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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Square Counting Shortcut

For Teachers 2nd - 4th Standards
An excellent lesson that encourages students to discover how complex figures can be broken into simpler shapes when measuring area. Working with block letters, learners are given the freedom to develop their own strategies for...
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Lesson Plan
Incredible Art

Starry Night Interpretation

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Young artists are encourage to develop greater imaginative freedom and post their impressions of Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night in a series of activities based around the famous painting. Class members watch a film biography of van...
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Lesson Plan
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PBS

Hemingway Educator Guide

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
A 17-page Educator Guide is designed to support classroom discussions of Ken Burns' documentary on Ernest Hemingway. The guide includes background information on Hemingway's life, the themes found in his works, essential and discussion...
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Lesson Plan
Foreign Policy Research Institute

Democracy Wall

For Teachers 7th - 12th
How free are people in the United States, or in the world for that matter? The class reads and compares two articles that discuss levels of freedom enjoyed by different people around the globe. They discuss why some people have more...
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Lesson Plan
Minnesota Center for Community Legal Education

Minnesota v. Hershberger

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Freedom of religion has been a controversial, yet fundamental, tenet of the United States since even before the nation's birth. In a well-constructed lesson, the class compares the Minnesota Constitution to the US Constitution as a means...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Picture Books and the Bill of Rights

For Teachers Pre-K - 2nd
Students identify the basic freedoms of citizens in the United States.  In this Bill of Rights lesson, students act out scenarios about the Bill of Rights.  Students create a picture book describing the rights they've acted out.
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Lesson Plan
Federal Judicial Center

Amistad and Dred Scott—a Comparative Activity

For Students 8th - 12th Standards
What do slaves fighting for their freedom on board a ship and a slave fighting for his freedom in a courtroom have in common? Budding historians investigate the two different cases of the Amistad slave revolt and the Dred Scott argument....
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Lesson Plan
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Facing History and Ourselves

Taking Ownership of the Law

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The work of building and maintaining a democracy is, in the words of Justice William Hastie, "never finished." To better understand what Hastie sees as an ongoing building process, class members listen to a seven-minute podcast about two...
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Banned Book Week: Tips for Teaching Censorship

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Consider how book censorship erodes our right to free speech and intellectual freedom.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Math Quilts

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students examine geometric quilt patterns to identify how math may have been used to help slaves escape to freedom. They slide, flip and turn geometric shapes to create a map quilt.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Effects of Slavery

For Teachers 7th - 12th
The emotional and spiritual oppression of slavery in the African-American experience is the focus of this lesson. Middle schoolers analyze various texts by Frederick Douglass and Maya Angelou related to freedom and oppression....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduce Vocabulary: Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King (Marzollo)

For Teachers K - 3rd
Looking for a vocabulary lesson relevant to MLK Day? Try this reading comprehension idea designed around Jean Marzollo's biography Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King. Go over new terms (freedom, justice,...
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Lesson Plan
Canadian Civil Liberties Education Trust

That’s Not Fair!

For Teachers 1st - 6th
As part of a series of critical thinking exercises, kids consider issues of social justice, especially the factors that must be considered when trying to balance conflicting rights and freedoms.
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Handout
Scholastic

The Life and Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Here is a precise article explaining chronological events that led Martin Luther King, Jr. to march for freedom and civil rights.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dr. King's Dream

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students explore life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., reflect on section of King's "I Have a Dream" speech, discuss inequities that still exist in the United States, and create picture books about their own dreams of freedom for...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fire Fight

For Teachers 9th - 12th
While somewhat dated (young scholars write letters to President George W. Bush about the Iraq War), this instructional activity could be a good way to reinforce rhetorical reading and critical thinking. Students examine information...
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Lesson Plan
Foreign Policy Research Institute

Comparing Regimes: Critical Reading of Memoirs and Experiences from Totalitarian Regimes

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Can you imagine living in a totalitarian country? Learners will read several primary source memoirs to gain a deeper understanding of what life is like under a controlled government. They'll discuss each piece in pairs, research...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

My Secret War: Lesson 5

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders determine how freedom comes with rights and responsibilities through literature and poetry about World War II. In this World War II lesson plan, 5th graders use the letters in the word "infamy" to write an acrostic poem....
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Lesson Plan
US National Archives

Documented Rights Educational Lesson Plan

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
How have groups struggled to have their unalienable rights recognized in the United States? Acting as a research team for the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, your young historians will break into groups to research...
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Lesson Plan
Crafting Freedom

The Self-Empowerment of Harriet Jacobs

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
After reading Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, one of the most famous slave narratives of all time, learners imagine what it would have been like to experience the small dimensions of her hiding space. They then...
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Unit Plan
Newspaper Association of America

Press Ahead!

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Give class members some great news! A media unit teaches individuals about ethics, parts of a newspaper, business writing, photojournalism, and more topics that have to do with the press. Full of material for a variety of learners,...
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Lesson Plan
Maryland Department of Education

Our Children Can Soar

For Teachers 4th - 5th Standards
Amazing efforts of African American leaders are celebrated in a lesson on civil participation. The engaging resource focuses on primary and secondary sources to analyze the impact of African American leaders such as Ella Fitzgerald....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Civic Duty to Protest

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students examine the concept of religious freedom by evaluating Hong Kong's security laws. In pairs students investigate the levels of religous freedom allowed in various countries around the world and present this information to the class.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Painting Inside the Lines

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students examine how freedoms of expression and religion are shaped within democracies. They consider reactions to controversial art exhibit in Moscow. They compose reaction papers supporting or refuting a quotation from the article read...

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