Uptown+Reinforcement+Activity

__**Objective:**__ Students will be able to identify aspects of their culture and compare it and contrast it to others' culture in the class in order to identify the cultural differences that exist in the western hemisphere.

__**Materials:**__ Book //Uptown// by Bryan Collier Worksheet #1 (below procedures) Poster boards Paper Magazines Newspapers Markers

__**Procedures: **__ 1.) Read the book, //Uptown,// with students.

2.) After you are finished, write the word “CULTURE” on the board.

3.) Have students try to come up with a definition or a list of what culture is or what it includes.  Ex: Culture has to do with values and beliefs.  Culture involves customs and traditions.  Culture is shared by a group.  Culture is learned.  Culture shapes behavior.

4.) Read to them the following definition of culture: Culture is a system of beliefs, values, and assumptions about life that guide behavior and are shared by a group of people. It includes customs, language, and material artifacts. These are transmitted from generation to generation, rarely with explicit instructions.

5.) Pass out and have students individually fill out Worksheet #1 (attached at bottom)

6.) Separate students into groups of 4 or 5 and have them compare their responses to Worksheet #1. After the groups compare their responses, ask: Were your responses to the questions exactly alike? What differences did you find among responses? How can you explain the differences?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">7.) Discuss with students that a lot of their responses to the questions were shaped by their culture – ask them which ones they think were and have a few students share responses. (Make the point that if these questions were given to students from another culture, their answers would be different because they have grown up in a different culture. Perhaps they have already found significant differences among their small groups.) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Talk and ask about how where they live helps shape their culture.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">8.) Give students the option of working with 1 partner or alone to create a poem, story, or poster board in the style of the book, Uptown.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> - Students may use their neighborhood name or city name based on if they are working alone or with a partner, as Bryan Collier the author of Uptown, used the word "uptown" in his book. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Ex: Uptown is Jazz <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -They will write out the things that their city or neighborhood “is” to them, based on their culture. They can include language, food, religion and artistic expression as well as whatever else their culture and city/neighborhood is to them. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Have students decorate their projects using cut outs from magazines, newspapers and markers, much like the illustrations in the book.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">9.) After the project, have students share what they have done and talk about similarities and differences in cultures in your classroom.

__**Other Ohio Standards you can teach with this book:**__ Grade 3 Geography, Human systems 8. Communities may include diverse cultural groups.