Lesson Template and Guiding Frameworks

Our lesson plans are Minnesota and grade-level-specific, open-access, and tethered to Minnesota’s Social Studies Standards and Benchmarks. They are grounded in culturally-responsive pedagogy and community-based knowledge, and are intended to be well-structured and adaptable to various curricular and classroom contexts.

No Paywalls

In order to ensure that our lesson plans are accessible to MN students and teachers, we remain committed to keeping our lesson plans and resources open-access and only utilize free resources.

MN Specific

Minnesota students deserve to see themselves represented in their education, however, the majority of open-access ethnic studies lesson plans feature histories that take place in other states. In order to provide students the opportunity to understand the relevance of ethnic studies in relation to their own experiences, daily lives, and local communities, our curriculum is Minnesota-specific.

Centering Community Narratives

Our communities are the keepers and tellers of under-represented histories. In order to ensure that our lesson plans are representative of community narratives, we heavily rely on videos, oral histories, and community-produced educational materials that highlight and center community narratives. 

Highlighting Histories of Resistance, Resilience, and Activism

Every student deserves to learn the history of changemakers that have fought for the world that we live in today. 

Ignite / Chunk / Chew / Review Lesson Template

All of our lesson plans follow the “Ignite / Chunk / Chew / Review” Lesson Template created by Zaretta Hammond, an education specialist in Culturally Responsive Teaching. Information about the cognitive science supporting this lesson template can be found in Zaretta Hammond’s book, Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students (2015). This method of framing information and allowing for processing time is designed to build students’ intellectual capacity, helping them to become independent learners and thinkers. We highly recommend this book for teachers who are unfamiliar, or who are wanting to learn more about the science behind culturally responsive teaching.