March 2026: Please note that our team is working to revise this lesson due to recent reporting on Cesar Chavez.
This lesson focuses on farmworker activism of the 1960s and 1970s. Students analyze a historical photograph, newspaper article, and interview with Larry Itliong to investigate how Filipino American and Mexican American farmworkers organized to improve their working conditions.
We developed this lesson with the support of the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) participants and in collaboration with Los Angeles Unified School District. We designed this lesson with K-2 classrooms in mind, but it is readily adaptable for use with older students. It focuses on the EAD theme of “Civic Participation” for grade 2 by presenting students an inquiry into one history of how Americans have “come together in groups, made decisions, and affected their communities.” It was also designed with K-2 classrooms in mind but can be readily adapted to use with older students. Through guided exploration of the history of farm workers in California’s central valley, it addresses the EAD history driving question, “How have people made our community better?” (HDQ1.1C), as well as the EAD history guiding questions, “What are stories of when/how people have changed the community for the better?” (HSGQ1.1A) and “What makes a community fair?” (HSGQ1.1D). To access the other Reading Like a Historian K-5 lessons made in this collaboration, click here.
[Teacher Materials, Student Materials, and PowerPoint updated on 1/06/2026.]
Image: Photo of UFW Picket in California, 1973. From Wayne State University.
