CTE 7040- Cultural Lesson Plan and Materials

Unit: Cultural Awareness

Lesson Topic: Understanding and Working through Cultural Differences

Grade Level: 3rd Grade

Lesson Objectives:
Student(s) will be able to
 Understand what it means to feel empathy and share this understanding by responding to read aloud prompts and/or by
connecting read material to their own personal experiences
 Infer meaning from a text via the use of textual and pictorial clues
 Demonstrate active listen skills by listening to a read aloud text
 Use speaking skills to communicate their thoughts/experiences to their classmates
 Visually and creatively represent their name stamp using a variety of materials, colors and textures

Essential Question(s)
 Why is it important to understand and respect cultural differences inside and outside of the classroom?
 Why do readers synthesize while reading?

Vocabulary: Empathy, Acceptance, Cultural Diversity and Immigration

Time Activities / Task Materials

Week before Lesson
Introduction
The intent of this lesson is to inspire students to develop/enhance their capacity for
empathy. By reading The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi, students will begin to
understand the importance of being accepting of and learning from cultural difference.
Sharing their thoughts in a talking circle will allow students the opportunity to identify
situations in their own lives where they have been new to a city or country and have
experienced similar feelings of fear and uncertainty as those of Unhei, the main
character. This story offers teachers to incorporate issues of social justice, acceptance
and inclusion into their classroom discussions. The story builds upon the idea that
young students can and do have the agency to spur positive change in their own lives
and the lives of others through their social interactions.
Planning and Preparation
Prior to this lesson, a letter should be sent home to parents/caregivers informing them
that the students will be working on a language arts/social studies project that will
require that they bring materials from home that are representative of their cultural
heritage. Students may wish to bring a variety of items such as pictures from native
country, small flags, money, etc, (anything that represents their culture).  

Day before Lesson
Launch/Connection:
How will I get students
engaged in the lesson?
How will I help students to
connect this work to what
they’ve done before and
activate prior knowledge?
(5 minutes)
Students have been assigned the homework task of asking their parents/caregivers about
the history of their name. Students were encouraged to ask questions such as, what does
my name mean? What language is it? Was I named after anyone special?
Teaching the Content of Lesson
Teacher will begin lesson by reflecting on a time when she/he met someone and discuss Accountable
what she/he knew about that person then to what she/he knows now. How has your Talk Anchor
opinion changed? Chart
 Turn-and Talk:
o Can you think of a book that you thought was going to be boring &
and then as you read on it became more interesting? Name the book.
Discussion
Remind students to use Accountable Talk anchor chart and discussion sentence starters
Sentence
during Turn-and-Talk.
Starters

Teach/Model: Before Read Aloud:

How will I communicate
the objective clearly to
students? What thinking
work/strategy will I name
and model for students?
Essential Question (1): Why do readers synthesize while reading?
 Teacher will explain that readers synthesize in order to deeply
understand what they read. As readers learn new information about
characters, topics, and events, their understanding of the text gets deeper.
This happens because new information gets added to what they already
How will I check for
understanding?
(20 minutes)
Guide/Active
Engagement:
What will students do to try
out the thinking
work/strategy? How will I
gradually release
responsibility of the work to
students? How will I check
for understanding?
(5-10 minutes)
Try/Apply: How will
students apply/practice this
thinking work/ strategy?
How will work be
differentiated and
misconceptions addressed?
(20-30 minutes)
know.
 When you read fiction (stories that are not real), the author usually tells
you a little bit about the characters, the setting, and the problem at the
beginning of the book. As you read further, the author gives you more
information. If you pay attention to what the author writes, you’ll notice
that your thoughts about a character or a problem will change over time.
Essential Question (2): Why is it important to understand and respect cultural
differences inside and outside of the classroom?
 Teacher will ask students to synthesize throughout the story by focusing
on, “Why is it important to understand and respect cultural differences
inside and outside of the classroom?”
During Read Aloud:
Teacher will perform a read aloud of the text with the students, pausing intermittently to
ask questions or allow for student comments.
 Turn and Talk:
o Page 8 – Why does Unhei keep her name a secret from the class? Text-Based
What happened in the story that helps you to understand this? Evidence
o Page 13 – When Unhei meets Mr. Kim, what do you learn about Anchor Chart
her name? Why is this an important part of the story?
Students use the Text-Based Evidence Anchor chart to answer question
Students who have emigrated from another country will be able relate their experiences
to those of Unhei. Particular attention to the pictures in the story and “reading” Unhei’s
reactions and those of her classmates will help students with developing English ability
to follow along with the story.
After Read Aloud:
Teacher will ask - How did your thinking change while you read The Name Jar? What
information helped you to gain a better understanding of the characters or the problem
in the book?
 Teach/Model: Teacher will model how to use Synthesizing Sentence Starters
– Anchor Chart to answer the question.
o Examples:
 As first I was thinking________, because _________. My
new thinking is __________ because ___________.
 I used to think _________. But now I think
____________, because ___________.
Turn and Talk: Reconnect to Book Cover
“I want you to turn and talk to your reading partner. Use the Synthesizing Sentence
Starters – Anchor Chart to discuss how did your thinking changed while you read The
Name Jar? What information helped you to gain a better understanding of the
characters or the cultural differences in the book? Synthesizing
Sentence
Walk around the classroom and listen to students’ ideas.
Starters –
Bring students’ attention back to you. Ask for 3 students to share how did your thinking Anchor Chart
changed while you read The Name Jar? What information helped you to gain a better
understanding of the characters or the cultural differences in the book
Independent Task:
In this language arts-based activity, students will be asked to design their own name
stamps using a combination of materials they have brought from home (as well as those Name Stamp
provided in class). Template
On the provide name stamp template, students will use the Synthesizing Sentence
&
Starters – Anchor Chart to answer the following question(s):
 Have you ever asked your parents why they gave you your name? What is the Cultural
story behind your name? Does it have a special meaning or are you named
after a family member? materials
 For example: brought in from
o At first I thought my name meant _______________, because home
________________. My new thinking is ________________
because ______________.
o I used to think my name meant _________. But now I know my
 name means ____________, because ___________.

Students will use the materials selected should reflect some aspect of the student’s
cultural background to decorate around the question. For example, one student might
want to use plaid material or pattern to reflect their Scottish or Gaelic heritage,
chopsticks to represent their Chinese or Korean heritage, etc. If students are not able to
complete their name stamps by the end of the period, the teacher may offer students
more time during the next class or assign the remainder of the task as homework.

Closing/Share: Teacher asks the students to begin clean up and reminds students that they will have an
What are the most opportunity to share their name stamps with their classmates in the next class. Upon
important parts of the completion, students will use their name stamps to create a gallery of names in the
lesson I want to classroom.
review/highlight?
(5 minutes)

Assessment/Evidence: Assessment of Reading Comprehension during/after Read Aloud:

In what way will students Teacher will ask students various prompt during and after the read aloud activity to
be assessed? What does gauge their general level of understanding. Prompts may be to recall important events
student mastery of the from the story, describe their favorite part of the story, describe emotions or other
objective look like? representations in pictures/text, and to relate the text to their own personal experiences.

Note: This assessment tool is intended to guide instruction and is not for final
evaluation purposes (assessment of learning).

Accommodations: Accommodations are made during the read aloud session to include
prompts that utilize pictures and other non-textual clues to aide students with
developing English language fluency express their thoughts.