This unit was created by United States History educators in New Jersey, as part of the 2022 cohort of The 1619 Project Education Network. It is designed for facilitation across approximately 3 weeks, or 15 class periods.
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Respectfully engage with community members sharing personal experiences.
- Improve note taking skills with the use of graphic organizers and other tools.
- Collaborate in small groups by being open to topics that challenge their beliefs while also working in a diverse group.
- Incorporate primary sources to create a product detailing the experiences of underrepresented community populations.
Essential Questions
1. How would you define an “underrepresented group”?
2. What are some underrepresented groups in history?
3. Are there any underrepresented groups in your area? If so, what are they?
4. What makes you think that the groups you named are underrepresented?
5. What evidence supports experiences of underrepresentation?
6. How were groups or individuals impacted by their experiences?
Unit Overview
Our unit focuses on the challenges, experiences, and contribution of the local underrepresented population. How can students gain an understanding of their community’s history? How have the experiences of these groups changed over time? In what ways have the changes been positive or negative? Students will practice synthesis, research, primary source analysis, collaboration, and writing skills. Students will discover individual experiences through guest speakers, alumni, and collaboration with local museums and/or historical societies. This student-centered unit allows students to collaborate with members of the community as well as peers to develop an inquiry-based, reflective project. Students will use their acquired knowledge to create a culminating project that answers the question, “What were the challenges, experiences, and contributions of the local underrepresented population?”
Performance Task
Working with community partnerships will provide students with the opportunity to meet and engage with community members that have a shared experience of underrepresentation. While guest speakers share their stories, students will use graphic organizers to actively listen and record the source information. Working in small groups, students will organize speaker experiences into national, local, and school categories focusing on issues for each category. Students will work in the library to research additional information on the issues and themes from a local perspective. This will lead to a student-created culminating project which will include a student choice of either a paper, presentation, or video synthesizing the information gathered through research and/or community members experiences. Student submissions will focus on how the underrepresented from the community have faced adversity and overcome their challenges while contributing to their community.
Three week unit plan for teachers, including pacing, texts and multimedia resources, graphic organizers for student projects, and performance tasks for the unit. Download below, or scroll down to read the complete unit plan.
Facilitation Resources
Pulitzer Center-supported Reporting |
How Philly Organizers Are Confronting Anti-Asian Racism Why Some Black Puerto Ricans Choose ‘White’ on the Census One Year After IHOP Incident, St. Louis Teenager Reflects on Racial Profiling Experience A Love for Richmond |
1619 Project Materials | Hope by Djeneba Aduayam |
Additional Resources | Emory University Common Terms for Institutional Equity and Compliance |
Teacher Created Materials |
Final project rubric |
New Jersey Student Learning Standards
- 6.1.12.HistoryUP.5.a:
Using primary sources, relate varying immigrants’ experiences to gender, race, ethnicity, or occupation. - 6.1.12.HistoryCC.11.c:
Explain why women, African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and other minority groups often expressed a strong sense of nationalism despite the discrimination they experienced in the military and workforce. - 6.1.12.HistorySE.14.a:
Explore the various ways women, racial and ethnic minorities, the LGBTQ community, and individuals with disabilities have contributed to the American economy, politics and society - 6.1.12.HistorySE.14.b:
Use a variety of sources from diverse perspectives to analyze the social, economic and political contributions of marginalized and underrepresented groups and/or individuals.
In this unit, students learn about underrepresented populations in their communities by engaging with community members and listening to their stories. Students then conduct additional research and present their findings visually, in an essay, or through a podcast.
These quotes are a sample of student reflections on what they learned at the end of the unit:
I have learned more than what I thought I would. It was way worst back then, and the U.S. has improved, however resentment in groups still occurs in this day in age, or treatment of groups from the past almost never go away. (Example: the U.S. healthcare system attempting to change Mexicans' diet because they thought their food was unhealthy. This led to an increase of obesity in people of Mexican origin in the U.S.) It's worst when systems that are suppose to help people are very picky in who they choose.
I've learned about the difficulties people with Autism have faced in the past, the discrimination, and misrepresentation they faced for many years still lingers in today's day and age. I've learned how other's experiences differ from my own, and how I can personally connect with all these people.
Something that I found out was that a town in my county was bought by a few people but the most well known investor was named George H. White; because of him, the town is called Whitesboro. I've also learned that you can find discrimination practically anywhere, whether it be from selling homes or just walking down the street. It is really disappointing to see that there is discrimination today. Not only is it towards people of color but it's also towards Muslims, Jewish, and people in the LGBTQ+ community.
“I learned That there is a lot more complex then meets the eye. There is more controversy and discrimination. Digging deeper into actual facts and not assumptions on social media you will see the real world today.”
These posters represent a sample of unit final projects from high school students in a United States History course: