Students learn about the controversial history of a mural in Anacortes, WA, and consider what it would take to create a more inclusive and accurate mural in Anacortes today. Then students learn about the tribes, immigrants, and settlers in the region where they live and how their stories are represented in local murals in public spaces. Students draw on what they have learned to respond to the unit driving question: What decisions and whose stories define Washington state? Then, drawing on local resources such as tribal members, historical societies, and museums, students work in teams to propose a new mural that tells an inclusive story of the people and place where they live.

Students examine what deepfakes are and consider the deeper civic and ethical implications of deepfake technology. In an age of easy image manipulation, this lesson fosters critical thinking skills that empower students to question how we can mitigate the impact of doctored media content. This lesson plan includes a slide deck and brainstorm sheet for classroom use.

This sequenced collection, curated by Seattle Public School educators, contains openly-licensed Digital Citizenship resources for K-5 educators.  

In this unit students will reflect on their own media environment, understand how cognitive bias and social media algorithms influence that environment, and learn how to investigate new sources and claims online. These activities culminate in a student-led "social science fair" MisinfoNight event where they present their new skills and knowledge to family members to help them become more savvy information consumers. 

The information revolution of the 21st century is as significant and transformative as the industrial revolution of the 19th century. In this unit, students – and by proxy their families – will learn about the challenges of our current information landscape and how to navigate them. This unit is split into four modules. These modules can be done sequentially or stand on their own, depending on students’ needs and teachers’ timeframes. In this module (1 of 4), students analyze their own use of online social media platforms and learn how filter bubbles and confirmation bias shape the content of their media environment. 

Docs Teach is the online tool for teaching with documents, from the National Archives.
* Choose from thousands of primary sources for use in classroom activities.
* Find and use activities crafted by educators using documents from the National Archives.
* Create your own interactive learning activities.

This document is an order to show cause in the Marbury v. Madison Supreme Court case. An order to show cause explains that a defendant is expected to appear before the judge and defend his or her actions. The document shows damage from the 1898 fire in the Capitol Building.

This unit plan was designed in order to instruct students in the Kittitas Valley about the contributions and perspectives of the Kittitas Band of the Yakama Nation. This unit plan has students use primary and secondary sources, inquiry, videos and lecture to plan and conduct an oral history interview with a Kittitas Band member. If tribal members of the Kittitas are not avaiable for interview, there is a sample video of an interview with Kittitas member Allen Aronica. Students can use this video instead of conducting an oral history interview for the final lesson. 

Drumbeats in Time is a collaborative effort between the Thorp School District and members of the Kittitas Band of the Yakama Nation. These units are designed to integrate local Native American oral history and interview skills into the social studies curriculum to help students gain understanding of the life and times of various members of the Kittitas Valley.The sixth grade unit focuses on accounts of modern life and past life in order to develop an understanding of cultural awarness in the future.

Where are the significant places, regions, and people in the Pacific Northwest?This fourth grade unit for Drumbeats in Time was produced by a team of teachers from Thorp School District, Washington in consultation with members of the Kittitas Band of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation

This lesson plan can is geared for social studies, but can also be used in other content areas.

Trauma can result when a group of people are forced away from their schools, friends, businesses/work, neighborhoods/communities, then incarcerated without due process, under difficult conditions.
Students explore how historical and traumatic events such as Japanese American incarceration affect communities for the long term and how communities have worked to heal.

Note: This is not a ‘typical’ social studies lesson on Japanese American incarceration. It will involve working with material regarding trauma.
Activities 1 and 2 cover life skills and can be offered in the classroom at any time. (It may be ideal to teach this toward the beginning of the school year) Activity 3 is a foundational piece on what intergenerational trauma is. Activities 4, 5 and 6 go deeper into this topic.

This lesson plan is geared for social studies, but can also be used in other content areas.

Media is a powerful agent in informing us and influencing social norms in our society. In this lesson plan, students learn about how to critically consume daily information and entertainment by listening to experts in media literacy. This lesson covers concepts like media ownership, framing and spin, source, agenda, bias, contextually misleading content and misinformation and disinformation.
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Students also explore how media can affect livelihoods. They’ll study how Japanese American communities all along the west coast including in Washington state were impacted by media coverage leading into Japanese American incarceration in the 1940s and through redress and reparations in the early 1980s.

Here you will find links to Economics resources for grades K-12, curated from Smithsonian Learning Lab, Council for Economic Education (CEE), Econ Lowdown, EconEdLink, Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF).

The Washington State History Project is a multiyear initiative that originated in 2020 with the goal of transforming how Washington state history is taught. The project brought together educators, district facilitators, cultural consultants, and local experts to create six project-based learning (PBL) units that are anti-biased, interdisciplinary, place-based, and aligned to the Washington State Social Studies Learning Standards and the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. The course weaves together original content, multimedia resources, primary sources, and curricular materials from Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State, developed by Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

It is important to educate future voters about the issues, processes, and impacts of voting in elections. These resources include links to lesson plans, videos, games, and printables to assist teachers K—12 to promote civic participation and voting.

Salmon play an important role in the ways of life, culture, history, and resilience of the tribes of this region. The tribes of Washington State and the Pacific Northwest have always depended on salmon as a primary source of food. Overfishing, roads, dams, pollution, and other human practices have been a growing threat to the survival of salmon, which has impacted fishing, salmon-eaters, and the environment. These lessons introduce to children the role of salmon in the history and culture of the first peoples of our region.

The Honoring the Salmon lessons are designed to be taught as a series but can also be taught individually, adapted for each grade level, K-3. They can easily be integrated into science units on salmon, water or watersheds. Content knowledge from these lessons can provide background knowledge for 3rd grade and 4th grade Social Studies CBAs.

NOTE: These lessons are designed around fiction and non-fiction books that are not a part of the STI curriculum. Most of them are easily available through public libraries. Some may need to be purchased.

These lesson resources align to additional Washington State Social Studies, English Language Arts, Environmental and Sustainability, and Social Emotional Learning standards. A full standard curriculum document is included at the bottom of the Pathway 2 introduction page.

Spanish translation of The State We're In: Latino History in Washington.La historia de los latinos en Washington se incluye como complemento de los libros de educación cívica de la League: El estado en que vivimos: Washington, diseñado para niños de entre tercero y doceavo grado.Este documento de educación cívica/historia fue escrito por Jill Severn y producido y publicado por el Fondo de Educación de la Liga de Mujeres Votantes de Washington.