Lesson Plans

Community members painting a mural on building that reads “Our Futures Deserve Us” and features plants and birds.

Have you piloted a RIDGS Lesson Plan in your classroom?

Are you a K-12 educator who has piloted one of our lesson plans in your classroom? If so, we would love to hear from you about your experience! Please consider providing feedback via our Ethnic Studies Initiative email at [email protected]. Thank you for helping us improve our resources!

RIDGS Ethnic Studies Initiative lesson plans are aligned with State Standards and Benchmarks and have been through a process of review by experts in each given subject area. These lessons highlight the rich and diverse histories of communities of Mni Sóta Makoce / Minnesota who have exemplified resilience and fought for more just presents and futures.

You can learn more on our Lesson Template and Guiding Frameworks page.

K-5 Lesson Plans

Check back this fall for two upcoming 2nd-grade lesson plans designed to teach students about the importance of understanding Dakota history in Mni Sóta Makoce, and what it means to be a good relative.

6-8 Grade

Protest Art & the Movement for Black Life

This lesson focuses on the Movement for Black Lives and the role of protest art in mediating power in the city. Students will learn more about the 13 guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and how local artists responded to the murder of George Floyd during the 2020 Uprising through mural art. Students will create their own protest art for a cause of their choice, or one related to lesson content.

Learning Goals

  1. Students will identify how art has been used as a strategy for social and political change.
  2. Students will describe how mural artists transformed the landscape of Minneapolis during the 2020 Uprising.
  3. Students will learn about the guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter movement.
  4. Students will exhibit critical thinking skills in creating a protest art for a cause of their choosing and describing a space/place well suited for their art (for example, a side of a specific building, a specific street, a store, etc). 

Benchmarks Covered: 

6.5.24.1

6.5.24.3

Lesson Duration: 3 days (each day a 50 minute lesson) 

Disability Rights Movement & Advocacy

In this lesson, students will have the opportunity to examine how the Disability Rights Movement, inspired by and connected to the Civil Rights Movement for Racial Justice, fought against injustices at a local, national, and global level. Students will examine the 504 Sit-in as a response to a four year government stalling of putting Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act into effect, and will work collaboratively to identify strategies used during the 504 Sit-in to fight against ableism. Students will learn about how intersectionality as a framework allows us to understand how ableism is experienced differently across various communities, including in MN contexts. 

Learning Goals

  1. Students will identify 3-5 ways the actions, successes, and outcomes of the 504 Sit-in helped fight against ableism.
  2. Students will identify the strategies used during the 1977 504 Sit-in to fight for the signing of Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and how these strategies supported the landmark legislative victory for the Disability Rights Movement.
  3. Students will examine how intersectionality informs the way that ableism is experienced across different communities by learning about MN Disability Rights Advocates.
  4. Students will read information and synthesize important findings in an informational visual piece about their assigned MN Disability Rights Advocate.
  5. Students will discuss the ways they can engage in disability rights advocacy in their communities.

Benchmarks Covered: 

7.5.24.1

7.1.3.1

Lesson Duration: 3 days (each day a 50 minute lesson) 

Hmong History & Culture

This lesson focuses on the Hmong community in Minnesota, and how they are reviving and maintaining their traditional cultures, identities and distinctiveness in the context of increasing globalization. Students will examine community narratives and Paj Ntaub “flower cloth” embroidery and Paj Ntaub Tim Neeg or Dab Neeg “story cloth” to learn about factors that led to the arrival of Hmong communities in Minnesota, such as the context of The Secret War and the context of Hmong peoples as a migratory Indigenous community. 

Learning Goals

  1. Students will be able to describe in words and depict through art how Hmong peoples are maintaining their traditional cultures, identities, and distinctiveness in Minnesota.
  2. Students will be able to explain the role of The Secret War in creating a diasporic Hmong community globally and high concentration in the midwest while drawing from multiple sources.
  3. Students will be able to artistically depict significant cultural traditions and histories of Hmong communities in Minnesota, and orally present that information. 

Benchmarks Covered: 

8.5.23.1

8.5.23.2

8.5.25.1

8.4.21.1

Lesson Duration: 4 days (each day a 50 minute lesson) 

Karen History and Culture

In this lesson, students will learn about the history and culture of the Karen, one of Minnesota refugee communities, and the ongoing circumstances that prompted Karen families to flee their homeland in search of safety and self-determination. This lesson will highlight some of the many ways that the Karen community of Minnesota practices and sustains their culture, including an optional Day 3 of this lesson that prompts students to create their own woven product while discussing the importance of weaving to the Karen community.

Learning Goals

  1. Students will be able to answer questions about the Karen peoples and the history of conflict in Myanmar (aka Burma) prior to and throughout British occupation.
  2. Students will gather information from articles and Karen Organization of Minnesota’s webpages to write about how social identities (such as religion, geography, ethnicity, and gender) play a role in how Karen people and / or other ethnic groups of Myanmar practice and sustain their culture.
  3. Optional Day 3: Students will participate in a community / full class discussion about the importance of weaving to the Karen peoples, creating their own simple woven product. 

Benchmarks Covered: 

8.5.23.2

8.4.18.1

Lesson Duration: 2-3 days (each day a 50 minute lesson) 

Migrant & Seasonal Farmworkers

This lesson plan highlights the histories of migrant and seasonal farmworkers in Minnesota, specifically focusing on the migrant and seasonal farmworkers who have made the sugar beet industry possible in the Red River Valley over the past century. Students will learn about the history of common migration patterns, primarily between Mexico, Texas, and Minnesota, within the context of ongoing demand for migrant laborers in order to maintain MN agricultural industries. Students will identify the difference between migrant and seasonal farmworkers and examine the narratives and testimonies of farmworker families who create community in Minnesota.  

 Learning Goals

  1. Students will be able to identify push and pull factors of seasonal and migratory farmwork, including for Minnesota farmworker communities who have permanently located in the state. 
  2. Students will be able to define what seasonal and migrant farmworkers are, and will be able to identify their importance and impact on Minnesota communities, agricultural industries, and economies. 
  3. Students will be able to identify and describe socioeconomic and grounded contexts of migratory and seasonal workforces in Minnesota that lead to stability in some regions and instability in others. 

Benchmarks Covered: 

8.5.23.3

8.5.24.1

Lesson Duration: 3 days (each day a 50 minute lesson)

9-12 Grade

West Side St. Paul & The Chicano Movement

This lesson focuses on the Chicano community and organizing in West Side St. Paul, specifically examining the legacy of the Chicano Movement, as well as ongoing efforts of the West Side Community Organization (WSCO) to repair harm created by the forced displacement of the West Side Flats neighborhood 60 years ago to build an industrial park. Students will evaluate the impact of this forced displacement and imagine a project for repair that is informed by the recommendations of the WSCO, and the legacy of the Chicano Movement in the West Side. 

Learning Goals

  1. Students will be able to identify the legacy and impact of the Chicano Movement in West Side St. Paul as they are related to current organizing and community concerns. (9.5.25.1)
  2. Students will be able to identify the impact and legacy of Eminent Domain utilized by the city of St. Paul and the St. Paul Port Authority on the West Side community. (9.3.17.4)
  3. Students will be able to propose a potential plan / solution to the harm created by the displacement of the West Side Flats, informed by the Chicano Movement, community concerns, historical evidence documented in the Flats to the Future report, and recommendations from WSCO. (9.4.22.14) (9.5.25.3)

Benchmarks Covered: 

9.5.25.1

9.5.25.3

9.3.17.3

9.4.22.14

Duration: 4 days (each day a 50 minute lesson)

Jim Crow of the North

In this lesson, students will learn about the history of Jim Crow of the North and how racial housing covenants created a means for legal segregation of the city. Students will learn about how these policies affected communities during the inception of racial covenants, as well as how these racial covenants created lasting disparities. Utilizing mapping resources, such as the Mapping Prejudice site, students will gather data and information about how these racial covenants shaped the spatial environment of the Twin Cities, and what community members have been doing to resist, reimagine, and create alternatives to these discriminatory practices. Students will create their own maps to showcase how the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement house in Minneapolis resisted and transformed the spatial environment of the city into a more just space.

Learning Goals

  1. Students will be able to explain how race is socially constructed and how that social construction has been used to oppress people of color, specifically in relation to Jim Crow, segregation, and racial covenants. 
  2. Students will be able to explain root causes of stratification in the Twin Cities especially as it relates to racial covenants and redlining as sources of ongoing housing and economic disparities.
  3. Students will be able to identify and write about how communities in the Twin Cities are working to repair structural racism, stratification, and housing and economic disparities in the cities. 
  4. Students will be able to produce an artistic and creative map depicting how the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House in Minneapolis, MN 1) refused, resisted, or created alternatives to oppressive systems, structures, or customs, and 2) facilitated Black people’s movement to and throughout the Twin Cities at a time when Black people were restricted from many parts of the city

Benchmarks Covered:

9.5.25.3

9.3.17.3

9.3.17.2

9.4.19.2

Duration: 5 days (each day a 50 minute lesson)

Ojibwe History – Sandy Lake

Students will learn about the history of the Sandy Lake Tragedy (often referred to as the Ojibwe death march) from historical Indigenous perspective through video and text. Students will learn about how the establishment of the State of Minnesota violated ideas of freedom, equality, and justice for Ojibwe peoples in the case of the Sandy Lake Tragedy.

Students will have the opportunity to see how Ojibwe communities are engaging in acts of remembrance for this tragedy and how they are contesting narratives of erasure that have silenced this history. 

Learning Goals

  1. Students will be able to list what agreements were promised to Ojibwe peoples and to the United States in the Treaties of 1837 (The Pine Treaty) and 1842 (The Copper Treaty)
  2. Students will be able to define key terms for understanding tribal sovereignty such as: treaty, usufructuary rights, annuity payments, and tribal sovereignty
  3. Students will be able to explain the roles and motivations of various parties, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, in the Sandy Lake Tragedy and determine from printed resources and videos whether these actions were legal based on the US constitution
  4. Students will learn about how the tribes who were a part of the Sandy Lake Massacre are commemorating this story today and will be able to engage in an informed discussion about how and why Indigenous peoples are actively bringing light to this history that has been largely erased from public discussion
  5. Students will be able to describe in their own words what happened at Sandy Lake in 1850 

Benchmarks Covered: 

9.5.23.4

9.4.22.7

9.4.18.11

Duration: 3 days (each day a 50 minute lesson)

A Special Thanks to our Reviewers!

These lesson plans are made possible by the dedicated work of our community and university reviewers. We would like to thank Mouakong Vue, Dr. Terresa Moses, Dr. Angela Carter, Dr. Melanie ​​Abeygunawardana, Dr. Jimmy Patino, Dr. Jean O’Brien, and the Mapping Prejudice Team. Thank you all for your detailed feedback and for helping us improve our lesson plans!