Lesson 1 - Summer & Stephanie

Summary of Unit:

My classroom is very diverse with students coming from the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Holland, and the like. The students will explore a country whose culture is vastly different. With an increased amount of immigrants migrating over to the US from Spanish speaking countries, the relevance of knowing about such cultures is of utmost importance. "Cultures are dynamic and change over time" as each culture begins to influence another (NCSS, 2008, p.12). This lesson is yet another opportunity to teach students about the "concepts of likeness and difference through school subjects such as language arts, mathematics, science, music, and art" (NCSS, 208, p.12) Our students will explore the concept of cultural diversity through the study of Costa Rica. We will begin our study by having students identify their own culture of origin. As an introductory assignment, the students will be given the responsibility to interview a member of their family about their families migration to the United States from their country/countries of origin. In addition, the students will ask their family member the reason for their travels. Students will use this information in our group discussion. We will use the Smartboard to display a large map of the world and students can connect their country of origin to the United States. Student will then use rulers to compare the distance that their family traveled to immigrate the United States. It will launch an interesting dialogue about the distance families had to travel when migrating to the United States. We will begin to discuss why people might migrate to a different country. Next, we will want students to begin to think about what defines a country and its inhabitants. To do this, we will have student construct their class meaning of the word "culture". They will use their constructed meaning to help them compare and contrast their own lives with Costa Rican life (including climate, agricultural production, home life, school life, etc).

Content Specific: I want my students to understand: The Parkside School environment is one of cultural and economic diversity and it is important that students become aware and accepting of similarities and differences in themselves and others.

Global Statement: The physical, social, and biological worlds (including human beings and their institutions) show extreme variation.

Link to our full lesson:
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcpv8thx_17htnmqmcg

Summer and I feel strongly about the relevance this unit of study has to our students and the environment that surrounds the school they attend. We feel that it is extremely important that they maintain strongly connected to the content being studied and would love suggestions about how to incorporate different forms of technology into our lesson.