Grade: 3rd- 6th
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/
Tags: critical thinking, privilege, questioning
Posted in 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, Language Arts
Grade: 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
Tags: environmental sustainability, waste, water crisis
Posted in Kindergarten, Language Arts, Pre-K, Social Studies
Grade: 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
Tags: child labor, fair trade, letter writing, petitions, protest, PSAs
Posted in 5th Grade, Language Arts, Social Studies, The Arts
Grade: 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
Tags: fitness, letter writing, math, nutrition, petitions, protest, PSAs, school lunches
Posted in 5th Grade, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies
Grade: 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/
Tags: asl, current events, iraq, war
Posted in 2nd Grade, American Sign Language, Language Arts, Social Studies
Grade: 7th and 8th grade Special Education
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/
Tags: current events, drugs, environmental sustainability, gangs, gender, LGTBQ, teenage pregnancy
Posted in 7th Grade, 8th Grade, Language Arts, Social Studies, Special Education
Grade: 5th Grade
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.
Tags: African American History, anti-hate, hate, holocaust, Jewish History, Oppression, racism
Posted in 5th Grade, Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, The Arts
Grade: 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
Tags: colonization, columbus, critical thinking, native americans, peer education
Posted in 2nd Grade, American Sign Language, Language Arts, Social Studies
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
Tags: gender, Identity, race, realistic fiction
Posted in 4th Grade, Language Arts, Social Studies, Uncategorized
Grade: 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
Tags: civil rights, current events, letter writing, NYC, questioning, racism
Posted in 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, Language Arts, Social Studies
