Overview
Facing History & Ourselves is a resource cited in Chapter 5 of the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. This collection of Facing History resources aligns with the four main content themes of the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (Identity, History and Movement, Systems of Power, Social Movements and Equity - more information can be found in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum). Our content resources and pedagogical approaches support educators in cultivating reflective classrooms, fostering civic engagement, and deepening understanding of pivotal historical events.
Cultivating Identity Literacy
Students learn about a project, created by two young adults, that engaged people across the country in conversations about race, identity, and culture. Then they start to envision what sharing their own stories can look, sound, and feel like.
The Complexity of Identity
Students explore the relationship between the individual and society by creating identity charts for a contemporary novelist, a children's book character, and themselves.
Lessons of Cultural Intimacy
In this TED Talk, Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo reflect on the year they spent engaging in conversations with people across the country about identity, race, and culture.
Identity and Names
Students begin to explore the concept of identity by considering how our names represent who we are and reflect our relationship to society.
Connecting the Past to the Present Using Oral History
This strategy helps students engage with oral histories in order to deepen their understanding of how past events impacted individuals and communities, and to gain new perspectives on the present.
Understanding Universe of Obligation
Students are introduced to the concept of "universe of obligation" and prompted to illustrate circle of individuals who they feel a responsibility to care for and protect.
Borders & Belonging
This modular ELA collection for grades 7–12 invites students to explore the complicated world of belonging and the tangible and intangible borders that shape it.
Angel Island Immigration Station: Exploring Borders and Belonging in US History
This 5-7 day C3-aligned inquiry explores the compelling question “How does the history of the Angel Island Immigration Station help us understand how borders are erected, enforced, and challenged?”
Why Do People Migrate?
In this mini-lesson, students reflect on stories of migration and learn about migration from El Salvador to the United States as a means of exploring the underlying factors that drive migration.
What Is Our Obligation To Asylum Seekers?
This lesson helps students understand how the United States’ complex asylum process works. Invite them to consider the question, who has an obligation to asylum seekers?
The Legacies of Chinese Exclusion
This lesson teaches students about the Chinese Exclusions Act, an immigration law passed in 1882, and its lasting impact on attitudes toward citizenship and national identity in the United States today.
Becoming American Study Guide
This guide to accompany the film Becoming American helps students investigate identity and belonging through the stories of generations of Chinese immigrants in the United States and their paths to "becoming American."
Becoming American: The Chinese Experience
Watch the 3-part series that explores the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act
Americans and the Holocaust: The Refugee Crisis
Explore the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism and the humanitarian refugee crisis it provoked during the 1930s and 1940s.
Japanese American Incarceration in WWII: A US History Inquiry
This C3-aligned inquiry explores the compelling question "What can we learn from the stories of Japanese Americans who stood up for their democratic rights and freedoms?"
Asian Americans: Breaking Ground
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In episode one, new immigrants arrive from China, India, Japan, the Philippines, and beyond. Eventually barred by anti-Asian laws, they become America’s first “undocumented immigrants.”
What is Power?
Students define power and then analyze five perspectives about power in order to understand its many sources and the different ways it can be experienced.
Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement
Use this resource on the Eugenics movement of the early 1900s to deepen students' understanding of the history of racism in the United States.
Race: The Power of an Illusion (The Difference Between Us)
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The first episode in the three-part series Race: The Power of an Illusion explores if differences exist in biological variation on the basis of race.
Race: The Power of an Illusion (The Story We Tell)
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The second episode in the three-part series Race: The Power of an Illusion questions the belief that race has always been with us.
Race: The Power of an Illusion (The House We Live In)
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The final episode of the three-part series "Race: The Power of an Illusion" focuses on the ways our institutions and policies advantage some groups at the expense of others.
Policing and the Legacy of Racial Injustice
This series of mini-lessons is designed to help students think critically about the long and troubling history between law enforcement and Black Americans.
White Nationalism
This Explainer is intended to describe key characteristics of the white nationalist ideology and clarify some of the terms surrounding it. It is important to note that many of the beliefs described here are based on false and dangerous assumptions.
Standing Up to Hatred and Intolerance
Address today's global challenges with lesson plans focused on current events including the refugee crisis and contemporary antisemitism.
Latinx Rights in 1960s California
Explore two pivotal moments in the Latinx rights movement in California: the East LA school walkouts and the first year of the Delano grape strike.
Chicano! Episode 1: Quest for Homeland
This episode of Chicano! examines the beginnings of a national movement for social justice by profiling Reies Lopez Tijerina and the 1966–1967 land grant movement in New Mexico.
Art, Imagination, and the Quest for Racial Justice
In this mini-lesson, students learn about the power of art as a tool for social change and explore how Black Lives Matter activists are using art in the fight for racial justice.
Black Women’s Activism and the Long History Behind #MeToo
Use this mini-lesson to help your students draw connections between the long history of Black women’s activism against sexual violence and gender discrimination with the #MeToo movement today.
Voting Rights in the United States
In this mini-lesson, students learn about the history of voting rights in the United States and consider how current voting laws in different states impact voters today.
Eyes on the Prize Study Guide
This guide provides a framework for using the landmark documentary film Eyes on the Prize as a tool for teaching the civil rights movement.
Three Visions for Achieving Equal Rights
Students examine the strategies of three key civil rights leaders, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael.
- Identity - The question “Who am I?” is especially critical for students during adolescence. Understanding identity is not only valuable for students’ own social, moral, and intellectual development, it also serves as a foundation for examining the choices made by individuals and groups in the histories they will engage with in Ethnic Studies. Our approach also helps students consider how social identities such as race, gender, and class impact individual experiences and outcomes.
- Lesson: The Complexity of Identity - Students explore the relationship between the individual and society by creating identity charts for a contemporary novelist, a children's book character, and themselves.
- Lesson: Cultivating Identity Literacy - Students learn about a project, created by two young adults, that engaged people across the country in conversations about race, identity, and culture. Then they start to envision what sharing their own stories can look, sound, and feel like. Also related: Lessons of Cultural Intimacy (TED Talk)
- Lesson: Identity and Names - Students begin to explore the concept of identity by considering how our names represent who we are and reflect our relationship to society. This lesson is from the unit My Part of the Story: Exploring Identity in the United States.
- Teaching Strategy: Connecting Past to Present Using Oral History - This strategy helps students engage with oral histories in order to deepen their understanding of how past events impacted individuals and communities, and to gain new perspectives on the present.
- Lesson: Understanding Universe of Obligation - In this lesson, students are introduced to the concept of "universe of obligation" and prompted to illustrate a circle of individuals who they feel a responsibility to care for and protect.
- Lesson: Stories of Identity and Belonging - Students read and discuss personal narrative essays and consider what factors can make it challenging for young people to be who they really want to be in the world.
- History and Movement - Through inquiry-based study students will develop a nuanced understanding of history by exploring multiple perspectives, analyzing the impact of time on ideas and institutions, and recognizing the influence of diverse groups. Our teaching materials are designed to help them examine the agency and choices of individuals, groups, and institutions, understanding their responsibility for historical events and drawing connections to contemporary social issues.
- Collection: Borders & Belonging - This modular ELA collection for grades 7–12 invites students to explore the complicated world of belonging and the tangible and intangible borders that shape it.
- Inquiry Unit: Angel Island - Exploring Borders and Belonging in US History - This 5-7 day C3-aligned inquiry explores the compelling question “How does the history of the Angel Island Immigration Station help us understand how borders are erected, enforced, and challenged?”
- Lesson: Why Do People Migrate? - In this mini-lesson, students reflect on stories of migration and learn about migration from El Salvador to the United States as a means of exploring the underlying factors that drive migration.
- Lesson: What is our Obligation to Asylum Seekers? - Help students understand how the United States’ complex asylum process works. Invite them to consider the question, who has an obligation to asylum seekers?
- Lesson: Legacies of Chinese Exclusion - Teach students about the Chinese Exclusions Act, an immigration law passed in 1882, and its lasting impact on attitudes toward citizenship and national identity in the United States today.
- Viewing Guide: Becoming American, The Chinese Experience - This guide to accompany the film Becoming American helps students investigate identity and belonging through the stories of generations of Chinese immigrants in the United States and their paths to "becoming American."
- Lesson: Americans and the Holocaust: The Refugee Crisis - Explore the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism and the humanitarian refugee crisis it provoked during the 1930s and 1940s.
- Japanese American Incarceration in WWII: A US History Inquiry - This C3-aligned inquiry explores the compelling question "What can we learn from the stories of Japanese Americans who stood up for their democratic rights and freedoms?"
- Documentary: Asian Americans (PBS) - Available to stream directly from the Facing History website. The Asian Americans PBS series consists of five episodes which outline the impact and role of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders throughout US history and the present day.
- Lesson: Confronting History, Transforming Monuments - This mini-lesson uses the story of the Robert E. Lee monument to help students consider the power of symbols and explore the summer's protests through the lens of voice, agency, and solidarity.
