Additional Curriculum Resources
Below is a list of online curriculums related to ethnic studies themes created by educators and organizations outside of OUSD. Click on the titles for links to materials.
The 1619 Project, a special issue of The New York Times Magazine, marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to Jamestown, Virginia with a series of essays, images, stories, and poems that challenge readers to reframe their understanding of U.S. history by considering 1619 as the start of this nation's story. Through over 30 visual and written pieces from historians, journalists, playwrights, poets, authors, and artists, the issue examines the following questions: How do societal structures developed to support the enslavement of black people, and the anti-black racism that was cultivated in the U.S. to justify slavery, influence many aspects of modern laws, policies, systems, and culture? How have resistance, innovation, and advocacy by black Americans over the course of American history contributed to the nation’s wealth and the strengthening of its democracy?
This college-level syllabus was created by NYU Professor Frank Leon Roberts and is offered to the public for free. With scaffolding, much of the material could be made accessible to 9th grade students. Most articles and videos are linked directly to online sources. Topics covered include: BLM and the Remaking of American Democracy; The Policy Demands of BLM; the Ethics of Disruptive Protest; Lessons from Ferguson, Baltimore, Flint and New York; #SayHerName; Election 2016; Legacies of Black Rebellion; The New Jim Crow; BLM’s Protest Populism; BLM’s LGBTQ Underpinnings; and The Futures of Black Lives Matter.
These are four mini-units developed and tested by OUSD teachers that are meant to accompany the PBS and Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) feature film "The Chinese Exclusion Act."
Find resources that accompany a visit to the Chinese Historical Society in San Francisco.
This document lists digital tool resources shared by ethnic studies teachers. Included are online resources for creating websites, infographics, animation, digital storytelling, visual mind maps, podcasts and online music editing.
The GSA Network is a next-generation LGBTQ racial and gender justice organization that empowers and trains queer, trans and allied youth leaders to advocate, organize and mobilize an intersectional movement for safer schools and healthier communities. They have created fantastic materials to support school site-based youth organizing that are applicable to both LGBTQ specific work and social justice issues in general. Their GSA Year Start Packet and Developing a Strategy process are excellent resources.
https://gsanetwork.org/resources/gsa-actions-events/developing-strategy
https://gsanetwork.org/files/resources/YearStart_Packet_2016-17.pdf
How Did We Get Here? A Regional History of the Bay Area (available in Spanish & English)
"How Did We Get Here? A Regional History of the Bay Area" is a comic book style zine that was produced by Urban Habitat. The full-color zine tells a the history of Bay Area housing, migration and displacement from 1940 to 2005. It is a great introduction to the Oakland regional history and housing justice topics. The folder linked above houses both the English and Spanish versions of the zine.
This unit was developed by a teacher in Cambridge Public Schools for inclusion in the Modern World History high school curriculum. It it grounded in the following essential questions: How can we unsettle and complicate common narratives about Africa? How do we move beyond stories of victimhood when studying about Africa? To what extent do current issues in Africa reflect past colonial policies? Is it possible for a nation to achieve justice for victims of past political oppression and violence? Why do many African nations struggle economically today? What signs of hope do we see on the continent?
Whitney Dwyer has taught this unit before and is a resource for questions about adapting it to your classroom.
The National Network of Teacher Activist Groups released this curriculum in 2012 in response to the attacks on ethnic studies in 2012. The No History is Illegal Curriculum is jam-packed with high quality lesson plans and student-facing materials. Lesson plans include: Let’s Take a Look for Ourselves; Banning Books: An Elementary Lesson; A Poetry Lesson: In Lak’ech; Hijacked by Social Justice?: A Role-Play on Mexican American Studies in Tucson; Freedom Letters; Chican@ Mexican@ History and the Chican@ Movement; and Freire’s Levels of Consciousness.
Re-Imagining Migration is a new organization created to foster understanding and the successful inclusion of immigrant youth across the globe. By providing resources and training to educators, we equip them to engage the children of migration and their peers to learn from one another in reflective learning environments. The goal of our work is to empower all students to become ethical and active participants in our interconnected world.
Social Justice curriculum books for purchase. Many of these books are available in hard copy in the Ethnic Studies Department lending library. Contact Young Whan to request a book.
Romeo is Bleeding is a great local resource for engaging students in dialogue about cycles of violence, trauma and healing. Description from the website: "From Executive Producer Russell Simmons and Director Jason Zeldes comes an award-winning documentary following Donté Clark, a young poet transcending the violence in his hometown by writing about his experiences. Growing up in Richmond, CA, a city haunted by a fatal turf war, Donté and the like-minded youth of the city mount an urban adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with the hope of starting a dialogue about violence in the city. Will Richmond crush Donté’s idealism? Or will Donté end Richmond’s cycle of trauma?"
As part of the required instructional program at all grade levels in San Francisco schools as dictated by the SFUSD Health Education Curriculum Policy, the district has created lessons for teaching about Family Diversity (Elementary) and Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity (Middle and High).
Project NIA, the Chicago Freedom School and Teachers for Social Justice partnered along with other volunteers to develop a curriculum guide to contribute to the ongoing efforts by young people and their adult allies to analyze the root causes of youth violence and create local solutions. At a time when frustration is running high and many are expressing a sense of powerlessness in the face of pervasive violence, this curriculum guide is an offering intended to make a positive contribution to the dialogue about violence in the lives of young people. The curriculum aims to challenge youth to think about the roots of violence in their lives; the enforcers and victims of violence; the effects of violence on both victims and perpetrators; and how violence can ultimately be minimized through systemic changes. The 382-page guide includes lesson plans on Understanding Oppression, Types of Violence Encountered by Young People, Artivism and Youth-Led Research and Organizing.
From film kits and lesson plans to the building blocks of a customized Learning Plan - texts, student tasks and teaching strategies - Teaching Tolerance resources will help you bring relevance, rigor and social emotional learning into your classroom. The materials span all grade levels and its content is divided into four social justice standards: Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action.
The University of New Mexico provides K-12 educators with the means of thoroughly exploring the Mexican Revolution and offers suggestions on how to incorporate the topic into their classrooms. It includes student-friendly background materials on the Mexican Revolution, detailed lesson plans with handouts and a bank of primary sources.
This is a visual timeline of youth led protest movements from 1903 to the present day. Some highlights include the Children's Crusade, Chicago Freedom Day Boycott, and Chicano Blowouts.
The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people’s history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. Based on the lens of history highlighted in Howard Zinn’s best-selling book, A People’s History of the United States, the website offers free, downloadable lessons and articles organized by theme, time period and reading level.