Sample No Place for Hate® Projects
Civil Rights Speaker
Invite a recognized civil or human rights leader to address an all-school assembly. Videotape the speech and/or publish an interview with the speaker in the school newspaper.
Essay Contest
Organize an essay contest with a theme that is either a personal experience with prejudice or a success story in the fight against it. Suggest that winning entries be pub¬lished in your school newspaper, featured in your town newspaper and/or highlighted on a local cable program.
No Place for Hate® Mural
Designate a wall in your school where a mural with a harmonious and unifying message can be created. Have students participate in designing and painting the mural.
Dance for Diversity
Plan a school dance around a theme such as “Stomping Out Hate.” Create unifying posters and have a resource table with helpful anti-bias materials.
“Rock Against Racism”
Have a talent contest around the No Place for Hate® theme, where students can showcase their vocal and musical talents.
Orientation
Create a new student orientation program that addresses the needs of students from all backgrounds, so they feel welcome when joining the student body.
Stereotypes
Assign a project to learn about stereotypes and prejudice. Define terms and have students discuss stereotypes they have learned from friends, media and the community. Bring in examples of stereotypes from books, movies, TV, newspapers, etc.
Learn About Key Civil and Human Rights Leaders
Focus course work and/or a class discussion to learning about key people important to human/civil rights throughout history.
A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® Institute
Provide educators, administrators and staff with ADL’s anti-bias and diversity training programs or implement the anti-bias Peer Training Program for students in your school.
School Exchange
Establish an ongoing relationship that connects students from your school with another school to bring together students from different backgrounds.
Diversity Quilt
Have art classes or all students create a paper patch depicting their individual heritage and combine them all to create a diversity quilt to be displayed in your school.
Web Site or Page
Research Web sites that support diversity and inclusion. Then build a Web Page for your school and link it to other sites on the Internet.
Curriculum Connections
Integrate anti-bias and social justice themes into your school’s curricula. ADL’s Curriculum Connections offers a collection of original lesson plans and resources free to K-12 educators. Visit: www.adl.org/education/curriculum_connections/
Create a Calendar
Create a school calendar with all the holidays, significant religious observances, and important civil rights dates represented in your school community.
Book Group
Research books representing the experiences of different ethnic groups as well as those that are written by authors of diverse backgrounds. You can initiate a reading pro¬gram with a local bookstore or library that features these books. Visit www.adl.org/bibliography/ for a list of recommended books for children.
Film Festival
Start an annual multicultural film festival at your school. Invite community groups and local theaters to be co-sponsors.
Pen Pals
Start a pen pal program. Get students in touch with students in different parts of the community, country or world.
Highlight Music
Work with your school band and choir to ensure that musical selections are culturally and religiously diverse.
Diversity Logo
Hold a flag or poster contest to determine your school’s diversity, unity or anti-bullying logo. Put it on posters, t-shirts or bumper stickers and display it at games, assemblies and school events. This can be a fundraising event for anti-bias activities in your school.
No Place for Hate® Day
Suspend regular classes for a day and invite community members and leaders to speak about and to explore issues of diversity and civil rights with students. Consult with the ADL to plan this program.
Career Workshop
Host a career workshop led by local professionals who can discuss what equity and inclusiveness look like in their respective fields.
No Place for Hate® Month
Devote a month to No Place for Hate® and diversity in the school library. Include a display of books about different cultures, faiths, abilities and other identity groups. Offer a suggested book list to students and family members.
School Paper
Feature articles that pertain to human/civil rights in your school newspaper. Devote a section to promoting respect for diversity and publicizing multicultural events.
Echoes and Reflections
Teach students the lessons of the Holocaust. Echoes and Reflections - a multimedia curriculum on the Holocaust – was developed by the ADL, the Shoah Foundation and Yad Vashem. Through the study of the Holocaust, the curriculum helps students connect history with contem¬porary issues and inspires them to confront the racism, anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination they face in their own lives. Visit www.echoesandreflections.org
Marathon
Organize a dance-a-thon, walk-a-thon, bike-a-thon, car wash or battle-of-the-bands and donate the proceeds from ticket sales to underwrite anti-bias training and other programs for the school.
Guest Speaker
Invite your district attorney, police chief, a representative from the attorney general’s office or a representative from the ADL to speak to your school about civil rights, hate crimes and other legal aspects of the fight against prejudice.
Poetry Slam
Host a Poetry Slam in which students read aloud original poems and raps that break down stereotypes and promote respect for diversity. Invite participants to present their work at PTA meetings, Chamber of Commerce events and other community group events.
Speakers Bureau
Create a student-run Speakers Bureau where students of different backgrounds speak about their heritage. Identify local community leaders, civil rights veterans, Holocaust survivors and others to partner with students in this effort.
“Cultural Pursuit”
Turn a school assembly into a game show for students of all grades called “Cultural Pursuit.” Ask teachers to develop questions covering every discipline and hold “culture bees” in their classrooms to determine assembly contestants.
Media Literacy
Construct a multimedia display that examines how today’s media perpetuates stereotypes. Consider current films, television shows, music and advertising campaigns, in addition to newspapers, magazines and books.
Mock Summit
Research peace negotiations going on around the world regarding ethnic or racial conflict. Then stage a mock summit in which students take on the roles of international leaders and try to resolve these crises.
Dramatic Representation
Look for examples of youth who have struggled to overcome oppression throughout history and create an original dramatic performance based on their experiences.
Internship Fair
Ask your school to host an internship fair for groups such as ADL and other civic organizations that “hire” student interns.
Research Projects
Assign a research project focused on civil and human rights. For example, students can research civil unrest in this country from rebellions during slavery, to Chicago in the 1960s, to Los Angeles in the 1990s.
Survey Colleges
Survey the colleges in your area about diversity and affinity clubs at their schools. Invite a panel of representatives to speak to the senior class.
Field Trip
Visit important landmarks in your area associated with the struggle for human and civil rights such as museums, public libraries and historical sites.
Solidarity Day
Organize a Solidarity Day that allows students to hear from presenters who address issues of bias and discrimination in the community.
Organize a Campaign
Organize a poster campaign that encourages people to intervene when confronted with instances of stereotypes and prejudice.
“Proud Out Loud”
Produce a “Proud Out Loud” video comprised of interviews with students (and family members) about their identity group membership.
No Place for Hate® Infomercial
Have students write essays on what diversity means to them. Videotape students reading excerpts from their essays. This can be the basis for an infomercial for No Place for Hate® to explain the initiative to students, family members and communities.
Film*
Show an age-appropriate film that will help young people understand prejudice and teach them to appreciate differences.
Thumb Prints*
Use 3” x 5” cards and ink to let students make their thumb prints. Let them examine their own and others thumb prints with a magnifying glass. Use this as a catalyst for discussing difference, how everyone is unique and how they are similar.
Read & Discuss*
Read an age appropriate book or story about bullying. Discuss the book and define terms such as “bullying,” “exclusion” and “gossip.” Let students share their thoughts and experiences.
“No Name-Calling Week”*
Organize No Name-Calling Week in your school. Visit www.nonamecallingweek.org
“Mix It Up!”
Organize a Mix It Up at Lunch Day. Visit www.mixitup.org
“I am unique…”*
Have children complete the following statement: “I am unique because…” on construction paper, and post the statements around the room.
Learning About How Other Children Live* Devote class time to learning about other countries and cultures. Focus part of the discussion on how children live in these countries.
Positive Pin Drive*
Initiate a positive pin drive, in which students bring in pins with positive slogans and tack them in a central gathering area.
Multicultural Games and Activities*
Incorporate children’s games and activities of a variety of cultures during physical education class, recess and regular class times.
Listening Journal Have students keep a listening journal for one week. As they listen to the people in their lives and to the media, they will record in their journal examples of prejudice, as well as positive or courageous responses to it.
Read All About It
Designate a “diversity awareness month” during which students will read at least one book about someone with a different background than their own. Your school can prepare its own list of recommended books for students to read or you can consult the ADL Web site for suggestions (www.adl.org/bibliography). Design a reflection form that students complete to compare and contrast their own lives with the one in the book they read. Publish some of the most insightful student comments in a school publication or create a display in the library or another gathering place in the school.
Oral History Interview Teach students how to conduct an oral history interview. Then have students interview an older adult in their family to learn about their relative’s experience with bigotry, dis¬crimination or injustice. Display the written interviews and publish the best ones in a school or community news¬paper. Invite the students and their families to a public program at which some interview reports are read aloud and then discussed.
* Denotes projects specifically for younger students
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