Alternatively, you can navigate starting with the product. In this case, the yellow numbered circles indicate how many countries use child or forced labor to produce it.

The information is important and well-researched, and it is organized in a very accessible way. I would certainly use it as part of a unit on child or forced labor, but I would also use it with more general units on business or shopping.

Thanks Larry

This website could also be used in critical thinking exercises, as students could parse out the different motivations behind the site, and look at the different ways these issues have been covered in mainstream and progressive media outlets.

There are two issues facing our nation–high unemployment and undocumented people in the workforce–that many Americans believe are related.

Missing from the debate on both issues is an honest recognition that the food we all eat – at home, in restaurants and workplace cafeterias (including those in the Capitol) – comes to us from the labor of undocumented farm workers.

If I were doing this in class, I might also bring in materials (like this or this) on the lives of undocumented workers in the slaughterhouse industry, inviting students to look further look at the food chain we currently rely on.

I have to confess that I’m no expert on Cesar Chavez, but these resources seem like a great way to make issues of human rights and food production relevant.

This new research-based teacher’s guide helps students develop English language skills through highly engaging real-world investigations of current global issues. Designed for intermediate-level English language learners and striving readers, Making Connections combines language learning with opportunities for students to think critically about sustainable solutions for community development, environmental issues, quality of life, and more. Aligned with education standards, this 352-page guide includes nine chapters with lessons that have been reviewed and field tested by content experts, teachers, and students. Throughout the teacher’s guide, ideas for differentiated instruction make this text applicable for student levels ranging from beginner to advanced.

The table of contents, chapter 1, and chapter 3 are available to download if you’re interested in checking it out.

Thanks Khalid

Recently, Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change launched the Zinn Education Project, a collection of resources for teaching A People’s History of the United States. There are tons of great materials here for introducing issues of race, war and labor rights. I’ve used excerpts from this book in my classes over the years, and I’ve always found it to be a welcome contrast to typical history books.

The show itself covers the original lesson, and also has several of the students rewatch it as adults. In my class today, I used only the original lesson, which goes for about 13 minutes starting 4 or so minutes in. The whole video is available on the Frontline website. I also used some of the discussion ideas from this site which has information on Jane Elliot’s continuing development of discrimination education ideas.

This was a perfect video for my current students, who are teachers in the midst of creating lesson plans dealing with democracy and diversity. In addition to being an engaging way to bring up issues of race, it is also a great example of an extremely creative lesson plan.

As a follow-up, I had students discuss the following questions in groups:

1. What do you think of the activity done in this video? What do you like / dislike about it?
2. What are some of the divides in your country / classroom? What are the different rules (written or unwritten) for people on each side of the divide?
3. How would you describe students who are “going to succeed” compared to those who are “stuck in place”?
4. How are teachers treated differently in your organization? (gender / sexual orientation / race / religion / other)
5. What are some activities you have done / could do with students to help them learn about discrimination?

Thanks Jane!