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.
![Peaceful protestor speaks to police officer in Ferguson.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/2016_PoliceOfficerinFerguson_FH231304.jpg?h=f3a37c6e&itok=IhwjQkzh)
The Reconstruction Era 3-Week Unit
Teach a 3-week study of the Reconstruction era guided by the essential question "What can we learn from the history of Reconstruction as we work to strengthen democracy today?"
![Portrait of a family](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-11/service-pnp-ppmsc-00000-00057v_0.jpg?h=fba49d59&itok=n7irMmx4)
Standing Up to Hatred and Intolerance
Address today's global challenges with lesson plans focused on current events including the refugee crisis and contemporary antisemitism.
![Large crowd of citizens gathering in solidarity with refugees. Some are holding up UNHCR signs.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Standing_Up_Solidarity_March_Medium_res.jpg?h=c9f93661&itok=3ozA7yZ3)
10 Questions for Young Changemakers
This unit uses the 10 Questions Framework to explore two examples of youth activism: the 1963 Chicago schools boycott and the present-day movement against gun violence launched by Parkland students.
![Facing History and Ourselves Bullying Summit September 29th 2012 in Los Angeles CA](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/2012_131BullySummit2012LA131_FH116219.jpg?h=265e640d&itok=xP9VrdoO)
The Reconstruction Era and the Fragility of Democracy
Use this rich collection of Reconstruction era primary sources, videos, and a 3-week unit to engage your students in this pivotal period in US history and its legacies today.
![African American and Radical Republican members of the South Carolina Legislature in the 1870s.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Recon_Crop.jpeg?h=3d25abbd&itok=3H_YJPTl)
The Reconstruction Era Primary Sources
Enrich your teaching on the Reconstruction era with these primary source documents and images.
![Portraits superimposed on an image of the American flag](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Reconstruction_2022_FH2174814.png?h=8e4088dc&itok=zv81hdEs)
What Makes Democracy Work?
Explore this collection of lesson plans that cover a wide range of themes related to democracy, including citizen power and civic participation, the rule of law, the role of a free press, and more.
![A magnifying glass over the definition of democracy in a dictionary.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/shutterstock_1202650933.jpg?h=790be497&itok=PduYr60h)
Identity & Community: An Introduction to 6th Grade Social Studies
Intentionally designed for middle school classrooms, this unit explores themes of identity and community by using students' knowledge of the Memphis, Tennessee, community.
![Students participate in a group activity.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/2015_20150813_TreyClark_0419_FH221009.jpg?h=2f6148de&itok=YBxcFD7A)
Confronting Apartheid
Explore South Africa’s tumultuous history from the early interactions between white European settlers and native African tribes to the implementation of apartheid and the long struggle for democracy.
![Group of people waving South African flags in back lit.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Democracy_2018_SouthAfricaConfrontingApartheidBannerunedited_FH282249.jpg?h=40d6a7d7&itok=gii2H08Z)
The Union As It Was
Students examine documents that shed light on life in the South under the policies of Presidential Reconstruction in 1865 and 1866.
![Photo shows a group of six African American men and women posed picking cotton in a field.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Civil_Rights_Picking_Cotton_Savannah_1867_FH2177912.jpg?h=2b78d577&itok=DpnqiD0k)
Radical Reconstruction and the Birth of Civil Rights
Students learn about the responses to Johnson’s policies by Republicans in Congress and examine the fourteenth amendment that overturned Presidential Reconstruction.
![Photo of page 1 of the 14th amendment of the US Constitution](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Civil_Rights_1868_14th_Amendment_of_the_United_States_Constitution_%20FH21203.jpg?h=4359e9ca&itok=4j99BHvV)