Daily detailed lesson plans, unit overview, student activities, printable materials, engaging videos: all you need to support teaching Ethnic Studies. This unit serves well as the first unit in the Introduction to Ethnic Studies high school course building on the foundation of critical thinking skills, as well as basic reading and writing skills by practicing evidence-supported argument and connecting complex issues of identity, intersectionality, race, gender, and sexuality to American social structures. This unit is taught thematically therefore, structured within a universal theme where students of any level can engage in high-level thinking and teachers can add or subtract sub-topics easily to meet local standards, time restraints, and interests. This project-based unit explores the complex factors that make up one’s identity and the importance of teaching Ethnic Studies in schools. Course Description: The Ethnic Studies course is designed for students to be politically, socially and economically conscious about their personal connections to local and global histories. By studying the histories of race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and culture, students will cultivate respect and empathy for individuals and solidarity with groups of people locally, nationally, and globally so as to foster active social engagement and community building. Particular focus will be given to the contributions, and struggles of different racial and ethnic groups for liberty, equality, and justice in the United States. Students will investigate and analyze the historical factors of power and privilege and the subsequent impact on historically disadvantaged groups’ ability to navigate and mitigate internal and external structures that influence their human experience. Students will apply in-depth analysis to contemporary issues and collectively pose creative, self-affirming solutions in a variety of ways to promote agency through grassroots community advocacy and civic engagement. This course is intended to help build inter-ethnic understanding and socio-cultural bridges in an increasingly more multicultural and multiethnic nation, which is imperative to creating a just society.  Course Rationale: In 2016, the new Social Science Framework was adopted and includes Ethnic Studies; “It is important for Ethnic Studies courses to document the experiences of people of color in order for students to construct counter-narratives and develop a more complex understanding of the human experience. Through these studies, students should develop respect for cultural diversity and see the advantages of inclusion” (p. 419-424). Additionally, in October 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill, AB 101, that will require every student at a public high school in the state to take an ethnic studies course. Starting with students graduating 2029-2030.