CSDE Model Curricula Quick Start GuideThe African American/Black and Puerto Rican/Latino Course of Studies is a one credit, year-long elective in which students will consider the scope of African American/Black and Puerto Rican/ Latino contributions to U.S. history, society, economy, and culture. It utilizes Connecticut’s Social Studies Framework themes and inquiry-based approach already familiar to social studies teachers to deliver a content rich and personalized learning experience.The course is an opportunity for students to explore accomplishments, struggles, intersections, perspectives, and collaborations of African American/Black and Puerto Rican/Latino people in the U.S. Students will examine how historical movements, legislation, and wars affected the citizenship rights of these groups and how they, both separately and together, worked to build U.S. cultural and economic wealth and create more just societies in local, national, and international contexts.Coursework will provide students with tools to identify historic and contemporary tensions around race and difference; map economic and racial disparities over time; strengthen their own identity development; and address bias in their communities. This course will contribute to the critical consciousness and civic-mindedness competencies of a twenty-first century graduate, and ultimately facilitate students’ interest in pursuing further ethnic, anthropology, or human rights studies in the future.

Semester 1: Unit 3 At-A-Glance: Black Literacy, Organizations, and LiberationIn this unit, students will:• Examine how Africans and African descendants worked individually and collectively to spark revolutionary change to their existence;• Explore various perspectives of enslavement from free and enslaved Africans; and• Analyze the impact of the cotton economy on the development of the domestic slave trade.Compelling Question: When is resistance and/or revolution justified/glorified/condemned? How effective were the actions of abolitionists and the slave rebellions of this period? Are individual contributions or collective efforts more effective in actualizing social change?Pre-Assessment: In what ways have Africans, African Americans, and African descendants persisted past adversity to preserve their own humanity and contribute to the development of American Culture and Innovation? (KWL)

In this unit, students will:• Examine how Africans and African descendants worked individually and collectively to spark revolutionary change to their existence.• Explore the Reconstruction politics through literature and other accounts from primary documents and impact on Whites and Blacks.Compelling Question: How was Reconstruction a success or failure?Pre-Assessment Poll or KWL: How did Reconstruction impact Africans, African Americans, and Blacks?

Semester 1: Unit 1 At-A-Glance: Where We Come From: Introduction to African Origins and Contributions of Ancient African Empires to World Civilizations and the African DiasporaIn this unit, students will:•Examine the impact of various aspects of African culture world civilizations in the past and present.•Analyze the factors that have contributed to racialized global conflict and change in the modern world; and•Develop a positive and accurate identity, including an awareness of and comfort with ones’ membership inmultiple groups in society.Compelling Questions: What impact did the people of Ancient Africa have on early and modern civilizations, and why has this impact been largely ignored through much of history? How has the concept of race been socially constructed over time?Pre-Assessment: Students complete a course self-assessment to gauge interest, comfort level, and current knowledge.

This lesson focuses on the slave narrative of Solomon Northup, a free black living in the North, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Deep South. Slave narratives are autobiographies of former slaves that describe their experiences during enslavement, how they became free, and their lives in freedom. Because slave narratives treat the experience of one person, they raise questions about whether that individual's experiences exceptional.