Curriculum

What can we learn from the hidden history of African American resistance to institutionalized racism in Santa Monica?

Students will learn about the diverse community of African American Santa Monicans who faced and resisted institutionalized racism in the late 19th and early to mid-20th century. After reviewing images from Santa Monica’s south beach community intended to pique students’ interest in this hidden history, students will read biographies of community members and log examples of institutional racism and acts of resistance and persistence. They will then engage in a meet and greet activity where they will dialogue with other historical actors, and gain a sense of the wide varieties of ways Black people resisted and persisted across time. As an assessment activity, students will compose and record a 30-60 second video/ or “exit ticket” expressing their ideas in response to the inquiry question.

How have shifts in land use in and around Mira Loma, CA contributed to evolving social justice movements?

This ethnic studies lesson plan explores the intersection of land, labor, and logistics in Mira Loma, CA, emphasizing the 4’Is of oppression, social justice, and sustainable development. It dives into Mira Loma’s history, along with the social justice movements emerging in response to the area’s growing logistics centers. The lesson encourages active learning and critical thinking through discussions, written reflections, and a creative task where students respond to the essential question through the creation of a comic strip. This lesson should take approximately three days or three, fifty-minute periods.

How do we remember our community’s history?

The purpose of this lesson is to reflect on how we remember the contributions of those who may not be as visible in the stories of our local communities, particularly historically marginalized groups. This calls into question how we think about the terms that we use for people in our communities as well as ourselves, and the changing nature of names, identities and narratives surrounding them.

This lesson focuses on the name of a street in the community of Redlands, California called “Oriental Avenue.” This was a predominantly Asian community and the site of anti-Chinese riots in 1893. “Oriental Ave.” was also the focus of a debate surrounding the street name and whether it should be changed in 2020.

Students will analyze primary and secondary sources to learn the story of the Chinese community in Redlands at the turn of the 20th century. In the context of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and the Geary Act of 1892, anti-Asian sentiment was reverberating not just in Redlands and surrounding Inland Empire and California communities, but across the United States.

How does food embody art, culture, and resistance?

This Source Set includes 6 sources exploring the importance of food among various ethnic groups. We recommend pairing this Source Set with one of our literacy strategies such as the DBI Poster or 7C’s of Critical Historical Analysis.

How does food help us understand our cultures and loved ones?

In this lesson, students explore how food can reveal stories about family, migration, and cultural exchange. They interview a family member or loved one about a meaningful meal and reflect on its personal and historical significance. Cooking the meal together is encouraged but optional.

What might we learn about our families from photos?

Familia or family is really important. Family can be people who are connected to you because they are related to you. They can also be people you live with and people you choose to call family. Many times families live far apart so abuelitas and abuelitos (grandmothers and grandfathers), tias (aunts), tios (uncles), cousins, madrinas y padrinos (godmothers and godfathers) step in and share family stories. All of those kinds of families participate in platicas to share love, ideas, joy, and support.

Platicas or conversations in the LatinX community are one way people or families come together and share stories, ideas, “dichos” or proverbs, music, and traditions. Many times the platicas happen at gatherings or parties. Other times they happen when a meal is being prepared over dinner or when stuck in traffic. A huge way that LatinX children and teenagers learn family and community stories is in this informal way of passing down traditions, culture, knowledge, music, wisdom, and joy.

Why does Ethnic Studies Matter?

Students will reflect on their relationship to school and learning. If students have found school boring, disengaging or irrelevant, we want them to make the connection that as Youth of Color, this is not a coincidence. Students will analyze primary and secondary sources showing how schools were historically used as tools of assimilation. Students who thrive in school can identify their resilience but also begin to critique the ways in which schools socialize us–often, at the expense of our roots, culture, uniqueness, and some parts of our identities.

Students will learn about the history of schooling in America, rooted in assimilation and xenophobia. Students will learn about these concepts through:
the East LA Blowouts of 1968 (list of students demands);
Carlisle Native American Boarding Schools;
Black Panther Party’s 10 Point Program demands about education;
UCLA History Geography Project’s Ethnic Studies Key Concepts.

By analyzing a timeline on the history of schools in the United States, students can explore how schools have changed due to the advocacy and activism by students and community members in working class communities of color.

By studying the history of schools and the origins and principles of ethnic studies, we will examine the ways in which we have experienced oppression at the hands of schooling institutions. We will also examine the ways in which we experience privilege in these institutions.

This primary and secondary source set will give us an opportunity to imagine ways in which schooling and learning can be less harmful, more healing, and can promote reimagination, freedom-dreaming, and joy. The demands students have made throughout history, give us examples of the ways in which we can continue to make demands for anti-oppressive/anti-racist schools. This unit will culminate in students creating their own list of demands, based on their needs and experiences today.

How can we right past wrongs against California’s Native Americans?

Between 1848 and 1873, the state of California, with assistance from local white settlers and the U.S. army, carried out a genocidal campaign to rid the state of its native peoples. Estimates vary, but between 9,000 and 16,000 native peoples from around the state were murdered in cold blood. Passage of discriminatory laws against native peoples allowed for the enslavement of native workers, forced assimilation of native children in boarding schools, and the confinement of surviving tribes to reservations. These policies and actions, in addition to disease, overwork, and starvation caused by the loss of land, resulted in what can only be classified as cultural and physical genocide. In 1846, the native population in California was estimated to have been 150,000. By 1860, it had dropped to 35,000. By 1910, the California Native population had plummeted to just over 16,000. No mention of this genocide appears in either the California History Social Studies Standards for 8th or 11th grade. Presently, students in California’s schools usually learn virtually nothing of this sad history, even as they study missions and the Gold Rush in detail. This lesson aims to rectify this situation.

This lesson focuses attention on both the genocide, and past and current efforts being made to make amends for this shameful episode in the state’s history. While offering a powerful case study for the analysis of how genocides take place, it also offers insights into how societies can attempt to heal the wounds of racist oppression. Students will learn about efforts that have enabled California tribes to recover lost lands and advocate for the preservation of their cultures. Additionally, they will learn about the truth and reconciliation process, and how South Africa and Greensboro, North Carolina implemented truth and reconciliation commissions to heal after significant racial trauma.*

At the end of the lesson, students will engage in a means of making amends to California’s native peoples: a letter to the governor, the design of a monument or other commemorative site or activity, the development of a guide to local sites related to the state’s indigenous past, or the creation of a work of art to commemorate California’s native peoples. It is hoped that by engaging in this lesson, students will have a much better sense of California statehood’s impact on indigenous Californians, as well as an acknowledgement that California’s native peoples continue to fight for rights and reparations for past and present wrongs.

How did youth in East L.A. and the San Gabriel Valley challenge discrimination and segregation in the 1950s? [11.8]

The purpose of this lesson is to provide an alternative to the traditional teaching of 1950s youth culture which emphasizes the origins of rock ‘n roll as mainly an East coast and Midwestern phenomena. This lesson localizes youth culture to the “Eastside”, or East L.A. and the San Gabriel Valley. Localizing history is important for students to see themselves and their communities in the narrative of U.S. history. We believe that this lesson does just that. Students are introduced to East L.A. and the San Gabriel Valley in the 1950s and explore it from the historical perspective of the youth culture, music, and dance that emerged during that time. The documents range from historian interpretations of this time period, to interviews with musicians and Art Laboe. The lesson also includes a “playlist” in the form of QR codes so that students can sample some of the “Eastside Sound”. This sound is engrained in L.A. culture. It is the soundtrack for lowriders cruising Whittier Blvd., for backyard parties (“Carne Asadas”), and teenage romances. We hope this lessons gives context for this unique sound and helps students understand that the youth in the 1950s responded to racism and segregation by being creative and forging their own unique and enduring culture.