Service-Learning

LESSON PLANS

Building a Race and Immigration Dialogue in the Global Economy (BRIDGE)
Source: The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, 2004
Curriculum with lessons on immigration, labor, and organizing. Also see Building Immigrant Community Power Through Legislative Advocacy: A free downloadable workshop on taking action for immigration rights.
Grade Level: high school – adult
Subject Area: social studies, community service

Charity and Justice: What’s the Difference?
Source: Teaching Tolerance
Has students distinguish between charity (volunteering in a soup kitchen) and justice (working to end the inequalities that make soup kitchens necessary). It asks students to think about root causes (inequality) versus symptoms (poverty that leads to the need for soup kitchens).
Grade Level: middle – high school
Subject Area: social studies, service learning

Energy of a Nation: Immigrants in America
Source: The Advocates for Human Rights
Engaging, student-centered curriculum with activities that follow best practices for human rights education (HRE) Students learn by exploring their own immigrant history; role-playing a refugee’s journey; deciding under what conditions they might risk being undocumented; playing games to understand the immigration system; drawing representative pictures of policies; rehearsing deliberative dialogue; constructing a gallery of nativism over the centuries; and creating a service learning project for their classroom or school.
Grade level: Middle school – adult
Subject area: social studies

Going Global – Investigating Global Issues of Interest and Importance
Source: HRE USA
In this independent research project, students focus on areas of interest to them based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and then study a location that is a hotbed of violations of their chosen human right. The long-term study culminates with a structured presentation of their topic with the intent to raise awareness of Human Rights issues and the intent of proposing a potential solution utilizing specific problem-solving steps..
Grade Level: middle school
Subject Area: social studies

HRE Curriculum Integration Guide
Source: HRE USA
This guides provides model lessons to help social studies and other educators implement human rights in their curriculum. Each lesson is tied to Common Core curriculum standards and contains suggested modifications for ESL populations and classified students, as well as suggestions regarding how each lesson supports literacy development.
Grade Level: elementary – high school
Subject Area: general

Human Rights, Civil Rights, and Civic Action
Source: HRE USA
Through primary source texts, students will apply their understanding of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) to human rights violations in postwar United States and learn about historical examples of nonviolent methods of action that individuals and groups used to address these human rights issues. Students will apply their learning of the UDHR, of the United States’ legal framework (i.e. U.S. Constitution), and of nonviolent methods of action to address a current human rights violation in the United States and to develop an action plan to address this human rights violation.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies

Human Rights and Service Learning
Source: Amnesty International USA
An introduction to human rights service learning with a lesson on poverty.
Grade Level: middle – high school
Subject Area: social studies, service learning

Service Learning for Human Rights Education
Source: HRE USA
This guide is intended to provide educators with a loose blueprint to follow in adapting service learning experiences to human rights education. The following service learning experiences can be adapted as extensions of any lessons in human rights education that are provided on this website or beyond, as a stand-alone unit plan for classroom-based civics education, as an extra- or co-curricular experiences for students involved in human rights education activities within or beyond the walls of school environments, or for any other purpose an educator concerned about human rights may develop.
Grade Level: elementary – high school
Subject Area: general

The UDHR & Contemporary Issues
Source: HRE USA
This lesson asks students to correlate the UDHR to current newspaper articles which illustrate the portrayal of human rights in one of four situations (rights achieved, rights denied, rights violated, rights in conflict). Students will explain that situation, the correlation to the UDHR, and then write a reflection on the role of the UDHR in potentially resolving the situation.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies