DePaul University is a private Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, DePaul is the largest Catholic university in terms of enrollment in North America. Following in the footsteps of its founders, DePaul places special emphasis on recruiting first-generation students and others from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Office of Innovative Professional Learning (OIPL) within the College of Education at DePaul has supported K-12 educators with customized professional learning experiences.  OIPL provides K-12 educators and others with learning that extends the mission of DePaul to support development of social justice, civic action, and educator effectiveness through innovative models of learning that support educators and K-12 students in becoming positive agents of change in the world.  The Office of Innovative Professional Learning (OIPL) in partnership with the Barat Education Foundation (BEF) has supported this work with grants through the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Program.  The innovative and distinctive programs developed by OIPL and BEF have impacted thousands of educators and students with cutting edge models of civic engagement and transformative personal and professional learning aimed at building connection and community. 

RISE:  TPS Equity and Empowerment Program and Micro-credential

DePaul University’s Office of Innovative Professional Learning in collaboration with its TPS partner the Barat Education Foundation (BEF) developed the RISE: Equity and Empowerment program along with a micro-credential for educators.  Educators can participate in learning the RISE program and with implementation of the lesson plans may earn a competency based micro-credential from DePaul University.

The RISE program integrates the RISE (Reflection, Inquiry, Self-awareness, Empathy) framework (developed by DePaul) into the Primary Source Analysis tool from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program along with the CARE (Creating Authentic Responsive Engagement) (developed by DePaul) which focuses on teacher and student wellness so that the power of Primary Sources is leveraged for growth, insight, and change. 

Using the Library digitized primary sources and on-line learning materials, the RISE: TPS Equity and Empowerment program provides the teacher professional learning and accompanying lesson plans to equip middle school students nationally with the core knowledge, skills and dispositions to promote racial equity and justice within their schools and communities.

RISE is a distinctive program that supports teachers in the use of Primary Sources to integrate equity and empowerment in their teaching to support students in building skills of reflection, inquiry, self-awareness and empathy in order to become citizens who are civic activists in support of equity.  

The RISE: TPS Equity and Empowerment Program and micro-credential consists of four components including the Primary Sources from the Library which are integrated throughout:


The RISE: TPS Equity and Empowerment program consists of eight modules which may be used in sequence or separately.  The modules include:

Module 1: Primary Sources in History for Change Introductory Lesson: Racism Defined

The RISE TPS Library of Congress Equity and Empowerment Program utilizes the emotive power of Primary Sources from the Library of Congress with the RISE Framework to provide teachers and students with pathways to become equity-driven, civic-minded, and empowered with empathy. 

In this module teachers are provided with ways to use the first strategy of RISE using inquiry and reflection with Library of Congress Primary Sources as tools to dismantle racism, examine their personal experience with race and define race and racism as a foundation to equity-driven teaching and leading.  

The lesson plan of the module will facilitate for students a study of race and racism in a historical context using primary sources.  Students will understand  how definitions of race have changed over time, how systems of racial oppression have developed over time, the historical roots of contemporary struggles over race and racism and be empowered  to combat racism today.

Module 2: Using Primary Sources to Build Relationships and Positive Culture

The RISE TPS Library of Congress Equity and Empowerment Program utilizes the emotive power of Primary Sources from the Library of Congress with the RISE Framework to provide teachers and students with pathways to become equity-driven, civic-minded, and empowered with empathy. 

In this module teachers are provided with tools  to grow the impact and use of the Library of Congress primary sources to dismantle racism, increase self-awareness and understanding of historic causes of racism and increase empathy to dismantle racism

The lesson plan of the module will provide students with experiences to create a space to explore their identity, feelings, beliefs, and actions related to racial equity, discuss who they are by examining Library of Congress primary sources and build skills of cognitive empathy for others using Library of Congress primary sources.  

Module 3: Primary Sources for Self -Awareness with RISE

The RISE TPS Library of Congress Equity and Empowerment Program utilizes the emotive power of Primary Sources to hold the key information of the context and culture of the past which has informed the present. Primary sources are a direct link to the past that promotes inquiry, self-awareness, empathy and critical thinking. 

In this module teachers are provided with tools, resources and strategies to examine history as vital to creating positive change, grow the impact and use of the Library of Congress primary sources to dismantle racism, increase self-awareness and understanding of historic causes of racism and increase empathy to dismantle racism.

The lesson plan of the module will provide experiences through the use of primary sources and RISE analysis guide and tools that will allow students to identify how history impacts our bias and view of racial equity, explore their own bias using Library of Congress primary sources and build skills of self-awareness to deepen anti-racism skills.

Module 4: Primary Sources to Build Empathy with RISE

The RISE TPS Library of Congress Equity and Empowerment Program utilizes the emotive power of Primary Sources from the Library of Congress with the RISE Framework to provide teachers and students with pathways to become equity-driven, civic-minded, and empowered with empathy.

In this module teachers are provided with ways to grow the impact and use of the Library of Congress primary sources to dismantle racism, increase their empathy , understand the historic causes of racism and Increase empathy to dismantle racism.

The lesson plan of the module will show students how to use empathy to transform connections. Students will continue to have learning experiences what will give

The purpose of this experience is to help and support students to identify how their view of history can grow our empathy, develop historical empathy of others using Library of Congress primary sources and create empathy to deepen anti-racism skills. 

Module 5: Primary Sources as Keys to Empathy and Civic Action with RISE 

The RISE TPS Library of Congress Equity and Empowerment Program utilizes the emotive power of Primary Sources from the Library of Congress with the RISE Framework to provide teachers and students with pathways to become equity-driven, civic-minded, and empowered with empathy.

In this module teachers are provided with tools to grow the impact and use of the Library of Congress primary sources to dismantle racism, examine how reflection, inquiry, self-awareness, and empathy can lead to civic action projects and identify strategies to use primary sources to support students in passion projects that are civic action.

The lesson plan of the module will use RISE tools to guide students through 3 levels of empathy to Civic Action: cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, compassionate empathy.  Students will racial equity civic action projects grounded in high attention and high commitment throughout the learning process. 

The purpose of this experience is to create opportunities for students to identify what they believe about racial equity and what is important to them, examine their own civic action passion project ideas and launch a racial equity civic action passion project.   

Module 6: Primary Sources to Build Civic Identity Using RISE

The RISE TPS Library of Congress Equity and Empowerment Program utilizes the emotive power of Primary Sources from the Library of Congress with the RISE Framework to provide teachers and students with pathways to become equity-driven, civic-minded, and empowered with empathy.

In this module teachers are provided with tools to grow the impact and use of the Library of Congress primary sources to dismantle racism, examine how reflection, inquiry, self-awareness, and empathy can lead to civic mindedness and action and identify strategies to use primary sources to inspire civic mindedness and racial equity driven civic action.

The lesson plan of the module will prepare students to use the RISE analysis guide as a framework to use primary sources for civic identity exploration and development through civic identity mapping. 

The purpose of this experience is for students to: use primary sources to examine historical events, use the inspiration of primary source RISE analysis to examine their racial equity civic identity, identify how they can impact racial equity through their civic mindedness and make a personal commitment to civic action. 

Module 7: Using Primary Sources for Equity and Empowerment

The RISE TPS Library of Congress Equity and Empowerment Program utilizes the emotive power of Primary Sources from the Library of Congress with the RISE Framework to provide teachers and students with pathways to become equity-driven, civic-minded, and empowered with empathy.

In this module teachers will be introduced to the Library of Congress and the Teaching with Primary Sources program. At the conclusion on this module teachers will be able to define primary sources and discuss how they can spark student inquiry, particularly around issues of racial equity. Teachers will also be able to define and distinguish between racism, non-racism, and anti-racism. During this module teachers will continue engaging in learning how to use the RISE analysis guide. They observe  racial equity in their school and share with a primary source. Participants will then consider places in their school or life where they can take action and then pick a primary source that matches that vision for racial equity. Teachers will then spend time working on how to pull this together in their own classroom. They will create a plan of how they will share this learning with their students and submit.

The lesson plan of the module will explicitly teach students how to use primary sources from the Library of Congress to empower their school communities to RISE united for equity and empathy. Students will work with their own teachers through a series of lessons using primary sources to define racial equity and to prepare for the group sessions during which time students come together from different schools to develop a common understanding of racism and racial justice, identify challenges to racial equity and justice in their schools and communities. Students return to their schools and conduct an Individual School Analysis and work in their classroom to create a vision board depicting and explaining how they will know their school is racially just. All students come back together from all schools and share their vision boards and explore collaborative opportunities to champion racial equity and justice across the community. Collectively, students will define anti-racism and racism. Students will share their vision of racial justice in their school and what would social justice look like in their school.

Module 8: Primary Sources for Personal Transformation Using RISE

The RISE TPS Library of Congress Equity and Empowerment Program utilizes the emotive power of Primary Sources from the Library of Congress with the RISE Framework to provide teachers and students with pathways to become equity-driven, civic-minded, and empowered with empathy.

In this module the facilitators will use primary sources to hold discussions with teachers about the previous sessions. Facilitators and teachers will discuss the impact of RISE on them.  This will be followed by discussions about what is needed moving forward and bringing the sessions to closure. 

There is no lesson plan for this module. It is recommended that teachers create opportunities for students to reflect on their learning and the impact of learning about racism with primary sources. Teachers will want to design this lesson based on the community they have established with students. Other considerations teachers may want to think about is what is the best structure to facilitate the discussions.