Curated OER
Child Labor Laws in the United States and the State of Nebraska
Students examine child labor laws. In this social justice lesson plan, students compare and contrast child labor laws of the United States and the state of Nebraska. Students research primary sources and complete the included analysis...
Curated OER
Seeking Civil Rights
Students explore the impact of the Plessy v. Ferguson case. In this social justice lesson plan, students examine the case, Jim Crow laws, and non-violent forms of protest. Students write essays to persuade the government regarding...
Curated OER
Stitching Truth Lesson Two: The Arpilleristas in Pinochet's Chile
Students analyze arpilleras. In this Chilean history instructional activity, students examine social justice issues as they read and interpret arpilleras. Students study the tapestries to learn about Augusto Pinochet and his human rights...
Curated OER
We the People v. We the Children of the World
Students compare the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child to the Bill of Rights. In this social justice activity, students read and analyze both documents. Students discuss how the documents compare and then write their...
Curated OER
Youth Participation in Nonviolence
Students explore the use of nonviolent resistance. In this social justice lesson, students listen to their instructor present a lecture on Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as the Apartheid Movement in South Africa.
Curated OER
Gandhi’s Salt March: Nonviolence in Action
High schoolers examine the effectiveness of nonviolent protest. In this social justice lesson, students analyze the effectiveness of Gandhi's Salt March as a nonviolent protest. High schoolers jigsaw read the provided story and discuss it.
Curated OER
Evaluating Crimes
What is crime? Discriminate between criminal and non-criminal behavior with your scholars by engaging them in potentially heated discussion about various scenarios. A brief definition of the word crime precedes individual analysis of 15...
Judicial Branch of California
The Power of the Press: The First Amendment
Was what happened in 1886 at the Haymarket riot a crime or a case of xenophobia? Using political cartoons from the time, young historians consider the role the media played in anti-labor sentiment during the time and how that influenced...
NPR
This Isn't Right: A History of Women in Industry
Women were in the workplace long before Rosie the Riveter pushed up her sleeve. Learn about the working options available to women during the Industrial Revolution, the Progressive Era, and the Great Depression with a lesson that...
Curated OER
The Juvenile Death Penalty
Sensitive material is discussed in this lesson. Please review to ensure that the content is suitable for your class. The topic is the Eighth Amendment and how the U.S. Supreme Court makes determinations about what constitutes cruel and...
Just Health Action
What Makes a Community Healthy?
Young people have an opportunity to make it a beautiful day in their neighborhoods with an activity that asks them to identify what is healthy and unhealthy in their community and develop some ideas about what they can do to fix the...
Just Health Action
Equity Impact Review: Green Stormwater Infrastructure in Seattle
Using an Equity Impact Review (EIR) tool, developed by Washington state's King County to "identify, evaluate, and communicate issues of equity when making a decision," class members design a GSI program for two Seattle neighborhoods.
Just Health Action
How are Equality and Equity Different?
Equality does not equal equity. That's the take-away from a lesson that asks young people to consider what could be done to make a variety of situations more just, more equitable. After examining images that illustrate the difference...
Curated OER
For The Sake Of Security: U.S.A. Patriot Act & Bill of Rights
A substantive New York Times article about the U.S.A. Patriot Act, military tribunals, racial profiling, and the Bill of Rights forms the basis for a discussion of the complex interplay of fundamental American rights and the aftermath of...
Curated OER
Due Process Freedoms
Young scholars participate in a simulation of the voir dire portion of a trial. There are student lawyers assigned for the prosecution and the defense. They must review and question all prospective jurors to obtain a fair and impartial...
Curated OER
Indiana Courts: How Do They Work?
Students identify the branches of Indiana's judicial system and determine the differences between the different courts and different types of cases. Students create a flow chart showing how a court case works its way through the legal...
iCivics
Judicial Branch in a Flash
What is the difference between the federal court and state court systems? What about criminal versus civil cases? Check out this resource that will offer your class members a general and effective overview of the judicial branch in the...
Carolina K-12
Law, Jurisdictions, and Enforcement Agencies
How do you determine what law enforcement agency has jurisdiction when a crime has been committed? That's the challenge facing class members in this role-play activity.
School Improvement in Maryland
Court Proceedings Civil Cases
What's the difference between civil and criminal law? How do the court proceedings differ in these two types of trials? How do the standards of proof differ? Why do these differences exist? As part of their examination of the...
PBS
Analyzing Stop and Frisk Through Personal Stories and Infographics
How much can you learn about an important topic from a single image? High schoolers analyze an infographic that represents the number of stops performed during the Stop and Frisk police procedure. After building background information...
Heritage Foundation
Exercising Judicial Power
We should all do more exercising, but should the judicial branch as well? High schoolers develop their understanding of what powers the judicial branch carries because of the US Constitution, as well as where their limits lie in the...
Heritage Foundation
Crime and Punishment
You wouldn't give someone a 10-day timeout for eating a piece of candy. The US government, too, does not believe in unreasonable punishment. A variety of exercises exploring the clauses of the US Constitution prompts class members to...
C-SPAN
Conducting a Moot Court
Review the conduct of different roles within the Supreme Court. A moot court activity educates learners about the roles of each member of the court and the process of a case with video clips, research activities, a graphic organizer,...
Deliberating in a Democracy
Youth Curfews
Don't stay out too late! Scholars analyze the need for youth curfews in a democratic society. They examine primary documents, case studies, and short video clips to form their opinions and take a position on the issue. Holding a class...