TITLE: CULTURAL AWARENESS/SHARING TRADITIONS
AUTHOR: Janet Wilcox, San Juan High School, Blanding, Utah
GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: 4-12
OVERVIEW: In a multi©cultural secondary school setting many
students have built walls around their ethnicity. Friendships
they had in earlier grades with students from other races, often
are forgotten, and they form small cliques, along with prejudices,
and stereotypes of others who are different than themselves.
PURPOSE: The purpose of the activity is to have students within a
small team get to know each other by sharing cultural traditions
which make their families unique. It shows that all families are
different, and it's OK to be different.
OBJECTIVE: As a result of this activity students will
1. List cultural differences, attitudes, traditions which
show that all families are different in some way.
2. Identify similarities as well as differences within the
team and write about them.
3. Better know and understand students within the classroom.
This activity works well after the class has discussed what
culture is and shared objects representative of different family
cultures. It is a good ice breaker and invariably helps foster
new friendships.
Prior to activity: Organize the class into teams. Ideally teams
consist of 4-5 students: mixed according to race, sex, and academic
achievement. Students understand that they will be with the team
6©8 weeks and then the teams will be changed.
RESOURCES/ MATERIALS: Teacher could bring slides or pictures and
tell about customs in the family they were raised in, as well as
cultural patterns in their own family. Bringing objects helps to
trigger interest.
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1. Each member of the team discuss the ways in which their
family does the following:
a. Celebrates holidays (pick only one or two)
b. Traditional foods and eating patterns
c. How house chores are assigned in family
d. Observance of religious customs
e. Traditional family trips, vacations
f. Cures for colds, flu
2. One topic is discussed at a time. While one student describes
what their family does, the other team members take notes, and ask
questions. As soon as the 1st student finishes the first item, then
the other students follow suit, until all topics are discussed.
3. Homework assignment, is to interview a student outside of the
classroom, not of their culture, or race and ask them the same 6 items.
4. Students write a paper explaining the similarities, and the
differences among the team members and the random student.
5. If desired a master list could be make showing all the varied
responses within the class. Students will see that even those raised
in the same neighborhood in small towns have very different ways of
doing things. Being different is OK.
6. Extensions could be developed where students as a team do a
demonstration showing a unique custom from each student's family.
These could be role played, pantomimed, or done as a skit, or
documentary.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:
1. Return student's notes, checking only to make sure it was done.
2. Evaluate comparison and contrast paper.
3. Encourage students to share what they learned with families.
4. Use as an introduction to folklore unit, oral interview unit,
or cultural awareness unit.
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