Annotated lesson plan design and implementation

Multicultural Lesson Plan

Multiculturalism is a response to changing demographics in the United States. Banks (cited in Hanley, 2002) states that 46% of students in public schools will be children of color by the year 2020. By the year 2040 white students will be in the minority. Teachers must meet the needs of these students from diverse cultural backgrounds and remove impediments to their learning. Multicultural education provides minority students with a sense of inclusion in history and science; it decreases stereotypes, bigotry, and racism (Hilliard & Pine, 1990). A big challenge for teachers is to adopt teaching practices that do not reflect the values of the wider society (Bowman, 1994) but recognize and respect the presence of minorities in America. Multicultural education is about diversity and seeks to preserve the separate characteristics and virtues of individual cultural groups. Our society is not mono-cultural but an amalgamation of many cultures, which enrich rather than diminish society (Hanley, 2002).

One aspect of multicultural education calls for students to study in depth non-traditional cultures and people who see the world from different perspectives. One such culture worthy of study is that of Mexico, our closest neighbor to the south. Anywhere in the United States, teachers are liable to encounter Mexican and Mexican-American students, plus there are large concentrations of them in the southwestern states, Florida, and New York. Even in unlikely spots like Detroit, Michigan there are Mexican communities.

Teaching a lesson about Mexico is an opportunity for Mexican students to experience inclusiveness. They are part of the "scene" in history, for example. Plus, they will undoubtedly know about some things that other non-Mexican students do not, so it's a chance to show what they know and share their experiences. It may help to give Mexican students a sense of validity because the culture they represent, despite being a minority culture, is deemed important enough to study in school.

All the students can benefit from a multicultural lesson. It is good for traditional students to understand that other cultures, different from their own, not only exist but add richness to the fabric of society. This could be explained to the students, in fact, by bringing in a piece of hand woven fabric -- preferably multicolored -- as a semi-concrete metaphor for society. We could talk about the different colors and how they contribute to the beauty of the whole.

Mexican weaving would be particularly appropriate!

Furthermore, the world is globalizing. Globalism, which started as a trend, has become a fact of life in today's world of business and will continue to develop more in the future. The world is quickly growing smaller, with travel and communication more commonplace. There is a good chance some of the students will travel to Mexico someday, and it will help if they know a little about it before they arrive. A lesson of this kind will encourage them to continue learning about Mexico in the future.

I have chosen to do a unit with activities that revolve around Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo is a national holiday in Mexico, thus an important one, which will serve as an interesting vehicle through which the students may gain exposure to Mexican culture and learn some Mexican history. Doing activities like making pinatas are fun and instructive and offer relaxed opportunities to discuss what they are learning. They will learn some Spanish words and to delve more deeply into what it means culturally to be Mexican, which could lead to an interest in taking Spanish in high school or college some day.

It should not be ignored that students will get an opportunity to broaden their concepts of what culture actually is and also gain insight into the fact that all cultures celebrate holidays that commemorate important aspects of community life and history. The holiday itself and specifically how it is celebrated is interesting and broadening, but even more important is its reason for being and the events that led to its becoming a holiday.

One of the most difficult things to understand about another culture is its values and the reasoning behind them. The students will be exposed to Mexican values, particularly when we study what the leaders on the two sides said before they went to war with each other. Cohesiveness is primary in Mexican culture; in fact, Mexican communication style reflects that need and functions to maintain relationships. Sometimes American businessmen have trouble understanding Mexicans in this respect because Americans in the workplace tend to communicate in order to solve problems and accomplish tasks, while Mexicans communicate in order to establish and maintain viable relationships to each other. They value family more than work, prize harmony, and try to avoid conflict in their dealings with each other.

In the discussion about how the war was won despite being vastly outnumbered, perhaps an understanding of this value will come out. They were strongly bonded to each other. They knew they were in it together, and their enemies did not understand the depth of their commitment to each other.