Evans Shannon Evans Cross-Curricular Unit Plan LAI 414: Language, Cognition and Writing Lesson Plans

Overall Topic:

Multicultural Appreciation, Diversity and Acceptance

*Note: Lessons are made for an hour time length (which is what my high school had), but could be lengthened or shortened depending on the schools schedule. The first two lesson plans have similar structure (video, formal writing/definitions, group exploration, discussion/findings, then ends with a quiz; the third lesson however breaks away from this pattern)

Day 1 Lesson Plan

Focus/topic: Cultural Awareness

Objectives: Students will have to identify what they are going to be learning Students will reveal what their working definitions of culture are and build upon them throughout the lesson/lessons Teacher will introduce Nitza Hidalgo's three levels of culture concept to help guide students into deeper understanding The class will collaboratively construct some knowledge through a small research assignment (focusing on the first tier and some of the third tier of Hidalgos culture) Students will begin to assess how culturally aware they are through a quiz (quiz questions focus on more of the second tier of Hidalgos method)

Materials: Computer hookup to projector/projection screen, Whiteboard/ dry-erase markers (chalk and chalkboard or blank overhead sheet with an overhead projector would also work), four computers (Part of this lesson might have to be done in a computer lab or library if classroom does not have computers), cultural awareness quiz/ handout. Students should have a notebook/journal and a writing utensil.

Evans Activities: 1. The first thing the class will do is attempt to figure out what the lesson will be after watching a short video. This video will be the matchmaker scene from Disneys Mulan. It is good to start off with something that the students can relate to/be interested in to get their attention and using media usually can accomplish this. Teacher should ask the students what they think the clip indicated about what they are going to be learning (the clip shows Mulan going to a Chinese matchmaker who judges her suitability for marriage by seeing how well she can reflect Chinese traditions and manners). The class should pretty easily figure out that it has to do with culture within a few minutes. 2. After the teacher will reveal that the next three lessons will be about multi-cultural appreciation and diversity with todays lesson focusing on cultural awareness. The teacher will then write the word culture somewhere for all the students to see and ask the class to shout out what they think culture is. The first 2 parts should take about 10 minutes total. 3. The teacher will then introduce anothers concept of what culture is. That person is Nitza Hidalgo who created the three levels of culture ideology. The concept consists of the concrete: the most visible level of culture such as clothes, music, food, games, and so on, the behavioral which clarifies how we define our social roles and reflects our values. This category includes language, gender roles, family structure, political affiliation, and other items that situation us organizationally in society. And the last but most important the symbolic: This level of culture includes our values and beliefs. It includes value systems, customs, spirituality, religion, worldview, beliefs, mores, and so on (Hidalgo). Have students write non-verbatim the key ideas down in their notebooks. This part should take around 10 minutes. 4. The teacher will then focus in on and show the class some examples of cultural wedding traditions around the world (or could show some different cultures holidays as an alternative). Then the teacher will break the class up into 4 groups and ask them to pick a topic (holidays, rituals, cultural norms, etc) and look to see how their topic is represented in a couple countries of their choice (students have free- rain over the places they want to choose). Their findings are just being verbally discussed to the class so the students should just take some brief notes. After they will share a couple of the things they found out about. This activity should take about 25 minutes. 5. The last part of the lesson will have the students sit quietly and take a just because quiz, meaning it will not be graded but we are doing it to see what we know. The cultural awareness quiz will be a handout that functions to see if anyone realizes the norms of many different cultures. The students will end class by taking this quiz (they will get the answer key next class). This should take about 10 minutes. Wrap up: If there is time at the end of class we will discuss if and what they learned about culture. Ask them what activities seemed interesting or beneficial and what did not. Also ask the class if they think it is relevant to learn about other cultures in our society.

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Day 2 Lesson Plan

Focus/topic: Cultural discrimination, prejudice, and injustices

Objectives: Students will begin to see (through Mississippi Masala) how culture and identity can be transcendent and it is not always as simple as ethnicity or race (not always nature but often nurture). As a class we will discuss new vocabulary that relates to social and cultural injustice that will widen the students ways of discussing the issues. Through group exploration students will discover some new information by learning through literature. They will see how certain cultures encounter discrimination in both their homelands and abroad and how it can really inhibit people in a multitude of different ways. The class will continue to construct knowledge together by sharing and discussing their findings within the plot points of their respective books. Students will see how much they really know about the levels of injustices through taking a quiz that will evaluate their awareness of the inequities.

Materials: Computer hookup to projector/projection screen, Whiteboard/ dry-erase markers (chalk and chalkboard or blank overhead sheet with an overhead projector would also work), four computers (Part of this lesson might have to be done in a computer lab or library if classroom does not have computers), Vocab matching handout, Inequality quiz/ handout. Students should have a notebook/journal and a writing utensil.

Activities: First the teacher will have the students watch the beginning scenes of Mira Nairs movie Mississippi Masala. The scenes depict an Indian family, who call Uganda (an African country) home, being violently forced to leave and emigrate to the U.S. The next scene shows their life a decade later in Mississippi, where they run a motel and try to relate to the other Indians in their community (but having trouble because they feel more connected to Uganda than they do India or America). After watching the class will discuss what is different about the movies plot so far. What thoughts or ideas does this situation conjure? Altogether this should take around 10 minutes.

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Next the teacher will give out a handout with ten vocabulary words and their definitions
jumbled on the opposite side so the students will have to try and match them (some words being bigotry, resentment, assimilation, ethnocentrism, perpetrator, scapegoat, degrading, obstinate, etc) Teacher reads answers allowed so students can correct any errors they made. This should also take about 10 minutes. After the teacher will then again split the class up into four groups. Each group will get a novel to research. The students will have to identify the culture the book is discussing and some of the struggles the characters are encountering and answer why their struggles exist (the causes of them). The books will be Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Angelas Ashes by Frank McCourt, and I, Rigoberta Menchu by Rigoberta Menchu. The groups should journal some of their findings. The class will then take turns discussing what they have learned within their novels. Hopefully the class will make their way to understanding how the novels can relate to each other (if not with specific content than hopefully with main ideas). This activity will take around 25 minutes. The last thing the students will do in the second lesson will be to take another just because quiz, this time concerning cultural inequalities. After the teacher will hand out answer keys for both the quizzes that the students have taken and the students will mark their answers as correct or incorrect.

Wrap up: The end of class will consist of discussing the results of the two quizzes and asking questions to the class. Were they surprised at the results? Did they do better or worse than they thought? Do you think it is important to know some of the things on these quizzes? See what types of answers students are giving. Then discuss whether they thought they learned anything new through the novel mini-project. Did it show them more about a culture they did not know about? Were the injustices/hardships surprising? Also ask the class if they thought that some of the ideas/themes in each book were relatable to one another. Hopefully this discussion will show if or what the students gained out of the activities. The last three things (Quiz/ going over quiz and end of class discussion) should take about 15 minutes.

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Day 3 Lesson Plan

Focus/topic: Identity and Understanding

Objectives: Class as a whole will gain awareness through the revealing method of Have you Ever game, which will hit upon Hidalgos last level. Showing the class that differences are everywhere and both pride and respect should be encouraged. Students will use their knowledge (from both what they learned in these classes and about themselves) to begin to establish their own identity. Through these lessons the classroom should have learned to be both respectful and supportive of differences since we all come from different backgrounds and associate ourselves with different things. Class will use their identities to perpetuate their own agency for the final project. The final project will have students express themselves. It will show how they associate their identity to their life, whether through their own culture, upbringing, or experiences. What do they think about? What makes them unique? What are some things that they believe in and why? What makes them proud to be different? (Teacher should explain that this doesnt just have to be a cultural assignment but it can extend to many things such as different religions, genders, family roles, socioeconomic surroundings, hometowns, anything they want could apply). Students will then be given the opportunity to share their work if they would like too. This means essentially bravely baring their souls to the class, which can be both a nervewracking but invigorating experience (that is why it is a choice). But either way students will hopefully gain two main things through these lessons; one being more empathy, understanding, and appreciation for diverse groups and two being a stronger sense of self, identity, and pride.

Materials: Computer hookup to projector/projection screen, Whiteboard/ dry-erase markers (chalk and chalkboard or blank overhead sheet with an overhead projector would also work) Students should have a notebook/journal and a writing utensil

Evans Activities: Teacher will assess if she think the classroom is mature/respectful enough to handle the Have you ever game. If so, students will enter the classroom and arrange their desks in a circle. The game will consist of questions that help people acknowledge a few different things that could make up parts of their identities. It also helps people start to get their mind in gear for the final project. The teacher will go through a list of semi-personal questions in which if it applies to the person (and he/she feels comfortable with the class knowing) then they will stand and their peers will nod their head in respect for whatever the circumstance was. Example questions might be like (stand if you grew up feeling you had less than others, or on the opposite side more than others, or another could be stand if you have felt that religion makes up part of your self, or stand if you have a unique hobby that makes you different) The questions can be as personal or impersonal (or controversial) as the teacher would like to make them, again this might want to be gauged upon the maturity of the class. This should take about 20 minutes. After the initial Have you ever game have the students rearrange their chairs into rows. The teacher will then explain the last project for the topic/lessons of Multi-cultural appreciation. This short project gives the students the power of choice in which they have three options to choose from. The teacher will either make or bring up an example for all three so students can see what the teacher means. The first option is to do a short essay regarding their name and what it means to them (where did they get their name from? Does it have a meaning? Do they feel it fits, Do they have any nicknames they also identify with? Ultimately what is in a name and does it help shape our identity?). The second option is a Who I am poem (sort of like a This I Believe). This option has the student reiterating I am blank, I am blank, and keep going till they feel they have successfully identified themselves. One example I found was I am basketball on a snowy driveway. I am fish sticks, crinkle-cut frozen French fries and frozen mixed vegetables. I am primarily white, upper-middle class neighborhoods and racially diverse schools. I am Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac Man, Atari 2600 and sports video games (Critical Multicultural Pavillions). The third option is a circular-self essay in which the students will identify and make 5-10 bubbles with roles or categories they associate with themselves inside of them (athlete, sister, Catholic, German, etc). Then they can go on to discuss which things they are proud of, what makes them different, and have they ever been stereotyped by one of these things, if so how did it feel? Giving the student the element of choice helps them to realize it is okay to have different modes of expression and often they need more than one outlet for creativity. The teacher should give the students about 30 minutes to create one of these three. The students will then be given the option to present their identity essay or poem to the class. Everyone should be encouraging/ supportive of any volunteers. Finally, the students will hand them in for participation/effort grades.

Evans Wrap up: After handing in the essays have one last discussion with the class about what they have learned over the past three days. How did learning about culture lead back into their own lives? Why is it important to learn cultural awareness and acceptance? What real life situations would they need to have these for? Also have the class evaluate the lessons what did they like/ didnt like, what did they think was beneficial and what would they change? Overall if they take anything out of it, it will hopefully be that they possess a deeper sense of positive relation and understanding to others and to themselves. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

The Common Core Initiative Standards my lessons use:

Citations: