Spatial Identities: Finding Joy in Community 

Identity and Self: Black/African-American
3-Hour and 20-Minute Lesson Segment
Introduction to Ethnic Studies (9th Grade)
Constructed by Rob Holland

Community Wealth, Resistance, Oppression

Note: This lesson was drafted with thoughtful consideration of these curriculum-thinking prompts.

About the Lesson & Learning Objectives

In this lesson, students will consider the value of community and how community can bring joy. Students will first work to define their communities. They will then read an excerpt from a local oral history and discuss how community can create joy. This will transition to a lesson on joy as an act of resistance. Students should leave this lesson with a sense of community identity and pride.

[NOTE: This lesson could be split in two and done during separate points of the year. First, you could just do the sections on what community means/is (including the Osman excerpt). You could then return to the Osman excerpt later in the year to focus more on joy as an act of resistance.]

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