Navigating Social Hierarchies
Students analyze a short story by Misa Sugiura to consider the invisible barriers that divide “in” and “out” groups and how our efforts to seek belonging can conflict with our values.
![Students in classroom](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-03/FHAO_2019_Summit_093.jpg?h=56d0ca2e&itok=WZKVs69w)
Negotiating Belonging in Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime
Students analyze a chapter from Trevor Noah’s memoir Born a Crime to consider how cultural, linguistic, and racial borders influence one’s sense of belonging.
![Student writes on Starburst Identity Chart](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-03/230913-0035.jpg?h=2cea9ccb&itok=cXvQBaaF)
Belonging on Your Own Terms
Students explore what it means to seek belonging on their own terms, and in alignment with their values, by reading and discussing personal narrative essays.
![Students discuss in classroom](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-03/20150813_TreyClark_0193.jpg?h=c6cb2754&itok=B5zupv_3)
From Fitting In to Belonging Assessment Ideas
Create a culminating experience for your students that helps them draw new connections between the concepts and ideas presented in this text set, themselves, and the world today.
![Yellow hexagons](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-03/pexels-andreea-ch-11889329.jpg?h=fa1456f8&itok=Sa5Hkwjb)
Stranger at the Gate Viewing Guide
Bring the short documentary film Stranger at the Gate into your classroom with the streaming video and companion guide of discussion questions and activities.
![Stranger at the Gate press image Smartypants.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-04/Stranger-085.jpg?h=f54bfa0f&itok=6HJSEUAP)
ELA Unit Planning Guide
This guide provides the framework and classroom resources to help you design an English Language Arts unit for middle or high school students centered around a book of your choosing.
![Three educators smile while sitting together working.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-03/Facing-History_SJLA_015_edit.jpg?h=c7420dc8&itok=PlL1FQ9c)
Teach with Facing History ELA Learning Experiences
Each of our learning experiences provides activities and resources to explore a core Facing History concept or theme while building key literacy skills.
![Student work together in class.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/Classroom_Discussion_Los_Angeles_SJLA_2018_FH287382.jpg?h=56d0ca2e&itok=--xgunus)
Teaching Strategies
Use our student-centered teaching strategies to strengthen your students’ literacy skills, nurture critical thinking, and build a respectful and collaborative classroom community.
![An educator walks through instructions for a teaching strategy procedure with students.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-08/Teaching_Strategies_hero.jpeg?h=78a3dfb3&itok=p8BXuMQa)
Expressing Diversity in Jewish Identity: Blending In and Standing Out
This two-day lesson uses the story of Purim as a frame to examine how Jews have preserved and protected their identities and culture in dominant societies by choosing when to blend in and when to stand out.
![A Jewish family pictured in Yemen](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-03/GettyImages-607446350.jpg?h=eec5a94e&itok=ZTRvXmoY)
Staging the Compelling Question
Students are introduced to the compelling question by annotating the question and completing an anticipation guide about educational justice.
![Kristina Vancil speaking to students in a Chicago classroom](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-02/SL_190523_0534.jpg?h=a49d782d&itok=KUtAJGSJ)
Borders & Belonging
This modular ELA collection for grades 7–12 invites students to explore the complicated world of belonging and the tangible and intangible borders that shape it.