US History · Week 25 · Postwar America and Civil Rights
Braceros and the Valley Harvest
Students learn how the Bracero Program brought Mexican workers to California farms, including in the Coachella Valley, and express gratitude for the hands that feed the nation.
- Students will
- Students describe the Bracero Program and its link to California agriculture, and use a map and a source to explain why workers moved north and what they contributed.
- SEL skill
- Express gratitude for workers by naming specific contributions and hardships
- What it looks like
- Students express gratitude for the workers whose labor feeds the nation and name how gratitude changes how they see everyday things.
- Content focus
- Braceros and the Valley Harvest
- Format
- Partner exchange
Social awareness
Social awareness means understanding other people's perspectives and feeling with them, including people whose backgrounds differ from yours. More social awareness activities
What you get
A teacher guide with what to say, step by step, plus student pages and a supports page for students with diverse learning needs, including those with IEPs. Print or Project it, or assign it in Google Forms and Google Docs for Google Classroom. Your first 10 activities are free.
Standards
- 11.8.2: CA History Social Science Content Standard, Grade 11: United States History and Geography: Continuity and Change in the Twentieth Century (standard 11.8, item 2)
- CA HSS Analysis Skill: CST4 Relate current events to the physical and human characteristics of places and regions. (Chronological and Spatial Thinking)
- C3 Framework (national): D2.Geo.7.9-12 Analyze how historical events and the spread of ideas, technologies, and cultural practices have shaped migration and where people live.
- Literacy in history: RH.11-12.2 Determine the central ideas of a primary or secondary source and summarize them accurately.
Fits these textbook chapters
- American History: Reconstruction to the Present, Module 13: The Postwar Boom
- History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals, Chapter 12: Change and Conflict in the American West
- History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals, Chapter 32: The Human Impact of the Great Depression
- History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals, Chapter 42: Two Americas
Textbook names are used only to help you find activities that fit what you teach. RoseThread Connect is not affiliated with these publishers.
More social awareness activities for US History
- Unalienable Rights, Unfinished Promises Social awarenessStudents read the Declaration of Independence alongside the experiences of enslaved people, women, and Native nations and consider how promises look different from different places.
- The Jungle and the Factory Floor Social awarenessStudents read excerpts from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle about working conditions and food safety and practice imagining daily life from a worker's point of view.
- Cities Built by Newcomers Social awarenessStudents map how immigrants and migrants built growing industrial cities divided by race, ethnicity, and class and practice noticing who might feel left out in a group.
- Dust Bowl Migrants Come to California Social awarenessStudents study Dorothea Lange's photographs of Dust Bowl families arriving in California and consider how communities can welcome people in crisis.
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RoseThread Connect activities are drafted with the help of AI and shaped by educators. Students never have to share anything personal. Our five SEL skills are informed by CASEL's SEL Framework; RoseThread Learning is not affiliated with or endorsed by CASEL.