Welcome!

The Ethnic Studies lesson plans featured on this website were created through St. Paul Public Schools and Minneapolis Public Schools' partnership with Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies (RIDGS) at the University of Minnesota.

Ethnic Studies courses are intersectional, interdisciplinary, and student-centered.

They ask us to use our knowledge of the past to better understand our present.

Note: The lesson plans on this site are still in draft form and are undergoing revisions in content and structure.

Read more about this project's development

Camila Rosa, "The Truth Matters," Amplifier Art.

How to use these lesson plans

You are welcome to use these lesson plans and primary source packets in any way that may be most useful in your classes. They are open source, so feel free to modify them to better fit your particular needs and share them with other educators.

The plans list the Social Studies standards and benchmarks each lesson may potentially address. Lessons may be tailored to fit a different grade level than that originally indicated by the listed benchmarks.

The majority of the featured lesson plans were built around historical primary sources, providing context for the major themes of Ethnic Studies coursework.

The lesson plans have been organized by theme:

Learn more about how to access and use RIDGS' primary source packets

Lesson Plans

Poster reading "Honor the Treaties." A small child in a yellow shirt is raising their hands toward the sky, which is the orange and yellow of the rising sun.

Origins, Identity, and Narrative

Who are we and where did we come from?

Poster showing a brown skinned woman with long black hair is sitting at a table and reading a book that says on the cover, "History Repeats Itself Unless We Learn From It." The word "From" is crossed out.

Resistance and Liberation

How have people worked together to resist injustice?

Poster showing, in its lower right corner, a yellow forklift that has torn up green sod. The forklift is standing in a dirty hole. Flourishing green sod extends upward. The poster reads "Extravista. Regenerativo." Extravista is crossed out.

Systems of Power and Oppression

How have structures of power impacted our lives and shaped who we are?

Poster showing six Black and brown people painting an ornate, colorful, floral mural on a yellow wall. The mural features text that reads: "Our future deserves us." A little girl in a pink dress holds a cardboard sign that says "We Are Unstoppable."

Transformation, Hope, Action, and Change

How can we visualize and create a caring and equitable future for everyone?

Teaching Ethnic Studies

Ethnic Studies is a vibrant, growing academic field with its own associated pedagogical strategies and practices. Ethnic Studies pedagogy is intended to foster students' critical thinking skills and critical consciousness while encouraging them to reflect on broad themes of identity, power, and social systems. Ethnic Studies holds space for histories and identities often unrepresented in past curricula, due to white supremacy and patriarchy.

Ethnic Studies strives to provide students with a foundation for questioning why contemporary and historic injustices exist, how people (past and present) have resisted those injustices, and what actions we can take today to shape our world.

Illustration of a Cuban man with short dark hair, wearing a blue tank top. He is standing, and his head is slightly turned to look into the distance. He is standing against a gradated red background. Text on the poster reads in capital letters, "La verdad una vez despierta no vuelve a dormirse!" The quote is by José Marti.

Nurul Yaqin, "The Truth," Amplifier.

Learn more about Ethnic Studies pedagogy

Questions?

Please contact RIDGS (ridgs@umn.edu) with questions about any of these lesson plans.

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