Embracing Cultures Overview and Objectives

1. Overview and Objectives for “Embracing Cultures”
For this research project, I have created a kit that teachers can use in their Grade 6 classroom to welcome additional language learners (specific to the English language) and to also present other cultures to the class as a whole. I decided to focus my project around the upper elementary level, although many of the ideas can be adapted to other grade levels as well. The kit includes everything from decorations to the classroom, a list of helpful resources and hints, and also a mini unit on how to incorporate teaching English as Second Language learners across the curriculum.
Like anything in the field of Education, many things must be adapted for the class and student at hand. This kit is meant for the teachers use, and can be adapted for any grade level, gender, or culture. The activities planned in the mini unit are meant to create a safe, positive thinking atmosphere and to welcome cultures from around the globe. I chose this idea for my project because I believe that the skills taught are not meant to fulfill curriculum requirements, but they are skills that students can carry with them for the rest of their lives. They deal with team building, positive thinking, and most of all respect for others. More often than not, new students in the classroom often feel scared, lonely and left out and even more if they do not speak the native language. The activities are meant to be used as a welcoming tool to not only make students’ feel safe, but to also tie the beauty of other cultures into the classroom as a whole.
I have also included an interview done with an adult additional language learner in the kit. Many teachers (including myself before this project) have never had a formal encounter with teaching students how to speak English, and I believe that by reading this interview, one can get a brief idea for what it is like for an additional language learner.
Overall, I hope that teachers can look though this kit and find its contents to be valuable to apply to their own classroom settings. More often than not, teachers are not sure where to turn when an additional language learner is in their class, and this kit will guide teachers to the simple things that we may do, to ensure that every child is reaching their potential.


He who does not know foreign languages does not know anything about his own. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Kunst and Alterthum

Mini Unit Curriculum Objectives

The following chart illustrates the activities in which the students will be assessed on, along with the corresponding curriculum objectives for the unit.

SUBJECT AND ACTIVITY AND CURRICULUM OBJECTIVE
Dramatic Arts
Yarn Webbing Activity
First Goal: To acquire knowledge of self and others that result from reflecting on dramatic play. Group Drama:-Cooperatively build a drama to receive and respond to verbal and non-verbal signals.

Art
Canvas Project
Expression: Students will use art materials as a vehicle or medium for saying something in a meaningful way. Component 10(i)-Students will record or document activities, people, and discoveries.

Health/ Career and Life Management
Constitution Assignment
Wellness Choices: Students will make responsible and informed choices to maintain health and promote safety for self and others. Relationship Choices:
-Students will develop effective interpersonal skills that demonstrate responsibility, respect, and caring in order to establish and maintain healthy interactions. R-6.7-apply a variety of strategies for resolving conflict e.g. practice treating differences of opinion as opportunities to explore alternatives.

Physical Education
Relay Races
General Outcome C: Students will interact positively with others. C6-1:
-Identify and demonstrate respectful communication skills appropriate to various physical activities and that reflect feelings, ideas, and experiences. Teamwork:
-C6-6: Identify and demonstrate positive behaviors that show respect for self and others.

English Language Arts
Book Talks
General Outcome 2: Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to comprehend and respond personally and critically to oral, print, and other media texts. 2.2 Respond to TextsConstruct meaning from texts by:
-summarize oral, print or other media texts, indicating the connections among events, characters and settings
Journal Entries
General Outcome 2: Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to comprehend and respond personally and critically to oral, print, and other media texts. 2.2 Respond to TextsExperience various texts :
-explaining own point of view about oral, print and other media texts-make connections between own life and characters and ideas in oral, print, and other media texts.

Embracing Cultures Sample Art Lesson Plan

Art

Canvas Project

After discussing certain painting techniques and art forms, students can participate in a group activity which promotes team building. The teacher can choose a piece of art from a different culture and begin the class by showcasing the art with a discussion. As an example, I have used a landscape piece by Japanese artist Kataoka Tamako who was captivated by Mt. Fuji upon her first visit. In a classroom the teacher can relate how art and culture are tied together, as Tamako drew flowers with the mountain just as she has flowers on her kimono.

Medetaki Noutori No Fuji” by Kataoka Tamako


Lesson Plan
Canvas Project
Name of instructor: Anna Tsentouros Date:
Class: Art Unit: Embracing Culture
Grade: 6 Lesson:


General Learner Outcomes/ Objectives:
Expression: Students will use art materials as a vehicle or medium for saying something in a meaningful way.
Component 10 (i)
Students will record or document activities, people, and discoveries.
· Objectives: Students will mix paint colors with other students to recreate the grid given to them by the teacher.

Introduction:
The purpose of today’s lesson is to recreate and art piece as a class by an international artist. Class will begin by an Art Introduction, and then the teacher will introduce the canvass activity.


Materials:
-canvass for each student
-Art print on transparency
-Paint supplies for each student
-Grid of art peice

For the Board
Today’s Agenda:
-Art Introduction
-Canvass Project

Body:
1) Class will begin explaining that today we will be looking at an international piece of art, by Japanese artist Kataoka Tamako. Teacher will put up the art print on transparency (along with the artist and title), and students will commence the Art Introduction by raising their hand and stating what they feel, think and see towards the piece.

2) Then, the teacher will explain that Tamako was “enchanted by the majesty of volcanoes, traveled to volcanoes throughout the nation in the 1960s to the 1970s. During her early travels, she sketched Mt. Fiji, and another trip after many visits to other volcanoes captured her inspiration and made it impossible for her to draw any other mountain. Mt. Fuji exercised this power over her”.

3) The teacher may also relate the painting to the Japanese culture, and discuss the symbolism of the flower on the painting, as one would see on a kimono. At this time, the teacher should invite the students to provide their own knowledge of the Japanese culture

5) Then, teacher will explain that for today’s activity, the students need to sit their work tables in a circle, and each student will have a canvas and art supplies. Explain that today each student will be recreating a piece of the painting (which is divided up on a grid) and must try to copy the original piece as accurately as possible.

6) In order for this activity to be a team building experience, the teacher will only be giving out certain paint colors for each student, so that they must mix their own paint with their partners in order to create the proper color that they need. They will only be mixing paint with the people beside them.

7) After the students have made their own paint colors, they will paint their piece of the grid and in the end, the teacher may put together all the canvasses to create the original piece. Then the class art project can be hung in the classroom or school.

Monitoring:
Teacher will ensure that students are participating in the Art Introduction discussion, and that students are only mixing paint with the people beside them. Also ensure that students properly put away their art materials once the activity is finished.

Assessment:
The Canvass art project will be graded on a summative basis, in their participation aspect of their mark.

Closure:
As a closure, students will be asked to look at their class painting as a whole, and compare it to the original piece by Tamako.

Reflection: