Course:
Unit Title:
Approximate time and length:
Sociology
Unit 2: Culture and Socialization
4 weeks (approx. 10 block class periods)
1. Teaching for Understanding (Essential Understandings &
ICC Concepts & Skills)
Identify the Iowa Core Curriculum, Common Core, and/or National Standards
(include 21st Century Skills)
Behavior Sciences
#4: Understand current social issues to determine how the individual is able to formulate opinions and
responds to those issues.
a. Understand that conflict between people or groups may arise from competition over ideas,
resources, power, and/or status.
b. Understand that personal values influence the types of conclusions people make.
c. Understand that even when the majority of people in a society agree on a social decision, the
minority who disagree must be protected from oppression.
d. Understand ideas and modes of inquiry drawn from behavioral science and social theory in the
examination of persistent issues and social problems.
#5: Understand how social status, social groups, social change, and social institutions influence individual
and group behaviors.
a. Understand changes in social and political institutions reflect and affect individuals' values and
behaviors
#6: Understand the process of how humans develop, learn, adapt to their environment, and internalize their
culture.
a. Understand that heredity, culture, and personal experience interact in shaping human behavior.
b. Understand the concept of culture.
c. Understand that peoples' values and behavior are shaped by their culture.
d. Understand the processes of cultural transmission and cultural change.
21st Century Skills
Employability Skills
a. Communicate and work productively with others, incorporating different perspectives and
cross cultural understanding, to increase innovation and the quality of work.
b. Demonstrate productivity and accountability by meeting high expectations.
Technology Literacy
a. Demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and
processes using technology.
Revised October 19, 2010
Unit Essential Understandings/Questions (developed from above standard(s )- what do you want
students to know upon completion of this unit?)
1) Culture forms as groups of people start to share and agree upon common behaviors and characteristics
a. What defines a culture?
b. How does a society identify the cultures that exist, and the values/beliefs of that culture?
c. Why is language important to the understanding of a culture?
d. How can language transmit a culture to each generation?
2) As society changes, culture becomes diverse, yet at the same time share common characteristics
a. What are common characteristics that all cultures in existence share?
b. When a major event occurs in society, how can that affect the characteristics of a culture
within that society?
3) Individuals within a culture learn behaviors and statuses for their culture based on social interactions
a. How does the interaction between people within a culture help to establish statuses for its
members?
b. Why is behavior in a culture affected by the interaction of people while performing their
roles within their statuses?
4) A person’s opinion on social issues has its roots in his/her culture.
a. How do a culture’s core values impact how its members think and act?
b. How would cultural differences impact human interaction over social issues and problems.
Unit Content: (Brief description of what you are teaching in the unit.)
Unit Description
The unit covers what constitutes a culture and how it forms, how it can bring unity to a group of people, and
how it can help to establish roles/statuses in our society. It also covers how a culture’s core belief/values
can influence human interaction in the context of a social issue/problem.
Vocabulary Addressed in Unit:
Culture
Subculture
Norms
Taboo
Status
Role Strain
Looking-Glass Self
Agents of Socialization
Society
Counterculture
More
Laws
Role
Socialization
Role Taking
Cultural Universal
Ethnocentrism
Folkway
Values
Role Conflict
Self-Concept
Me-Self/I-Self
Unit Skills: (What do you want the students to do? Ex. Define, Categorize, Explain, Apply, Extract, and
Synthesize…)






Analyze the methods by which a society transmits culture across time.
Categorize cultural characteristics that are universal in all known cultures.
Explain why language can influence how a culture is learned and transmitted to others.
Analyze and evaluate the ways in which a society deals with the introduction or influence of
another society’s culture.
Synthesize a culture’s core values and how it could influence a person’s opinion and action on
a social issue/problem
Apply decision-making and problem-solving skills to respond to a social issue/problem based
on a culture’s core values.
Revised October 19, 2010
2. Assessment Alignment
Learning Evidence
Formative
(Assessments for Learning)



Daily exit tickets
“Check for
Understanding” during
lecture with the
Promethean Board’s
Activote devices
Observing and monitoring
group work on project
Summative
(Assessments of Learning)

Group Quadrant D
project
 Part 1: Create-ACulture
 Part 2: Model UC
Debate Scenarios
 Part 3: Final
Reflective Paper
(addressing the
standards from ICC)
Levels of Mastery

Proficient
o (Basic understanding of
essential concepts)

Advanced
o (Basic understanding with
attempted connection to
real-world situation)

Exemplary
o (Deep understanding of
concepts with connection
to real-world situation
C
One subject/higher order thinking
(Teaching for Understanding)



Analyze a fictitious culture
Evaluate the traits of the culture
Apply historical information and
attributes to identify a known
culture
A
Basic Knowledge

Definition of terms from lecture
notes and class discussion
Low Relevance
Knowledge in one
discipline
Apply in one discipline
Revised October 19, 2010
D
Real World/Unpredictable
(Student-Centered Classrooms)


Group is to create their own,
unique culture. Using the
guidelines and checklist provided,
create the culture and present it in
class.
Then the class will be turned into
a “Model United Cultures”
organization where students will
address unpredictable real-world
social issues scenarios based on
their created culture’s beliefs and
then debate a possible solution.
B
High Relevance
Cross-Curricular Connections
Low Rigor
Remembering
Applying
Understanding
Analyzing
Evaluating
High Rigor
Creating
3. Teaching for Rigor and Relevance
Apply across
disciplines
English: Writing a reflection paper
Government: Model UC debate
session
Apply to real-world
predictable situations
High Relevance
Apply to real-world
unpredictable situations
4. Teaching for Learning Differences
Unit Examples
Interests
 Students choose the theme of their created culture
 Students choose their preferred presentation format
Unit Examples
Learning
styles
 Lecture and class discussion structures for both auditory and visual
learners
 Culture-in-a-Box is a way to address kinesthetic learners
5. Student-Centered
In student-centered classrooms students construct knowledge based on
experiential, holistic, authentic, and challenging experiences. Curriculum and
assessments are centered on meaningful performances in real-world context
In what ways is this unit “student-centered?”
The Quadrant D project I have created, “Create-A-Culture,” is completely studentcentered. Students choose their group partners, the examples for their culture, and the
format of presentation. Also, the unit includes taking their cultures and addressing
social issues based on their core beliefs in a “Model UN” session debate. During this,
students will cooperatively work on their culture’s stance on the issue, and their
suggestion for solutions while taking into consideration other culture’s beliefs and
actions. Also there are several in-class activities that provide ways for students to make
connections to concepts through discussion and questioning.
Revised October 19, 2010
6. Teaching Literacy Concepts & Skills (ICC)/6 Thinking Strategies
Literacies
Instructional Strategies
Reading and Vocabulary:






Making Connections
Questioning
Visualizing
Inferring
Determining Importance
Synthesizing
Literal, inferential,
comprehension
Critical Reading
and
Identify purpose for writing (opinion,
inform, persuade, etc.)
Speaking



Meeting audience expectations and needs
Persuasive and informational speaking
Dialogue and conversation
Listening



Listening for essential information
Empathic listening
Critical listening
Viewing


Identifying visual techniques
Viewing to gain meaning and information
Revised October 19, 2010
Making Connections
o In-class activity over culture
article

Inferring
o Think/Pair/Share activity over
Culture-In-A-Box

Synthesizing
o UC General Assembly debates

Reflection paper over project and unit
standards

UC Debate conduct guidelines

Listening to cultural responses to social
issues, and adapting their culture’s
proposals
evaluative
Writing



Culture-in-a-Box: Viewing cultural
“artifacts” to draw conclusions about a
culture (ethnocentrism)
7: Resources
Resources/Materials Used:
 Lecture notes on essential concepts
 Reading over “fictitious” culture
 Culture-in-a-Box Promethean flipchart
 Charts/Checklist for Create-A-Culture project
 Guideline sheet over Model “UC” debate and discussion protocol
 Reflection questions and exit tickets for formative assessment
Website(s)/Other Technology Used:
 Promethean board for lecture notes/flipcharts/video clips
 Computers for students to design Power Points for project
 Video clips on culture
8: Unit Notes
Revised October 19, 2010