Promoting Awareness of Cultural Diversity in the Classroom

Margaret Smith Kaitlyn Wilbur Ed 200 Curriculum Project Fall 2006

Context

 The following lesson plan is meant for a sixth grade classroom and will be carried out over the course of five days.

 It incorporates lessons in history, geography, and writing pertaining to immigration and cultural diversity.

Objectives

 Students will learn about the history of immigration to the United States and apply this knowledge to the specific reading assignments.  Students will evaluate multiple stories about immigration to the United States by comparing and contrasting them and assessing each story based on guidelines given to them.

Objectives

 Students will analyze their own individual background, culture, and experiences in comparison to each other, looking for patterns among their cultural stories and backgrounds.

 In doing so, students will gain awareness that all people are unique due to differences in their background, culture, and experiences.

Objectives

 Students will reevaluate their assumptions about the spatial representation of the world through a mapping activity.  Students will develop their own opinions and be able to cooperate with classmates, who hold both different and similar views.

Justification

 The Connecticut State Department of Education states that schools should be promoting the following for students in grades 5-8: – An understanding of major events and trends of United States history and local history (e.g. immigration) – Identification of various causes and effects of movements of groups of people – A demonstration of how personal experiences influence an individual ’ s perception of places – The development of written narratives from investigations of source materials – The use of maps to analyze distributions and patterns – Recognition of the ideas of others and the validity of differing views.

– The ability to persuade listeners of their judgments and opinions.

Weekly Plan

 Monday – Begins with a classroom lecture on the history of immigration to the United States as well as the current issue centered on the opposing metaphors of America as a “ melting pot ” or “ salad bowl ” – Using Slavin ’ s Jigsaw II cooperative learning technique, students will form 4 groups, in which they will learn and answer the questions provided to them about their group ’ s particular immigration story

Weekly Plan

 Tuesday – Continuing with the Jigsaw II activity from Monday, students will form new groups and learn the other 3 immigration stories from their peers – The students will be evaluated on their knowledge of all four immigrant stories in the form of a short objective quiz – For the following day, the students should come to class prepared with stories and/or memorabilia about their families ’ cultural background attained by interviewing family members

Weekly Plan

 Wednesday – Students will write narratives on their families ’ background and culture based on the information they retrieved and in accordance with their knowledge about immigration – Students will share their narratives with the class in order to seek similarities and differences among one another, as well as become more understanding of their peers ’ lives

Weekly Plan

 Thursday – The teacher will assist the class in labeling a world map – Students will use pushpins to represent their family ’ s country or countries of origin, as well as those of the immigrants from the stories they studied earlier in the week – The teacher will prompt the students to view the world in perspective

Weekly Plan

 Friday – Students will be reintroduced to the opposing metaphors of the United States – They will develop their own opinions on which metaphor is most appropriate using the knowledge and insights they have gained throughout the week ’ s lessons – The teacher will allow the students to have an open-forum discussion, in which they will debate their views – Through persuasion and collaboration, students will try to convince their peers of their viewpoints regardless of whether the class reaches a conclusive decision

Evaluation

 Written narrative about his or her personal background, culture, and experiences  Participation and level of rich thinking in Friday’s debate

The End