Teaching Materials Archive

Rethinking Ethnic Studies

Teaching Guide. Edited By R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, Miguel Zavala, Christine Sleeter, Wayne Au. Rethinking Schools. 2019. 363 pages.
Brings together many of the leading teachers, activists, and scholars to offer examples of Ethnic Studies frameworks, classroom practices, and organizing at the school, district, and statewide levels.

The New Teacher Book (Book) | Zinn Education Project

The New Teacher Book: Finding Purpose, Balance, and Hope During Your First Years in the Classroom

Teaching Guide. Edited By Linda Christensen, Stan Karp, Bob Peterson, Moé Yonamine. Rethinking Schools. 2019. 376 pages.
Offers practical guidance on how to flourish in schools and classrooms and connect in meaningful ways with students and families from all cultures and backgrounds.

Teaching for Black Lives

Teaching Guide. Edited by Dyan Watson, Jesse Hagopian, Wayne Au. 2018. Rethinking Schools. 368 pages.
Essays, teaching activities, role plays, poems, and artwork, designed to illuminate the movement for Black students' lives, the school-to-prison-pipeline, Black history, gentrification, intersectional Black identities, and more.

Reading, Writing, and Rising Up (Teaching Guide) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word

Teaching Guide. By Linda Christensen. Rethinking Schools., 2017, 2nd edition. 314 pages.
Lessons for teaching a range of writing genres while addressing social justice themes.

The Reconstruction Era and the Fragility of Democracy

Teaching Guide. By Facing History and Ourselves. 2015.
A collection of lessons, videos, and primary sources to teach about Reconstruction.

Rethinking Bilingual Education (Book Cover) | Zinn Education Project

Rethinking Bilingual Education: Welcoming home languages in our classrooms

Teaching Guide. Edited by Elizabeth Barbian, Grace Gonzales, and Pilar Mejia. Rethinking Schools. 2017. 344 pages.
This collection of articles reveals the many ways that teachers bring students’ home languages into their classroom.

Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality

Teaching Guide. Edited by Annika Butler-Wall, Kim Cosier, Rachel Harper, Jeff Sapp, Jody Sokolower, and Melissa Bollow Tempel. Rethinking Schools. 2016. 476 pages.
A collection of essays on how to create a nurturing classroom at different grade levels, curriculum, teachers coming out, organizing beyond classroom walls, and integrating LGBTQ+ content into teacher education programs and ongoing teacher education.

Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry for Social Justice

Teaching Guide. Edited by Linda Christensen and Dyan Watson. Rethinking Schools. 2015. 262 pages.
Lessons and poetry to help students develop writing skills, build community, and create a vision of a future with justice.

The Power of the Story: The Voice of Witness Teacher’s Guide to Oral History

Teaching Guide. Edited by Cliff Mayotte. 2013 (2nd edition).
A guide to explore contemporary issues through oral history, and to develop the communication skills necessary for creating oral history projects in communities.

A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis

Teaching Guide. Edited by Bill Bigelow and Tim Swinehart. Rethinking Schools. 2014. 400 pages.
Articles, student readings, and teaching activities to understand environmental problems and imagine solutions.

Open Minds to Equality: A Sourcebook of Learning Activities to Affirm Diversity and Promote Equity

Teaching Guide. By Nancy Schniedewind and Ellen Davidson. 4th Edition. Rethinking Schools. 2014. 408 pages.
Full of activities to help students explore inequalities and cooperation.

Rethinking Multicultural Education: Teaching for Racial and Cultural Justice

Teaching Guide. Edited by Wayne Au. Rethinking Schools. 2023 (3rd edition).
A Rethinking Schools collection of articles and lessons for multicultural, anti-racist, social justice education in K-12.

Witness to Apartheid: A Teaching Guide

Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow. 1987. 24 pages.
Lessons and activities that accompany the 1986 film Witness to Apartheid.

Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers

Teaching Guide. Edited by Eric Gutstein and Bob Peterson. Rethinking Schools. 2013 (2nd edition). 300 pages.
Lessons and articles on social justice math education for elementary and secondary school classrooms.

Teaching About the Wars

Teaching Guide. Edited by Jody Sokolower. Rethinking Schools. 2013. 132 pages.
A collection of Rethinking Schools articles and lessons for K-12 on U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

Inside the Volcano (Teaching Guide) | Zinn Education Project

Inside the Volcano: A Curriculum on Nicaragua

Teaching Guide. Edited by Bill Bigelow and Jeff Edmundson. 1990. 130 pages.
Fourteen interactive lessons on the history of Nicaragua.

Rethinking Elementary Education

Teaching Guide. Edited by Linda Christensen, Mark Hansen, and Bob Peterson. Rethinking Schools. 2012. 360 pages.
The best collection of writing from Rethinking Schools magazine about how to teach for social justice at the elementary level. Published by Rethinking Schools.

Strangers In Their Own Country: A Curriculum Guide on South Africa

Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow. 1985.
Lessons on apartheid in South Africa and the global anti-apartheid movement.

The War on Mexico

Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 14 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 8 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on The Mexican-American War and domestic resistance to it.

The First Slaves

Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 2 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on early American slavery, resistance, and rebellion.

Slavery and Defiance

Teaching Guide. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 17 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 9 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on black and white resistance to slavery before the Civil War.

New York and Slavery: Time to Teach the Truth

Teaching Guide. By Alan J. Singer. 2008. 178 pages.
Narrative description of slavery in the north and strategies for engaging young people as historians on the topic.

Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions

Teaching Guide. By Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana. Foreword by Wendy D. Puriefoy. 2011.
The uses and methods of the Question Formulation Technique.

Rethinking Popular Culture and Media

Teaching Guide. Edited by Elizabeth Marshall and Özlem Sensoy. Rethinking Schools. 2011. 330 pages.
Collection of essays that offer strong critiques and practical teaching strategies about what is "popular" and the messages being communicated by mass media.

Teaching with Voices of a People’s History of the United States

Teaching Guide. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 2011 (second edition). 304 pages.
Suggested questions and teaching ideas for each chapter of Voices of a People's History.