Akan-rooted
Learning values community, memory, responsibility, wisdom, creativity, and relationships across generations.
Curriculum foundation
Inclusive by design
Students receive explicit teaching, accessible materials, purposeful repetition, multiple representations, and multiple ways to demonstrate learning.
Restorative and humane
Reflection, dialogue, repair, collaboration, and growth replace fear-based discipline and unnecessary high-stakes testing.
Enduring learning goals
01
Build chronological and geographic understanding
02
Analyze primary and secondary sources
03
Distinguish evidence, interpretation, perspective, and misinformation
04
Explain cause, consequence, continuity, and change
05
Connect local, African, national, and global histories
06
Create ethical historical narratives that include multiple voices
9 weeks
Historical Thinking & Ancient African Worlds
Essential question: How do we know what happened before us?
Core learning: Timelines; maps; archaeology; oral history; source analysis; early African societies
Culminating demonstration
Curate a mini-museum explaining how different sources reveal an African society.
Curate a mini-museum explaining how different sources reveal an African society.
9 weeks
Akan Societies, Trade & Governance
Essential question: How did Akan communities organize knowledge, leadership, and exchange?
Core learning: Akan history; gold trade; kinship; governance; symbols; comparison
Culminating demonstration
Create an evidence-based exhibit on Akan institutions, Adinkra meanings, and historical change.
Create an evidence-based exhibit on Akan institutions, Adinkra meanings, and historical change.
9 weeks
Atlantic Worlds, Resistance & Survival
Essential question: How did people preserve humanity under systems of exploitation?
Core learning: Atlantic trade; enslavement; resistance; cultural retention; diaspora
Culminating demonstration
Map one cultural idea, practice, or form of resistance across the Atlantic world.
Map one cultural idea, practice, or form of resistance across the Atlantic world.
9 weeks
New Orleans: Place, People & Memory
Essential question: Who built New Orleans, and how should the city remember them?
Core learning: Indigenous history; colonialism; free people of color; migration; neighborhoods; public memory
Culminating demonstration
Design a historical walking-tour proposal with researched stops and accessible narration.
Design a historical walking-tour proposal with researched stops and accessible narration.
9 weeks
Reconstruction, Freedom & the Unfinished Nation
Essential question: What does freedom require beyond a law?
Core learning: Civil War aftermath; Reconstruction; citizenship; Black political life; backlash
Culminating demonstration
Use primary sources to create a public explanation of Reconstruction’s achievements and limits.
Use primary sources to create a public explanation of Reconstruction’s achievements and limits.
9 weeks
Industrialization, Migration & Urban Life
Essential question: Why do people move, and how does movement transform communities?
Core learning: Labor; immigration; Great Migration; cities; technology; inequality
Culminating demonstration
Build a migration story map connecting national patterns to New Orleans.
Build a migration story map connecting national patterns to New Orleans.
9 weeks
Civil Rights, Black Power & Community Organizing
Essential question: How do communities organize for change?
Core learning: Movement strategies; local activism; youth leadership; media; policy
Culminating demonstration
Develop a documented case study of a movement, organization, or New Orleans campaign.
Develop a documented case study of a movement, organization, or New Orleans campaign.
9 weeks
The Contemporary World & Civic Futures
Essential question: How should historical knowledge guide present choices?
Core learning: Global interdependence; voting; public policy; media literacy; civic action
Culminating demonstration
Present a civic-history capstone that traces a current issue through its historical roots.
Present a civic-history capstone that traces a current issue through its historical roots.
Weekly instructional cycle
ConnectActivate background knowledge and establish purpose.
ModelTeacher demonstrates the skill with clear thinking aloud.
PracticeStudents rehearse with scaffolds, feedback, and repetition.
ApplyStudents use the learning in a meaningful task or problem.
ReflectStudents explain growth, revise work, and plan a next step.
Daily practice: Lessons may combine mini-lessons, movement, music, visuals, discussion, hands-on materials, small groups, independent work, and teacher conferencing. Pacing changes when student evidence shows that reteaching or extension is needed.
Signature learning experiences
Primary-source museum exhibit
Students plan, create, revise, explain, and share a product that demonstrates both content learning and communication.
Akan history and Adinkra research project
Students plan, create, revise, explain, and share a product that demonstrates both content learning and communication.
New Orleans oral-history or place study
Students plan, create, revise, explain, and share a product that demonstrates both content learning and communication.
Civic-history capstone presentation
Students plan, create, revise, explain, and share a product that demonstrates both content learning and communication.
Assessment without high-stakes testing
Frequent evidence
- Conferences and observation
- Exit responses and retrieval practice
- Notebook, portfolio, or model checks
- Short performances and explanations
Culminating evidence
- Unit projects and demonstrations
- Presentations, exhibitions, or performances
- Student reflection and revision
- Standards-aligned teacher rubrics
Reporting progress
Progress reports describe what a student understands, can do independently, can do with support, and should learn next. Grades never stand alone without feedback.
Reteaching and reassessment
Students receive another pathway to learn and another reasonable opportunity to demonstrate growth after feedback and practice.
Inclusive supports
Visual timelines and annotated maps
Short source sets with guiding questions
Audio/video sources with captions and transcripts
Role cards and structured seminar routines
Vocabulary banks and cause-effect organizers
Alternatives to timed tests
Individualization: Teachers follow each student’s IEP and use present-level data, accommodations, assistive technology, and specially designed instruction. Supports provide access without lowering the intellectual dignity of the work.
Family and community connection
Each semester includes at least one opportunity for students to connect learning to family knowledge, New Orleans, Akan or African diasporic culture, a community concern, or a public audience. Participation options protect privacy and respect different family circumstances.
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