The role of interest groups in politics and government is a hot topic in the media today. This lesson uses the battle over school lunch ingredients to illustrate how interest groups and lobbying affect public policy. Take a side in the battle, create an interest group, and try to influence public policy.

** This resource is published by GoogleReality River is a part of google's Interland Series  Be Internet Awesome curriculum which teaches the fundamentals of digital citizenship and safety online. 

This lesson will introduce students to the topic of designing websites that take web accessibility issues into account and will introduce students to Section 508 Of The Rehabilitation Act.

This collection of lessons represent adapted and remixed instructional content for teaching media literacy and specifically civic online reasoning through distance learning. These lessons take students through the steps necessary to source online content, verify evidence presented, and corroborate claims with other sources.

The original lesson plans are the work of Stanford History Education Group, licensed under CC 4.0. Please refer to the full text lesson plans at Stanford History Education Group’s, Civic Online Reasoning Curriculum for specifics regarding background, research findings, and additional curriculum for teaching media literacy in the twenty-first century.

This course provides a critical analysis of mass media in our culture. Various types of media such as books, films, video games, and online interactions will be discussed and reviewed. This course will also evaluate how information and ideas travel between people on a large scale.

This social media literacy unit introduces students to foundational skills in analyzing images and social media posts. It also reenforces critical thinking questions that can be applied to various forms of media. This unit was taught to 9th grade students but is easily adaptible to a range of secondary classrooms. It was also taught in conjunction with another unit focused on social media platforms and content.

In this lesson, students participate in the Infer the Topic protocol to familiarize themselves with the module topic, using resources from the texts they will be reading throughout the module (RI.3.1, W.3.8, SL.3.1).
Throughout this module, students will revisit the module guiding questions introduced in this lesson. It is important to be sensitive to students' and families' feelings and experiences with regard to education, books, and reading and to acknowledge that these feelings and experiences may differ greatly, from very positive to somewhat neutral to very negative. This issue is discussed more in the next lesson, but it is important to be prepared to handle it sensitively should it arise. The main point students should understand by the end of this module is that education, books, and reading are important for college and career readiness, and that is the reason for the emphasis on education, books, and reading in this module. Students reflect on the module guiding questions at home with their families.
This lesson is the first of two that include built-out instruction for strategic use of the Think-Pair-Share protocol to promote productive and equitable conversation.
During all interaction, be aware that partnering with, looking at, talking with, or touching the opposite gender may be uncomfortable and inappropriate for students from other cultures. In addition, some students may believe it is inappropriate to speak with other students at all during class. Let them know that in the United States, speaking with a peer of either gender when the teacher gives the signal is appropriate, and it is one way that students can become independent learners and develop their content knowledge and language ability. At the same time, tell them you respect their needs, and if necessary, seek alternative arrangements for students according to their cultural traditions.
This lesson uses cold calling, or calling on students without them volunteering, as a total participation technique. Be aware that cold calling may be unfamiliar or embarrassing to some students. Prepare students and their families by telling them that cold calling in the United States is common and is a protocol that helps to ensure that all student voices are heard and respected. The protocol also provides the teacher with one way to assess what students know.
This lesson uses total participation techniques for quick response questions. Some common total participation techniques include cold calling, selecting volunteers, and using equity sticks (a stick or card for each student in the class).

Claims and evidence flow rapidly and with relative freedom online. We aid in the spread of misinformation if we don’t ensure that a claim or evidence is accurate before we share it. Luckily, the Internet also allows us to check claims and evidence by consulting other sources. Although verifying claims and evidence takes time, it’s an important habit to develop to ensure that the information we read, use, and share is reliable and accurate. This lesson introduces students to the importance of checking what other sources say.

This lesson introduces students to the importance of corroborating arguments and verifying information across multiple online sources. Students practice corroborating claims and evidence presented in sources about mandatory Saturday school.

This lesson is designed to be taught after the Intro to Who's Behind the Information? and Intro to What's the Evidence? Saturday School lessons.

We must be able to analyze evidence in order to effectively evaluate online information. In this lesson, students practice evaluating evidence that is presented in three online arguments about mandatory Saturday school. This lesson is designed to be taught following the Intro to Who's Behind the Information? Saturday School lesson.https://cor.stanford.edu/curriculum/lessons/intro-whos-behind-the-information-saturday-school

We must be able to analyze evidence in order to effectively evaluate online information. In this lesson, students practice evaluating evidence that is presented in three online arguments about mandatory Saturday school.

This lesson is designed to be taught following the Intro to Who's Behind the Information? Saturday School lesson.

Since information is always influenced by its author, analyzing who's behind the information should be a priority when evaluating online content. But too often, students attempt to evaluate information based on elements other than the source, such as the contents of a website, its appearance, or the evidence it supplies. In this lesson, students learn why the source of information is so important and practice analyzing information based on who's behind it.

Without learning to investigate who is behind information online, we risk being taken in by sources and arguments that are more complicated or conflicted than we realize. In this lesson, students read arguments about mandatory Saturday school as an introduction to the importance of investigating who is behind information and how a source’s motivation could affect what it presents.

Students will learn how to use the Internet to find facts about their topic. Students will be searching safe sites that are credible, teaching students that finding accurate information is very important when being an investigator.

This collection of free, authoritative source information about the history, politics, geography, and culture of many states and territories has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Our Teacher's Guide provides compelling questions, links to humanities organizations and local projects, and research activity ideas for integrating local history into humanities courses.

This lesson is part 2 of 4. After learning about the food safety continuum students will learn protocols that assist the farmer/rancher to do their part to ensure a safe and healthy food supply. This lesson covers what farm biosecurity is and the practices that make a farm safe from biological hazards.

Many sources compete for attention online, including partisan blogs and bogus sites posing as legitimate news organizations. This infographic can help you cut through the noise and learn how to evaluate sources for signs of credibility – as well as for red flags that signal a source should be avoided.

The lessons in this unit provide you with an opportunity to use online resources to further enliven your students' encounter with Greek mythology, to deepen their understanding of what myths meant to the ancient Greeks, and to help them appreciate the meanings that Greek myths have for us today. In the lessons below, students will learn about Greek conceptions of the hero, the function of myths as explanatory accounts, the presence of mythological terms in contemporary culture, and the ways in which mythology has inspired later artists and poets.

Students learn how civil rights activists including the Freedom Riders, state and local officials in the South, and the Administration of President Kennedy come into conflict during the early 1960s.