Amanda’s Tale of Two Cities

Grade: 3rd- 6thJen JPEG19
Topics: Moving, diversity, critical consciousness, white privilege
Created by Jennifer Spitz, Alumni- NYU Undergraduate Teacher Education Program

Written by Jennifer Spitz, Amanda’s Tale of Two Cities is a children’s story meant to help children come to terms with their developing sense of themselves in the world.  This story is particularly helpful to read with children of more privileged backgrounds, particularly White children who have little exposure to diversity, to support them in developing empathy, solidarity and critical awareness.

Find out more: http://amandastale.wordpress.com/

The Water Project: 3-6 year olds and the World Water Crisis

602Grade: Pre-k-Kindergarten
Topics: Waste, Water Crisis, Environmental Sustainability
Created by Valerie Bracco: Catholic School, NYC

Goal for this project: 1. Establish water as a valuable resource 2. Increase awareness of water usage, 3. Examine water availability in their own environment and around the globe, 4. If necessary / desired, take action!

Find out more: thewaterproject.wordpress.com

The CACAO Project: Children Against Chocolate Aided Oppression

picket-signs-10Grade: 5th grade unit
Topics: Child labor, fair trade
Social Justice Skills: Letter writing, petitions, protest, PSA’s
Created by Dan Hildreth and Neil Rathan

This unit taught students about the use of child labor and the benefits of fair trade in the coca industry. Students wrote letters to chocolate CEO’s, created a petition to get fair trade chocolate in their local store, created PSA’s to educate the community and protested in front of M&Ms/Mars in Times Square.

Find out more: cacoaproject.wordpress.com

Eat Smart! Be Smart!

dscn1639Grade: 5th grade unit
Topics: Nutrition, Fitness, Healthy Choices, School Lunches
Social Justice Skills: Letter writing, petitions, protest, PSA’s

Created by Emily Munzer, Dan Hildreth and Neil Rathan

This unit guides students on a journey of taking control of their nutritional habits by educating them on the choices that are available and the benefits of making those choices. Students will take social action by working to change the school lunch menu as well as educating other students in the school about the problems of the school lunches and to advocate to change them.

Find out more: eatsmartbesmart.wordpress.com

2nd Graders Insights on Iraq

img_17521Grade: 2nd Grade: American Sign Language Class
Topics: Iraq, Culture, War
Created by: Mike Nappi

This unit was created in response to a simple question that one of Mike’s students posed about Iraq. Mike used this teachable moment to create an interdisciplinary unit that resulted in a student created museum about Iraq in which they taught others at their school about what they had learned.

Find out more: http://insightsintoiraq.wordpress.com/

Thinking About the World Around Us

 

Grade: 7th and 8th grade Special Educationdsc04500

Topics: Social Issues: drugs, gay rights, gangs, homelessness, pollution, and more
Created by: Marcos Bayas

Students were given the opportunity to think about issues in their community. They chose various topics of interest to them such as high gas prices, homelessness, poverty, lack of school supplies, and gangs and created powerpoint presentations.

Find out more: http://hubbardstudentsatwork.wordpress.com/

Teaching Students to Take a Stand Against Hate: Using the Holocaust as a Lens

 

Grade: 5th Gradedscn1508
Topics: Holocaust, Black History, Jewish culture, slavery, Racism, Hate
Created by: Liav Shapiro
This unit was created as a response to a question in Liav’s classroom: “What was the Holocaust?” Liav noticed early-on that there existed underlying hatred in her classroom- children from different countries refusing to work together, making faces at one another, etc.  She wanted to see an end to this bullying, and engaged her class, one lesson at a time, through a study of hatred and genocide.
           
For more information, Visit: www.liavshapiro.wordpress.com

Questioning Columbus

bbGrade: 2nd grade unit
Topics: Colonization, Native Americans, Columbus
Social Justice Skills: Critical thinking, peer education
Created by Mike Nappi

This unit was created when students inquired about why they had a day
off from school. The result was a student created bulletin board that
aimed to educate other students and teachers about the truth behind
the Columbus Day Holiday.
Find out more: questioningcolumbus.wordpress.com

 


Exploring Identity through Realistic Fiction

 

img_28261

Grade: 4th grade
Topics: Identity: race, gender, etc. realistic fiction, self-appreciation, personal awareness
Created by: Alissa Levy

This unit was created as a way to promote positive self-identity within the mandated literacy curriculum.  By exploring the genre of realistic fiction, students learned about their own identities- race, gender, home language, home country, age, and understood how those identities worked in the world around them.

Find out more: http://www.alissalevy.wordpress.com

Beat it! Defeat it! Racist Cookies, We Won’t Eat it!

img_2850Grade: 2nd-5th
Topics: Current and historical racism, current events, civil rights
Social Justice Skills: protests, letter writing, questioning
Created by Undergraduate Childhood Teacher Education Program at NYU

This unit was created in response to a NYC bakery that sold racist cookies. The lessons links this incident to historical racism using children’s literature, teach about antiracism and provide opportunities
for social action.

Find out more: bree-beatitdefeatit.blogspot.com