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)