Multiculturalism

Topic: Multiculturalism: Celebrating Diversity

Objective:

This unit on multiculturalism will explore how America came to be the mosaic it is today. Throughout the oral lesson, students will learn independently through individual assignments and as a group while participating in centers which will allow each student the opportunity to celebrate the holidays, taste foods and look at photos from around the world. After participating in this learning experience the student will gain a better understanding of the world around them. Develop an understanding of how America came to be the diverse land it is today. Develop an understanding of how and why certain groups migrated to America. Compare and contrast the cultural makeup of early America to present day America. Compare and contrast American diversity to foreign lands. Complete a family tree and complete a timeline of migration into America. Use technology to access and explore Ellis Island. Reflect on tangible artifacts presented during the lesson.

RESOURCES

Text

If Your Name was Changed at Ellis Island by Ellen Levine; illustrated by Warren Parmenter
Vivid full-color illustrations and a question-and-answer text bring to life traditional life, customs, and everyday worlds in this series covering a rich range of historical events, eras, and peoples. Meticulous research, accuracy of detail, and facts told from a child's perspective convey what it was like to live in another time.

Scholastic.com

Success with Reading: 15 Easy to Read American History Mini Books by Nancy I. Sanders, Jeff Sanders
Eight-page mini-books on the Boston Tea Party, George Washington, the Oregon Trail, Immigration, and more. With vocabulary, extensions, and book links. Scholastic.com

The Scholastic Big Book of Holidays Around the World by Susan Dillon
This complete holiday resource is packed with hands-on activities, ready-to-go reproductions, read-aloud fast facts, pictures, literature and Web links to make learning about any holiday fun and connect it to every teacher's curriculum. From the Fourth of July to the Chinese New Year, this book includes more than 70 celebrations of all kinds-educational, cultural, religious, and civic! Scholastic.com

Multiculturalism by Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/multiculturalism

Tangible Artifacts/Pictures

Pictures of foods, costumes and religious symbols from around the World will be on hand for students to view in an series of exhibits displayed throughout the classroom.

Primary Sources Teaching Kit: Immigration Packed with reproducible primary sources - from photographs of Ellis Island to the Oath of Citizenship - this collection of authentic documents will capture students' interest in immigration to America between the late 1800s and the early 1900s.

Will ask students to bring in items from their homes which celebrate their culture such as pictures, a family tree, family heirlooms, recipes and will invite members of the community to come in to speak with students who are representative of the various cultures that make up the United States.

Audio

We Are the World CD-Michael Jackson Amazon.com

Will play during the celebration and will give students the words to the song.

Video

A projector will display the computer screen as I take the students through the Ellis Island Tour.

Over 40% of Americans can trace their roots back to Ellis Island. More than 12 million immigrants traveled through its doors. Among them were laborers, servants, peasants and artisans and each came to Ellis Island with the same hope, to become Americans.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/index.htm

Script

Good morning boys and girls!! Today will be an exciting day as we explore the many cultures around the world and celebrate our history. I have gathered some things from my own home and from friends to prepare for today's lesson. I found all sorts of reading materials, historical documents and photos for you all to look at in order to reinforce what is learned today.

Today we will explore our rich heritage as a country and as individuals. It is very important for each of you to understand the world around you and to further understand that the world is much bigger than our school and your neighborhood. As you will recall from previous lessons in Social Studies, we live in America and America is known to be what most historians like to call a Melting Pot. I would like to begin our lesson by talking about the "Melting Pot", which is now more commonly referred to as a Mosaic because some people felt that the whole idea of America being a melting pot does not appropriately describe the impact immigration has made on the United States. Now can anyone tell me what happens when you put things into a hot pot? Raise your hands boys and girls. (Allow time for a student to answer) That's right boys and girls, when you put things into a hot pot they melt and become one in the same. But that is not what American has turned out to be. Many groups of people have come here and continued their religions and maintained their cultural beliefs. Therefore, to use the term Melting Pot when we discuss multiculturalism in the United States is not appropriate. America has not melted into one culture but has become a mesh of various ethnic groups, religions and beliefs. The first topic that I would like to explore is how modern day America came to be; how the Black American, Chinese American and Arab American came to be "American". Most of our origins are not originally rooted in the U.S. as most of our ancestors migrated into the U.S. So that we can better understand Multiculturalism, I have a reading resource for each of us. Brandon, please pass these out to each of your classmates for me. Thank you so much. Class, the handout you are receiving from Brandon is entitled Multiculturalism and this reading resource provides significant information about the Melting Pot we discussed earlier and how immigration has not only impacted the culture of the United States but around the world. Can I get a few volunteers who would like to read for me? Emily, Steven, Jasmine, and Omar. Thanks so much for volunteering you guys. Omar please begin reading the first portion of our handout. "Multiculturalism is an ideology advocating that society should consist of, or at least allow and include, distinct cultural groups, with equal status (Wikipedia.org)." That is correct, but to put that into terms that the entire class can understand multiculturalism is about many groups of people from all around the world coming to one place to live, learn and play while bringing their own traditions with them to share with others. Please continue reading for us Omar. (Will allow each student to read a portion of the handout until we reach the end and will review what we have read.) Thank you everyone for taking us on this wonderful journey through reading to countries throughout the world to identify how other countries deal with diversity.

Many of our ancestors immigrated into the United States through Ellis Island while groups such as African Americans were brought here as slaves. Now we are not going to focus on slavery or immigration but we will note that these are contributing factors, which caused certain groups of people to come to America. America is viewed as a symbol of freedom and justice for all and many countries throughout the world do not enjoy the same freedoms as we do here in the United States. This is a major reason why people come to America.

It is said that 40% of Americans can trace their roots back to Ellis Island. Does anyone here know anything about the history of Ellis Island as it relates to immigration? Please raise your hands if you would like to share. (Allow time for students to respond.)

Great thanks so much class for sharing your ideals of what you believe the history of Ellis Island to be but historically, it is known as the gateway into the United States. Thanks to advancements in technology we can take a tour of Ellis Island without leaving our chairs. Would someone please turn off lights? Please remain quiet and hold all of your questions until the virtual tour of Ellis Island is over. At the end of the tour we will review what we have learned and move on to the remaining activities in our lesson. More than 12 million immigrants traveled through the doors of Ellis Island. They were people from all walks of life who came to America seeking a better quality of life and to become Americans. We will now begin our tour. (A projector will display the website http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/index.htm).

Okay, class wasn't that exciting? What was your favorite portion of the tour? (Will allow students to respond, exchange ideas and ask questions) Class this activity was really fun and informative and in order to reinforce what we have learned from the tour, I have a great book called If Your Name was Changed at Ellis Island by Ellen Levine which will further explore our ancestors journey to Ellis Island and the customs and traditions they brought with them. I will read it aloud and provide you with the opportunity to ask questions as I read along.

(Once the reading session is complete we will move into our Center based group learning session.)

Boys and girls, we have learned so much already about multiculturalism, immigration and our rich history. Now we will move into something a little more hands on. Behind our curtain I have created a bit of a museum right here in our classroom but before we get to that treat where you will learn more about diversity here in the U.S., we are going to move into our groups. Group reading will be done in two parts today. The first part will consist of a group of books called Success in Reading: 15 Easy to Read American Mini Books. Each book is about a historical event that shaped American history. On each table is a list of questions that you will each be responsible for answering and turning in at the end of the session. This should only take about 15-20 minutes, but I encourage you to take your time so that you can provide the best possible answer. Now the second part of our group activity for today involves another book, but this book is very exciting!! This book is called The Scholastic Big Book of Holidays Around the World. It talks about the various holiday celebrations around the world and will lead us onto our museum activity. There is no assignment following this activity, but you will gain a wealth of knowledge from going through the various activities included in the book. I have several copies so once we get to this portion of our group assignments, I will separate the class into groups of three.

(At the end of the group activities, the curtain will be drawn back to unveil our "museum".)

Okay, class, we have read many wonderful books today that have explained diversity in America but some of you may still have questions so as I planned this lesson, I thought, what would be a better way to teach children about history and culture? Why a trip to the museum of course!! So I came up with the idea to bring the museum to our classroom. The museum is set up in mini-stations from easy navigation and you can actually touch the exhibits in our museum. Our friends from the 8^th grade class made some wonderful displays and piñatas of historical figures and stick buildings. Please take your time and walk to each station and read the fact sheets on each display.

The museum activity includes Tangible Artifacts and Pictures, which highlight the various cultures that make up America today. The resource that will be used in this activity is entitled, Primary Sources Teaching Kit: Immigration. The exhibit will also include pictures of foods, celebrations, religious symbols, books and authentic historical documents such as the Oath of Citizenship. The last station will include a table of foods from around the world. We Are the World by Michael Jackson and a host of other singers will play in the background as we feast on dishes from around the world prepared by parents and local restaurants.

After lunch, students will be asked to write in their journals to reflect on what they learned in today's lesson.

Alright everyone, lunch was yummy but there is still so much learning to do. We can talk all day about diversity and not be able to discuss every single aspect of it. But I want to know what you have learned here today so far. Please take out your journals and write about what Diversity means to you and what you learned from the activities we completed today. You will have 30 minutes to complete your entry. If you finish early, please proofread your entry and if there is still time left you may rest your eyes for a moment. Please begin writing.

This writing assignment will reinforce learning and will require that students further reflect on the lesson.

Time is up please put down your pencils and wake up!! Journal time is now over. Who would like to share what they have written? Joyce. Thanks for volunteering. I would like for everyone to remain quiet while Joyce reads her journal entry.

After the last student has read their journal entry, the class will enjoy one final festivity. I have invited a local dance company, The Dance Ensemble of Houston, to perform a variety of cultural dances for the class.

Boys and girls, I have one last treat for you. We have taken a virtual tour of Ellis Island, we have read books about the Boston Tea Party and the Oregon Trail, and we have been to the museum and have eaten foods from around the world until we are about to burst. But what celebration is complete without dancing and singing. Please welcome the Dance Ensemble of Houston here to perform an array of cultural dances. (The class applauds.)

The dance performance commences and ends in roughly 15 minutes. The dancers talk to the students about the different styles of dance and their origins and invite the students to participate.

Dance ends.

Class, wasn't that wonderful. Let's thank the dancers for coming out to share with us today. (The class applauds).

Once the performance is over Homework will be assigned.

Homework

Alright everyone, we have had an exciting day talking about culture and diversity in the United States and around the world. Now it's time for your homework assignment, which will allow you to discover your heritage. As I stated earlier in the day, it's important that you understand the world around you. More importantly, it is important that you understand where you come from and this is where we will wrap up our multiculturalism lesson.

I am passing out a packet, which consists of instructions for this assignment. The homework assignment is entitled, Discovering Your Heritage and will require you to interview a member of your family in order to learn about your family's history and how they came to the United States. Once you are done you will need to write and turn in an essay based on the interview you complete and a family tree.

References

Scholastic.com (2006). Lesson Plans: Multiculturalism. www.scholastic.com.

Wikipedia.org. (2006). Multiculturalism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mulitculturalism.