TITLE: COMPARING CULTURES
AUTHOR: Mychael Willon; Unified School District #259
217 North Water Street, Wichita, Kansas 67202
GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: Appropriate for grades 1-5.
Subject areas include Language Arts and Social Studies.
OVERVIEW: Most elementary students have heard the traditional story
of Cinderella. Review this story with them, asking them to elaborate on
the parts they remember, such as the main characters and the setting.
PURPOSE: This lesson will encourage students to use the higher level
thinking skills and will help them learn to better cooperate with their
peers. It will also help students develop a respect for cultures different
from their own.
OBJECTIVE(s): As a result of this activity, the children will be able to :
1. Work with a partner to answer questions in a cooperative manner.
2. Compare two stories/cultures and point out how they are alike and
how they are different.
3. Share their own version of a well-known story and adapt it to
another culture, elaborating on why they made certain adaptations.
RESOURCES/MATERIALS: For this particular lesson, the teacher would
need Shirley Climo's, The Egyptian Cinderella. Actually, the teacher could
select any book with a well-known title, such as this one, and read it,
adapting the lesson by comparing it to the story that the students are
familiar with.
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES: After reviewing the story of Cinderella
with the students, the teacher will then explain the cooperative learning
strategy of think-pair-share (TPS). The teacher will ask the students to
find a partner and hold up her/his hand, so that each student has only one
partner. If there is an off number of students, the teacher may want to
assign one group of three, or be a partner to the extra student. (If the
teacher feels more comfortable assigning pairs, that strategy would also
be appropriate.)
The teacher would then explain that the students are to watch her/him for
visual cues for questioning during the remainder of the lesson. The teacher
may use any hand signals for cueing, such as putting her/his finger to
her/his head indicating "think time", when everyone should be silently
thinking about the best answer to the question that the teacher has asked.
The students will be told that for the next cue - two fingers being held up
they will, in whisper voices, share their answers with their partners.
Finally, when the teacher raises her/his hand, the students will again be
silent, while the teacher calls on one students at a time to share some
answers.
Once the teacher has explained the strategy for TPS, s/he will read the
story, The Eqyptian Cinderella, to the class. As the teacher reads the
story, s/he will pause to ask questions throughout, that compare and
contrast this story to the version of the story that the students have read
or seen as a movie.
Some examples of questions that the teacher could ask would be:
1. How is the dress of Rhodopis (The Egyptian Cinderella) different
from the Cinderella you have previously read about? Why do you think they
dress differently? Can anyone tell us how the climate of Egypt compares
with the climate of the United States? (The teacher may want to show the
student Egypt and the United States on the globe and on a map, to integrate
geography into the lesson.)
2. How are Kipa and the other two servant girls like Cinderella's step-
sisters? Do they treat Rhodopis fair? Tell why you think they do or don't.
3. Does this story have a happy ending? Compare the way this story
ends with the ending of Cinderella .
The questions that the teacher asks would be varied and geared toward the
age level of the audience s/he is teaching.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER: Have the students either orally, or on paper,
write their own version of a well-known story, adapting it to another
culture.
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