Multicultural Lesson Activity

1. Lesson Objectives:

● Subject Observable Objective: Students will be able to summarize in one

paragraph how a specific food contributes to one’s cultural identity. (Evaluation)

● Multicultural Goal: Build social relationships to promote interest in differences

and include others in school and social activities.

2. All Lesson Materials:

● Salad Bowl

● Computer

● Pencil

● 3 Sheets of Paper (Guided Practice, Independent Practice, and Exit Slip)

● Sticky notes (1 per student; 2 colors, green and pink)

3. Instruction-Learning Process:

● Do First: I will begin the lesson by presenting slides 1-4 of the powerpoint.

Slides 1-3 introduce students to the main idea of today's lesson as well as ask the

question, “What is the cultural background of your favorite food?”. These slides

will be gone over verbally with students for 2 minutes. For the next 3 minutes,

students will do the warm up. As I read the information off of slide 4, I will pass

out sticky notes and students will write down their favorite food and place it in the

salad bowl at the front of the class. They will then take a sticky note of the

opposite color and return to their seats.

● Mini-lesson: To begin the mini lesson, I will explain that food is a contributing

factor in cultural identity. Then, I will address how today's lesson will help us
 understand and appreciate the favorite foods of our classmates and research how

they contribute to cultural identity. Next, I will present slide 6 in which the lesson

objectives are defined. After explaining the objectives, I will move on to slides 7

and 8 where I will teach the “Salad Bowl” and “Melting Pot” models to represent

cultural diversity. During this time I will compare the two models to recipes in a

cookbook. The Salad Bowl appreciates each individual recipe while the Melting

Pot is like mixing every ingredient together, it does not show how unique and

diverse an individual is. Slide 9 gives a brief overview of what exactly students

will complete in this lesson and the expectations. At this point students will open

their sticky note to see what food they selected. After explaining this, I will go on

to Slides 10-12 and explain in detail the three components of the lesson; the

Independent Practice, Guided Practice, and Exit Slip. These three parts of the

lesson will be used to research, and write about their chosen food as well as finish

up by comparing the two models representing cultural diversity. At the end of this

time students will have an opportunity to ask questions.

● Guided Practice: This part of the lesson will focus on the Multicultural goal as

students “build social relationships to promote interest in differences and include

others in school and social activities.” I will start by going back to slide 10 of the

powerpoint, and handing out the Guided Practice worksheet. This will remain up

during the 10 minutes of research time so students can look at the example I

provided when researching dolmas. I will check for student engagement as well as

ask if there are any questions in order to re-teaching, explain, and demonstrate as

needed. After answering questions, students will spend the next 10 minutes
 researching their food and answering the five questions on the Guided Practice

sheet. During this time I will be walking around the class checking for

understanding and guiding students who have questions and need additional help.

● Independent Practice: This part of the lesson will meet the Observable Goal as

students will be able to summarize in one paragraph how a specific food

contributes to one’s cultural identity. For this portion of the lesson I will start by

going back to slide slide 11 of the powerpoint, and handing out the Independent

Practice worksheet as well as the Exit Slip to be used later. This will remain up

during the 15 minutes of writing time so students can look at the example I

provide. Students will now write one paragraph (7 sentences) about the origins of

the food they researched as well as how it contributes to one's cultural identity.

They will use the questions from the Guided Practice to help them answer the

prompt. Students will finish Independent Practice by turning in both the Guided

Practice as well as the Independent Practice.

● Exit Slip: To finish the lesson students will complete an exit slip. Students will

show understanding of both the lesson objective and multicultural goal. The

intention of this is for students to reflect back on the Salad Bowl and Melting Pot

model and determine which they believe best represents cultural diversity. In

completing this lesson students will have achieved both of the lesson objectives

by showing an appreciation of various favorite foods and how they contribute to

their fellow classmates' cultural backgrounds. They will also fulfill the

Observable Objective when writing a one paragraph summary. Students will then

complete the lesson by turning in all three papers as I project Slide 13 to finish.
 4. Resources:

Kirchner, R. (2019, October 21). A Historical Look at the Dolma. ranellekirchner.com. Retrieved

May 7, 2021, from https://www.ranellekirchner.com/blog/a-historical-look-at-the-dolma

Manning, M. L., Baruth, L. G., & Lee, G. L. (2017). Multicultural Education of Children and

Adolescents (Sixth ed.). Routledge.

5. Reflection:

Evaluate your multicultural lesson activity.

- Overall, I am proud of the lesson plan I created and believe that it could be used

effectively in a classroom when teaching a multicultural curriculum. Food serves

as a unifying factor among many people, especially young students. In teaching a

lesson about food, students are able to understand a cultural diversity topic

through a medium that is easily relatable and necessary to everybody.

Additionally, it addresses one of the most imperative topics from the textbook

which is the importance of valuing the cultural diversity of each individual

without trying to take away some of their identity by forcing them to assimilate.

What specific subject concepts, skills were taught?

- This lesson was specifically created for a Language Arts class for 8th grade

students. The specific subject objective was, “Students will be able to summarize

in one paragraph how a specific food contributes to one’s cultural identity.

(Evaluation).” Through this project students were able to demonstrate the ability

to write a one paragraph (7 sentence) summary of a specified food. Not only does

this improve students writing ability, it also requires that students think critically
 while conducting research and synthesizing information to formulate a summary.

The summary must exhibit proper grammar and be free from writing errors.

What specific multicultural knowledge, skills were achieved?

- The multicultural goal for this lesson was to, “Build social relationships to

promote interest in differences and include others in school and social activities.”

This lesson demonstrated this goal by not only having students gain a deeper

appreciation for food in a multicultural lesson, but also a deeper understanding of

the multicultural backgrounds of their classmates. While learning more about

their classmates, students were able to build social relationships and take an

interest in differences within a school activity.

Evaluate the level of student engagement in the teaching-learning process.

- Throughout this lesson I strived to keep students engaged and interested. Along

with presenting information through a lecture format, students actively

participated starting from the warm up where they had to write down a food and

place it in the salad bowl. Students were also presented with three worksheets and

had specific time allotted for each assignment. In doing this, students were not

forced to work on one portion of the assignment for too long but instead, had the

opportunity to complete multiple components of the lesson to meet the objectives.

This structure helps keep attention without losing students or having them become

bored by working on one assignment for too long or just having to listen to a

lecture without showing what they have learned through activities. During the

course of the lesson students also had designated opportunities to ask questions to

make sure they fully understood concepts and the assignment.

List the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson plan.

- Strengths: This lesson taught a multicultural concept by providing the common ground of

food that all students can understand. Students were able to gain a greater perspective on

how food contributes to cultural identity as well as build relationships between fellow

classmates. This is a strength because it unifies a class and creates a safe and positive

learning environment. Additionally, students were educated on diversity models and why

each individual is important and must be appreciated and celebrated.

- Weaknesses: The greatest weakness of this assignment is the portion where students had

to choose their own favorite food. Not all students may be exposed to foods that have a

rich cultural background. While I encouraged students to avoid food such as chicken

nuggets and french fries, it is hard to determine what food they eat daily and if they are

only able to eat foods of that type. In a revision of this lesson plan I might have students

pick from a list that I create of foods that would be more suitable for researching when

evaluating their cultural origins.