High

Challenge your knowledge of positive and negative integers with this YouTube quiz from the PBS Math Club.

The United States has a long history of activists seeking social, political, and economic changes to ensure equal civil liberties for all humans—along with a history of resisting factors that have tried to prevent such successful efforts.

Activists have challenged injustices, from the indigenous communities opposing European colonization to U.S. citizens protesting against travel bans and incarceration of refugees into concentration camps. Using scenes from the 2017 film And Then They Came For Us, students and teacher(s) will identify common successes and challenges experienced by various activist movements, in the associated lesson. 

This video clip is from the film, “And Then They Came For Us,” (c) Ginzberg Productions, 2017. All rights reserved.

The Fred T. Korematsu Institute educates to advance racial equity, social justice, and human rights for all.

This project was funded, in part, by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the U.S. Government. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. Government.

This lesson introduces students to the principles of just war theory, the basis of international agreements such as the Geneva Conventions that regulate the conduct of nations in wartime. The lesson asks students to consider the six principles of jus ad bellum, or what makes a war just, as applied to World War II. Students read Roosevelt’s Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Japan (the "day that will live in infamy" speech) in order to assess whether or not Roosevelt spelled out the case for a just war.

Students will:

• Examine the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and identify its effect on U.S. history.
• Review elements of just war theory, the basis of international law regarding warfare.
• Analyze a speech and its effect on the American people.

In this close reading English Language Arts activity set, students examine and discuss the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), a program that offers Bard College degrees in select New York State prisons. Students who are accepted into this degree program follow the same course of study for the same degrees as a Bard student does at Bard College. These activities emphasize one BPI student’s story, from his life prior to prison through his experiences as a student in the BPI program to life after leaving prison. These materials examine the stories through an ELA lens, but the nature of the content and the focus on personal narratives bring to the forefront social, economic, and social justice issues.

These activities ask students to expand their understanding of “close reading.” Students will be asked to listen to and observe the language of each clip closely. Students will not be literally reading a text for comprehension, but will instead analyze and derive meaning through careful listening to spoken words and careful observation of individuals’ actions and other visual cues presented in each clip. In doing so, students will be close reading audio-visual media as text for comprehension and deeper understanding.

     Opening Statement: 

     "During my interviews for College Behind Bars, I didn't have a particular thought process or approach to answering the interview questions. My language and insights were the natural outgrowth of the education I received with the Bard College Prison Initiative (BPI). Today, there exists great consensus that mass incarceration is a social problem. In the early 1990s, it was portrayed as the appropriate response to the activities of so-called "superpredators." The label confused me. It conflicted with the person I knew myself to be. Enrolling in BPI gave me the tools that would assist my understanding of the world in which I lived and myself. By the time we began working on the film, I had completed my undergraduate degree and devoted a lot of time to reflecting on why I was in prison. I felt prepared, and empowered, to tell my story."

-Jule Hall, BPI Graduate

About the author: Heidi Miller, MFA, is an arts educator based in New York, New York.