What is Community?
Students answer the question, "What is a community?" by writing their own definition of the word and identifying what characteristics make their classroom a community.
Exploring Contemporary Experiences of Policing and Racial Injustice
In this mini-lesson, students use their head, heart, and conscience to engage with six sources that reflect a range of experiences with policing.
Citizen Power Makes Democracy Work
Students explore citizenship, power, and responsibility using the work of civic entrepreneur Eric Liu.
Defining Democracy
Students brainstorm different definitions of democracy and consider democracy's relationship to their own communities and cultures.
Free Press Makes Democracy Work
Students explore the importance of a free press to democracy through recorded conversations with journalists from the United States and South Africa.
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.
Responding to Difference in Democracy
Students explore the varied ways people respond to differences by reading and reflecting on a poem.
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.
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.