Tulane University

Why teach Brazil? Simple as it may seem, this country is missing across our K-12 curriculum. This curriculum unit was developed in response to that issue. Tulane University, Vanderbilt University and The University of Georgia collaborated over four years with the goal to increase the presence of Brazil at the K-12 level by developing four Summer K-12 Institutes for U.S. educators.

For the past four years, the Latin American Studies centers at three of the Southeast’s top universities have collaborated to bring U.S. educators into closer contact with Brazil, and in doing so, bring vibrant colors to the grey area in Latin American studies. With the assistance of a Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center grant, Vanderbilt University’s Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), Tulane University’s Stone Center for Latin American Studies (SCLAS) and the University of Georgia’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute (LACSI) organized Somos Nós! a series of intensive K-16 teacher training institutes held on their respective campuses which culminated in a teacher institute in Brazil itself. These workshops, held annually from 2015-2018, have been broadly successful, attracting some 48 K-16 educators from across the United States. While participants have tended to come from the secondary level, there has also been representation from elementary and higher education, and subject areas have ranged from English to World Languages to History to Mathematics. Participants in these workshops received instruction from over 25 faculty members from the three universities and while abroad in Brazil from the Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador. They participated in cultural activities like Brazilian meals and dance and capoeira classes and collaborated on curriculum development as a capstone activity. This collection of lesson plans and resources is a collective product of the final year produced by these educators and is available through online databases maintained by each Latin American Studies center.

Full Printable Curriculum

Check out this comprehensive unit designed by participants in the 2018 Summer Educator Institute in Brazil.

UNITS

• Introduction
• Reading Brazil in the Elementary Classroom - Grades 3-4
• Music of Brazil - Grades 1-3
• Brazil: A Social Study of Colonization - Grades 4-8
• Slavery in Brazil and the Americas - Grade 6
• Brazil's Diversity: Democracy or Despair? Grades 9-10
• Impact of Migration Patterns: A Comparative Case Study of Brazil - Grades 9-12
• Megacities: A Study of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro - Grades 9-12
• Race as a Social Construct - Grades 10 - 12
• Brazil: Music & Customs - Grades 9-10
• Appendices