The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) recognizes that teaching all standards to all students can be a challenge for educators with a limited amount of classroom time and resources. 

Teaching all standards to all students is an important way to ensure educational equity and provide a consistent learning arc for students across grades and districts. 

To rise to the challenge of integrating benchmarks into students' curriculum, MDE recommends bundling benchmarks. Bundling involves finding benchmarks that complement each other and grouping them together. Then, classroom activities can be designed to target that benchmark bundle.

Bundling is also a useful way to conceptualize the interdisciplinary learning objectives embedded into Ethnic Studies curricula. Because of MDE's advocacy for bundling, the lesson plans feature charts showing relevant Social Studies benchmarks across each Social Studies strand.

These lesson plans are intended to be flexible, while providing educators with a solid framework to build on. We welcome adaptation to better fit a classroom's needs, goals, and learning levels.  

1. Click the underlined, hyperlinked title of the lesson plan you'd like to check out.

2. A new tab will open in your browser.

3. The new tab will be a Google Folder of resources. The folder may contain labeled sub-folders of photographs, illustrations, texts, and other resources associated with the lesson(s). 

4. The primary Google Folder will contain a Google Doc lesson plan with ideas of how the included primary sources might be used in the classroom. The lesson plans are broken down into these sections:

• Purpose

The "Purpose" statement outlines the lesson's primary objective. 

• Learning Goals

"Learning Goals" break that objective down into constituent parts. 

• Historic Context

"Historic Context" provides a brief synopsis of the major events and people associated with the lesson plan.

• Pause and Prepare

"Pause and Prepare" offers points of reflection prior to teaching the lesson, including content warnings.

• Classroom Activity

The "Classroom Activity" includes ideas for how you might use the resources included in the lesson. 

• Additional Discussion Questions

"Additional Discussion Questions" offer other possible avenues for approaching the material with students.

• Contemporary Connections/Themes

"Contemporary Connections/Themes" suggests examples of current social issues and questions that relate to the lesson's major themes. 

• Selected Bibliography

The "Selected Bibliography" features resources that informed the creation of the lesson plan, as well as supplemental resources that may be useful.

• Social Studies Benchmarks

  • The "Social Studies Benchmarks" table indicates where and how each lesson might fit into Minnesota's 2022 K-12 Academic Standards in Social Studies.