Multicultural Lesson Plan – Celebrating Diversity

Purpose:

This lesson deals with understanding and celebrating diversity. Today’s focus will be introducing the term “diversity” and briefly discussing the ways in which we can be diverse from one another (such as appearance, customs, and traditions). We will then discuss why diversity is a good thing, and although every person is different we all make contributions to our community.

VA SOLS-

Civics 2.12- The student will understand that the people of Virginia

a)have state and local government officials who are elected by voters;

b)have diverse ethnic origins, customs, and traditions, make contributions to their communities, and are united as Americans by common principles.

Objective:

Given construction paper and markers, with full participation, the students will create a “crayon” about a classmate identifying what makes that classmate different or unique, and why these characteristics are admirable.

Procedure:

Introduction:

  • Have students gather around read aloud area
  • Begin lesson by reading The Crayon Box that Talked (by Shane DeRolf)
  • How did the crayons feel about each other at the beginning of the book? Why do you think they felt this way?
  • The box of crayons was very diverse, does anyone know what “diversity” means?
  • We use the term diversity when there’s a variety, or range of different things. For example, the crayon box was diverse because there were a bunch of different colors.
  • What are some ways we see diversity when dealing with people? (Skin color, jobs, customs, traditions, etc.)

Development

  • Today we’re going to look at what makes our classroom diverse.
  • I want you each to get with a partner and think about what makes them different from you (Do they have different hobbies? Are they good at a sport you don’t like? Do they celebrate a holiday with their family that your family doesn’t celebrate?)
  • Once you’ve picked two things about your friend that are special about them we’re going to decorate a crayon about them. Each crayon should have the name of who it’s about, two things that are unique about them, and why these differences are good.
  • Show example about Ms. Anderson- See, I put that Ms. Anderson is very organized and has been teaching a long time. This is different from me because I am not organized and am not a teacher yet. I’m glad Ms. Anderson is different than I am because I am able to observe and learn from her. Can you imagine how messy this classroom could get if Ms. Anderson wasn’t organized? Because she has such strong organization skills it helps all of us work when we’re in her room. Hopefully if I spend enough time with Ms. Anderson I can learn how to be a better teacher!
  • Does everyone understand what we need to put on our crayons? Make sure you have their name, two special things about them that are different from you, and why it’s good that our friend is different from us.
  • Split group into partners, allow group of three if necessary.
  • Allow 10-15 minutes to create/decorate crayons.
  • For advanced students- They can choose to write about more than two difference if they would like
  • For strugglers- give more examples of diversity including family size (we don’t all have the same number of siblings) and family origin (my family is originally from Spain, but we’re not all from Spain are we? What are some other countries people’s families may be from?)

Summary

  • Ask students to return to their original assigned seat
  • Going around the room allow each student to share who their crayon was about, one difference they wrote about, and why their glad their friend has that difference.
  • The world is kind of like a giant puzzle, every piece is different, but each piece is just as important to solve the puzzle. Think about the crayons from our story earlier: would you want to color every picture you ever make with red and red only, or would you rather use the whole box to complete your picture? Without blue, there wouldn’t have been a sky in the picture from our book, and without green there wouldn’t have been grass. Each color had a specific role and if any one of the colors was missing, we can’t complete the whole picture.
  • What do you think the world would be like if we were all the same (allow time for answers)? I’m glad there’s diversity in the world because I get to learn so much from the people around me! If we were all the same, what would I be able to learn? A world where everyone’s the same sounds pretty boring to me.
  • We’re going to pass out one last paper, I want you to write your name on it and answer the two questions.

Materials:

  • The Crayon Box that Talked by Shane DeRolf
  • Construction paper
  • Markers or crayons
  • Half sheet “assessment”

Evaluation A:

Pass out half sheet of paper with the following questions for students to answer:

What does diversity mean?

Why is diversity a good thing?

Evaluation B:

Did my lesson accommodate/address the needs of all my learners?

What were the strengths of the lesson?

What were the weaknesses?

How would I change the lesson if I could teach it again?

How did I manage the partners?

Would I do this specific lesson again? Why or why not?