teaching tools
downloadable activities & lesson plans
Teaching activities/lesson plans from the Zinn Education Project by category:
Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, has videos and teaching kits to help educators talk about diversity, equity, and justice. (Educators of young children may want to try Starting Small: Teaching Tolerance in Preschool and the Early Grades.)
A People's History for the Classroom by Bill Bigelow — A People's History for the Classroom contains exemplary teaching articles and lesson plans to help teachers introduce students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of U.S. history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula.
Rethinking Ethnic Studies by R. Tolteka Cuauhtin et al — Built around core themes of indigeneity, colonization, anti-racism, and activism, Rethinking Ethnic Studies offers vital resources for educators committed to the ongoing struggle for racial justice in our schools.
Teaching for Black Lives edited by Dyan Watson et al — Teaching for Black Lives provides resources for teachers to connect curriculum with young black people's lives and center their concerns and daily experiences — a critical curriculum for black and white students alike. It also highlights the hope and beauty of student activism and collective action.
The Color Line: A Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow — A lesson on the countless colonial laws enacted to create division and inequality based on race. This helps students understand the origins of racism in the United States and who benefits.
Still Separate, Still Unequal: Teaching about School Segregation and Educational Inequality a lesson plan by Keith Meatto
Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry for Social Justice by Linda Christensen and Dyan Watson
Teaching a People's History of Abolition and the Civil War edited by Adam Sanchez
A People's Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching about the Environmental Crisis by Bill Bigelow and Tim Swinehart
Teach Freedom: Education for Liberation in the African-American Tradition edited by Charles M. Payne and Carol Sills Strickland
Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching about Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word by Linda Christensen
Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson
books/articles for educators
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Tutum — Tatum, a respected authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about racial identity is essential if we’re serious about communicating across racial and ethnic divides. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious. This fully-revised edition is essential reading for any teacher/educator seeking to understand the dynamics of race in America.
Young, Gifted, and Black: Promoting High Achievement Among African-American Students by Theresa Perry et al — In three separate but allied essays, the authors argue that the unique social and cultural position Black students occupy, in a society which often devalues and stereotypes African American identity, fundamentally shapes students' experience of school and sets up unique obstacles. They argue that a proper understanding of the forces at work can lead to practical, powerful methods for promoting high achievement at all levels.
Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom by Rick Ayers with William Ayers — Drawing from a lifetime of deep commitment to students, teaching, and social justice, the authors update their powerful critique of schooling and present classroom stories of everyday teachers grappling with many of today's hotly-debated issues. They invite educators to live a teaching life of questioning — to imagine classrooms where every established bit of wisdom, common sense, and dogma is open for examination, interrogation, and rethinking.
Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism & School Closings on Chicago’s Southside by Eve Ewing — Rejecting the impulse to see education as disconnected from American life and politics, Ewing links the struggles of Chicago public schooling with the city’s notoriously racist housing practices. She peels back the seemingly anodyne messaging of reform ('school choice') and its ostensibly objective standards ('test scores') to reveal the insidious assumptions lying beneath.
Teachers’ Expectations and Sense of Responsibility for Student Learning: The Importance of Race, Class, and Organizational Habitus by John Diamond, Antonia Randolph, and James Spillane
Race-Conscious Policies for Assigning Students to Schools: Social Science Research and the Supreme Court Cases from the National Academy of Education
We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina L. Love
Black Teachers on Teaching by Michele Foster
Creating the Opportunity to Learn: Moving from Research to Practice to Close the Achievement Gap By A. Wade Boykin, Pedro Noguera
Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation by Jeff Bale and Sarah Knopp
For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education by Christopher Emdin
Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students by Gregory Michie
Innovative Voices in Education: Engaging Diverse Communities by Eileen Gale Kugler
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
Teaching When the World Is on Fire by Lisa Delpit
Talking To Students About Racism & Police Violence from Teaching Tolerance
Toolkit for “Segregation by Design” from Teaching Tolerance
Choices in Little Rock from Facing History and Ourselves
Beyond Brown: Pursuing the Promise from PBS
Why Are American Public Schools Still So Segregated? from KQED
