Explore the Curriculum

Uncovering Southern California's Industrial Tapestry:  A New Approach to Career Exploration 

Created by Daniel Pilchman, Woodbridge High School, Irvine USD

This unit, designed for 10th-12th grade students at Woodbridge High School in Irvine, California, combines self-exploration, historical research, and real-world interviews to help students understand Southern California's robust and culturally vibrant manufacturing, engineering, and creative industries. The unit emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of animatronics, blending technical skills with artistic vision and historical awareness. 

Career Analysis through a Social Justice Lens

Created by Jonathan Palafox, Da Vinci Schools, El Segundo CA 

In this six-week unit, students research a career of interest and examine the historical, economic, and systemic factors that may impact their professional future. Throughout, they analyze quantitative data related to career demographics, salary ranges, and job outlook projections; research and interview professionals in their desired field; and create peer-to-peer resources to support others in career exploration and analysis.

Exploring Sexual Health Misconceptions

Created by Isla, Health Educator, Corona-Norco USD 

This week-long lesson sequence empowers students with essential reproductive health knowledge, media literacy skills, and an understanding of health equity. Students will use their crticial literacy skills and knowledge of the reproductive system and sexual health to become “Health Myth Busters.” By investigating viral health trends and reproductive health misinformation on social media, students develop and demonstrate their ability to critically evaluate digital sources and differentiate credible medical information from unsupported claims. 

Building and Repairing Caregiver-Child Relationships

Created by Kiana Sanchez, English Language Arts & Health Teacher

This 11-day unit for 9th and 10th grade Health Science students focuses on the significant impact of caregiver relationships on students' lives and learning experiences. It invites students to explore various styles of caregiver relationships, understand influencing factors, and learn strategies for rebuilding and repairing these relationships. The unit embraces the diversity of students' backgrounds and emphasizes the importance of caregiver-child relationships in shaping students' interpretations of themselves, popular media, and the world around them.

Historical and Social Science Analysis Skills

Created by Leonel Ramirez Valadez, Grade 6-8 Social Science Teacher

In this two-week introductory unit, students explore identity, community, and historical analysis through activities like timelines, “I Am” poems, and community maps. By combining personal reflection with key social science skills, this unit fosters critical thinking, builds classroom connections, and empowers students to think deeply about their role in the world.  

Navigate to Justice: Your Community Resource Compass

Created by Selena Sanchez, High School Social Science Teacher 

In this week-long unit, students identify a social justice issue that affects their community and the people and organizations working to address the issue. They then create an interactive community map to help others find resources to meet their immediate needs, identify short and long term supports, and work towards sustainable, collaborative solutions.

Reclaiming Wealth, Rewriting Myths

Created by Suzette Araniva, Green Design Steam Academy, Los Angeles USD

This unit, designed for 12th-grade economics students at Green Design Steam Academy in Los Angeles addresses the contemporary issues faced by the Latino community, particularly in South Central Los Angeles. Over the course of five days, students explore the concept of wealth from both economic and cultural perspectives, analyze labor force data, challenge myths about immigration and economic impact, and gain a deeper understanding of economic justice and community resilience.  

Our Community, Our Costs: Investigating the 2028 Olympics

Created by Tanya Paz Baca, Synergy Quantum Academy, Los Angeles

In this mini-unit, students explore the economic impact that major world sporting events, such as the Olympics, have on Los Angeles. Students examine data, maps, and multiple sources to analyze how the needs, wants, and scarcity of resources shape everyday life in their neighborhood and how large-scale events can shift community priorities. Throughout, they use economic thinking tools—like cost-benefit analysis—to weigh the short-term promises and long-term consequences of hosting the 2028 Olympics. Students' culminating task is to create an evidence-based PSA that answers the question: Will the 2028 Olympics benefit or harm Los Angeles?

What's in a Name? Identity, Culture, and Storytelling

Created for 9th grade Social Science & Ethnic Studies

Grounded in Ethnic Studies principles, this lesson helps students reflect on their personal and family histories while practicing respectful dialogue and active listening. Through storytelling, creative expression, and media analysis, students begin to see names not just as labels, but as living connections to heritage, resilience, and self-understanding. This lesson is part of a larger effort to make classrooms places of belonging, curiosity, and transformation.

More than One Story: Centering Student Voice in ELD

Created by Lina Mousa, Arabic & ELD teacher, Western High School, Anaheim Union HSD

This 5-day unit designed for 7th and 8th grade ELD students in Anaheim, California, focuses on storytelling, language learning, and identity exploration for emergent multilingual students. Throughout, it emphasizes the importance of multilingual expression and cultural identity, encouraging students to share their stories and use both English and their home languages. The unit aims to create a safe space for students to feel valued and proud of their backgrounds, promoting linguistic inclusion, expansion, and justice.

Reflecting on Genocide

Created by Lindsay Cano, Ethnic Studies/English Language Arts Teacher, Adelanto High School, Victor Valley Union HSD  

In this month long unit designed for 10th grade Ethnic Studies English Language Arts, students examine how historical genocides shape the cultural identity, resilience, and collective memory of the community that survived them.  Students develop their research, analysis and writing skills as they examine a specific genocide through the lens of the Spiral of Injustice and present their findings through a well-organized, culturally sensitive website. The project will deepen understanding of the stages leading to genocide, its impact, and the forms of resistance.  Throughout, students consider how researching and sharing the experiences of a community affected by genocide helps preserve their memory and inspire ongoing learning and action to prevent future injustices.

What is Your Story? Exploring Social Justice through "I Am Malala" 

Created by Melissa Rodriguez, Intervention and ELA Teacher, Eastvale CA

This three week unit invites students to think critically about issues of injustice through the lens of Malala Yousafzai's memoir, I Am Malala. Students explore themes of identity, resilience, advocacy, and social justice while learning about cultural differences and societal inequities. As they analyze Malala's story, students are encouraged to reflect on their own identities, understand external factors that shape them, and consider how they can use their voices to advocate for change in their own communities. 

Oral Histories & Identity as Critical Lenses

Created by Natalie B. Vargas, English Language Arts Teacher

This unit builds upon 11th grade students' analysis of the American Dream in literature, inviting them to explore identity, justice, and storytelling through the creation and critical analysis of oral histories.  Over the course of 3 weeks, students engage in interviews, research, multimedia creation, and literary (re)interpretation. The unit culminates in a multimedia project where students synthesize their knowledge of themself, their interviewee, and themes from core texts as they reflect on justice, identity, and the evolving meaning of the American Dream in their communities.

Who am I? Identity, Power and Telling our Own Stories

Created by Paola Rosenberg, Science Teacher and Plurilingual Curriculum Specialist,  Anaheim Union High School District 

In this month long unit designed for students who are developing their English language proficiency, students critically examine core ethnic studies concepts (power, social identity, resistance, and systemic analysis) as they create a shared vocabulary and analytical framework for a year long ethnic studies course.  Throughout, students explore how we build our identities, not just as individuals, but also as members of families, communities, and a larger society, and how individuals and communities can learn to tell their stories and speak up for themselves.

Novel Selection and Community Change

Created by Trinity, English Language Arts Teacher, Garden Grove USD

This 9-day unit designed for 7th and 8th grade students in Garden Grove, California encourages critical thinking and advocacy through the novel selection process. Using "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" as a core text, students explore themes of power, inequality, and social change.  This unit centers students' critical analysis of literature, explores the importance of representation in literature, and encourages student voice in the novel selection process. 

Mapping Inequality in 10th Grade Geometry

Created by Anel Ruiz, Synergy Quantum Academy, Los Angeles 

This three-day lesson sequence serves as a culminating project for a coordinate geometry unit. Students will apply their knowledge of the distance formula and midpoint formula (including derivation) to analyze local, real-world disparities in resource distribution, framed within the historical context of redlining in the United States.  Students then create a data-driven handout to share their findings with community members.

Thinking Critically Through Mathematics: Exploring Functions in Algebra 1

Created by Daniel Zarusa, Synergy Quantum Academy, Los Angeles

This unit, designed for students in both Algebra 1 and a math support class at Synergy Quantum Academy in Los Angeles, CA focuses on scaffolding and reinforcing students' understanding of functions and their application in diverse contexts, emphasizing real-world scenarios and social justice themes. By interpreting graphs and functions in local, real-world contexts, students learn that math is about more than just equations and develop the skills to become informed citizens ready to use math as they tackle societal challenges.

 After School Activities and Equal Access For All Students: Exploring Measures of Center (Mean, Median & Mode)

Created by Laurie Zamora, Middle School Math, Science & Business teacher at Virtual Enterprises

In this five day unit exploring Measures of Center - Mean, Median and Mode, students use their mathematical knowledge to explore inequity in access to and participation in after school activities for middle school students.   Students practice the methods to calculate these measures, collect data within their classroom, explore trends in equity and access, and formulate a plan to create awareness and promote equal access to after school activities. 

Deportation in the U.S.: Graphing in Real World Contexts

Created by Raquel Gudino, Math teacher, Orange Unified School District

In this lesson, designed for 9th graders in an Integrated Mathematics course, students examine deportation trends in the United States between 1977 and 2024.  Throughout, they watch videos about, discuss, and research deportation policies across the US, and use mathematical thinking to understand and illustrate the impact of deportation within and beyond their local community.

Sequences and Functions in My Community

Created by Thi Ngoc Tram Nguyen, Manual Arts High School, Los Angeles USD

Designed for 11th-grade Algebra 2 students at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, this three-day mini-unit fosters critical thinking and advocacy skills by using real-life contexts from South Central LA. Each lesson is designed to promote conceptual understanding and critical awareness of mathematical systems and patterns that shape their community.  As students use math to explore local community issues, they develop their academic confidence and readiness to use math to understand social problems and advocate for positive change.  

Ecology, Justice and Student Voice: Understanding Living Systems and How We Can Protect the Earth

Created by Eric Frias, Biology and SAI teacher at Rowland High School 

Designed to support multilingual students and students with IEPs, this 7-week unit brings together NGSS-aligned biology concepts, including energy flow, nutrient cycles, population dynamics, and ecological relationships, with real-world activism and equity-based learning. Throughout, students don’t just study nature, they explore their own connections to land, culture, community, and climate. Culminating projects include the creation of a Nature Walk Poster and a brochure, video or presentation highlighting ways they will take action to care for the planet.

Civil Blood Makes Civil Hands Unclean: Reimagining Romeo & Juliet through a Social Justice Lens

Created by Jenny McClintock, Theater Teacher, Huntington Beach High School

This 20-lesson unit brings Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to life by combining a focus on performance with an exploration of the historical and social context of the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 in Southern California. In this performance-based unit, students analyze the text, critically engage with themes of identity, race, and social conflict, and use their characters to explore broader issues of civic participation and social justice. Throughout, students are invited to critically reflect upon societal norms, build empathy, and connect Shakespeare’s timeless themes to their own lived experiences and the broader societal issues of today.