Teaching Materials - Zinn Education Project

What Rights Do We Have?

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. This lesson teaches some of the nuts and bolts of labor unions and then moves beyond to ask students to consider what rights they have at work, and to recognize that “rights” depend in large part on what people have fought for and won.

Themes: Democracy & Citizenship, Labor, Laws & Citizen Rights, Organizing

What We Don’t Learn About the Black Panther Party — but Should

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez and Jesse Hagopian. 33 pages. Rethinking Schools. A mixer role play that introduces students to the pivotal and largely untold history of the Black Panthers.

Time Periods: 20th Century, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974, Post-Civil Rights Era: 1975 - 2000

Themes: African American, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity, Social Class, Women's History

Teaching with the Black Panthers’ Ten Point Program (Lesson) | Zinn Education Project

‘What We Want, What We Believe’: Teaching with the Black Panthers’ Ten Point Program

Teaching Activity. By Wayne Au. 7 pages. Rethinking Schools. How students can use the Black Panther Party's Ten Point Program to assess issues in their own communities and to develop Ten Point Programs of their own. Available in Spanish.

Time Periods: 20th Century, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974

Themes: African American, Civil Rights Movements, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity

What the Tour Guide Didn’t Tell Me: Tourism, Colonialism, and Resistance in Hawai’i

Teaching Activity. By Wayne Wah Kwai Au. 5 pages. Rethinking Schools. Lesson on the history of Hawai'i and the impact of colonization and tourism.

Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909

Themes: Asian American, Imperialism, Pacific Islander, Racism & Racial Identity, US Foreign Policy

Frances Harper, William Sylvis, Isaac Myers, and John Roy Lynch pictured. They were leaders of the Reconstruction Era in US history

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez and Nqobile Mthethwa. 25 pages. A mixer role play that explores the connections between different social movements during Reconstruction.

Time Periods: 19th Century, Civil War Era: 1850 - 1864, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876

Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery and Resistance

Resplendant Quetzel Illustration - Olivia Wise | Zinn Education Project

Where Are the Climate Change Superheroes? Systems Thinking and Climate Activism in the Children’s Eternal Rainforest

Teaching Activity. By Eric Fishman. Rethinking Schools. An elementary school teacher developed the engaging Quetzal Conundrum game to help students understand the impact of climate change in Costa Rica.

Time Periods: 21st Century

Themes: Climate Justice, Environment, Food, World History/Global Studies

Police use tear gas against participants in San Francisco’s 1934 general strike.

Who Made the New Deal? The Economic Recovery Conference Role Play

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez. Rethinking Schools. Through role play, students explore how different social groups influenced New Deal legislation.

Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944

Themes: Economics, Labor, Laws & Citizen Rights, Organizing

Who Makes History?

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. This lesson introduces students to Bertolt Brecht’s poem, A Worker Reads History. Students reflect on the creative role of workers in making history.

Themes: Democracy & Citizenship, Labor, Social Class

Whose “Terrorism”?

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 11 pages. Rethinking Schools. Using scenarios based on real situations, this lesson helps middle and high school students examine the definition of terrorism and the use of the term terrorism in the media and U.S. foreign policy.

Time Periods: 21st Century, 2001 - Present

Themes: US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements

Cover of "Race and Place" - RS magazine | Zinn Education Project

“Why Is This the Only Place in Portland I See Black People?”: Teaching Young Children About Redlining

Teaching Activity. By Katharine Johnson. 10 pages. Rethinking Schools. An elementary school teacher introduces the history of redlining through a role play designed for 1st and 2nd graders.

Time Periods: 20th Century, Cold War: 1945 - 1960

Themes: African American, Economics, Social Class

Witness to Apartheid: A Teaching Guide

Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow. 1987. Lessons and activities that accompany the 1986 film Witness to Apartheid.

Time Periods: 20th Century

Themes: Democracy & Citizenship, Racism & Racial Identity, World History/Global Studies

Reconstructing the South: A Role Play

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 17 pages. This role play engages students in thinking about what freedpeople needed in order to achieve—and sustain—real freedom following the Civil War. It's followed by a chapter from the book Freedom's Unfinished Revolution.

Time Periods: 19th Century, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876

Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery and Resistance

BRIDGE: Popular Education Resources for Immigrant and Refugee Community Organizers

Teaching Guide. By The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. 2004. Lessons on immigration, labor, and organizing for high school and adult education.

Themes: Immigration, Labor, Organizing

Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development

Teaching Guide. Edited by Enid Lee, Deborah Menkart and Margo Okazawa-Rey. 2006. 436 pages. Guide for teachers, administrators, and parents shows how to teach from a multicultural perspective that goes beyond the superficial "heroes and holidays" approach.

Beyond Tolerance: A Resource Guide for Addressing LGTBQI Issues in Schools

Teaching Guide. Published by New York Collective of Radical Educators. 2010. A curricular resource guide on Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Bisexual, Questioning, and Intersex (LGBTQI) for educators.

Themes: LGBTQ

Black Ants and Buddhists: Thinking Critically and Teaching Differently in the Primary Grades

Teaching Guide. By Mary Cowhey. Foreword by Sonia Nieto. 2006. Practical examples and classroom stories about bringing a people's history and peace education to grades 1 and 2.

Themes: Education, Labor, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements

The Black Upsurge Against Racial Segregation

Teaching Activity. By Tasha Boettcher. Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 17 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on the long Civil Rights Movement in America.

Time Periods: 20th Century, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974

Themes: African American, Civil Rights Movements, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Social Class

Bush II and the “War on Terror”

Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 18 pages. Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 24 of Voices of a People’s History of the United States on George W. Bush, the "War on Terror," Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Patriot Act.

Time Periods: 21st Century, 2001 - Present

Themes: Democracy & Citizenship, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements

Camouflaged: Investigating How the U.S. Military Affects You and Your Community

Teaching Guide. Edited by Edwin Mayorga, Bree Picower, and Seth Rader. 2008. Tool for educators to help adolescents explore the role of the military in their lives and in their communities.

Time Periods: 21st Century, 2001 - Present

Themes: Wars & Related Anti-War Movements

Caribbean Connections: Moving North

Teaching Guide. Edited by Catherine Sunshine and Keith Warner. 2005. 240 pages. Literature and essays about Caribbean life in the United States.

Themes: Immigration, Latinx, US Foreign Policy

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