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Lesson
1: Everyone Has a Culture–Everyone
Is Different Activity
Class
time needed: 40 minutes
- Materials
An “Everyone Has a Culture—Everyone
Is Different” worksheet for
each student
- Objectives
Students will be able to define culture.
Students will recognize that some differences
among people stem from culture and that
some stem from personal traits and preferences.
IntroductionThis activity invites students
to identify aspects of culture that
influence our own behavior and sometimes
make it difficult to understand the
behavior of other people. Culture is
a complex idea and teachers should be
prepared to offer students many examples
of parts of culture.
- Procedure
Write the following statements on the
board.
No one is exactly like me.
I have many things in common with the
members of my family and community.
Every person in the world needs some
of the same things I need.
1. Ask students to share ideas that
support these statements.
2. Point out that people in various
groups often look at people in other
groups as “different.”
3. Ask students to describe some of
these differences. Why may people in
one group behave differently from people
in another?
4. Explain that many differences are
related to culture-–ways of living
and beliefs that are handed down from
one generation to the next. Working
from the list on the board, explain
that all people share basic needs (food,
shelter, etc.), that each of us learns
a set of behaviors and beliefs from
the people we grow up with (the kinds
of houses we build and foods we eat),
and that each individual has unique
talents and preferences (I’m good
at math; I don’t like chocolate).
When we talk about the behaviors and
beliefs that a group of people have
in common, we are talking about culture.
5. Ask students to complete the worksheet
in order to help them identify aspects
of their own cultures. Explain that
each student should answer each question
with one sentence or phrase. Then students
should rank each item as to how important
they feel it is to their culture.
6. After
students have completed the worksheets,
ask them to share their answers in small
groups. Ask the groups to compare and
contrast various aspects of their individual
cultures.
7. In some schools, students may share
many cultural traits. Some students
may not identify with a particular ethnic
or foreign culture. Ask students if
they think there is one American culture.
Discuss characteristics of your region
(immigration patterns, geographic location,
etc.) that might explain the similarities
and differences among student responses
to the worksheet.
- Debriefing
Use the following questions to focus
discussion on the role culture plays
in forming our behaviors and beliefs.
1. How does it feel to know you are
part of a cultural group that shares
many ideas and beliefs?
2. What happened when you compared your
worksheets? How many different cultures
are represented in the class?
3. What did you learn from this activity?
4. Does culture explain why other people
sometimes seem “different?”
5. What are some things that you do
that you learned from your culture?
6. Are all of our behaviors related
to culture? (Possible answer: Some behaviors
are related to individual preferences
and personality traits.)
7. What can you do to learn about and
understand other cultures?
8. What if you were part of another
culture? How might you be different
from the way you are now?
9. How can we use what we learned in
this lesson to improve our community?
Used with permission from Peace Corps
World Wise Schools, <http://www.PeaceCorps.gov/wws>
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