The Election of 1860 Role Play
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow.
A role play based on the election of 1860 allows students to explore the political debates of the time and the real reasons for the Civil War.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Civil War Era: 1850 - 1864
Themes: African American, Slavery and Resistance, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
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Exploring Women’s Rights: The 1908 Textile Strike in a 1st-grade Class
Teaching Activity. By Dale Weiss. 3 pages. Rethinking Schools.
A teacher's reflections about a curriculum unit on women's rights contextualizes the history of the feminist movement within the broader struggle of people working for greater equality in the United States.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: Labor, Organizing, Women's History
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Film Tackles the U.S. Occupation of Japan: ‘ANPO: Art X War’
Teaching Activity. By Moé Yonamine. 11 pages. Rethinking Schools.
Lesson based on ANPO: Art X War, a documentary about visual resistance to U.S. military bases in Japan by Japan’s foremost contemporary artists.
Themes: Art & Music, US Foreign Policy, World History/Global Studies
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Five Years After the Levees Broke: Bearing Witness Through Poetry
Teaching Activity. By Renée Watson. 7 pages. Rethinking Schools.
A teacher's reflection on the power of poetry to spark critical discussion and reflection on current issues of inequality surrounding disaster response in the United States.
Time Periods: 21st Century, 2001 - Present
Themes: African American, Climate Justice, Environment, Art & Music, Language Arts, Laws & Citizen Rights, Media, Racism & Racial Identity
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Food, Farming, and Justice: A Role Play on La Vía Campesina
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow, Chris Buehler, Julie Treick O'Neill, and Tim Swinehart. Rethinking Schools.
This role play invites students to take on identities of La Vía Campesina activists around the world, to compare/contrast circumstances in order to discover the common goal of “food sovereignty.”
Time Periods: 20th Century, 21st Century
Themes: Climate Justice, Environment, Food, Organizing, World History/Global Studies
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Frederick Douglass Fights for Freedom
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow.
A lesson to introduce students to the numerous and varied ways African Americans resisted their enslavement, using the autobiographical Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Early 19th Century: 1800 - 1849
Themes: African American, Slavery and Resistance
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Free to Think, Talk, Listen, or Sing
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 6 pages
Students work with a chapter from Milton Meltzer’s classic book, Bread and Roses, to see the impact of late 19th century factory work on workers’ home lives.
Themes: Labor, Social Class
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Greed as a Weapon: Teaching the Other Iraq War
Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez. 14 pages. Rethinking Schools.
A role play investigating the economic consequences of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Time Periods: 21st Century, 2001 - Present
Themes: Economics, Imperialism, US Foreign Policy, World History/Global Studies
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Haiku and Hiroshima: Teaching About the Atomic Bomb
Teaching Activity. By Wayne Au. 3 pages. Rethinking Schools.
Lesson for high school students on the bombing of Hiroshima using the film Barefoot Gen and haiku.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944, Cold War: 1945 - 1960
Themes: Language Arts, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
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Hidden in Plain Sight: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Radical Vision
Teaching Activity. By Craig Gordon, Urban Dreams, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project. 2003, updated in 2017.
Lesson to introduce students to the speeches and work of Dr. King beyond "I have a dream."
Time Periods: 20th Century, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974
Themes: Civil Rights Movements, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
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The History All Around Us: Roosevelt High School and the 1968 Eastside Blowouts
Teaching Activity. By Brian C. Gibbs. Rethinking Schools.
A teacher uses the activist history of Theodore Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles to pose students the question: “What would you be willing to do to create change?"
Time Periods: 20th Century, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974
Themes: Latinx, Racism & Racial Identity
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History Textbooks: “Theirs” and “Ours”: A Rebellion or a War of Independence?
Teaching Activity. By John DeRose. 4 pages. Rethinking Schools.
Analysis of textbook passages from different countries, videos and books are used to explore different perspectives about the same event in history, i.e. "Philippine-American War" vs. "War of Philippine Independence."
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: Imperialism, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements, World History/Global Studies
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The Homestead Strike
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 10 pages.
This role play activity on the famous 1892 Homestead Strike, explores the possibility of solidarity among workers of very different backgrounds and at different levels in the workplace hierarchy.
Themes: Immigration, Labor, Organizing, Social Class
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How Red Lines Built White Wealth: A Lesson on Housing Segregation in the 20th Century
Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. Rethinking Schools.
The mixer role play is based on Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law, which shows in exacting detail how government policies segregated every major city in the United States with dire consequences for African Americans.
Time Periods: 20th Century, 21st Century
Themes: African American, Civil Rights Movements, Economics, Laws & Citizen Rights
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Hunger on Trial: An Activity on the Irish Potato Famine and Its Meaning for Today
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools.
A trial role play helps students reflect on responsibility for the deaths of Irish peasants during the so-called potato famine.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Early 19th Century: 1800 - 1849
Themes: Food, Immigration, Social Class, World History/Global Studies
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‘If There Is No Struggle…’: Teaching a People’s History of the Abolition Movement
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 16 pages. Rethinking Schools.
In this role play, students become members of the American Anti-Slavery Society, facing many of the real challenges to ending slavery.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Early 19th Century: 1800 - 1849, Civil War Era: 1850 - 1864
Themes: African American, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery and Resistance
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It’s a Mystery—White Workers Against Black Workers
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 8 pages.
In this “mystery” activity, students receive clues and discuss some of the factors that contributed to the intensification of racism in the 1920s in the United States.
Themes: African American, Labor, Racism & Racial Identity
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Labor Songs
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 7 pages.
Students explore the power of songs to build solidarity and increase understanding. This is the final activity from Bigelow and Diamond’s labor history book, The Power in Our Hands, and draws on the other lessons.
Themes: Art & Music, Labor, Organizing, Social Class
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Lawrence, 1912: The Singing Strike
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond.
Role play on the 1912 Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, Mass.
Time Periods: 20th Century, World War I: 1910 - 1919
Themes: Art & Music, Immigration, Labor, Organizing, Women's History
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Learning About the Unfairgrounds: A 4th-Grade Teacher Introduces Her Students to Executive Order 9066
Teaching Activity. By Katie Baydo-Reed. Rethinking Schools.
Students hold a "tea party" and a mock trial in preparation for reading literature about internment.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Asian American, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
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