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Overview:
The idea for this lesson plan was inspired by Phil Borges of the Bridges to Understanding Project and Susan Ranney of Hamilton International Middle School in Seattle, Washington, who received a teacher grant from the National Geographic Education Foundation in support of a year-long project called Digital Cultural Exchange.
In this lesson, students will use the Web to find out about the cultures and customs of Nepal, Japan, or the Mentawai tribe of Indonesia. They will compare three customs from one of these cultures to customs in the United States. Students will conclude by writing paragraphs imagining that they have visited with the people of one of these cultures.
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 4: "The physical and human characteristics of places"
Standard 6: "How culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions"
Standard 10: "The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics"
Time:
Two hours
Materials Required:
- Computer with Internet access
- Blank outline maps of Japan, Nepal, and Indonesia (available at the Xpeditions atlas)
- Writing materials
Objectives:
Students will
- hypothesize what it would be like to stay with a host family in another country;
- research a foreign culture, and list three customs practiced by its people;
- list corresponding customs practiced by people in the United States; and
- imagine they're visiting people of this culture, and write one paragraph from their own point of view and one from the point of view of a person in this culture.
Geographic Skills:
Asking Geographic Questions
Acquiring Geographic Information
Organizing Geographic Information
Answering Geographic Questions
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
Ask students to imagine this scenario:
You are going to visit another country and stay with a host family. You don't yet know which country you'll visit; that will remain a surprise until the last minute. When you get off the plane in this country, you'll be taken to meet your host family.
Besides the obvious question of which country you'll be visiting, what are your biggest questions about this experience? What are you most interested in finding out? What are your biggest concerns?
Discuss these questions with the class. What do students think they'd be most concerned about? What would they be most excited about? What do they think would be the most interesting things about staying with a family in a foreign country?
Development:
Ask students to create charts with two columns and four rows. The charts should take up an entire page, as they'll need to leave plenty of room to write.
Have students, either individually or in small groups, choose one of the cultures described on the following Web sites. (You might instead choose to assign each student or group to one of these cultures.) In the first row of the left-hand column, ask them to write the name of this culture and the country where these people live.
National Geographic: Trekking Nepal
Cultural Debates (Mentawai tribe of Indonesia)*
KidsWeb Japan: Welcome to Our School
*Students should click on "Choose a Debate" and watch the six videos; this requires a high-bandwidth connection to download the QuickTime movies.
At the Web site for their chosen culture, have students locate information that describes three customs practiced by the people of this culture. Ask them to write descriptions of these three customs in each of the rows in the left-hand column of their charts.
Students should also print out blank Xpeditions atlas maps of Nepal, Indonesia, or Japan, and mark relevant locations. For example, students who choose to study the Mentawai tribe will need to research where in Indonesia this tribe lives, and show that area on their maps.
When students have finished, ask them to write "My Culture" in the right-hand column header, where they will compare the culture they have just researched to their own. Students should think about the customs practiced by the culture they have learned about and the ways people in their own culture handle similar situations. For example, if they have written about how the traditional Mentawai chisel their teeth and tattoo their bodies, they might consider how people in their own culture pierce various parts of their bodies and get tattoos. Have students write descriptions of their own cultural customs in the relevant rows of the right-hand column.
Closing:
Have students share their cultural comparisons in a class discussion. Did students who studied the same culture draw similar conclusions about how this culture compared to their own? What are the most striking similarities and differences they noticed?
Ask the class if anyone has ever had the opportunity to meet someone from a very different culture outside of the United States. While there are people from many different cultures living in the United States, they tend to have many similarities since they live here. But what about people who live in other countries? If anyone has had any interesting international experiences, ask them if they'd like to share their observations.
Suggested Student Assessment:
Ask students to imagine that they have the opportunity to travel to the country they have investigated and meet the people of the culture they have studied. Ask them to write two paragraphs: one from their perspective and one from the perspective of a member of the other culture. The paragraphs should express each person's impressions of the other's customs and the similarities and differences between the two cultures.
Extending the Lesson:
- As a class, select one or two of the American customs students have described. Discuss whether these customs are practiced uniformly throughout American society or whether they are part of a "subculture." For example, do most people get tattoos, or are certain groups of people more likely to do so?
- Have students list the customs that are part of their own American middle school or teenage "subculture." Discuss how these customs compare to those of people in other age groups, both younger and older. Then have them conduct research to compare their own customs to those of American teenagers of previous generations. This research may involve interviewing their parents or grandparents or watching a movie about teenage life in the past.
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