You can build #USvsHate messaging into any curriculum or project of your choice. In #USvsHate, teachers or activity leaders can teach any “anti-hate” material of choice and then invite students to create anti-hate messages in any media for their school communities and the broader public. (See Getting Started for an overview. It’s simple: engage in learning, invite messages.)
(Youth over 13: you can also submit directly to #USvsHate on your own!)
We’ve curated lessons from a national group of partner organizations, below. Again, you don’t have to use the lessons on our website to enter our national challenges. You can invite #USvsHate anti-hate messaging as part of your existing curriculum or school activities – even after students read a really good book. But our lessons are absolutely worth exploring! They invite students to reject bigotry, celebrate diversity, pursue inclusion, build relationships, and explore how to counter deeper biases and injustices together to create schools and a society where all are valued. You can use them in clubs or classrooms.
We have organized #USvsHate lesson offerings into two sections below. We particularly suggest trying Lesson List 1, Lessons for Building an Inclusive School Community, as every classroom needs to build inclusive relationships. Some of those lessons are great stand-alone activities. Lesson List 2 is a great resource for additions to extended curriculum.
Our two #USvsHate lesson lists follow a general #USvsHate arc.
- We build relationships of respect, and we refuse hateful behavior that treats any group of people as “inferior.” Bigotry, cruelty, bullying, and slurs are just not OK in school or anywhere. Instead, we celebrate diversity and learn to value, better know, and include everyone.
- We explore ways to understand and counter deeper biases and injustices — all the ways we have treated “types of people” as less-than in our society, or allowed folks to be so treated. (See Definitions and Concepts for more.)
- We envision the type of school and society we do want, where everyone is supported, included, and valued. All means all — everyone belongs.
1) Lessons for Building an Inclusive School Community
These lessons help build inclusive relationships, start to challenge stereotypes, and explore overarching issues of empathy, bias, bullying, and ally behavior. Start here, especially if the people in your group don’t know each other well. You can also always get students going with a great book!
A student-requested section, Saying No to Words That Hurt, will help give students the chance to discuss recent experiences with bigotry, exclusion, or disrespect, and to envision schools and a society where these do not happen.
2) Lessons on Countering Specific Forms of Hate, Bias, and Injustice
These lessons can be resources for deeper exploration in your curriculum about specific forms of hate, bias, and injustice needing attention in specific communities and the nation, to envision schools and a society where all are supported instead.
Choose lessons to fit your preparation level and student relationships, so that you’re ready to answer student questions and engage student input. Versus using any lesson as a one-off, incorporate these lessons into your deeper ongoing exploration of texts and ideas.
We have lots of PD resources to help you get ready, too. See Definitions and Concepts for background information on “hate” and “anti-hate.” See Tools for Productive Anti-Hate Dialogues and our quick #USvsHate Dialogue strategies to prepare for conversations, including setting norms.
#USvsHate lays the foundation for long-term inquiry and action embracing inclusion and justice for all. Join the #Schooltalking Facebook community for ongoing resources, and follow the partner organizations below.
ABOUT OUR LESSONS
In 2018, we asked a national group of participating organizations to share one or more “top” lessons designed to spark a classroom dialogue refusing hate and pursuing inclusion and justice in our diverse society. These include Learning for Justice, Facing History and Ourselves, the Anti-Defamation League, the Bully Project, the Human Rights Campaign’s Welcoming Schools, the American Federation of Teachers, including the AFT’s “Share My Lesson,” Zinn Education Project/Rethinking Schools, Teaching for Change, the National Education Association, the National Association for Multicultural Education, GLSEN, the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility, Not In Our Town/Not In Our School, the New York Times Learning Network, and Woven Teaching, as well as #Schooltalking, the first supporter of the #USvsHate project.
Learn more with our contributing organizations via ongoing resources and trainings.