Confronting Apartheid filter
- Holocaust and Human Behavior Apply Holocaust and Human Behavior filter
- Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools Apply Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools filter
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.
Unit
Democracy & Civic Engagement
Standing Up for Democracy
Designed for students in the United Kingdom, these lessons foster the critical thinking, mutual respect, and toleration necessary to bring about a more humane society.
Unit
Holocaust
Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior
Use our online unit to lead students through a study of the Holocaust that asks what this history can teach us about the power and impact of choices.
Lesson
Democracy & Civic Engagement
Blending In and Standing Out
Students use an excerpt from Sarfraz Manzoor memoir to reflect on identity, belonging, and wanting to feel invisible.
Lesson
Democracy & Civic Engagement
Confirmation and Other Biases
Students define explicit, implicit, and confirmation bias, and examine why people sometimes maintain their beliefs in the face of contradictory information.
Lesson
Antisemitism & Religious Intolerance
Contemporary Antisemitism and Youth
Students reflect on present-day antisemitism encountered online and on college campuses, and explore examples of youth who are standing up to it.
Lesson
Democracy & Civic Engagement
Defining Our Obligations to Others
Students are introduced to the concept of universe of obligation to better understand how societies create "in" groups and "out" groups.
Lesson
Democracy & Civic Engagement
How Journalists Minimize Bias
Students experience the challenges to reporting objectively by writing a news piece and watching a video about how journalists counteract bias in the newsroom.
Lesson
Genocide & Mass Violence
Japanese Imperialism and the Road to War
Students examine sources that shed light on the underlying causes of the outbreak of World War II in Asia.
Lesson
Justice & Human Rights
LGBTQ History and Why It Matters
Students learn about two millennia of LGBTQ history and reflect on how that history is represented in their textbooks and curricula.
Lesson
Democracy & Civic Engagement
Preparing Students for Difficult Conversations
Students establish a safe space for holding sensitive conversations, before introducing the events surrounding Ferguson, by acknowledging people's complicated feelings about race and creating a classroom contract.
Pages
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Everything you need to get started teaching your students about racism, antisemitism and prejudice.