Diversity & Multicultural
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Tip: The grade levels and subjects listed are only our suggestions. With a bit of creativity, project examples can be adapted to meet the needs of different ages and curricular goals.
School is an introduction to the greater world in so many ways, including how to bridge age and cultural differences. One group of 7th and 8th graders collaborated with 1st graders in an ongoing, multi-faceted project to do just that.
Special-needs students chose nondisabled peer buddies to assist them in mastering the skills necessary to shop for groceries and prepare a nutritious meal. The special-education students began by practicing their ability to read labels and recipes, along with the math skills to make change for food purchases. As a group, they chose an ethnic theme, searched for appropriate recipes, and planned and prepared the meal for a multicultural celebration.
Eighth graders interviewed veterans from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War as part of an interdisciplinary unit in social studies and language arts. The veterans' contributions and insights made the curriculum more meaningful, real, and relevant to the students' lives.
When a Head Start teacher expressed the need for books and games for her students, a 5th-grade class decided it could do more than just raise funds to purchase materials. The students created books and games, tailoring them to each Head Start student.
To unite students with diverse learning styles and ethnic backgrounds in a multilevel English course, teachers launched the American Dream Quilt project. Students interviewed family members, composed extensive journals, and assimilated and applied themes from literature to their own family experiences, before creating a quilt representing their heritages and identities.
After learning that schools in Honduras lacked books, elementary students wrote letters in Spanish to their peers in Honduras and raised $1,000 to provide books for them.
A 12th-grade sociology class studying issues related to the elderly sought greater understanding of the problems facing this population by visiting adult day care centers, senior citizen centers, and nursing homes. During weekly visits, they witnessed firsthand the concerns of senior citizens in today's society. In celebration of their newfound friendships, the students and senior citizens co-planned a Senior-Senior Prom.
In partnership with a local book center, students created books recording family stories and traditions. Artists trained the teachers in bookmaking, allowing them to guide their students through the process, and families joined their children to construct and decorate the books.
It all began as an introduction to the letter "Q": Quilt-related literature, both fiction and nonfiction, was read to the kindergarteners to give them the historical and cultural backgrounds on the origins of quilts. The children then took their love of quilting one step further, creating a quilt to comfort a baby residing in a nearby shelter.
Bus shelters are some of the most visible items on many roads. Second-grade students decorated a shelter in an effort to spread their message of cultural appreciation.
In a school focused on service, 8th and 9th graders shined in their work with their community's hungry, homeless, orphans, and elderly—reaching out to a soup kitchen, and orphanage, and a nursing home.
Students wanted to honor those who had a positive impact on the community. The youths interviewed local heroes and compiled those interviews into a book. They honored the local heroes at an awards banquet and gave readings of the book at their school.
When students in a town with a Central American sister city learned about "Libros para Ninos" (Books for Children), a program providing books for Central American children, they decided to make and donate handcrafted books. The youths studied simple Spanish vocabulary to write the books, and wrote essays about themselves to accompany the donation.
Youths created a school-orientation video that prospective students and their parents could view at home. The video is narrated in English, Hmong, Somali, and Spanish, ensuring that it serves the entire school community, including English Language Learners and their families.
After much discussion about the cultures represented within their classrooms, 3rd through 5th graders grew curious about the groups present in their neighborhood. They created a classroom museum to educate the community about its diversity.
It has been said that math is the international language. It is also a subject that terrifies a lot of students. For both of these reasons, it seemed only natural for one school's 4th- and 5th-grade math classes to organize a multicultural math fair for the rest of the school.
When one teacher introduced a culture curriculum to her 4th-grade students, she discovered that few knew much about their heritages. She and the students brainstormed a fun way to investigate their cultural backgrounds and in the process connected with some interesting community members.
High school students living with HIV and AIDS collaborated with uninfected peers to teach younger students about the disease.
Theater is an excellent medium for young people fighting the AIDS pandemic. A group of students used theater to teach other youths how to deal with peer pressure and make positive decisions regarding their health.
Acceptance is key in the fight against HIV and AIDS. One class realized this after reading a book about pandemics and society's negative views of the infected. The students worked to counteract harassment within their school.
