More Than a Performance
Teaching About Culture in an Elementary Classroom
I designed my unit plan in a way to engage students in learning about multiple cultures in unique ways. I wanted the unit to make the students comfortable with sharing their backgrounds and learning about new ones. In years to come, I want students to remember the openness in my classroom. I want them to remember how much fun it was to learn about other cultures, and about how culture influences their perspectives on other people. This unit represents the core practice of powerful social studies teaching through the heavy reliance on students discovering their own learning through inquiry of culture and family. It offers with a sense of “place based education,” in terms of the students themselves. I want to be a teacher who inspires students to be culturally knowledgable and accepting of diversity, by teaching them about mulitple world perspectives.
