Every year, we read Diary of Anne Frank and Night. Since both of these novels focus on World War 2 and Hitler's Germany, I think that it would be beneficial to pair images of things like the Bataan Death March and the Japanese Internment Camps with activities similar to "Circle of Viewpoints" in order to build a stronger global context.

Not all people are born equal or free but there is an expectation of both when you are a citizen of the United States. Our struggles to earn the base level of representation are quickly forgotten as we look for another group to demonize. In my unit we will discover why George Washington was ahead of his time with his warning about "factions" and how their existence makes freedom and equality harder to bridge. As we trek through time highlighting issues such as the abolition of slavery, support for women's suffrage, and the challenges that face Asian and LGBTQIA communities my hope is that student understand the sacrifices made to be accepted and to earn the right to vote but more importantly the difficulty in being welcomed into American society.

The “Citizenship Complex” is the process by which groups gain full inclusion. To understand it, one must look to the intersection of law, citizenship and the Constitution. The unit aims to provide a more complex history of our nation, to tell a more earnest story of how the American identity became a mosaic of human struggle, and to offer a more robust and enlightening study of these issues so that as students recognize the power of citizenship they will take a more hopeful view of what our nation will look like in the future. By engaging in the sophisticated discussions of the past, identifying why some groups supported each other and scapegoated others, and learning about the importance of supporting efforts at inclusion, our students should become more informed, open-minded, and ready for the globalized world of the 21 st Century.

The unit will focus on four groups that have experienced the “Citizenship Complex”: African-American slaves, women, Asian immigrants, and the LGBTQIA community. By comparing these groups over time, we will really be able to unearth the cycles behind the Citizenship Complex and understand that American citizenship means at different times in our country’s history.

The unit will teach elements of civics and democracy through the lens of the Presidential election. Students will be asked to research, read, and write about various aspects of civics and democracy, using a wide array of multimedia resources that will include (but not be limited to) literature, music, visual arts, and technology. The goal of the unit is to help students understand the importance of voting and participation while building their knowledge of the election system. The unit will encourage your students to think about government in a new way and connect this remarkable election to their day to day lives. While this unit will be taught during the first marking period, the unit will work at any point throughout the next few years. It is a Social Studies based unit designed for middle school students, primarily in the sixth grade, but can be modified and adapted to fit high school curriculum, grades nine through twelve.

This curriculum unit focuses on children as citizens, and how they can claim ownership of their citizenship. Overall the unit works its way through the rights that children have as citizens and how they can use them to their advantage. It starts with what it means to them to be citizens, two specific rights that they have, and finally how they will use those rights to better their lives. The two rights that we discuss in this unit are education and voting. Those rights are the focus of this unit because I believe that they are the most important to young children and that they will benefit them the most in the long term. Education will provide the foundation for all of their learning throughout their lives, and voting is something that education prepares them for and will later in life affect their community and potentially the nation. I also believe that having an understanding of how voting actually impacts this country could potentially interest them in being active politically in the future.

Learn about the techniques gold miners used to collect gold ore from the area around South Pass City, as well as the hazards they faced during the mining process.

In the accompany lesson plan (found in the Support Materials), students will watch a video that explains the mining process and hazards, and then create caution signs to show their understanding of the challenges the miners faced. Finally, the students will take part in a collaborative STEM challenge to build a working hoist using a limited amount of supplies.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will develop grade level appropriate speaking and listening skills, as described by the standards.
Students will understand how technology impacted the mining process of early gold miners, as well as the hazards the miners faced.
Students will define a design problem and use limited resources to solve it.

Learn about the Wyoming gold rush that occurred in South Pass City, and explore the varied perspectives of the people who experienced the gold rush in the 1840’s-1860’s.

In the accompanying lesson plan (found in the Support Materials), students will watch a video that introduces the gold rush and the people who were impacted by it, and then hold a discussion to understand the multiple perspectives. Then, the students take part in a creative writing activity in which they create a piece of text from one of the perspectives.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will develop grade level appropriate speaking and listening skills, as described by the standards.
Students will learn how to write a fictional narrative based on nonfiction resources, following a set of parameters.
Students will understand the motivations and perspectives of various people during the Wyoming gold rush.

Parody of a public notice, dated June 20, 1828, reporting an assault on American Zionist, playwright, and editor Mordecai Manuel Noah by Elijah J. Roberts. In the text Noah petitions that Roberts "be bound by recognizance to be of good behavior and keep the peace, and to answer for the above assault, &c. at the next Court of General Sessions of the Peace . . . ." A vignette illustration portrays a diminutive figure of Roberts attacking a much larger Noah on the steps of New York's Park Theatre. A playbill on the wall behind them advertises "The Jew," "1 Act of the Hypocrite," and "End with the farce of The Liar." At this time Noah was editor of the "New York Enquirer."|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1828-1.

For many students, a trip to Washington, D.C. is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that opens their eyes to an exciting world beyond their classrooms. Discovery Education and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden welcome students to a behind-the-scenes Virtual Field Trip to experience the history and beauty of our nation’s capital.

Designed for students in grades 4-8, this action-packed tour features remarkable special guests and give viewers an inside look at six landmark locations:

The White House
The U.S. Capitol Building
The Supreme Court
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

From June 2018 to May 2019, we administered an assessment to 3,446 students, a national sample that matches the demographic profile of high school students in the United States. The six exercises in our assessment gauged students’ ability to evaluate digital sources on the open internet. The results—if they can be summarized in a word—are troubling: •Fifty-two percent of students believed a grainy video claiming to show ballot stuffing in the 2016 Democratic primaries (the video was actually shot in Russia) constituted “strong evidence” of voter fraud in the U.S. Among more than 3,000 responses, only three students tracked down the source of the video, even though a quick search turns up a variety of articles exposing the ruse. Two-thirds of students couldn’t tell the difference between news stories and ads (set off by the words “Sponsored Content”) on Slate’s homepage.Ninety-six percent of students did not consider why ties between a climate change website and the fossil fuel industry might lessen that website’s credibility. Instead of investigating who was behind the site, students focused on superficial markers of credibility: the site’s aesthetics, its top-level domain, or how it portrayed itself on the About page.

These lessons concern the United States Constitution Article 1 concerning the establishment and purpose of the Legislative Branch of the three branches of the US Government.

In this module, students will investigate the topic of civil disobedience.  The objective is to consider the facts, scenarios, and philosophies discussed in order to make an informed judgment on the issue.  Upon completion of this module they will be able to answer the following question:  Does civil disobedience qualify as part of a person's civic responsibility?  

This lesson explores the topics of Japanese American incarceration and redress, and its relation to the definition of an “American”, rights, and the Census. Definitions of race, nationality, ethnicity, and rights are explained to define “American”. The lesson also explains how Constitutional rights are basic human rights granted to all people regardless of citizenship as well as the differences that benefit an American citizen. To further analyze Japanese incarceration camps, studying the Census will explain its role in carrying out Executive Order 9066 as well as how the laws have changed to protect all Americans. Lastly, students will review the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 to understand how the American government apologized for the treatment of Japanese Americans.

2021 Social Science Standards Integrated with Ethnic Studies:
Civics and Government: 7.5, 8.9, HS.2, HS.6, HS.9, HS.11
Historical Knowledge: 8.25, 8.27, HS.58, HS.60, HS.65, HS.66
Historical Thinking: 8.31, 8.32, HS.67
Social Science Analysis: 7.27, 7.30, 8.33, HS.72, HS.73, HS.74, HS.78

In this examination of the United States law structure, the inquiry requires the learner to focus on the details of the Bill of Rights and Jim Crow Laws and their relationship with the Emmett Till (1955) and George Stinney (1944) Supreme Court cases.  This inquiry encourages the learner to understand the law in a simplified way that challenges their progress through the reading materials to cause them to develop a clear understanding of each amendment and the influence of Jim Crow. Resource created by Nicole Benson, Omaha Public Schools, as part of the Nebraska ESUCC Social Studies Special Projects 2022 - Inquiry Design Model (IDM).

This lesson plan opens with reflective questions that ask students to reflect on their prior knowledge of Civil Rights leaders. Students then watch, analyze, and respond to an introductory video that presents an overview of Mary Frances Early's life and accomplishments. Next, students engage in an engagement activity, where they view seven video clips that detail various aspects of Early's life, including her childhood, her admission to the University of Georgia and accomplishment as the first African American student to graduate from the university, and her accomplishments and challenges throughout her life. Students then conduct research and compare Early to another Civil Rights leader of choice, preparing a presentation to share with their peers. The lesson concludes with a reflective video and writing prompt.

 These anthologies  parallel and supplement the OYH school modules, available as Open Education Resources.  Groups of all ages can explore & discuss these collections. Also available through the OYH website, https://www.ownyourhistory.us/multimediaresourcesThis anthology focuses on the strategies and methods used in the 1960s by Black Americans to challenge Jim Crow segregation and to  put equal rights and opportunities on the nation’s agenda. They called into question the subordination of Blacks and other people of color based upon racist views. Young, new leaders undertook nonviolent direct-action protests supported by Black religious organizations and studentsin the face of determined opposition and violence by Southern Whites. By 1965, the federal government responded by passing historic civil rights and voting rights legislation.These landmark accomplishments did not address economic inequalities. Urban uprisings in 1967-68 were fueled by these economic inequalities and the assassination of Dr. King. President Johnson  appointed a  commission led  Otto Kerner to examine these uprisings and make recommendations.

Until about 1966, the Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. King and the other national Black organizations focused on ending segregation, changing racist attitudes, advancing equality under the law, and securing the vote. Because of the system of Jim Crow laws, the Movement’s attention was largely on the South. Protests also highlighted economic inequalities and jobs and demanded government responses to effect change. In the “long hot summer” of 1967, over 20 uprisings and disorders took place in cities across the country. This prompted President Johnson to appoint a study commission led by former Illinois Governor Otto Kerner to examine these uprisings and make recommendations. Additional rioting occurred in 1968 in reaction to the assassination of Dr. King. The 1968 Kerner Commission report is a detailed, thoughtful, and clear-eyed analysis of these urban disorders with a comprehensive and bold set of recommendations for addressing systemic racism and its economic and social consequences.

In 1948, President Harry Truman took an early step towards civil rights reform by issuing Executive Order 9981, which eliminated racial segregation in the military. After World War II, African Americans ? then often called Negroes or "coloreds," began to mobilize against discrimination. They demanded an end to segregation and fought for equality in education, housing, and employment opportunities. The images in this topic show that by the 1960s, their struggle ? which began in the segregated South ? had reached California. As a number of photographs in this topic show, many Californians showed their support for Civil Rights activists and victims of racial discrimination in the South by holding marches, rallies, and demonstrations urging equality for African Americans. In one image three white children in San Francisco hold a sign in support of the four young black girls killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Photographs also show people in San Francisco boycotting Kress and Woolworth's department stores, sites of racial discrimination in the South. Documents shown here include a flyer urging the boycott of the stores; and a Western Union telegram sent in 1963, stating that Civil Rights activists Roy Wilkins and Medgar Evers were arrested attempting to picket Woolworth's in Jackson, Mississippi. Two photographs of memorials for slain civil rights leaders ? a march in honor Medgar Evers in 1963, in Los Angeles, and a memorial in the San Francisco Bay Area for Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968 ? show racially mixed crowds in attendance. But not all Californians sympathized with the Civil Rights movement. Images of racial hatred and prejudice are reflected in the photograph of an African American woman holding a rock that had been thrown through an office window, and Klu Klux Klan graffiti spray-painted on a home. Various groups formed to fight in the struggle for equal rights. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), formed in 1909, entered a new phase during this period, leading in the organized struggle for civil rights. An example of how the NAACP communicated about events is reflected in a letter from the Alameda County branch of the NAACP on June 13, 1950, which reported segregation on the Southern Pacific Railroad trains leaving Los Angeles. A flyer promoting the boycott of California grapes exemplifies NAACP support for other rights movements, in this case the United Farm Workers. Other flyers urged Californians to fight sharecropper wages and "Keep Mississippi Out of California." Groups such as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and student groups also protested segregation and incidents of racial discrimination in the South. Several important African American leaders ? including Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, and Ralph Abernathy ? all came to California, as documented by photographs included here. Sometimes, the price of fighting for social justice was high. Two images capture events held for leaders in the social justice movement who were assassinated: the 1963 memorial march in Los Angeles for civil rights leader Medgar Evers; and a crowd attending a Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Rally in honor of the slain civil rights leader.