Resource Library
Find compelling classroom resources, learn new teaching methods, meet standards, and make a difference in the lives of your students.
We are grateful to The Hammer Family Foundation for supporting the development of our on-demand learning and teaching resources.
Introducing Our US History Curriculum Collection
Draw from this flexible curriculum collection as you plan any middle or high school US history course. Featuring units, C3-style inquiries, and case studies, the collection will help you explore themes of democracy and freedom with your students throughout the year.
Understanding Mr Birling
Students study the character of Mr Birling, critically assessing Priestley’s presentation of him, before using the character to reflect on how identity can influence people's views and behaviour.
Understanding Mrs Birling
Students consider what factors impacted Mrs Birling’s treatment of Eva Smith, and create a universe of obligation graphic representation for her character.
Reflecting on the Danger of Silence
Students use Clint Smith’s talk “The Danger of Silence” to create “blackout poems” that express their ideas for how they can use their voices to empower themselves and others.
Understanding Sheila
Students use the character of Sheila to further understand the interplay between identity and choices, before going on to analyse Priestley’s presentation of Sheila in Act One.
Political Violence and the Overthrow of Reconstruction
Students learn about the period of violence in the South from 1873-1876 and examine its role in influencing elections and ending Republican control of Southern state governments.
The Unfinished Revolution
Students explore the legacies of the Reconstruction era today, reflect on the idea of democracy as a continuous process, and consider how they can best participate in the ongoing work of strengthening our democracy.
The Costs and Benefits of Belonging
Students learn about group membership and explore the range of responses available to us when we encounter exclusion, discrimination, and injustice.
Defining Human Rights
Students create a definition for a "right" in order to explore the challenges faced by the UN Commission on Human Rights to create an international framework of rights for all human beings.
Taking Ownership of the Law
Students learn about Mum Bett and Quock Walker, who successfully sued for their freedom, and reflect on what their stories illuminate about democracy today.
The Rule of Law and Why It Matters
Students explore what it means to respect the rule of law and consider its importance in a democracy.
What Does It Mean to Belong?
Students identify the range of actions they can take when confronted with exclusion. The term upstander is introduced, as well as key terms such as bystander, perpetrator, and victim.
What Makes Memphis a Community?
Students connect what they have learned about communities to their knowledge of Memphis,TN, by analyzing images of historical and local importance to the city.
What Shapes Your Identity?
Through a poem-writing activity, students broaden and deepen their understanding of identity.
Who Am I?
By asking the question "Who am I?" students explore the role that identity plays in forming their values, ideas, and actions.
Who Are We?
Through a gallery walk activity, students learn that communities consist of a collection of people with unique identities.
Moral Growth: A Framework for Character Analysis
Students connect the moral development of To Kill a Mockingbird's central characters to the moments in their lives that have shaped their sense of right and wrong.
Universe of Obligation and Human Rights
Students learn about universe of obligation, how individuals and nations define their responsibilities toward other people.
Defining Universal Human Rights
Students consider what rights should belong to every human being on earth, create their own definition of a right, and learn about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Complicating the Universality of Human Rights
Students examine the tensions that emerged between nations with different cultures, values, and systems of beliefs when drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and will then consider the consequences of a world that cannot agree on universal rights for all people.
Making Rights Universal
Students read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and discuss whether these rights are universal and enjoyed by individuals and groups in the world today.
Defining Democracy
Students brainstorm different definitions of democracy and consider democracy's relationship to their own communities and cultures.
Insights on Democracy from South Africa
Students consider how South Africa's particular history and culture influence the ways its citizens understand and practice democracy.
Literature and Imagination Make Democracy Work
Students explore the connection between literature, imagination, and democracy by engaging with the work of acclaimed author Azar Nafisi.
Reflection and Action for Civic Participation
Students consider the importance of young people in democracy and analyze stories of civic participation using a ten-question framework.
Jewish Theological Dilemmas After the Holocaust
Students enter the conversation about the concept of “theodicy" through activities that allow them to explore the themes of faith and doubt after the Holocaust.
After Charlottesville: Contested History and the Fight against Bigotry
Students consider the power of historical symbols as they investigate the 2015 controversy over the Confederate flag in South Carolina and then draw connections to the violence in Charlottesville.
LGBTQIA+ History and Why It Matters
Students learn about two millennia of LGBTQIA+ history and reflect on how that history is represented in their textbooks and curricula.
Enacting Freedom
Students consider what it means to be free by learning about the choices and aspirations of freedpeople immediately after Emancipation.
Think Aloud
Model for students how proficient readers make meaning of a text by verbalizing your thinking as you read.
Sketch to Stretch
Ask students to visualize a passage of text and interpret it through drawing with this reading comprehension strategy.
Western Imperialism and Nation Building in Japan and China
Students are introduced to the history of Western imperialism in East Asia and its influence on the identities and ambitions of Japan and China.
Telling Our Histories
Students connect themes from the film to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's concept of “single stories," and then consider what it would take to tell more equitable and accurate narratives.
Watching Who Will Write Our History
Students view the film, analyze a primary source from the Oyneg Shabes archive, and consider why it matters who tells the stories of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Reflecting on Statues and the UK’s Colonial Past
This lesson provides students with an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between statues and the UK’s colonial past.
The Power of Names
Students begin their study of Reconstruction by examining the relationship between the individual and society through an exploration of names.
Seeking Justice: George Floyd’s Death and Structural Racism in the UK
This lesson provides students with an opportunity to reflect on the murder of George Floyd, the anti-racist protests in the UK, and the origins of systemic racism.
Connect, Extend, Challenge
Deepen students' understanding of a topic by having them connect to their prior knowledge.
Connect, Extend, Challenge (UK)
Deepen students' understanding of a topic by having them connect to their prior knowledge.
Bearing Witness to the Nanjing Atrocities
Students confront the enormity of the crimes committed during the Nanjing atrocities by listening to survivor testimony.
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.
Justice and Judgment after the Nanjing Atrocities
Students explore the complexities of achieving justice in the aftermath of mass violence and atrocities as they learn about the Tokyo Trials.
The Nanjing Atrocities: The Range of Responses
Students analyze the spectrum of choices available to individuals, groups, and nations during the Nanjing atrocities.
#IfTheyGunnedMeDown
Students explore the potential negative impact of images through the social media protest #IfTheyGunnedMeDown and develop a decision-making process for choosing imagery to represent controversial events.
The Impact of Identity
Students explore how identity impacts our responses to other people and events by examining a cartoon and analyzing an opinion poll from a week after Ferguson.
The Power of Images
Students examine how identity and biases can impact how individuals interpret images and experience the challenge of selecting images to represent news events, particularly connected to sensitive issues.
The Challenge of Confirmation Bias
Students define confirmation bias and examine why people sometimes maintain their beliefs in the face of information that contradicts their understanding.
A Contested History
Students consider how US history books, films, and other works of popular culture have misrepresented the history of the Reconstruction era.