Kimberly+Keck

**//Planning//** **Date:** 14 December 2010 **Class:** 7th Grade Language Arts **Title:** My Multicultural Self **Objective:** Students will be able to identify similarities between themes and characters in the book and themselves. **State Core:** 2.1.C. Connect text to self **Concepts to be taught:** Themes from the text, the multiple dimensions of one character, how to identify their own multiple dimensions. **Materials:** White board, pens, projector with Internet access, computer lab, handout—[|Circles of My Multicultural Self] **//Performing//** **Announcements:** TBD **Continuation from Previous Lesson:** Following reading //American Born Chinese// by Gene Luen Yang use this lesson to talk about stereotyping **Preparing for Learning:** · Have the students respond to the following prompt in their journals: “What do you think is an important aspect of your identity? How would you feel if that aspect was the only way people thought of you?” · Invite a few students to share what they wrote. · Write the word “stereotype” on the board and work with the students to come up with a definition. · Draw a circle on the board and write the name “Jin Wang” in the middle, draw four lines coming out of the circle and four circles on the ends of the line. Ask the students how they think Jin Wang from the novel would describe himself. Fill their answers out in each circle. · Ask the students if they think that is the only way that Jin Wang would describe himself. Listen for responses, then show the following YouTube clip, which inspired the last frame of the graphic novel : [] **Directing the Learning:** · Explain that there are multiple dimensions to every individual. Display the handout, “[|Circles of My Multicultural Self]” and instruct students they are going to write their name in the center circle and then write defining features of themselves, just like they did with Jin Wang. · Pass out the handout. Instruct students that once they have determined what should go in each circle, they should write one thing that makes them proud about defining themselves in one way, and one thing that makes them ashamed for defining themselves in one way. · Have the students think about the two questions one the handout below the circles, jot down a couple notes, then share their stories with a partner. Ask a couple of the partnerships to share their responses. · Give an example as to how you would fill out the last sentence on the worksheet, then have the students complete it, explaining that we will be using these sentences later. **Assignment:** Explain to the students that we are not going to represent our sentences through music. A) Modeling/Examples – Project the sentence “I am a teacher, but I am not a boring, mean dragon lady.” Direct the students to Freeplaymusic.com. Instruct the students that I want to find a song to represent the fact that I am a teacher and then another to represent the fact that I am not a dragon lady. Listen to a few examples then show students how to email the song to themselves. B) Guided Practice – Go to the computer lab and have students listen to songs on Freeplaymusic.com and find examples that fit their sentence. Have students email themselves the songs, helping students where needed. C) Directions – Return to class and project Audacity on the board. Show students how to link the songs together and cut them to be only 30 seconds, then email the new song to you. D) Independent Practice – Have the students complete the Audacity assignment at home and send the final product to your email. Make sure to post the directions to Audacity on your class webpage in case students forget. *If you have a long class period, you can probably do this in class. **Reinforcing the Learning:** · The next day in class, have students play their 30 second songs and read their “I am_ but not _” sentences to the class and tell why the song is representative of them.
 * Lesson Plan**

Example:

I am a teacher, but I am not a boring, mean dragon lady.

media type="custom" key="7847239"   Depending on the amount of time and effort it takes your students to latch on to the idea of Audacity, you could expand the project so students can make an audio component for each circle of their multicultural selves. I wouldn't want to stray too far from the content, but if you are teaching in a particularly tech savvy environment you could modify the assignment, so students would blend a small portion of 4-5 songs to illustrate who they are as follows:
 * Evaluation:**

media type="custom" key="7847409" The students then would follow the same format shown above in the reinforcing learning step: they would present their song and orally share with the class why they chose each component an what it represents.