At OSPI, part of our mission is to prepare students for civic engagement throughout their lives. We believe our schools must engage and empower students, from an early age, with opportunities to participate in civil conversations, examples of effective civic engagement, and tools to find peaceful solutions to community problems.OSPI’s Social Studies and Social-Emotional Learning teams have put together resources for educators, families, and students to help with these difficult conversations.

These short films by Stourwater Pictures are accompanied by activities for classroom and remote teaching and learning about the story of Japanese American WWII exclusion and incarceration on Bainbridge Island and Washington State.

This online lesson provides perspectives from Native American community members and their supporters, images, news footage, an interactive timeline, and other sources about an important campaign to secure the treaty rights and sovereignty of Native Nations of the Pacific Northwest. Scroll to begin an exploration of the actions Native Nations took to address injustices.

This online lesson provides perspectives from Native American community members, images, objects, and other sources to help students and teachers understand the efforts of Native Nations of the Pacific Northwest to protect and sustain salmon, water, and homelands. Scroll to begin an exploration of the Pacific Northwest history and cultures.

The Fourth Grade Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects, What Happened at Dry Falls?, uses the phenomena of a local Washington landform to explore erosion from the Ice Age Floods.  It is part of Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects project, a statewide Clime Time collaboration among ESD 123, ESD 105, North Central ESD, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Development of the resources is in response to a need for research- based science lessons for elementary teachers that are integrated with English language arts, mathematics and other subjects such as social studies. The template for Elementary Science and Integrated Subjects  can serve as an organized, coherent and research-based roadmap for teachers in the development of their own NGSS aligned science lessons.  Lessons can also be useful for classrooms that have no adopted curriculum as well as to serve as enhancements for  current science curriculum. The EFSIS project brings together grade level teams of teachers to develop lessons or suites of lessons that are 1) pnenomena based, focused on grade level Performance Expectations, and 2) leverage ELA and Mathematics Washington State Learning Standards.

“Friends Across The Wires” is an original, full-length play, written and directed by Laura Ferri and produced by Tamara Bunnell, exploring the impact of the Japanese American Incarceration during WWII through the lens of young people in Seattle. Based on first person accounts, interviews, and additional primary source research, the play offers an intimate exploration of friendship while examining historical patterns of racism. The project was originally intended to be a live, touring production, but Covid-19 rendered this impossible. The play was then filmed at the Erickson Theatre by Seattle Colleges Cable Television (SCCtv) and edited with sound design, photos and period music.

Friends Across The Wires is an original, full-length play, written and directed by Laura Ferri and produced by Tamara Bunnell, exploring the impact of the Japanese American Incarceration during WWII through the lens of young people in Seattle. 

This is the teacher guide to accompany a viewing of Friends Across The Wires, an original play exploring the impact of the the Japanese-American Incarceration during WWII on a group of young people in Seattle. The guide offers background to the play as well as opportunities to engage with primary sources to learn about historical patterns of racism.Film, written and directed by Laura Ferri, is available under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives license.Teacher guide, by Tamara Bunnell, is available under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial license.

Freedom for some meant slavery for others. The cruel irony of this nation’s founding and its “Temple of Liberty”—the U.S. Capitol—is that both were made possible by the enslavement of African Americans.

The labor of enslaved and free blacks helped build the Capitol. An enslaved African American man helped to cast the Statue of Freedom, which was placed atop the Dome during the Civil War.

Since the end of the Civil War, African Americans have struggled to move out of the shadows and into the Temple of Liberty as full participants.

This the online version of a traveling exhibit by the U.S. Capitol Historical Society that depicts the journey of African Americans from slavery to freedom and political representation in the U.S. Capitol. The exhibit opened February 2006 in Baltimore, Maryland at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture.

Local government has lots of layers. In this lesson, students learn that local government is a tool they can use for getting things done and finding out information. Students learn the structure and function of local government in Washington and how they can “harness the power” of local government to address issues of concern. This lesson’s activity is web-based so that students can explore their own local governments.

To access and assign the web activity, click here.

For student access without assigning the activity, here’s the link: https://www.icivics.org/node/2528357

Got a 1:1 classroom? Find fillable PDF versions of this lesson’s materials below. Registration with iCivics (free) required to download content.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Describe the structure and function of local government in Washington
Identify the level of local government that can address an issue
Explain the basics of public meetings
Use the internet to locate information about the layers of local government where they live

This inquiry by Ryan Theodoriches, Evergreen Public Schools, is based on the C3 Framework inquiry arc. The inquiry leads students through an investigation of the decision by the federal government of the United States to honor Christopher Columbus with a federal holiday as well as efforts to challenge the view that Columbus should be revered as a national hero.

This inquiry by Kristina Labadie, Evergreen Public Schools, is based on the C3 Framework inquiry arc. Third-grade students view the lifestyle and cultural development of Early Native Americans through the same lens of how lifestyles today have developed.

Elementary Science and Integrated Subjects is a statewide Clime Time collaboration among ESD 123, ESD 105, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Development of the resources is in response to a need for research- based science lessons for elementary teachers that are integrated with English language arts, mathematics and other subjects such as social studies. The template for Elementary Integration can serve as an organized, coherent and research-based roadmap for teachers in the development of their own NGSS aligned science lessons.  Lessons can also be useful for classrooms that have no adopted curriculum as well as to serve as enhancements for  current science curriculum. The EFSIS project brings together grade level teams of teachers to develop lessons or suites of lessons that are 1) focused on grade level Performance Expectations, and 2) leverage ELA and Mathematics Washington State Learning Standards.

This inquiry by Karen Morley-Smith, Evergreen Public Schools, is based on the C3 Framework inquiry arc. Through shared reading, videos, articles, class discussions, reflections, and the study of natural rights and common good, students develop a rich understanding of the honey bee's role in the survival of life.

This inquiry by Melissa M. Kunert, Evergreen Public Schools, is based on the C3 Framework inquiry arc. This inquiry provides an opportunity for students to analyze the constitution as it pertains to life today. Becoming a responsible citizen in society is an important role that also requires education about how our constitution was first written and that changes can always be made in our world

This inquiry by Amy Johnson, Longview Public Schools, is based on the C3 Framework inquiry arc. The students will highlight the two primary sources then reflect. They will then do the Open Mind activity illustrating both points of view they learned from the primary sources, develop a three-event timeline and create a newspaper front page describing “What really happened March 5, 1770.”

This inquiry by Cynthia Yurosko, Evergreen Public Schools, is based on the C3 Framework inquiry arc. The inquiry provides students with the opportunity to analyze, through the evaluation of words, how conflicts between the U.S. government and Native American tribes arose. Students will be asked to investigate federal reports, speeches, and news reports to discern U.S. leaders’ perspectives and compare these biases to the words of Native American leaders Chief Red Eagle and Chief Tecumseh.

This inquiry by Joshua Parker, North Thurston Public Schools, is based on the C3 Framework's inquiry arc. The inquiry takes students through a consideration of what the duties of citizenship are. Students consider current controversies about behavior during the national anthem, historical reasons behind revolutionary and loyalist perspectives during the revolutionary era, and by applying learning to answer how loyalty and opposition play a part in actions of engaged citizens.

This inquiry by Amy Johnson, Longview Public Schools, is based on the C3 Framework inquiry arc. Students will look at multiple points of view on an assigned Intolerable Act. After researching primary sources, student will create a newspaper using BEST evidence from their sources that answers the question, "Why would this event the colonists to revolt?"

Holocaust education is history, literature, social studies, psychology, art, and so much more. By studying the Holocaust we learn the importance of speaking out against bigotry and indifference, promoting equity, and taking action. Studies show that Holocaust education both improves students' critical thinking skills and encourages "upstander" behavior: willingness to act upon civic awareness and confront hatred in all its forms. On this site you're going to find lessons that adhere to the requisite guidelines for teaching about the Holocaust and Genocide, with options for in-person and remote instruction. Each Overview Lesson includes:Historical summarySurvivor video clipsDiscussion questionsCommon Core State Standards addressed in that lesson