A More Perfect Union

This lesson is designed to support a unit on World Religions, specifically Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Students will listen to 3 hip hop songs and examine how they exhibit their religious traditions. Further, students can compare the themes of these songs and popular, contemporary hip hop.

Nationalism is a crucial theme in Social Studies and History, but sometimes can be a bit murky. In this thematic unit, students will explore the dual meaning of nationalism: pride in one's nation that fuels a desire for self-government vs. the assertion of national dominance over the global. To do this, the unit observes primary sources that exhibit nationalism around the globe: the Philippines, Germany, Japan, and Israel/Palestine. The culmination of the unit is a Fishbowl-style debate about

In this lesson, students will compare the beliefs about death and the afterlife of two ancient civilizations. For the ancient mesopotamian perspective, students will read a passage from Epic of Gilgamesh in which Enkidu has a vision of the afterlife. The ancient-Egyptian (Nile River Valley Civ.) perspective comes from a description of their mythology adapted from the Boston Museum of Science. Students will use these descriptions to explain how perspectives about death are shaped by the culture o

This lesson plan is meant to be used with Cesar Chavez's speech "We Are Also Responsible" (it can be read or watched). Students will unpack Chavez's message as it relates to citizenship and civic responsibility. Students then work together to construct their own definition of a "good, responsible citizen." Bonus: Cultural and ethnic differences between students can be highlighted when it comes to civic ideals. Discussion about Chicano and Latino sensibilities concerning citizenship is highly e

In this lesson, students will examine a map of human migration out of Africa. Using the information in the map, students will construct a timeline to show the same information in a different format. To construct a historical narrative, students will draw conclusions about how and why early humans might have migrated. Through this lesson, students will see how it is possible to communicate the same information in different media, depending on the author’s purpose.

For this assessment tool, students will create promotional material for a charity or non-profit that they support or want to know more about. In my Sociology classes, the presentations are given on the final day of class as a reminder that, though we discussed all the gloom and doom of society throughout the semester, there is still good in the world. This is the students' chance to apply Sociological and Citizenship concepts to help promote something they feel strongly about. Given the nature o