Over the last few days, the national media has been covering an important and developing story in ADL’s Pacific Southwest Region: the racist and reprehensible comments of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. ADL’s National Director Abraham Foxman and Pacific Southwest Regional Director Amanda F. Susskind have been quoted in numerous press outlets expressing ADL’s condemnation of the bigoted words and sentiments attributed to Sterling. In an effort to help schools foster healthy and meaningful lessons with their students on this controversial national story, ADL’s Education Division has just released a new lesson plan in its Current Events Classroom for use with middle and high school students: “Responding to Bias: Donald Sterling of the L.A. Clippers.”
Using interactive exercises and small group work, this timely lesson plan allows students in grades 6 through 12 to: (1) learn more about the controversial comments Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s made about black people; (2) consider what they would do, taking on the perspective of different stakeholders; and (3) explore how other people and organizations responded and actions they took or proposed to take.
About Current Events Classroom:
Current Events Classroom is a collection of timely and relevant brief lesson plans from ADL’s Education Division that assist K-12 educators in teaching news topics and other issues of the day. Each lesson helps students analyze the topic through an anti-bias, diversity and social justice lens. All of ADL’s curricular resources are aligned with Common Core Anchor Standards.
For more information on educational resources available in ADL’s Pacific Southwest Region, contact A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® Institute Project Director Dave Reynolds at dreynolds@adl.org or (310) 446-4233.