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 Coalition—a 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 contracting—as well as re-contracting—in January each year:

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. 

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.

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.