Make a Connection: My Culture

Subject: World Languages

Lesson Length: 45 mins - 1 hour

Topic: Expression, Communication, Connection, Conflict

Grade Level: 10, 11, 12, 9

Standards / Framework:

Brief Description: Students will access and evaluate information about different cultures.

Know Before You Start: Students should be able to identify a cultural group to which they belong.

Hook:

Ask students:
- “Why is it important to be able to share information about your background in a different language?”
- “What are some advantages of sharing information about your culture and background when you travel?”
- “How does learning another language help us appreciate other cultures?”

Activity:

As a class, have students identify a culture or community group to which they belong.
Have students share aspects of their culture that are interesting or unique.
Using the sample comic as a guide, have students create a comic that portrays several examples of things important to their culture or another culture, e.g., history, traditions, etc.

Closure:

Have students share their comics with the class or in small groups.
Have students explain why they chose the aspects of culture featured in their comic.
Discuss why it’s important to be able to talk about culture and history in a different language.
Emphasize that learning languages helps us think about our own background and appreciate differences and similarities across cultures.
Have students do a gallery walk to look for similarities and differences across cultures.

Differentiation:

Allow students to use the speech-to-text feature.
Allow students to work in pairs or groups as needed.
Allow students to use the voiceover feature to read their comics aloud.
Students may find it helpful to draft their scripts in English first, then the target language, if they find it difficult to create original sentences in the target language.
Allow students to use digital dictionaries/translators as appropriate for your class policy.

Resources: