If time allows, the class can brainstorm possible topics. Students will be evaluated based on student journals, participation in class discussion, and focused written reaction to a topic posed in class. Students can search on-line or in a local library for your state's hate crime legislation, and discuss your findings with the class. Students can create and conduct a survey among classes in their grade level or school-wide focusing on hate crimes, discrimination, and violence in the United States. Students can then calculate their findings and post them in a visible place in the school.
Students can write to their state's Representative regarding hate crime legislation.
Students can trace the roots of movements and laws protecting gender, racial, and ethnic minorities in America. Students can design a visual illustration representing the notion of hatred and its effect on society as a whole. Students can examine how music was and is used as a political tool by locating songs that demonstrate public opinion of prejudice and of equal rights movements for minorities in America. In addition, this lesson plan may be used to address the academic standards of a specific state. Links are provided where available from each McREL standard to the Achieve website containing state standards for over 40 states.