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César Chávez Day
10-12 Model Curriculum and Resources

César Chávez Day > Intro > Model Curriculum > 10 — 12 Curriculum
César Chávez Day

Grade Ten: World History, Culture, and Geography: The Modern World
Students in grade ten studying the life, work, and philosophy of César E. Chávez will learn about the historical developments of many of the ideas and philosophy of Chávez, especially the evolution of democratic principles. Students will also learn about Chávez’s commitment to social change through nonviolent tactics modeled after Gandhi.

Grade Ten: History-Social Science Framework
Students in grade ten will complete their study of world history focusing on modern history and on the unresolved problems of the modern world. Students will review the rise of the democratic ideal of equality, justice under the law, and freedom. During the industrial revolution, students will examine the causes of the development of labor unions. They will examine the rise of imperialism and colonialism using India as a case study, and the important roles of Mohandas K. Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Louis Mountbatten in preparing India for self-government. (Pp. 120-130)

Grade Ten: History-Social Science Standards
Standard 10.2 Students compare and contrast the Glorious Revolution of England, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution, and their enduring effects worldwide on the political expectations for self-government and individual liberty.
10.2.2 List the principles of the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights (1689), the American Declaration of Independence (1776), the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789), and the U.S. Bill of Rights (1791).

Lesson 1 The Industrial Revolution and the Formation of Unions
Students will identify the reasons why unions are formed and specifically why the United Farm Workers (UFW) was formed. Students will apply these reasons to a variety of working situations in their area. Students will compare and contrast why unions started during the industrial revolution and why César E. Chávez started the UFW.
Lesson 2 Fasting and Politics
Students will identify the term Satyagraha and explain how Gandhi used it. Compare and contrast Gandhi’s reasons and use of fasting with Chávez’s. Students will evaluate the effectiveness of using the fast to gain political awareness.
Lesson 3 Nelson Mandela and César E. Chávez and Nonviolence
Students will trace the history of the African National Congress (ANC) and compare it with the history of the UFW. Students will compare and contrast the attitudes of César E. Chávez and Nelson Mandela toward violence and civil rights. After comparing and contrasting these attitudes, students will evaluate the effectiveness of both methods.

Grade Eleven: United States History and Geography
Students in grade eleven can use the life and work of César E. Chávez as a case study to trace the major historical events and eras of the twentieth century. Students can begin a study of César E. Chávez and his family as it was at the beginning of twentieth century. Students will learn about the Chávez family as they struggled to acquire a farm in Arizona, farm, manage the family businesses, and raise a family that would include César in 1928. Students will learn that Chávez and his family experienced a fate in common with thousands of other migrants who faced the harsh reality of the Great Depression, the drought, and the large-scale migration to California by families seeking work. During the 1940s, Chávez, like many other young men, served his country by joining the Navy near the end of World War II. Upon his return home from service, Chávez had difficulty finding work to support a wife and family. Chávez experienced racism, prejudice, and discrimination like many men and women of color including Mexican and Asian Americans. During the 1950s, César Chávez met Fred Ross and established community service organizations working to improve the living conditions of Hispanics and others living in poverty stricken areas. His work eventually lead him to establishing the United Farm Workers, a movement that used nonviolent tactics, educated the general public about the working conditions in agriculture, and worked to improve the lives of farm workers. Chávez’s leadership in the civil rights movement placed him in an influential position in California politics and the nation. His commitment to social change, justice, equality, and humanity inspired a generation of diverse and multi-racial leaders. His work to improve the lives of the needy and disposed and those forgotten by society spread beyond the borders of California and the United States to near and distant countries throughout the world. César E. Chávez was an ordinary man who accomplished extraordinary achievements. His lifetime spanned one of the most dynamic periods in the history of the United States. Thus, it can serve as a focal point, at any one point in time, to illustrate the condition of ordinary citizens in America during the twentieth century.

Grade Eleven: History-Social Science Framework
Students in this grade study the history and development of United States from the end of the nineteenth century to the present. Students will study, in an in-depth manner, The Great Depression, the civil rights movement in the postwar era, American society in the post war era, and the United States in recent times. Within these units of study, students will pay special attention to the rise of industry and the development of labor unions, unwise agricultural practices, new opportunities for minorities and unskilled workers following World War II, and the beginnings of the modern civil rights movement. The success of the black civil rights movement encouraged other groups — including women, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and individuals with disabilities — in their campaigns for legislative and judicial recognition of their civil equality. Students will study how César E. Chávez and the United Farm Workers movement used nonviolent tactics, educated the general public about the working in agriculture, and endeavored to improve the lives of farm workers. Major events in the development of all these movements and their consequences will be noted. Students will also read about the beginning for the environmental movement in the 1960s and the environmental protection laws that were passed. Students, after studying modern American history, will be able to understand how the ideas and events of the past shape the institutions and debates of contemporary American. Students will recognize that our democratic political system depends on them — as educated citizens — to survive and prosper. (Pp. 136-147)

Grade Eleven History-Social Science Standards
Standard 11.1 Students analyze the significant events in the founding of the nation and its attempts to realize the philosophy of government described in the Declaration of Independence.
11.1.4 Examine the effects of the Civil War and reconstruction and of the industrial revolution, including demographic shifts and the emergence in the late nineteenth century of the United States as a world power.
11.3.4 Discuss the expanding religious pluralism in the United States and California that resulted from large-scale immigration in the twentieth century.

Standard 11.6 Students analyze the different explanations for the Great Depression and how the new deal fundamentally changed the role of the federal government.
11.6.2 Understand the explanations of the principal causes of the Great Depression and the steps taken by the Federal Reserve, Congress, and Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt to combat the economic crisis.
11.6.3 Discuss the human toll of the depression, natural disasters, and unwise agricultural practices and their effects on the depopulation of rural regions and on political movements of the left and right, with particular attention to the dust bowl refugees and their social and economic impacts in California.
11.6.4 Analyze the effects of, and the controversies arising from, new deal economic policies and the expanded role of the federal government in society and the economy since the 1930s (e.g., Works Progress Administration, Social Security, National Labor Relations Board, farm programs, regional development policies, and energy development projects such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, California Central Valley Project, and Bonneville Dam).
11.6.5 Trace the advances and retreats of organized labor, from the creation of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations to current issues of a post-industrial, multinational economy, including the United Farm Workers in California.
11.7.5 Discuss the constitutional issues and impact of events on the U.S. home front, including the internment of Japanese Americans (e.g., Fred Korematsu v. United States of America) and the restrictions on German and Italian resident aliens; the response of the administration to Hitler’s atrocities against Jews and other groups; the roles of women in military production; and the roles and growing political demands of African Americans.

Standard 11.8 Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of post-World War II America.
11.8.2 Describe the significance of Mexican immigration and its relationship to the agricultural economy, especially in California.
11.8.4 Analyze new federal government spending on defense, welfare, interest on the national debt, and federal and state spending on education, including the California Master Plan.
11.8.6 Discuss the diverse environmental regions of North America, their relationship to local economies, and the origins and prospects of environmental problems in those regions.
11.8.7 Describe the effects on society and the economy of technological developments since 1945, including the computer revolution, changes in communication, advances in medicine, and improvements in agricultural technology.
11.9.7 Examine relations between the United States and Mexico in the twentieth century, including key economic, political, immigration, and environmental issues.

Standard 11.10 Students analyze the development of federal civil rights and voting rights.
11.10.1 Explain how demands of African Americans helped produce a stimulus for civil rights, including President Roosevelt’s ban on racial discrimination in defense industries in 1941, and how African Americans’ service in World War II produced a stimulus for President Truman’s decision to end segregation in the armed forces in 1948.
11.10.2 Examine and analyze the key events, policies, and court cases in the evolution of civil rights, including, Dred Scott v. Stanford, Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, and California Proposition 209.
11.10.5 Discuss the diffusion of the civil rights movement of African Americans from the churches of the rural south and the urban north, including the resistance to racial desegregation in Little Rock and Birmingham, and how the advances influenced the agenda, strategies, and effectiveness of the quests of Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans for civil rights and equal opportunities.

Standard 11.11 Students analyze the major social problems and domestic policy issues in contemporary American society.
11.11.1 Discuss the reasons for the nation's changing immigration policy, with emphasis on how the Immigration Act of 1965 and successor acts have transformed American society.
11.11.5 Trace the impact of, need for, and controversies associated with environmental conservation, expansion of the National Park System, and the development of environmental protection laws, with particular attention to the interaction between environmental protection advocates and property rights advocates.
11.11.6 Analyze the persistence of poverty and how different analyses of this issue influence welfare reform, health insurance reform, and other social policies.
11.11.7 Explain how the federal, state, and local governments have responded to demographic and social changes such as population shifts to the suburbs, racial concentrations in the cities, frostbelt-to-sunbelt migration, international migration, decline of family farms, increases in out-of-wedlock births, and drug abuse.

Lesson 1 César E. Chávez Biography Boards
Students will be able to explain why César E. Chávez must be considered a multidimensional man and they will he able to discuss his contributions to American society.
Lesson 2 Conquering Goliath César E. Chávez at the Beginning
Students will explain the plight of farm workers, the role of community-based organizations, the need to protect worker rights, the role of government in enacting and enforcing the law, and how peaceful, nonviolent change is possible.
Lesson 3 César E. Chávez, Organizes the Farm Workers Association Act I, Scene I   "The House Meeting"
Students will explain the use of house meetings as an organizing technique and the dedication, perseverance and sacrifice that César E. Chávez exhibited in founding the National Farm Workers Association. They will also identify the problems of California's farm workers and the achievements of the United Farm Workers Union.
Lesson 4 César E. Chávez and the Great Depression
Students will learn that César E. Chávez and his family experienced a common fate with thousands of Americans who suffered through and recovered from the Great Depression, but whose lives were forever altered because of their experiences.
Lesson 5 El Malcriado, Voice of the Farm Workers (Analyzing editorial cartoons)
Students will be able to analyze editorial cartoons and understand their importance in communicating ideas. They will also have a better appreciation for the plight of the farm workers.

Grade Twelve: Principles of American Democracy
Students in grade twelve studying the life and work of César E. Chávez will see the direct relationship between his work and political philosophy and the political and legal system in the United States. Students will examine how Chávez’s ideas and actions are a blueprint for active citizenry.

Grade Twelve History-Social Science Standards
Standard 12.2 Students evaluate, and take and defend positions on the scope and limits of rights and obligations as democratic citizens, the relationships among them, and how they are secured.
12.2.1 Discuss the meaning and importance of each of the rights guaranteed under the Bill of Rights and how each is secured (e.g., freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, petition, privacy).
12.2.2 Explain how economic rights are secured and their importance to the individual and to society (e.g., the right to acquire, use, transfer, and dispose of property; right to choose one’s work; right to join or not join labor unions; copyright and patent).
12.2.3 Discuss the individual’s legal obligations to obey the law, serve as a juror, and pay taxes.
12.2.4 Understand the obligations of civic-mindedness, including voting, being informed on civic issues, volunteering and performing public service, and serving in the military or alternative service.
12.2.5 Describe the reciprocity between rights and obligations; that is, why enjoyment of one’s rights entails respect for the rights of others.
12.2.6 Explain how one becomes a citizen of the United States, including the process of naturalization (e.g., literacy, language, and other requirements).

Grade Twelve: Principles of Economic
Students in grade twelve studying César E. Chávez will see that many of the conflicts and issues for which he fought had economic consequences. Chávez’s fight against the use of pesticides is an example that pitted benefit of increased food production against the cost of human health. Many of his union demands dealt with issues of labor allocation, wages, and business cost and benefits in a market society.

Grade Twelve History-Social Science Standards
Standard 12.1 Students understand common economic terms and concepts, and economic reasoning.
12.1.2 Explain the opportunity cost and marginal benefit and marginal cost.
12.1.4 Evaluate the role of private property as an incentive in conserving and improving scarce resources, including renewable and nonrenewable natural resources.
12.1.5 Analyze the role of a market economy in establishing and preserving political and personal liberty (e.g., through the works of Adam Smith).

Standard 12.2 Students analyze the elements of America's market economy in a global setting.
12.2.1 Understand the relationship of the concept of incentives to the law of supply, and the relationship of the concept of incentives and substitutes to the law of demand.
12.2.3 Explain the roles of property rights, competition, and profit in a market economy.
12.2.4 Explain how prices reflect the relative scarcity of goods and services and perform the allocative function in a market economy.
12.2.10 Discuss the economic principles that guide the location of agricultural production and industry and the spatial distribution of transportation and retail facilities.

Lesson 1 Agricultural Workers and Their Wages 1910-1995
Students will understand that the wages of agricultural workers have been affected by war, depression, natural disasters, "guest workers", inflation, technological changes, government action, international trade, and unionization.


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