Peace Corps
Features of Culture
Explore the melting pot in your own classroom with a lesson that focuses on cultural beliefs, traditions, and traits. Middle and high schoolers examine the details of their own identified cultures before sharing them with peers, and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Native American Cultures Across the U.S.
Middle schoolers examine how American Indians are represented in today's society. They read stories, analyze maps, and complete a chart and create an illustration about a specific tribe.
K20 LEARN
Diversity Quilt: A Lesson on Culture
After brainstorming the various aspects of cultural identity, class members interview each other, examine video clips, and read stories to discover how these aspects reveal one's cultural identity. Individuals then craft a quilt square...
Washington University in St. Louis
Teaching Jazz as American Culture
Jazz and the City, Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement, Jazz and Gender, Jazz and Literature, Jazz and the Arts, Jazz and Film. Here's a packet of unit plans organized around themes that reflect American culture. Each unit examines how...
University of Virginia
Student Page: Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture
History sleuths read articles for and against Uncle Tom's Cabin, examine visual images, print responses, and multi-media tomitudes to better understand the impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel on American culture prior to the Civil...
Curated OER
Native Americans of the Chesapeake Bay: Using Primary vs. Secondary Sources
Discover the rich Native American culture that existed at the time of early European exploration into the Chesapeake region through analysis of several primary and secondary sources.
Levin Institute
Unit on Culture and Globalization
Students explore the concept of cultural globalization. In this global issues lesson, students read and discuss the linked Web articles about world cultural issues and the dominance of the American market.
Peace Corps
Introducing Culture
Growing up within a culture leaves a lot of ideas and values unspoken. Take a closer look at the cultures in which your learners live with a discussion activity that addresses cultural identity and traits of those living within the...
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast Cultures
Using informational text to make cross cultural comparisons is a great way to build a global understanding and comparative analysis skills. With several handy worksheets and a Venn diagram the class will read to make cross textual...
Anti-Defamation League
What Is Culture?
Explore the complexity of culture with this rich and comprehensive lesson plan, which will prompt your learners to think critically and respectfully discuss our current definitions of culture, and how those definitions might evolve.
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment: On-Demand Opinion and Evidence Paragraph about the Importance of Sports in American Culture
Game on! Pupils take their end-of-unit assessment, writing an opinion paragraph about the importance of sports in American culture. To support their opinions, they use evidence from the informational articles they've read throughout the...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Native Americans—Regions and Cultures Tell It Again!™ Read-Aloud Anthology
Native Americans are the focus of a read-aloud anthology. Over two weeks, third graders listen to and discuss informational texts detailing the life and culture of various regions. Pupils complete extension activities and show what they...
Curated OER
America, A Home for Every Culture
Students investigate the many cultures that are represented in America. In this American culture lesson, students look at the food, languages, music, and traditions that immigrants have contributed to the face of America. They complete...
Newsela
Mexico: Art, Food and Culture
What can we pick up from the culture of others? Scholars learn much about people of Mexico by completing a close reading of articles about the country's culture. After completing the selection, readers carry out tasks, complete quizzes,...
Curated OER
The Cultural Significance of Naming
The Navajo would disagree with Shakespeare that the naming of things is irrelevant. Navajo people have to earn their names. Middle schoolers learn about the cultural significance of Navajo names in a lesson that uses a video and reading...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Why Are Sports Important in American Culture?
What makes sports so special to many Americans? Scholars ponder the question as they participate in a gallery walk, immersing themselves in images and texts about sports. Pupils also complete a vocabulary strategies anchor chart to...
Curated OER
Americans
Students explore what it means to be an "American" in the eyes of people from other cultures. In this geography and cultural lesson plan, students discuss values that they have. Students read about behaviors that other cultures have...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Native Americans Tell It Again!™ Read-Aloud Anthology
A 154-page anthology explores the life, culture, and history of Native Americans. Eight lessons follow the routine of introducing the reading, conducting the reading, discussing it, doing word work, then taking part in an extension...
DocsTeach
Indian Nations vs. Settlers on the American Frontier: 1786–1788
Once Americans won the Revolutionary War, their quest to gain land did not end. An interesting activity focuses on Americans' expansion into the frontier following the war and how it conflicted with Native Americans living in the area....
Curated OER
Cuban Americans: Exiles from an Island Home
Students define the terms Hispanic and Latino and explain why most immigrants from Central and South America and teh Caribbean prefer one over the other. They define cultural identity, acculturation, and assimilation. Students explain...
DocsTeach
Assimilation and the Native People of Metlakahtla, Alaska
Fitting in to a dominant culture comes at a price—especially for native peoples. Class members consider this concept using a photo matching game of indigenous people in Alaska. Discussion questions help them consider to what extent these...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Mexican Culture and History through Its National Holidays
Young historians have an opportunity to study the complex history and culture of Mexico by learning about several holidays: The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe), The Day of the Dead (El Dia de los...
Smithsonian Institution
A Life in Beads: The Stories a Plains Dress Can Tell
Young learners discover how the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes preserved native culture through the making of traditional dresses, identifying the resources used to make the dresses and discussing behind the meaning behind some American...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Native Americans and Settlers
Did Western settlers receiving free land from the Homestead Act realize it wasn't really free at all? Scholars investigate the impact Western expansion had on Native American culture in the mid-1800s. They use documents, timelines, and...