Bauernfeind, La Rue, Mickelsen

Lesson Title: Our Classroom’s Cultures & Rights

Lesson Topic: Cultures within our classroom & the right to express them

Social Studies Major Content Area(s):

How are you connecting the lesson to any combination of these…

History: The book, If the World Were a Village, incorporates history as we are presenting
different cultural groups to our students and illustrating how all of the different groups that have
come to the world have shaped our communities into what we know today. We will connect this
book to our classroom community, and model how the different cultures we see in our classroom
have shaped our classroom community.

Geography: By using If the World Were a Village, we are incorporating the ideas that wherever
you are from or where your parents are from your culture and region have affected who you are.
This impacts the community within our classroom and helps us to better understand other regions
of the world and their cultures.

Economics: An understanding of other cultures allows us to discuss the variety of aspects within
economics and how they can change based on the cultures of the students within our own
classroom. Through reading If the World Were a Village, we can show our students that the
variety within cultures and their various economics is something that impacts not only what we
see, but how other countries and our own interact.

Civics: If the World Were a Village allows students to understand how differences across our
world can unify us together as a whole. Students will see the values of diversity and be allowed
to explore the diversity they see in the classroom and learn about other cultures. The unity of
diversity in our classroom community will allow students to see how this is illustrative of the
world around them and the communities that they live in.

Community Partner(s):

Local businesses, parents, or someone/a friend who celebrates their culture and is willing to
come in and share with the class about their culture.

Standards:

G2.3.2 Examine the cultural universals of place, time, family life, economics, communication,
arts, recreation, food, clothing, shelter, transportation, government, and education.

G3.2.2 Understands the cultural universals of place, time, family life, economics,
communication, arts, recreation, food, clothing, shelter, transportation, government, and
education.
 Bauernfeind, La Rue, Mickelsen

G2.3.1 Explain how the environment affects cultural groups and how groups affect the
environment.

G2.3.3 Compare the traditions, beliefs, and values of cultural groups in North America.

C1.1.1 Understands the key ideals of unity and diversity.

SS5.1.2 Evaluates if information is clear, specific, and detailed.

H4.2.2 Understands how contributions made by various cultural groups have shaped the history
of the community and world

Objectives/Big Ideas
Students/community members will…

Know/Understand:
- The variety of cultures within our classroom come from different regions of the world
- The variety of cultures within our classroom have various types of economics that impact
beliefs and eco-citizenship areas.
- The impact of location and environment impact one’s culture.
- That culture encompasses traditions, beliefs, and values.

Be Able to Do:
What skills and habits of mind will this lesson help develop?
- By using the book, If the World Were a Village, this lesson will help students develop a
respect and understanding of cultures that differ from their own, and allow them to
become aware of the history of their hometown. Students will understand that within their
own classroom, every person comes from a different culture and has a different story to
tell. Bringing these ideas into the classroom will allow students to truly understand the
meaning of unity and diversity in the world and how they can show respect to their
environment around them.
- Students will be able to compare their understanding of the various functions of culture
and contextualize them through making sense of data points. They will develop inquiry
habits and build on those to learn new information about the rights that are or are not
being met elsewhere in the world. They will be able to discuss their rights to be cared for,
have certain beliefs, access education, health care and what actions should be taken if
those rights are not met.

Eco-Citizenship Focus Area(s):

§ Human Rights § Arts § Water

(Children’s Rights) § Food Security/Sovereignty § Other(s)
§ Animal Habitat § Land
 Bauernfeind, La Rue, Mickelsen

Children’s Right(s) Emphasized

Article 24 - Children have the right to good quality health care, clean water, nutritious food and
a clean environment so that they will stay healthy. Rich countries should help poorer countries
achieve this.

Article 29 - Education should develop each child’s personality and talents to the full. It should
encourage children to respect their parents, their cultures and other cultures.

Contingent Article 20 - Children who cannot be looked after by their own family must be
looked after properly by people who respect their religion, culture and language.

Essential Question

Exploring the rights we have:

What do our rights look like around the world?

What should be done if not everyone has those rights?
How are your rights being met within your school, community, classroom?

Sub-essential Questions

What statistics stood out to you in the book?

How are various parts of the world different from other parts?
How can we connect what we learned about different cultures and apply it to our classroom to
make everyone feel welcome?

Connection between School/Community EQ and Classroom/Lesson(s) Sub-EQs:

Materials Needed:

Smith, D.J. (2002). If the world were a village. Tonawanda, NY: Kids Can Press.
 Bauernfeind, La Rue, Mickelsen

Activities/Procedures:

1. Class discussion about where students are from

2. Class read aloud of If the World Were a Village
3. Turn & Talk (short) to brief each other on what they thought from the book. What stood
out to them? What surprised them?
4. Class map that gets pinned with ideas of where the students are from and three cultural
impacts/values/beliefs/traditions that they got from that region/culture.
5. Whole class debrief and celebration of the activity. Discuss how we can expand on what
we learned in the book to make more meaning of statistics.

Post-Lesson: Writing prompt as assessment of their learning.

Assessment/Evaluation
How will I know what students have learned?

- To assess student understanding, students will write a response about how their needs are
being met in relation to the rights they have as a child. This written response will be at least five
paragraphs long with three body paragraphs included. In this writing, students will be explaining
how their needs are met based on the specific rights they have as a child as mentioned above. If
students needs are not met, they will be able to write about what they could do to ensure their
needs or the needs of others are being met. This will serve as a summative assessment and will
provide important information to the teacher about whether or not the students are understanding
the rights that they have as a child and what it steps they could take to help themselves or others
if their needs are not being met. With this information, teachers will be able to understand if the
lesson was impactful for students or if they need to go back and address the concepts a second
time.

Support

What do I need to teach this lesson? What might students need to learn within the lesson?

Curriculum/Instructional Coaching:
I need to have given a student survey prior to the lesson and a send home survey to get
the parent/guardian input on cultures. This will give me an idea of which cultures I need
to read about and research prior to the lesson we teach in class.

Community Partner support:

Have a local organization or tribe come to our class that can discuss their culture and how
it has impacted their rights.

Other Support:
Have support from other teachers in the third grade. Request help from the librarian in
locating books on various cultures, regions, and traditions from around the world.
 Bauernfeind, La Rue, Mickelsen

Notes/ Next Steps

http://www.unicef.ca/sites/default/files/imce_uploads/UTILITY%20NAV/TEACHERS/RRS/DO

CS/Bringing_Childrens_Rights_Alive.pdf