40 Results

Mini-Lesson: Understanding the Pyramid of Hate

Tools and Strategies

high school students working together on a project

Short Online Experience to Learn about this Core Topic For Educators and Middle and High School Students About the Mini-LessonThe Pyramid of Hate is a powerful framework for understanding how bias escalates—from biased attitudes and stereotypes to discrimination, violence, and even genocide. Through the lens of antisemitism, this mini-lesson helps middle and high school students and educators explore how prejudice grows and intensifies over time, and provides practical strategies to…

August 23, 2021

Young People in the Civil Rights Movement

Lesson Plan

Little Rock Nine Escorted by 101st Airborne Division

Civics Lesson GRADE LEVEL: High School How Were Youth Involved in the Civil Rights Movement? Throughout history, young people have stepped up and into leadership roles during different civil rights and social movements. This was never more evident than in the Civil Rights Movement, where young people were on the frontlines of the Montgomery bus boycotts, Freedom Rides and sit-ins. Given that student activism is on the rise again across the U.S., understanding how those young voices…

February 04, 2021

A Guide for Responding to School-Based Bias Incidents

Tools and Strategies

Teenage girl talks in group therapy session

Is your school experiencing a bias or hate incident?Whether it be a racist “joke,” slur, stereotype or some other form of implicit or explicit bias, school community members must be committed to addressing bias-related incidents in schools. Educators and school administrators play vital roles in creating an environment where all students can learn and thrive. Cultivating an equitable and inclusive school community requires ensuring that historically marginalized students are…

January 25, 2021

Implicit Bias

Lesson Plan

Discriminatory view of women in the company

Civics Lesson GRADE LEVEL: High School What is Bias? What is Implicit Bias?In What Ways Could Bias Have an Impact on Your Civic Participation? The U.S. Constitution embodies ideals of equal opportunity and fair treatment for all and is reinforced by laws like the Civil Rights Act and Title IX. Yet, marginalized people who have experienced discrimination and unfair treatment historically, continue to do so in the present day. The stories in the news and social media seem to…

November 17, 2020

Antisemitism After the Holocaust

Lesson Plan

A poster that reads "Well done Israel, Hitler would be proud

Echoes & Reflections: Teaching the HolocaustGRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language The lessons in this unit increase students’ understanding of Jewish people and awareness that antisemitism did not end after the Holocaust, and provide them with opportunities to learn about the persistence of antisemitism in its contemporary forms. Students investigate the ways in which old ideas about Jews and Judaism have…

October 23, 2019

On-Screen Diversity: Why Visibility in Media Matters

Lesson Plan

GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language Does Entertainment Represent Our Increasingly Diverse Society?In recent years, we have seen some progress made in terms of the diversity and representation of characters and actors we see in movies and on television. For example, over the last sixteen years, the percentage of Asian characters with speaking roles increased from 3.4% to 15.9%. However, there is still much…

October 15, 2019

Swastikas and Other Hate Symbols

Lesson Plan

GRADE LEVEL: High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language We see symbols every day in all aspects of our lives. Symbols are used to convey ideas, qualities, emotions, material objects/products, opinions and beliefs. Unfortunately, symbols are also used to convey hate and bias. Lately, we have seen a lot of hate symbol graffiti in public spaces and specifically the swastika, which in most circumstances is understood as an expression of antisemitism. There has reportedly…

March 09, 2017

Antisemitic Incidents: Being an Ally, Advocate and Activist

Lesson Plan

GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Speaking and Listening, Language The surge of antisemitic incidents in the United States is alarming to many. Several reported incidents include graffiti using swastikas, bomb threats, vandalism and shootings, bomb threats targeting Jewish Community Centers (JCC) and Jewish institutions across the country. Over the past 10 years, ADL has recorded a record number of antisemitic incidents across the U.S. Since 2015,…

February 27, 2017

Black History Month Resources

Tools and Strategies

Part of the African American History Monument in Columbia, SC

Collection of educational resources for teaching about Black History Month

September 01, 2016

Voting Rights Then and Now

Lesson Plan

GRADE LEVEL: High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Racial Discrimination and Safeguarding the Right to Vote In August 2015, we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act which was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. The Voting Rights Act is landmark federal legislation that was enacted during the Civil Rights Movement and was intended to prevent racial discrimination in voting. Prior to that, even though Black…

July 22, 2015

The Resilience of Antisemitism: The Lies of The Protocols of The Elders of Zion

Lesson Plan

GRADE LEVEL: High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language Since its contrivance at the turn of the twentieth century by the Russian secret police, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion (or The Protocols of the Elders of Zion) has taken root in bigoted and uneducated minds around the world. The booklet’s twenty-four sections spell out the alleged confidential plans of a Jewish conclave seeking to attain world domination. They represent…

October 26, 2010

Challenging Biased Language

Tools and Strategies

On a daily basis—in the lunchroom, at the grocery store, in school hallways, in our political rhetoric and even at home—people hear and sometimes use words and phrases that demean, ridicule, offend or show ignorance about people from different groups and backgrounds. Regardless of whether the comments are deliberately malicious, said because the person lacks knowledge, or thought to be "a joke," such words are harmful and not only impact those on the receiving end but also everyone…

September 07, 2012

Children of the Holocaust: A Discussion Guide

Lesson Plan

Share and discuss with middle and high school students war-time experiences of three child survivors and how the Holocaust affected them.

January 01, 2001

Civil Rights Movement

Backgrounder

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s came about out of the need and desire for equality and freedom for African Americans and other people of color. Nearly one hundred years after slavery was abolished, there was widespread segregation, discrimination, disenfranchisement and racially motivated violence that permeated all personal and structural aspects of life for black people. “Jim Crow” laws at the local and state levels barred African Americans from…

January 13, 2017

A Brief History of the Disability Rights Movement

Backgrounder

Americans with disabilities are a group of approximately 40.7 million people that today lead independent, self-affirming lives and who define themselves according to their personhood—their ideas, beliefs, hopes and dreams—above and beyond their disability. Since the mid 1900s, people with disabilities have pushed for the recognition of disability as an aspect of identity that influences the experiences of an individual, not as the sole-defining feature of a person. People with…

March 05, 2017

From "Little Rock Nine" to Today

Backgrounder

Robert F. Wagner Meets with Little Rock Students

Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Carlotta Walls, Mayor Wagner, Thelma Mothershed, Gloria Ray, Terrance Roberts, Ernest Green, Melba Pattilo, Jefferson Thomas. On September 23, 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas, these nine African-American students quietly slipped into Central High School through the side door with the assistance of the city’s police, while an angry white mob numbering 1,000 swarmed the front of the school to await their arrival. Upon learning of their entry, the…

February 01, 2017

Brown v. Board of Education

Backgrounder

More than sixty-five years after Brown v. Board of Education, the promise of equal access to quality education remains unfulfilled. School expulsions and suspensions are among the best predictors of who will drop out of high school and African American students are three more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers. In January 2014, the Department of Education and Department of Justice issued watershed guidance on school discipline with the intent to …

January 31, 2017

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Backgrounder

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964. The Act prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities and made employment discrimination illegal based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The document was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. As we commemorate the anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, we have an opportunity to teach and learn…

January 31, 2017

Remembering Leo Frank

Backgrounder

In 1913, the Jewish community in the United States faced rampant antisemitism and overt discrimination. Books, plays and, above all, newspapers, depicted Jews with crude stereotypes. Against this backdrop of bigotry and intolerance, an attorney from Chicago named Sigmund Livingston, put forward a bold idea—to create an organization with a mission “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all…” The Anti-Defamation League…

August 12, 2015

Remembering Kristallnacht

Backgrounder

What was Kristallnacht (kris'·tahl·nockt)? Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass," was a wave of violent pogroms against Jews throughout Germany and Austria that took place on November 9-10, 1938. On the night of November 9th, the Gestapo (Nazi State Police) informed local police by telegram about the actions against Jews and their synagogues that would be taking place throughout Germany, instructing them not to interfere with what was happening. During these two nights,…

October 29, 2013