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Lesson Plan: Different Cultures

Subject:  ELA- Reading

Grade: 4

Lesson Objective: To understand that different cultures have different stories and compare and contrast a Native American and an ancient Chinese story

Common Core Standard:  CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.9- Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures.

Materials:

Starter:

Say:

  • Have you ever heard a story from a different culture?  What did you think?  (Allow the students to answer.)

Main:

Say:

  • All cultures have stories.  A culture is a group of people who have the same customs or way of life.
  • Some of the stories that different cultures have explain how Earth was formed, where people and animals come from and other things that are hard to explain.
  • Other themes that many stories have are about ghosts, people coming back from the dead and different animals.
  • Different cultures have different ways to explain how things happened. 
  • For example, there are many stories about foxes.  In some of those stories, the fox is not a good character.  In other stories, the fox is a good character.
  • One of the reasons that different cultures have different stories is because of where those cultures are in the world.
  • Cultures that live in hot, dry areas will have stories that are about the things that they see and the things that are around them.
  • Cultures that live in areas with a lot of trees have stories that are about the things that they see and the things that are around them.
  • Now, you are going to be reading a Native American story and an ancient Chinese story.  Then, you are going to be comparing and contrasting them and answering questions.
  • Does anyone have any questions?

Feedback:

Say:

  • Who would like to share your answers?  (Allow the students to share and go over the answers.)

Written by Kimberly Greacen, Education World® Contributing Writer

Kimberly is an educator with extensive experience in curriculum writing and developing instructional materials to align with Common Core State Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy.

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