Timely resources to help K-12 educators encourage social responsibility and foster social & emotional learning. Find out more.
TeachableMoment Lessons
Featured Lessons
This activity explores the ideas of “power over” and “power with” using a brainstorm and journaling.
This two-part lesson, intended for high school students, consists of two readings that will examine the limits on presidential power in the United States government and examine what authority the president legally holds through executive orders. Questions for discussion follow each reading, feel free to modify the questions for your students’ needs and current knowledge base of US government processes.
What is the Department of Education, and what does it do? What impact does it have on students, and how would things change if it were abolished? This two-part lesson consists of two readings that investigate the Department of Education as a historic and modern governmental agency. Questions for discussion follow each reading.
SEL & RP
Activities to support students' social and emotional learning and restorative practices
Current Issues
Classroom activities to engage students in learning about and discussing issues in the news
Tips & Ideas
Guidance and inspiration to help build skills and community in your classroom and school
Filter TeachableMoment Lessons By:
This listening circle on the tragic shooting in Orlando on June 12, 2016, gives young people a chance to share what they are thinking and feeling, encouraging mutual understanding
In this brief Teachable Instant classroom activity, students find out about the Libertarian Party candidates on the 2016 presidential ballot, and discuss where libertarians stand
Can you imagine your public school being renamed "Coca-Cola High"? This lesson has students think critically about the trend toward corporate branding of public spaces and consider
A student at Dartmouth College touched off a successful national campaign to get the Library of Congress to stop using the term "illegal aliens" to refer to undocumented immigrants
In this lesson, students learn about the controversy over new federal guidelines aimed at ensuring that "transgender students enjoy a supportive and nondiscriminatory school
A major strike by workers at Verizon offers a teachable moment: Why do people join unions? Why do they strike? And why are they now striking Verizon?
Consider giving students a few moments of silence and calm by asking them to focus on an object. If students respond positively to the experience, repeat it.
The demand for reparations surfaced during the 2016 presidential election, creating a teachable moment on this long-debated issue. In this activity, students learn some background
Presidential candidate Ted Cruz's plans to speak at a Bronx high school were scrapped after students there wrote a letter to their principal describing how Cruz's views were
Filter TeachableMoment Lessons By:
Students build empathy for refugees and immigrants by learning about the experiences of some of the families separated at the southern border of the U.S in 2018. Then, students
Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Mark Bedell is approaching discipline reform with a three-part plan focused on restorative practices, meditation and mentorship.
This video shows a high school that provides Safe Spaces for students to remove themselves from challenging situations, de-escalate their feelings, make different choices about how
This video showcases a school that is implementing Restorative Discipline to address student behavior and resolve conflicts collaboratively, using restorative circles in a
The United States is suffering from a crisis of affordable housing. This lesson consists of two student readings on this issue. The first examines the arguments for and against
This lesson introduces students to the controversy over Justice Kennedy’s retirement and Trump’s role in reshaping the Supreme Court. The first reading reviews Kennedy’s career and