Lesson Plan Critique
By Jill Ziebell
Winona State University
Multicultural Lesson Plan Critique
1. Dolores Huerta: In this lesson students learn how an Dolores Huerta helped
develop a farm labor union and fought for the rights of Hispanic Americans.
Through various activities students look at their own communities and
decide how they would improve it. They also compare and contrast their
own lives to that of Dolores Huerta. Guest speakers and a service project also
encourage students to think and act beyond the classroom.
http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/byrnesfamous/huerta.html
2. Cinco de Mayo: In this lesson student learn about the true history behind the
Cinco de Mayo celebration. Students also learn about the some of the values
and customs of Mexico. They are given the opportunity to compare it to their
own. Students also learn some Spanish words and how to create tortillas and
piñatas. http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/byrnescelebrations/cincodemayo.html
3. Hispanic Celebration The instructional goal for this lesson was to introduce
the learner to Mexico's culture, people, language and celebration of
traditions. Students develop their own Cultural Report Slide Show by using
the internet at a resource. The students choose from subjects such as a
person or Spanish speaking country. Students present their presentation to
the class when they are finished.
http://atlantis.coe.uh.edu/archive/sstudies/sstudies_lessons/ssles2.htm
4. Create Your Own Culture Students create their own culture, constructing
the different aspects that sets each culture apart from another. Students
interpret these aspects, and provide a written correlation between the
aspects that they have created and how it affects their created society.
Students present their culture to the class when they are finished.
http://www.successlink.org/gti/lesson_unit-viewer.asp?lid=2877
5. Hispanic Immigration: America in the Year 2000 Students watch videos,
look at web sites, and read articles about the underlying reasons for
immigration, focusing on five major trends: political, economic, family, career
and educational. They also explore current immigration issues within the
major nationalities of Spanish speaking immigrants. The goal is to have
students make informed conclusions as to the future of immigration policies
in the U.S.
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1996/4/96.04.08.x.html
Multicultural Planning Questions:
1. Do the lesson content and strategies promote educational equity? For
example, does the lesson content help to create an inclusive curriculum,
one that attempts to maximize student participation in the overall class
curriculum? Lesson plans 1,2,3, and 4 do. All of the lesson plans use group
activities and multiple opportunities for students to participate and offer their
own perspectives. Lesson 5 is mainly teacher-based instruction. Only a few of
the activities encourage participation.
2. Do the lesson content and strategies make us of, or help to develop,
collaborative, empowering relationships among parents, students, and
teacher? Lessons 1-4 encourage relationships among students and teachers. .
Lesson 5 uses mainly individual work and teacher instruction as a strategy.
Lesson 1 is the only lesson plan that encourages strategies outside of the
classroom. It uses guest speakers and a service project to encourage student
involvement in the community.
3. Do the lesson content and strategies promote cultural pluralism in
society or intergroup harmony in the classroom? Lesson 4, Create your
own Culture, uses strategies to promote cultural pluralism. Each student is to
create their own culture with individual values, geography, language, and
economic factors. The students then share their create culture with the class.
Students are better able to understand differences in real life cultures. Lesson
plans 1,2,3, & 5 focus on one culture. Students from a Hispanic background
would benefit from these lessons. They would feel represented in a classroom
from these lessons.
4. Does the lesson content help to increase the students’ knowledge of
various cultural and ethnic groups, including their own? Lesson plans
1,2,3, & 5 increase student’ knowledge of Hispanic groups and encourage them
to better understand differences and similarities in their own culture. Lesson 4
allows students to create their own culture. Students may choose to utilize
characteristics of various cultures including their own.
5. Do the lesson content and strategies increase students’ proclivity and
ability to see and think with a multicultural perspective? Lesson 1 uses a
Service Project and Value Whips (students discuss changes they would like to
see in their community, classroom, or school) to increase student proclivity. The
other lesson plans increase student awareness of multicultural perspectives but
do not go as far as lesson one with an action plan.
6. Does the lesson content (a) help to correct distortions in the historical,
literary, or scientific record that may stem from historical racism or
other forces linked to the oppression and exploitation of specific ethnic
and cultural groups, and (b) present material in a manner that suggests
that racism related distortions are or may be part of the historical and
scientific record the class is studying? Part A) Lesson 2 & 3 help student’s
better understand historical events such as Cinco de Mayo and immigration,
but do not deal with racism or oppression. Lessons 1 & 5 look at oppression and
immigration and help students better understand the plight of immigrants.
Lesson 4 asks students to create their own culture but does not address racism
or oppression. Part B) None of the lesson plans meet this criteria.
7. Does the lesson content provide knowledge or skills, or promote
attitudinal development, that will leave the students better equipped
and more inclined to participate in, and help improve, the democratic
institutions of their society? Lesson 5 looks at how polices created by law
makers affect them and immigrants. They are better equipped to make
informed conclusions, which will improve their perspective on cultures within
society. Lesson 1 also asks students to look at social change and what they can
do as individuals. Lessons 2, 3, & 4 do not address these issues.
8. Does the lesson content contribute to the students’ willingness to cross
ethnic and cultural boundaries to participate in and/or learn about
different cultural and ethnic groups? I think all five of the lesson plans
encourage students to learn about different cultural groups and discover the
similarities between cultures and opportunities that exist when cultures share
experiences.