Original+Unit+Plan

=Rationale & Expectations=

This unit was designed as an introduction to the concept of culture. Students were given the task of beginning to conceptualize why culture is such an important aspect of our everyday world. Each and every individual is touched by culture every single day. Immersing my students into this topic was meant to help them better understand the world around them. There is so much cultural diversity, especially in my classroom, that I wanted all my students to begin thinking about how their culture differs from those around them. This concept, analyzing individuals dissimilar from yourself, is a common theme in Social Studies and is useful on a variety of levels. In my classroom there is a wide range of cultures from around the world. I have many students who were born in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. Many of my students, while not technically born in another country, are a part of their family's worldly culture. Throughout this unit I wanted to focus on my student's cultures and give them the opportunity to express themselves in front of the entire class. Many of the lessons are student based and allow the students to discover the information for themselves. This, I felt, gave them more ownership over the material that they were learning.

This unit was carefully placed to set up future topics that would be discussed. Throughout the year my class will study various regions throughout the world. The concepts and ideas that were discussed in this unit allowed my students to develop a more robust cultural vocabulary. After the conclusion of this unit I hoped that my students could decipher various cultural descriptors and explain how they impact our everyday lives. This knowledge would allow my students to analyze numerous regions throughout the world that will be discussed later in the class. Teaching this information early on, instead of as a corollary to each regional unit, allows my students to build a strong knowledge base. I figured that a longer immersion into cultural discussions would give my students a deeper understanding of the material when it was discussed on a per culture basis. 

 = = =Culture Unit Plan= 

**Rationale:** This activity is designed to teach students about what constitutes the term, “culture”. Students will focus on food, music, money, and various other topics. 
 * Day 1 & 2: (What is culture?) (Pg. 77-79)**
 * Sequence of Events:**
 * Writing Log Question: "Why do people in Africa eat different food than those in the United States?"

  **Day 3 & 4: Religion Two Day**
 * Have students silently read pages 77-79. Have students take notes using the Talking to the Text strategy.
 * Debrief students and discuss the idea of culture.
 * Ask students, "What is culture?"
 * Ask students, "How does culture affect your lives?"
 * Ask students, "What are some cultural traits of people in other countries?"
 * Begin the Restaurant Creation Activity
 * Explain to students that they will be continuing the research that they began for their Population PPT Project. Tell students that, if they want, they may study a new country.
 * Explain to students that they will be opening a restaurant in their country. Tell students that they need to state the city, name of the restaurant, type of food, mission statement, atmosphere of the restaurant, and a menu with at least ten options (three drinks and seven food items). Explain to students that the menu needs to look professional. Show students examples on the projector. Give students the instruction sheet for the assignment.
 * Allow students to use the computers in order to research their given country. Have them use the computers to develop one “fact sheet” with all of the necessary information and one menu which would be given to the diner. Allow students to draw a picture of their restaurant for extra credit.
 * Rationale:** Students will briefly discuss all five major world religions. Students will learn how and why certain religions believe the things that they do. These religions will all be discussed later in the year and therefore students will really focus on two religions that interest them.
 * Standards: 7 - W3.2.1**
 * Sequence of Events:**


 * Writing Log Question: "What are the five major world religions?"


 * Have students silently read pages 82-85
 * Discuss the idea of religion. Ask students to explain a little bit about each of the five major world religions.

 >
 * Begin the Religion Exploration Activity
 * Lay out the following five articles on the teachers desk:
 * Hinduism
 * Buddhism
 * Christianity
 * Islam
 * Judaism
 * Give students 20 minutes to read their article silently.
 * Have students break into groups divided by their religion choice.
 * Have students work through the following questions with their groups:
 * What do people in this religion believe?
 * Who would be considered the leaders of this religion?
 * Where do the people primarily live who practice these religions?
 * How did this religion start?
 * What are five other important facts about this religion?
 * With five minutes left have students count off. Remind students that they will need to remember their number for the next day. They will use this to form their “expert groups” the following day.
 * Continue the Religious Exploration Activity
 * Have students get into their “expert group”.
 * Tell students that they need to each present their religion to their expert group.
 * Tell students that they need to take notes on each of the religions. Remind students that those who are speaking need to talk slowly so that other students can take notes.
 * When all groups are finished have students come back together. Explain to students that they need to complete a writing assignment focusing on one of the religions that they discussed with their expert group. Have students create writing prompts that are written through the lens of their expert religion. Remind students that they must write this as if they are a member of this religion. They must essentially compare and contrast the two religions. Tell students that the writing needs to be no less than one page long.
 * Day 5: Agricultural Revolution and How it Changed Culture (Pg. 80-81)**
 * Rationale:** Students will begin to think about how culture can change. Students will be able to look back and use the information that they have already learned to begin thinking about how culture can evolve. The A.R. was a major tipping point that is easy for the students to conceptualize. Students will also briefly discuss the implementation of writing, fire, and tools and how it changed the world’s cultures.
 * Sequence of Events:**

 
 * Writing Log Question: “When you hear the word "farm", what is the first word that comes to mind?” (5 min)
 * Explain to students that the Agricultural revolution was a shift in how people lived.
 * Tell students that people were hunter-gatherers prior to the Ag. Rev. and were able to specialize jobs and expand after the Ag. Rev.
 * Begin the thought web portion of the lesson (20 min)
 * Have students divide a piece of paper from the notebook in half.
 * On both halves have students draw a circle in the middle of each half sheet. Inside of the top section have students write, “Before A.R.” On the bottom half have students write, “After A.R.”
 * Ask students to tell you what society would have been like before the agricultural revolution.
 * Remind students to talk about individual lives, whether or not people lived in cities/towns, and how spread out population was. Ask if societies were advanced or not (could technology flourish?).
 * Ask students what society looked like after the agricultural revolution.
 * Begin the freeze frame portion of the lesson
 * Have students get into groups of three of four.
 * Explain to students that they will be performing a freeze frame activity.
 * Give each group one of the following prompts:
 * A man hunting for bison.
 * A starving family.
 * Two women tending to the crops and two men hunting in the distance.
 * Many towns coming together to celebrate the fall harvests.
 * A family using an ox to work the fields.
 * A family planting their crops for the year.
 * A hunter gatherer group that moves around all of the time.
 * A family where each member specializes in a specific field.
 * A group of individuals who are gathering food in the wilderness.
 * As groups perform have other groups guess what each other group is depicting.
 * After all groups are completed have groups stand up and ask what the class thinks each group was performing. Ask groups if this was a Pre or Post Ag. Rev. Freeze Frame.

**Rationale: ** This lesson is designed to teach students how the world’s cultures are still evolving. The lesson attempts to connect back to student lives by discussing issues that are relevant to student lives such as social networking.
 * Day 6: Modern Day Cultural Change & Global Village (Pg. 93-97)**
 * Sequence of Events:**

 
 * Writing Log Question: What do you think of when you hear the term, “Global Village”?
 * Have students read pages 93 through 97 in their textbook.
 * Have students take notes using the five major themes note sheet.
 * Discuss the reading with the students. Make sure to touch upon the following ideas.
 * How culture affects our daily lives
 * How technology affects culture
 * How culture's are becoming more similar in a global age
 * Begin the Writing Prompt Activity: (Give students prompts, have them write for ten minutes. Then discuss these prompts for 5-10 minutes. Give student another prompt. Discuss.)
 * “One famous author, Thomas Friedman, stated that, ‘The world is flattening’. Why might he say this? Is this true? Think about how businesses might have looked 100 years ago. Now think about how businesses look today. What type of implication does this have for the world?”
 * Make sure to discuss:
 * How the world is flattening (technology)
 * Business and human interactions one hundred years ago. Discuss phones/letters/telegrams/papers.
 * Discuss various technologies such as internet/email/text/cell. Ask students for more examples of how people communicate.
 * “Is technology good? Is it bad? How can it be both? Give examples. What about social media (FB/Myspace/Twitter) and is it actually bad? How can it be bad?”
 * Make sure to discuss:
 * Should we know everything about everyone? Is privacy being eroded? (Twitter/Facebook/Myspace)
 * Can tech. harm humans? Explain why people idolize ideas of robots/tech taking over the world.


 * Day 7-9: (Culture Brochure)**
 * Rationale:** Students will focus on one country and discuss it in great detail. In doing so students will become masters of what the term, “culture” means. Students will also be “masters” of the country of their choice and will be able to use this information later in the year when we discuss certain regions.
 * Sequence of Events:**


 * Writing Log Question: Is Google too big?
 * Pop Quiz
 * Give students a pop quiz over the last chapter of information.
 * The quiz will be ten questions long and will be a mixture of multiple choice/short answers.
 * Begin the Culture Brochure Project:
 * Give students the culture brochure instructions
 * Allow students five minutes to discuss the culture brochure
 * Explain to students that they will have three days to construct a brochure that contains information about foods, clothing, weather, language, religion, sports, holidays, music, and technology.