Submitted by Pam Harens, Kate Aydin

Objectives:

Content:
Students will:
· Define the term "culture"
· Understand terminology of perspectives, practices and products within a culture, in general, and within their families, in particular
· Identify and explain factors such as geography, climate and immigrant groups that influence culture

Cultural:
Students will:
· Identify and explain factors (immigration, climate, geography) that influence cultural practices, particularly with respect to Minnesota
· Compare and contrast each others' family culture(s)

Language: Content Obligatory
Students will:
· Use country name vocabulary appropriately
· Use vocabulary for family products, practices and perspectives
· Identify oneself and one's family to others
· Express preferences

Language: Content Compatible
Students will:
· Use the present tense accurately
· Construct simple sentences (SVO - subject, verb, object)

Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:
Students will:
· Maintain an ongoing vocabulary list of useful or necessary Spanish words or phrases
· Compare and contrast family cultures
· Compare and contrast classroom diversity to world diversity
· Work cooperatively in small groups to create a group diagram/poster of their families' products, practices and perspectives
· Understand and appreciate the cultural similarities and differences of their classmates
· Participate in the creation of a class diversity tree

Time Frame:

Three 50 minute sessions

Materials Needed:

1. Worksheet: "Qué es cultura?" (Attachment 1)
2. Poster: Cultural Triangle and definition of culture (Attachment 2)
3. Worksheet: "La Cultura de mi familia" (Attachment 3)
4. Worksheet: "El árbol de la diversidad" (Attachment 4)
5. Poster: "El árol de la diversidad mundial" (Attachment 5)
6. "Atlas Mundial" in Spanish (not included; see "References and Resources" for Carlex phone number and website.)

Description of Assessment (Performance Project):

Day 3
1. Students receive a worksheet (Attachment 1) called "What is culture?" After reading the information on the sheet, students are to write a brief definition of culture.

2. Students share their definitions of culture with the class. The teacher posts students' definitions on butcher block paper. He/she then presents the the National Standards' definition in Spanish of culture and the "Triángulo de Cultura" (Attachment 2) which can be enlarged into a poster (p. 47, National Standards).

3. Homework - Students are to complete the worksheet "La cultura de mi familia,"(Attachment 3) for which they are to name specific products, practices and perspectives from their families and to consider the origins of these. To do this, students are encouraged to discuss this worksheet with their parents and other family members.

Day 4
1. The teacher divides the class into small groups. The task of the group is to represent in some way on paper the similarities and differences among their group members' family products, practices and perspectives. The teacher may wish to help the group brainstorm a list of vocabulary that describes what a family does, creates and believes before they do this activity. Students are to discuss and represent in some way where they believe these products, practices and perspectives come from.

2. Small groups share their diagrams with the class.

Day 5
1. Small groups finish presenting their diagrams to the class. These posters will be saved to be used later in lesson five.

2. The teacher begins a large group discussion about the origins of products, perspectives and practices by having the class examine their group diagrams/posters. Students look for the products, practices and perspectives that are influenced by geography, climate and immigrant heritage.

3. To further emphasize how the students' immigrant heritage(s) has influenced their family culture and also to visually represent the immigrant origins of the class, the class will make an "árbol de la diversidad." The teacher has created on the wall in the classroom a large, leafless tree. Students are to prepare a leaf to be hung on this tree by using a pattern (Attachment 4) with instructions given to them by their teacher. Leaves are color-coded by continent. Students write their name and their nationality on the leaf. If possible, they are to write the countries of origin and nationalities of their ancestors in Spanish and draw the flags of their countries of origin. A world map in Spanish is required for this assignment. (See "References and Resources" for Carlex phone number and website.)

4. Homework -
1) Students complete their leaves.
2) As a pre-activity for day 5, students are to brainstorm a list of the countries from which immigrants have come to Minnesota. Students will use a map of the world in Spanish.

5. After hanging their leaves on the "árbol de la diversidad," the teacher hangs the poster "árbol de la diversidad mundial" (Attachment 5) alongside the "árbol de la clase" and leads a discussion comparing the two trees.

Assessment:

References and Resources:

Atlas Mundial. (1998). American Map Corporation. (For copies of altas, contact Carlex: French and Spanish Teaching Aids, 1-800-526-3768 or http://www.carlexonline.com).

National Standards
- free download of the Executive Summary from ACTFL: http://www.actfl.org/public/articles/execsumm.pdf

Attachments:

NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)

Attachment 1: Worksheet: "¿Qué es cultura?"
Attachment 2: Poster: Cultural Triangle and definition of culture
Attachment 3: Worksheet: "La Cultura de mi familia"
Attachment 4: Worksheet: "El árbol de la diversidad"
Attachment 5: Poster: "El árbol de la diversidad mundial"

A Lesson from the CoBaLTT Project
/cobaltt
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition
University of Minnesota