Sarsawati Chhetri

Dr. Crystal Soltero

TLS 327 Social Studies

Lesson Plan

Title of Lesson: Different Cultures Around the World

Grade Level/Subject: 1st grade Social Studies integrated with Writing

Overview/Purpose: Students will be able to gain more understanding of the word culture: and

how there is a variety of cultures in the world.

Students will be able to acknowledge that each family has their own culture no matter where they

are from.

Rationale of the lesson: The lesson was a stand alone lesson. However, I am taking the

feedbacks from my mentor teacher about expanding the topic into a weeklong lesson so I will be

teaching this next semester as well. I will be in the same classroom for my student teaching next

semester. So, next semester, it will be the part of the larger unit.

Standards Integration

Concept 2: Places and Regions

Places and regions have distinct physical and cultural characteristics.

Essential Questions

How are cultures similar and different from each other? What is the language that you speak in

your home? How does your family celebrate holidays? How does your family celebrate

birthday? What food does your family eat? What kinds of clothes does your family wear? Where

are you from? What does your family do for fun? What does the culture look like? Why is the

culture important to know about?

Time: 1 hour and half 2 hours

1st activity: Brain break; Freeze dance to get them pumped and active for the lesson. 5 minutes

2nd activity: explore few books from different countries and cultures

- Read aloud 15 minutes

3rd activity: discussion about cultures/own cultures/family cultures 15 minutes

4th activity: write about their own family culture 25 minutes

5th activity: get in a pair and share what they wrote about their own family culture with each

other. 8 minutes

6th activity: present what they learned about each others family culture. 25 minutes

7th activity: play cultural games that I have and the students have. 10 -15 minutes

Materials

Books, line papers, pencils

Content Objective(s)

I want my students to acknowledge that each one of them have their own culture no matter where

they are from and that each of them are respected and valued in my classroom. I expect them to

at least have few points about their family culture like what they eat, wear, and how they

celebrate holidays.

Common Core/Language Objectives(s)

For reading, we will be reading books, for writing, they will be writing an essay about their own

family culture, for speaking and listening, they will be sharing their own writing with each other.

Key Vocabulary

Culture
Flag
Food
Clothes
 Environment: how do the places around them look like?
Landscape: how are the buildings, what are they made of?
Language
Holidays
Celebrations: what do the families do for holidays, what they eat and wear or play?
Climate: is it cold or hot in there?

Lesson Sequence/Procedures

1st activity: Brain break; Freeze dance to get them pumped and active for the lesson. 5

minutes
2nd activity: explore few books from different countries and cultures

- Read aloud 15 minutes

3rd activity: discussion about cultures/own cultures/family cultures 15 minutes

th
4 activity: write about their own family culture 25 minutes
th
5 activity: get in a pair and share what they wrote about their own family culture with

each other. 8 minutes

6th activity: present what they learned about each others family culture. 25 minutes
7th activity: play cultural games that I have and the students have. 10 -15 minutes

Prior Knowledge/Review/Anticipatory Set: Before I taught this lesson, I had students go home

and talk to their parents about their family culture. I had explained what culture means and what

my own culture/country and family culture is to me and encouraged them to have conversation

with their family about their own culture. Few things I gave as example to help them think are;

clothes, foods, places they go and how they celebrate birthdays and holidays. As anticipatory set,

I read them the books in the beginning of the lesson after the brain break.

Demonstration/Modeling: I had written my own cultural writing about my family culture which I

read to them after reading the books/before they began their own family culture essay. I also

demonstrated my own cultural game.

Guided Practice/Application/Interaction:
Review/Assessment/Closure/Wrap-up: at the end before the fun games, students read each other

essays and talked about something they learned about each other. They presented their peers

culture. After the games, we talked about what they thought about the lessons in general. Things

that I did well and things that I could improve. Things that they liked and things that they would

want to do more.

Review/Assessment

I will have them write an essay about their family culture. This will tell me whether they

understood the word culture or not by seeing things that they talk about. For example, if they

talked about celebrating certain holidays, I would expect them to somehow explain how they

celebrate them.

Accommodations

There is a student I am little concerned about for this lesson. A student does not understand

English to be able to participate and the teacher aid always pulls him out of the lessons.

However, I disagree with that because I believe that if he is around his classmates more and if he

is learning what others are learning with accommodations instead of being pulled away then

slowly but eventually he will learn. Therefore, I will request the teacher aid to not pull him away

from this lesson and I will make it more hands-on than writing so that he will not have as much

difficult time as if he would with writing. Few other things I will do are; will peer him up with a

Spanish speaker who will be able to translate to him whenever needed, I will be visiting him

more often to see if he is understanding the instructions, I will be allowing him to write in

Spanish if needed, and I will also encourage him to draw his ideas if writing will not help (just

like the reading recommends).

For ELLs; I will give them more time to process their thoughts before they have to share them

aloud. I will also allow them to read off their paper instead of just summarizing off of their head.

They can also ask their partner or group members for help with the words or the explanations if

they need it. I will not pick on them without they being aware of it. If they will not get the

answer right away, I will tell them that I can come back to them if they will remember it later.

For special needs; I will allow him to share his thoughts and data in Spanish and someone who is

fluent in Spanish can translate to the class and me. I will also encourage him to share them in

English so that it will also help his language.