Lesson UnitPlan
The Unit Plan
Profile
Eighth grade students were the focus when choosing to create this unit plan. The
needs for students in this grade level are understanding college credits, G.P.A., admissions
process, self-awareness, self-regulation and financial understanding.
In order to find out what academic needs are required in middle school, we as
counselors can ask the following questions to find out more detailed information.
o Do you find students have poor time management skills?
o Are students paying enough attention to receive what standards they need
to be promoted?
o What type of struggles are you noticing with senior students in middle
school?
o Do you incorporate SEL in each of your lessons?
Creating a positive culture for students at this stage in their life is important because
of how extreme this generation has developed into depression. Students in middle school
are going through puberty development which causes a great amount of hormones that
they have no idea what to do. To add to their stress, they must begin thinking about high
school courses and making proper choices that will fuel their life career. Teaching students
how to understand different types of paths one can take as well as a tolerance for cultures
or races they do not have the knowledge for, will only enhance their intelligence.
Purpose
The purpose of this unit is to create an awareness to the education system about our
intolerance for new cultures and our lack of understanding when it comes to immigrant
children or first-generation immigrants. Cultures play an immense part of a person’s
emotional and intellectual growth. Creating an environment that is open and caters to
teaching upcoming generations about tolerance and respect for those new people in their
classroom. Counselors should also make it a point to teach our minority students to
tolerate the majority population in a way that they do not cast blame but have the patience
to understand where they were coming.
Overview In this unit titled Cultural Impacts, educators will focus on the various types of
cultures in and out of the classroom that impacts a student’s life choices. Separating the
definitions of culture to inform students with details and then model how to incorporate
culture in everyday life. Culture is defined to the masses as how your inner family
celebrates their ways of life. However, culture can be within a classroom, workplace, sports
center or community centers. As school counselors, we must dig deeper into ourselves for
patience in understanding why a certain student is behaving in a fashion we may find
acceptable. Cultural impacts have been pushed to the sidelines for far too long and we have
a responsibility to teach the upcoming generations.
Implementing this unit into a middle school curriculum, the lesson can be integrated
with world geography (6th grade) by teaching the first subtopic that discusses culture in
detail for all students including gifted, ESOL, ESE will be able to easily understand. World
geography is taken again in 9th grade, providing students with a foundation of basic
understanding will only enrich their academic capabilities for high school transition.
Implementing into a University curriculum, professors will first want to learn about
their students individuality. Social and emotional learning should not stop once we
graduate high school, as adults we need more social and emotional comfort than before.
Understanding a professors culture can also help college students in how they speak to him
or her as well as providing them a tolerance subconsciously.
Objective/Goals
The objective of this entire unit is to provide students with a better understanding
of what culture is and how it impacts themselves and those around them. Each student will
be able to teach a peer about more than 3 cultures in detail, explaining where that culture is
prevalent, how those persons move through life decisions and what the culture views as
more important; family, work or academics.
Lesson Plans
1. Standard: M1- Belief in development in whole self. M3- Sense of belonging in a
school environment
a. Objective: Students will have a deeper understanding of their own culture.
b. Students will learn to accept the positive and negative aspects of their own
culture
c. Students will understand how much their own culture impacts their behavior
and decision making.
d. Textbook/Materials: Communication and Culture: An introduction T. Schirato
& S. Yell. Understanding Global Cultures M. Gannon & R. Pillai
2. Standard: B-SS1- Use effective oral and written communication skills and listening
skills. B-LS9- Gather evidence and consider multiple perspectives to make informed
decisions.
a. Objective: Keeping an open mind to use proper and effective communication
skills to enhance student’s ability to stand up for themselves.
b. Students will gather information and evidence about outside cultures they
are interested in finding more knowledge.
c. Textbook/Materials: The Role of Values in Careers M. Pope L. Flores & P.J.
Rottinghaus Culture of Intolerance M.N. Cohen
3. Standard: M4- Understanding that postsecondary education and life-long learning
are necessary for long-term career success. M6- Positive attitude toward work and
learning.
a. Objective: Using all the information from the previous lessons, students will
understand how they can use their culture to further their education or how
it is hindering them.
b. Students will also have a better attitude towards the unknown, which can
lead to those students in better positions to enlighten those students who are
not as privileged.
c. Textbook/Materials: Career and College Readiness P-12; “Cultural
Considerations” J. Curry A. Milsom. Career Choices M. Bingham S. Stryker
Lesson Plan matrix
Lesson/objective Standard/Compone nt
Assessment Activity Accomodations
Students will have a deeper understanding of their own culture, accepting the negative and positive aspects.
M1 & M3 Belief in development FL: WL.K12.AM.8.1.
Day 1: Choose 2 cultures at random for each student. In their Understanding global cultures assign the relevant chapters to each of the cultures. Students will present to the class their new findings of these cultures. (Students should explain what culture means to those who practice the specific culture. They should also be able to locate all the countries that also carry out the cultural traditions) Day 2: Using the textbook Communication and Culture: An introduction.
ESOL students will be given the information in their native language with an extra 20 minutes to complete readings and assignments. ESE students will be given a higher level of reading and vocabulary to keep them engaged. Students will 504 or IEP will be give the accommodations listed in their profile.
Students will read about their own culture and learn to communicate with confidence in their own traditions. Students will also have discussions with peers about different traditions they may have. Students will write a persuasive essay about one specific tradition they find to influence their life choices. Use www.teacherspayte achers.com Search for “culture” or “cultural definitions”
Students will learn to have an open mind for learning from others that may not have anything in common with. Students will learn to challenge their set perceptions about other cultures, by
B-SS2 & B-LS9 FL: WL.K12.AH.8.3
Day 1: Students will read Chapter 3 & 6 of their Culture of Intolerance textbook. Students will need to write a one page explanatory essay about what was read in those two chapters and how they would use what
ESOL students will be given the information in their native language with an extra 20 minutes to complete readings and assignments. ESE students will be given a higher level of reading and
understanding their preset assumptions.
they learned. Day 2: Students will need to read Chapters 6 & 12 from The Role of Values in Careers. Students will write a reflection paper about what they have read and what they will do to make a difference in their own family to make sure they are confident in their career choice.
vocabulary to keep them engaged. Students will 504 or IEP will be give the accommodations listed in their profile.
Students will be able to implement what they learned in lessons 1 & 2 into their everyday lives. Students will have a better understanding of why cultures make an impact on our life choices and be able to decipher between the two.
M4 & M6 FL: WL.K12.AL.6.1
Day 1: Students will be introduced to chapter 4 “Cultural considerations” in the textbook Career and College readiness P-12 by a few questions related to the data within this chapter. Day 2: Understanding the low percentages of almost all of the minority cultures/races. Students will read Career Choices book discussing how as
ESOL students will be given the information in their native language with an extra 20 minutes to complete readings and assignments. ESE students will be given a higher level of reading and vocabulary to keep them engaged. Students will 504 or IEP will be give the accommodations listed in their profile.
teenagers they can make a choice that will facilitate the correct career path. Have students complete the career cluster at the end of the unit. https://cte.careerte ch.org/sites/default /files/StudentIntere stSurvey-English.pdf
*Students who are not able to receive all of the information and use it freely, will be given
similar assessments with more time to complete as well as lower levels to succeed.
Data
Needing results in order to confirm or deny that this unit plan is going to be a useful
tool, a pre-assessment would be provided before students are taught any of the
information. Allowing students to take a pre-assessment will provide a starting level that
educators and instructors are able to visually see where the student currently stands with
their own understanding. A pre-assessment would be compiled of various cultural
traditions, numerous scenarios asking how that individual should/would behave and a
reflection paragraph describing their own concerns of their career and culture values.
Instead of giving the student a written multiple choice assessment, the student
should be able to make their own choice on how they want to show their new knowledge of
culture impacts on career choices. A few suggestions that a student can use to show their
understanding could be a lesson they want to teach, a reflection essay or an oral discussion.
Issues that could present themselves in teaching this lesson; a bias educator who
has not completed their own learning of cultures, a student not having the patience to
learn, the culture of the classroom has not been talked about or set. In teaching this lesson,
each educator should first learn this unit themselves before teaching it. This could remove
many of the biases that may found and also teach the educator why having patience with
this unit is imperative.
As far as outside resources other than textbooks, instructors will have a specific
person to contact if they have any questions or lack of materials. Other resources will be
that the pre-assessment will be provided in paper and digital form.
Reflection
The process of developing this detailed unit plan increased my knowledge by
understanding how much research in takes to create a unit. Being a middle school teacher
the lesson planning was not intense due to having to complete lesson plans daily for my
class. Teaching three different grades with six different classes made this planning a bit of a
breeze but stressful with the amount of time to complete. This experience helped me
realize that I can complete my lesson plans earlier than I have been. It also created more
confidence within myself to not only teach my students but to even host seminars to share
my findings and how we can implement them.
Students that are at different levels within a classroom must be given differentiation
teaching. This means that irregardless of what level the student is on, they should be able
to learn the same information but created at a level they can easily understand with a little
challenge.