Abstract
The project addressed the problem of instructors struggling to teach and discuss controversial issues in their classrooms. Through the literature review, a variety of practices and strategies presented a means for productively exploring volatile and passionately felt topics in the classroom without endangering or offending other students. Overall, the literature regarding the instruction of controversial issues is very limited, but from the available resources that exist, the handbook is a compilation of mini-lessons and suggested resources. The mini-lessons in the handbook comprise of literature based teaching methods, other handbooks, and literature suggestions by social studies researchers. The focus of the research regarding teaching controversial issues was based on the sever need for the discussion of controversial issues in the lower grades like middle and high school. In addition to providing resources, the literature consistently revealed many of the shortcomings of the topic.