Research & Analysis

Echoes & Reflections is a leading provider of free Holocaust education resources and professional development for the middle and high school classroom. We help educators to teach about the Holocaust accurately and with confidence. Our goal is to enhance students' historical knowledge, critical thinking, and personal understanding of this history. GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening The purpose of this unit is for students…

GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening This unit provides students with an opportunity to learn about the types of rescue that occurred in Nazi-occupied Europe and to consider the moral and ethical choices that non-Jews made in order to help Jews survive. The unit also outlines the obstacles and dangers that hidden children faced during the Holocaust. Throughout the unit, students have an opportunity to consider the…

GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language Does Entertainment Represent Our Increasingly Diverse Society?In recent years, we have seen some progress made in terms of the diversity and representation of characters and actors we see in movies and on television. For example, over the last sixteen years, the percentage of Asian characters with speaking roles increased from 3.4% to 15.9%. However, there is still much…

GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening This unit provides an opportunity for students to explore Jewish resistance efforts during the Holocaust—focusing on the period from the establishment of the ghettos through the implementation of the “Final Solution.” An opportunity is provided for students to learn about the risks of resisting Nazi domination and the means, scope, and intensity of resistance…

GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening In this unit, students learn about the ghettos established throughout Nazi Europe and understand that the ghettos were one phase in the continuum of Nazi racial policies that sought to solve the so-called “Jewish problem.” Students investigate the conditions in ghettos and how those conditions severely limited Jewish life and led to immense suffering. Using primary source…

GRADE LEVEL: High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening, Language On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall uprising took place. It began in the early morning at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City. As was typical during that time period, police officers entered the bar and arrested employees for selling alcohol without a liquor license, roughed up customers, cleared the bar and arrested customers for not wearing at least three articles of …

Teach students about the U.S. women’s soccer team’s lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation and explore how sexism manifests in a variety of ways in women’s sports.

Teach students about the importance of diverse literature and engage them in a study on the diversity of books in their classroom or school library.

Teach students about why slurs are and why they are harmful, helping them explore possible responses to slurs when they hear them.

GRADE LEVEL: High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language We see symbols every day in all aspects of our lives. Symbols are used to convey ideas, qualities, emotions, material objects/products, opinions and beliefs. Unfortunately, symbols are also used to convey hate and bias. Lately, we have seen a lot of hate symbol graffiti in public spaces and specifically the swastika, which in most circumstances is understood as an expression of antisemitism. There has reportedly…

GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Speaking and Listening, Language The surge of antisemitic incidents in the United States is alarming to many. Several reported incidents include graffiti using swastikas, bomb threats, vandalism and shootings, bomb threats targeting Jewish Community Centers (JCC) and Jewish institutions across the country. Over the past 10 years, ADL has recorded a record number of antisemitic incidents across the U.S. Since 2015,…

GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School, High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language, Speaking and Listening In commemoration of Women’s History Month, this resource helps educators engage students in thinking broadly and critically about the experience of women and gender in all of its complexity. In highlighting the significant events as well as people that have made a substantial contribution to women’s experience, instruction should…

GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School, High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language, Speaking and Listening Commemorating National Hispanic Heritage Month In commemoration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we present this resource to help teachers engage students in thinking broadly and critically about the Hispanic American experience in all of its complexity. In highlighting the significant events as well as people that have made a substantial contribution…

GRADE LEVEL: High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Racial Discrimination and Safeguarding the Right to Vote In August 2015, we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act which was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. The Voting Rights Act is landmark federal legislation that was enacted during the Civil Rights Movement and was intended to prevent racial discrimination in voting. Prior to that, even though Black…

Engage students in exploring the topic bullying in the U.S., using children's literature as a foundation for discussion.

Engage students in activities that get them to think broadly and critically about the Black experience in all of its complexity.

GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening The First Girl to Pitch a Shutout in the Little League World Series In 2014 Mo’Ne Davis, a 13-year-old girl, made news headlines as the first girl to ever pitch a shutout in the Little League World series. At that time she was considered the “most talked about baseball player on earth right now” according to many observers in the sports world. Mo’Ne (pronounced Moh-nay…

GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School, High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, History/Social Studies In commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, this curriculum for grades 3–12 provides grade-specific lessons, resources and extension activities to provide your students opportunities to examine civil rights in the United States past and present. The lessons provide an opportunity for students to delve deeper into Martin Luther King Jr…

Engage students in understanding and exploring cyberbullying and the issues raised by online bullying.

GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Writing, Speaking & Listening SEL STANDARDS*: Self Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision-Making Bullying is a major problem in our schools. When it targets aspects of a person’s identity, it is called identity-based bullying, and may include bias about appearance, race, culture, gender and gender expression, language, religion, socioeconomic status,…