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Lesson 1: The Fight for Equality and Justice in Oregon: The Day of Acknowledgement
This lesson introduces the curriculum through documents from the 1999 Day of Acknowledgement ceremony held in the Oregon legislature. Students learn about the multicultural history they will study and brainstorm strategies to deal with the various feelings that may arise during classroom discussions of discrimination. This lesson is designed to help the students and teacher feel more comfortable talking about social justice issues and set a positive learning atmosphere for the remaining nine lessons.
Lesson 2: What Difference Does Difference Make?
Students create a personal cultural assessment and discuss the implications of it. The activities help students to understand that – regardless of our cultural background or upbringing – we all struggle with bias and racist ideas.
Lesson 3: Power & Privilege: The Roots of Inequality
Students explore the concept of Manifest Destiny, and learn more about westward expansion and the settlement of Oregon by whites. Students debate land ownership from the perspectives of individuals from various ethnic and racial backgrounds.
Lesson 4: American Indians in Early Oregon
Students explore the American Indian perspective both before and after white settlement in Oregon.
Lesson 5: Our Oregon Trail: Family Migration Stories
Students begin to personalize their understanding of Oregon history by interviewing relatives about their own families' migration to Oregon. Students also learn more about the immigration of various ethnic groups to Oregon.
Lesson 6: Closed doors, Closed Minds: Asian Exclusion in Oregon
Students explore the reasons members of various Asian groups came to Oregon, and study the contributions they made once here. Students also learn about the early exclusion of Chinese and Japanese people from Oregon as well as the Japanese Internment during World War II.
Lesson 7: Courage and Resilience: The African-American Fight for Civil Rights in Oregon
Students learn about the history of African Americans in Oregon, explore their reasons for migrating and laws that attempted to keep them out of the Oregon territory and state. Using several key historical and current events, students examine the attitudes and beliefs that whites held about blacks, and learn about the actions taken by African Americans and their allies to fight for civil rights.
Lesson 8: Roots in Many Cultures: Latinos in Oregon
Students study the migration of Latinos to Oregon, including the reasons they came, their contributions to the economic development of Oregon, and contemporary issues that Hispanics in Oregon face.
Lesson 9: Finding Allies and a Collective Voice
Students review the injustices that they have studied in the previous lessons, learn about the important role of being an ally across racial lines, and brainstorm the various things they can do to combat racial injustices. A primary goal of this lesson is to help student see themselves as allies for each other and to identify a project or activity they can do to collectively address the injustices they see.
Lesson 10: Our Day of Acknowledgement—Planning, Reflection & Assessment
This lesson contains tools and resources to help students collectively speak out against the injustices that they see, either by planning their own Day of Acknowledgement or taking on another community project related to racial justice. This lesson also contains tools that help students 1) reflect on the things they have learned , 2) evaluate the success of their chosen community project, and 3) receive acknowledgement for their participation in the lessons and activities.
The curriculum also contains a glossary and bibliography with numerous supplemental resources.
In recognition of the standards that Oregon students need to meet, we have written this with the CIM’s and Social Science standards in mind. Through a variety of learning activities students will be involved in improving broader skills such as listening, speaking, critical thinking, co-operative learning.