N E W YO RK S T A TE SO CI A L S T U DIE S RE SO U R CE T O OL KI T
3rd Grade Globalization Inquiry
Is Sharing and Trading
Across Cultures Always a
Good Thing?
Political map of the world. © iStock / © mart_m
Supporting Questions
1. What is globalization?
2. What are some opportunities created by globalization?
3. What are some challenges created by globalization?
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3rd Grade Globalization Inquiry
Is Sharing and Trading Across Cultures Always a Good Thing?
3.6 Communities from around the world interact with other people and communities and exchange
cultural ideas and practices.
New York State Social
Studies Framework Key
Idea & Practices
Gathering, Using, and Interpreting Evidence
Chronological Reasoning and Causation
Comparison and Contextualization
Geographic Reasoning
Economics and Economic Systems
Civic Participation
Staging the Compelling
Question
Survey the class to see where personal items were manufactured.
Supporting Question 1
Supporting Question 2
Supporting Question 3
Understand
Assess
Assess
What is globalization?
What are some opportunities created
by globalization?
Formative
Performance Task
Using information on their labels,
identify the countries of origin of three
products.
Featured Sources
Source A: World Political Map
Formative
Performance Task
Make a claim about the opportunities
resulting from globalization.
Featured Sources
What are some challenges created by
globalization?
Formative
Performance Task
Make a claim about challenges
resulting from globalization.
Featured Sources
Source B: “Lizzie’s Morning”
Source A: “Chinese Educators Come to
America”
Source A: “The First Greenmarket in
New York City”
Source C: Teacher-supplied collection
of daily-use items
Source B: Image bank: Companies
selling goods around the world
Source B: Image bank: Political
cartoons
Summative
Performance Task
ARGUMENT Is sharing and trading across cultures always a good thing? Construct an argument with
evidence that addresses the compelling question.
Taking Informed
Action
ACT Choose one of the challenges of globalization and take steps towards reducing its impact locally (e.g.,
working to clean up fast-food litter).
THIS WORK IS LICENSED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-NONCOMMERCIAL-SHAREALIKE 4.0
INTERNATIONAL LICENSE.
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N E W YO RK S T A TE SO CI A L S T U DIE S RE SO U R CE T O OL KI T
Overview
Inquiry Description
This inquiry engages third graders in expanding their understandings of our increasingly interconnected world.
The compelling question “Is sharing and trading across cultures always a good thing?” is intellectually respectful of
third graders who have personal experience with sharing and trading and typically have been told that sharing and
trading are positive ways to interact. This inquiry explores that assumption in ways that allow students to engage
with several social studies disciplines as students uncover political, economic, and social connections across
cultures and analyze the implications of those connections.
As an example of an inquiry in which Taking Informed Action is embedded, students complete the understand and
assess elements through Supporting Questions 1 and 2 and can do the action activity in addition to, or in place of,
the Summative Performance Task.
In addition to the Key Idea expressed earlier, this inquiry covers the following Conceptual Understandings:



(3.6a) Cultural diffusion is the process by which cultures exchange and transmit ideas, beliefs, technologies,
and goods over time.
(3.10a) Communities around the world produce goods and provide services.
(3.10b) World communities have needs, wants, and limited resources. To meet their needs and wants,
communities trade with others. Technological developments in transportation and communication have
influenced trade.
NOTE: This inquiry is expected to take four to six 30-minute class periods. The inquiry time frame might expand if
teachers think their students need additional instructional experiences (i.e., supporting questions, formative
performance tasks, and featured sources). Teachers are encouraged to adapt the inquiries to meet the
requirements and interests of their particular students. Resources can also be modified as necessary to
meet individualized education programs (IEPs) or Section 504 Plans for students with disabilities.
Structure of the Inquiry
In addressing the compelling question “Is sharing and trading across cultures always a good thing?” students work
through a series of supporting questions, formative performance tasks, and featured sources in order to construct
an argument with evidence from a variety of sources.
Staging the Compelling Question
To introduce the compelling questions, students can locate the label on a piece of their clothing, shoes, or
backpacks to determine where the items were manufactured. Teachers can make a list of the countries represented
on a white board with the number of items identified by the class. Teachers and students can then make some
hunches about why the items might come from different countries.
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Supporting Question 1
The first supporting question—“What is globalization?”—challenges students to demonstrate an understanding of
the construct of cultural exchange and interaction and how the world has become increasingly interconnected. The
formative performance task asks students, working in small groups and using the information on teacher-supplied
products, to place dots on a world map to indicate the countries of origin for three products. Featured Source A is a
world political map that students can refer to throughout the inquiry as they learn the origins of different products.
Featured Source B is a read-aloud article describing where the daily-use products a family uses come from and
how ideas diffuse around the world. Featured Source C is a collection of daily-use products supplied by teachers.
Supporting Question 2
The second supporting question—“What are some opportunities created by globalization?”—pushes students to
explore the concept of globalization further by focusing on cause and effect, i.e., what companies and consumers
gain as a result of global trade. Globalization refers to the idea that ideas, goods, and services spread around the
world. Featured Source A is an article about learning new languages and the notion of exchanging ideas. Featured
Source B is an image bank of companies that interact with consumers around the world. Based on the featured
sources, the formative performance task asks students to make one or more evidence-supported claims about the
opportunities afforded by globalization.
Supporting Question 3
The third supporting question—“What are some challenges created by globalization?”—encourages students to
continue their exploration of globalization. The formative performance task calls on students to write a claim with
evidence about some of the challenges evident in an increasingly interdependent world. Featured Source A is an
article that describes the rise of farmers’ markets in New York City as a response to the global market for produce.
Featured Source B is a set of two political cartoons that speak to the idea of global interdependence. Using the
featured sources, students make one or more claims with evidence about the challenges inherent in globalization.
Summative Performance Task
Students draw upon their understandings developed through the sources and the formative performance tasks to
craft an evidence-based argument that responds to the compelling question “Is sharing and trading across cultures
always a good thing?” The argument can be presented through written expression or a combination of drawing and
writing. To prepare for the crafting of an argument, students may gather their sources and notes and discuss in
small groups the relationship between the compelling question and the supporting questions and featured sources.
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Student arguments will likely vary, but could include any of the following:



Sharing and trading across cultures is not always a good thing because trading has had a negative impact
on the environment.
Sharing and trading across cultures can be good and bad.
When cultures share and trade, there can be opportunities and challenges.
Students have the opportunity to Take Informed Action by choosing one of the challenges of globalization and
taking steps towards reducing its impact locally (e.g., working to clean up fast-food litter).
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Supporting Question 1
Featured Source
Source A: World Political Map
© iStock / © mart_m
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Supporting Question 1
Featured Source
Source B: National Geographic, article describing where one family's daily-use products come from and
how ideas are diffused around the world, "Lizzie's Morning," 1999
Lizzie's Morning
7 a.m. The clock radio blasts Jamaican reggae into Lizzie's room in Washington, D.C., and the music wakes her. As
she comes to life, she thinks about school and the day ahead. She doesn't think about Guglielmo Marconi of Italy,
who patented the radio. And she doesn't know that the first experimental radio broadcast took place in
Massachusetts in 1906.
Lizzie gets dressed, heads to the kitchen, and makes a pitcher of orange juice, using frozen concentrate that was
preserved by a process developed in Florida during the 1940s. The very same round, golden fruit was popular in
ancient China.
Lizzie's mom uses an electric appliance to grind coffee beans from Brazil. The first version of this machine was
invented in Ohio in the 1930s. (Before then people used manual grinders, which date to the 1800s.) Her mom
pours the ground beans into a cone-shaped filter invented in Germany around 1900.
For breakfast, Lizzie eats a bowl of Kellogg's Corn Flakes, named after the American family that developed the
cereal in the 1890s. As she eats, she glances at the newspaper. (The first regular weekly newspapers appeared in
Germany in the early 1800s.)
After breakfast, Lizzie brushes her teeth. (The Chinese claim they invented the toothbrush in the 1400s.) She then
says good-bye to her father, who is shaving with a safety razor—patented in 1901 by a salesman from Wisconsin.
The earliest safety razors date from France in the late 1800s. Centuries ago, people used shells and sharks' teeth as
razors.
Lizzie gathers her stuff for school, including her saxophone—invented in Belgium by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. She
puts on her Walkman, developed in Japan in the 1970s. Then, when her mom isn't looking, she pops some gum into
her mouth. People have enjoyed gum since ancient times, and the Indians of Mexico and Central America chewed
chicle, a substance from wild sapodilla trees. Chicle was introduced to the United States in the 1860s.
Rain begins to fall as Lizzie leaves the house. She races back inside for her umbrella, which was made in Taiwan.
Umbrellas have a long past. They appear in artwork from ancient Egypt, and they've been used in various
cultures—both practically and ceremonially.
Back outside, Lizzie dashes across the street once the traffic light turns green. The first working traffic signal was
installed outside the Houses of Parliament in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. Modern traffic lights were
invented in the early 20th century.
The smooth, solid road that Lizzie crosses is paved with macadam, a surface developed in part by English engineer
John McAdam. Lizzie waits a few minutes for the bus that will take her to school. The first bus line was established
in Paris, France, in the 1600s, but it didn't last long. Not until the 1800s were horse-drawn buses a regular part of
life in cities such as Paris, London, and New York.
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Lizzie climbs aboard the bus, pays her fare, and heads off to school.
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/archive/xpeditions/activities/11/popup/lizzie.html?ar_a=1
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Supporting Question 1
Featured Source
Source C: Teacher-supplied collection of daily-use items
Teachers should seek out and bring to class a series of daily-use items (e.g., food, cleaning products, clothing) with
the countries of origin clearly labeled.
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Supporting Question 2
Featured Source
Source A: Newsela, article about native Chinese speakers teaching their language, “Chinese Guest
Teachers Help U.S. Students Learn Their Language and Culture,” September 12, 2013
Chinese guest teacher Xu Dou works with students Sept. 5, 2013, at Johnson Middle School in Bradenton, Fla.
Johnson is one of two schools in Bradenton that are hosting Chinese teachers as part of an initiative between the
College Board and China's Confucius Institute to teach Chinese in the U.S.
Photo: Grant Jefferies/Bradenton Herald/MCT
Chinese Guest Teachers Help U.S. Students Learn Their Language and Culture
By McClatchy Washington, adapted by Newsela staff
WASHINGTON — On his first day of teaching Chinese in a Florida middle school, Xu Dou showed his students how
Chinese characters used to look. He wanted them to see how the writing has changed over the years.
“Most of the students love the language. They think the language is amazing,” Xu said.
He said he’d explained to his class that Chinese characters were a central part of Chinese culture. “I tell them if you
want to learn real Chinese, you have to learn how to write Chinese characters.”
That will take a lot of memorization and practice, but Xu’s students already have a good start. Many began learning
Chinese two years earlier at their elementary school. Li Meng, another newly arrived teacher, is working there this
year.
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U.S. Cuts Funding For Language Classes
Xu and Li are two of 129 teachers who just arrived from China. They are part of the largest Chinese guest-teacher
program. It is supported by the College Board and the Confucius Institute, or Hanban. It promotes the study of
Chinese language and culture.
Started in 2007, the Chinese guest-teacher program today is in 30 states. The largest numbers of teachers are in
Utah, North Carolina and Ohio. These are places with statewide Chinese programs.
Chinese is an important language for Americans to learn. But the government has stopped giving money for schools
to teach languages before college.
Last year, Congress got rid of money for foreign language education. Schools had used the money to pay for foreign
language classes.
In 2008, one-quarter of elementary schools had language classes. In 1997, it was one third. A lot of schools also
stopped adding classes because they could not find enough foreign language teachers.
For Some, Tai Chi On Fridays
Xu and Li are fluent English speakers. They learned the language in China, where all students learn English
beginning in elementary school. This is their first trip to the United States.
Xu grew up, went to university and teaches high school English in north-central China. He plans to return there
after the school year. He will rejoin his wife and 7-month-old son.
Li teaches 570 students, kindergarteners to fifth-graders. Students see her once a week for class. The older
students have a Chinese club that learns tai chi exercises with her on Fridays.
Li, 31, has been teaching high school English for seven years in eastern China. She said she already liked Florida
because it reminded her of Qingdao, her hometown. “I love sunshine, the beach and the sea,” she said.
Farther north, the University of North Carolina is in its fourth year of promoting the guest-teacher program. China
is North Carolina’s No. 2 trading partner, and companies in the state are selling more products to China.
China Helps Pay Guest Teachers
The Chinese government pays $13,000 of each teacher’s salary, said Matt Friedrick. He runs a kindergarten
through high school education program out of the University. The government also covers their travel expense.
Desa Dawson is the president of a national council of state language program heads. The council helped screen and
select the guest teachers. Dawson said there was a lack of language teachers for all languages, everywhere in the
United States.
The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages says learning a language gives students many skills
they’ll need in life. These include practice in how to understand others and share ideas. Learning a language also
builds the ability to be comfortable in new situations. And it gives a better understanding of other cultural
viewpoints.
The College Board runs the SAT and AP tests. It helped start the Chinese guest-teacher program in 2007. That same
year, it began its AP program in Chinese language and culture. The guest-teacher program helps prepare students
who want to take the AP course.
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Three thousand students took the AP Chinese test in 2007. In 2012, that number had grown to more than nine
thousand. But in language learning as a whole, the United States is far from filling the need, Dawson said.
“With the world becoming smaller because of technology, we have so many opportunities out there, and I think
we’re behind — really, we’re behind most nations — in teaching second languages,” she said.
Original version by McClatchy Washington, adapted by Newsela (newsela.com). https://newsela.com/articles/chineseteachers/id/1077/.
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Supporting Question 2
Featured Source
Source B: Image bank: Companies selling goods around the world
Image 1: An American company, McDonalds, in China.
© iStock / © TonyV3112.
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Image 2: An American company, IBM, in London.
© iStock / © claudiodivizia.
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Image 3: A Japanese company, Toyota, in the United States.
© iStock / © WendellandCarolyn
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Image 4: A French company, Louis Vuitton, in Palm Springs, FL.
© iStock / ©NoDerog.
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Supporting Question 3
Featured Source
Source A: ReadWorks, article describing the rise of farmers’ markets in New York City, “The First
Greenmarket in New York City,” 2013
The First Greenmarket in New York City
Where do fruits and vegetables come from? When we go to the grocery store, there are shelves of carrots, lettuce,
and broccoli. All of this produce comes from farms. Sometimes those farms are very far away. Many of the grapes
sold in the United States are grown in South America. The lettuce could be grown in Mexico. Trucks, ships, and
planes bring food from all over the world to a grocery store near you.
But there are also farms close by. In the 1970s one man thought that we should be eating more food from local
farms. His name was Barry Benepe, and he lived in New York City. New York City is the largest city in the United
States—over 8 million people lived there in 2013!
Barry knew that there were tasty vegetables being grown close to New York City. But the farmers couldn’t sell
these vegetables to the people in the city. Grocery stores in New York bought their vegetables from far away and
didn’t want to buy vegetables from the nearby farms.
Barry knew there had to be a way to sell local vegetables to New Yorkers. “What if the farmers could bring the
vegetables to the city themselves?” he asked. Every week, the farmers would drive into the city and set up a market
where they could sell their vegetables.
Barry took his idea to the city government. At first the city had doubts. It wasn’t sure New Yorkers would care
enough to buy the vegetables from local farmers instead of the grocery store. But Barry convinced the city officials,
and they agreed to help. The new farmers’ market was called a “Greenmarket.”
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The first Greenmarket in New York City opened on a Saturday in July 1976. It was very popular. On the first day,
most of the farmers sold everything they had. It felt like a party. People chatted and laughed. Neighbors met each
other for the first time.
The fruits and vegetables at the Greenmarket were much fresher than the fruits and vegetables at the big grocery
stores. It took a lot of time for tomatoes to come to New York from Mexico— they had to cross much of a continent.
But tomatoes from near the city didn’t have to travel as far. The farmer could pick them on the same day. These
local tomatoes were delicious.
“The success of the market is touching and smelling the fruits and vegetables,” said Barry. New Yorkers agreed.
They loved the Greenmarket so much that they wanted more farmers’ markets. Barry worked with the city, and
they made markets in other neighborhoods. By 2013, New York City had 54 farmers’ markets. They are in every
part of the city and on every day of the week.
Other states saw how popular the farmers’ markets were and decided that they wanted to have their own markets.
Soon there were farmers’ markets across the country. Barry Benepe had started a trend.
Now the farmers’ markets in New York City don’t just sell vegetables and fruits. You can also buy meat, bread,
yogurt, eggs, milk, plants, and pastries. All of the foods at the farmers’ markets still come from farms that are close
by. Not only does this help the farmers, it makes less pollution. Barry has retired now. He’s in his eighties and
doesn’t have the energy to work anymore. But he still loves to visit the markets every week.
© 2015 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.readworks.org/sites/default/files/lessons/750_the_first_greenmarket_in_new_york_city_0.pdf.
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Supporting Question 3
Featured Source
Source B: Image bank: Political cartoons
Image 1: The Great Wall.
Copyright © Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News. AZyglis@buffnews.com.
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Image 2: The World According to Nike.
Copyright © The Editorial Cartoons (The Cartoonist Group). http://www.theeditorialcartoons.com/store/add.php?iid=94906.
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