Contracting and Re-Contracting in the New Year

Posted by Facing History and Ourselves on January 20, 2022

Contracting is an essential teaching strategy for aligning a group of students around shared values and practices. Elizabeth Carroll, New England Program Director at Facing History, recently wrote a piece on this crucial topic for the Massachusetts Civic Learning Coalitiona non-partisan coalition of nonprofits, educators, think tanks, universities, and other partners committed to preparing all students to become more civically aware and involved. Below is an excerpt from her piece on the value of contractingas well as re-contractingin January each year:

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Topics: Teaching Strategy, Brave Space

How to Use Online Sources to Challenge Bias and Expand Perspectives

Posted by Nelson Graves on July 11, 2017

Official online sources can be powerful tools for developing students' perspectives, according to Nelson Graves, journalist and founder of News-Decoder. In this guest post he uses an interesting ecological example to demonstrate how biases work and then provides educators with an exercise to help students challenge their own perceptions to better understand people and the world around them. 

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Topics: Teaching Strategy

Choosing to Participate in a Digital World

Posted by Danielle Allen, Chaebong Nam, and Adam Strom on November 1, 2016

For 40 years, Facing History and Ourselves has had the opportunity to challenge young people to reflect on the moral choices they face in their own lives. Inspired by what they have learned, many of those students look for ways in which they can make a positive difference in their classrooms, communities, and world. The Facing History journey ends with a reflection on "Choosing to Participate." But, what does it mean to choose to participate in a digital world in which participatory practices using digital tools are increasingly being used to take on the work of traditional institutions? We believe the Youth and Participatory Politics Action Frame can serve as a model to guide young people to reflect on the moral and ethical choices they face in their desire to make a difference.

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Topics: Teaching Strategies, Choosing to Participate, Social Media, Teaching Strategy

How You Can Help Students See Other Viewpoints

Posted by Nelson Graves on July 11, 2016

Recent events in Baton Rouge, suburban Minneapolis, and Dallas have shown that it has never been more important for all of us to understand viewpoints that differ from our own. Official online sources can be powerful tools for developing students' perspectives, according to Nelson Graves, journalist and founder of News-Decoder.

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Topics: News, Stereotype, Journalism, Teaching Strategy, Lesson Ideas

At Facing History and Ourselves, we value conversation—in classrooms, in our professional development for educators, and online. When you comment on Facing Today, you're engaging with our worldwide community of learners, so please take care that your contributions are constructive, civil, and advance the conversation.

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Welcome to Facing Today, a Facing History blog. Facing History and Ourselves combats racism and antisemitism by using history to teach tolerance in classrooms around the globe.

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