Curated OER
Working With Environmental Issues
Students consider the source of disease and parasites in West Africa. In this environmental issues lesson, students read "Working with Environmental Issues," by Fred Koehler. Students participate in an activity that requires students to...
Curated OER
Defining Culture
Learners examine the role that culture plays in forming beliefs and behaviors. In this culture lesson, students describe the attributes of their culture and explain how their culture shapes them.
Curated OER
Do You Really Know What Wealth Is?
Students explore what it means to have wealth in Mali and in the United States. In this economics lesson, students read "Music in the Fields." Student groups answer discussion questions. Students reflect on the purpose music serves in...
Curated OER
Searching for Meanings Beneath the Surface of the Poem
Students analyze poetry. In this cultural perspectives instructional activity, students read the poem "Soccer Until Dusk" by Mark Brazaitis. Students analyze the poem and consider the cultural perspective it reveals.
Curated OER
Water: A Source of Life and Culture
Young scholars explore water as a feature of culture. In this visual arts lesson, students consider the necessity of water in every culture. Young scholars select water symbols and use their artistic skills to create water symbol...
Curated OER
What is Good Use of Time?
Young scholars analyze the best uses of time in other cultures. In this time use lesson, students read the poem 'Soccer Into Dusk' and 'The Meaning of Time' as analysis of time usage in other culttures. Young scholars complete a...
Curated OER
Window Into Another Culture
Students examine cultural conflict issues. In this global studies instructional activity, students read the Robert W. Soderstrom essay " A Single Lucid Moment." Students discuss the essay and confrontation that may occur between cultures.
Curated OER
On Sunday There Might Be Americans Lesson
Students gain insight into the mindset of a rural boy in Niger, specifically regarding his relations with both indigenous and foreign people in the local market. They probe the deeper meanings of the story and relate important ideas...
Curated OER
We Are One World
Middle schoolers access prior knowledge to choose a country and research the living conditions in that country. In this living conditions lesson, students recognize the differences and similarities of conditions of another country to...
Curated OER
Cross-Cultural Dialogue Lesson
Learners view situations from more than their own point of view. They use the incidents in the author's story to explore the concept of crossing cultures and reflect on what it is like to feel like an outsider (in the way that the author...
Curated OER
Examining What Sharing Really Means
Students examine the remarkable degree of sharing that the author encounters upon arrival in Africa. They reflect on the enduring understanding, "Attitudes toward sharing differ among different cultures." The respond in their journals...
Curated OER
Confronting Two Challenges-One Physical, One Intellectual
Students examine how the author confronted the challenges of a new language and a new culture. They examine how the author's penchant for running featured in his adjustment to the culture of Fuling and in his learning of the Chinese...
Curated OER
Americans
Students examine what it means to be "American" in the eyes of people from other cultures. They explain how people from other cultures may view Americans as a group as being different from themselves and explain why understanding their...
Curated OER
How Cultures Differ-Two Different Perspectives on the Same Event
Students examine the author's running race from two different cultural perspectives to see just how different the effects of culture can be. They practice thinking about an issue from different perspectives and create a script that can...
Curated OER
How a Writer Conveys Descriptions With a Wallop
Students identify strategies the author used to vividly convey qualitative and quantitative aspects of life in China, then use those strategies in writing of their own. They examine the author's writing style and techniques to learn some...
Curated OER
The Rigors of Learning a New Language
Learners consider the immensity of the the task the author undertook to learn Chinese. They examine the rigors involved in learning another language-particularly one as notoriously difficult as Chinese and compare aspects of Chinese...
Curated OER
Capturing the Reader With Vivid Images
Students examine how the author tries to capture the reader's imagination immediately, through imagery--and hold on to it. They locate Ukraine on a world map and understand Lenin's role in the establishment of Russian communism and the...
Curated OER
Planning a Service Project
Young scholars begin the instructional activity by discussing what type of project they are interested in and how much time can be devoted. They also discuss why it is important to focus on the community and are introduced to the...
Curated OER
The Importance of Speaking Another Language
Students evaluate how important it can be to speak a language other than their own.
They analyze the role language plays in bridging cultural differences and compare their reasons and see if the class can reach a consensus on the...
Curated OER
Identifying and Using Parallelism and Balance in Literature
Learners examine the story for use of balanced sentences and parallelism-two literary devices-and then practice using those devices in writing of their own. They combine the simple sentences grammatically into one correct sentence. A. I...
Curated OER
Recognizing How Another Culture Differs From One's Own
Learners identify and understand the significant cultural traits described by the author. They discover how the concepts of time and punctuality can differ markedly in the United States and another country and determine that In some...
Curated OER
Sleuthing a Writer's Skills
Students examine the author's lively text to determine how she achieved her many literary effects. They discover the author's techniques in describing people and events, in setting tone, and in establishing pace. They reflect about the...
Curated OER
I Had a Hero Lesson
Students examine what it takes to make a hero. The respond in their journals to the following prompts: What did I learn about friendship and heroism from reading and thinking about "I Had a Hero"? What did this story teach me about the...
Curated OER
Ilunga's Harvest Lesson
Students examine the culturally based impulse to share with others versus the impulse to watch out for oneself or one's immediate family. They probe the deeper meanings of "Ilunga's Harvest" and examine the impact of the events in...