Teaching Diversity to Young Learners (With a Sample Lesson)

Nino Mikeladze, Georgia

Nino Mikeladze is a teacher of English at public school N1. She holds her master’s degree and she is a PhD student. She is interested in methodology, namely considering the individual differences in second language teaching/learning process. E-mail: solmaramo@mail.ru

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Introduction
Sample lesson plan
Conclusion
References

Introduction

It's never too early to talk about diversity. Children should learn about diversity at a young age to prepare them to be members of an increasingly global community. Explaining diversity in a way that is understandable to children is a challenging process. This topic looks at issues of tolerance for individuals of different backgrounds, cultures, and abilities, with emphasis on understanding other cultures. Of course all the mentioned is too difficult to understand for young learners, but we should start somewhere… The first thing to teach about diversity is countries. To make students involved and interested in the lesson we thought about the topic and decided that nothing is more interesting for 2nd graders about countries than candies. And we were right.

Sample lesson plan

Topic: Diversity Lesson duration – 40 minutes Objectives: A. General: To raise awareness on the concept of diversity. B. Specific: 1.To present and give controlled oral and written practice of target vocabulary (countries and adjectives) 2. To enable students to use countries and adjectives in their own context 2. To practice the structure “It is from … 3. To encourage students to speak about their favorite candies from different countries.

Curriculum connection: English curriculum, grade II: age 6-7. Class context and needs: Starter classroom, basic level learners. Sequencing: scaffolding: Towards fluency through word level and sentence level practice. Materials: map, Hand Outs (printed additional material provided by the teacher), board, pictures, candies. Assessment: involvement in the lesson and oral comments. Oral assessment Target words: England, Georgia, Russia, Italy, America, Turkey. English, Georgian, Russian, Italian, American, Turkish. Target grammar structure: It is from …. I like ...

Lesson plan

Lead-in

Teacher brings a copy of the map with some missing countries. Students in groups get country shapes. Groups find their places, come and stick them on the map.

Presentation

Elicitation of the target country names through the map: Teacher shows the countries on the map and then covers with their shapes again. St try and recall the country names, they come out, take the shape out and check the answer.

Practice 1

a. pronunciation drilling - Teacher says the first letter/letters of the country, students finish.. e.g.: T: Geo.. Geo.. Geo… - S: Georgia.

Option (for pronunciation drilling)

Board/memory game (Teacher asks students to close their eyes. She/he erases 1 or 2 countries. Students open their eyes and guess the missing country.

b. Candy map – instead of countries there are photos of candies on the map, students guess where are these candies form. Teacher gives a sample structure. e.g. if there is Barambo on the place of Georgia, students say: Barambo - Georgia.

c. Teacher encourages students to guess other candies origins. (Kinder - Italy; Korovka - Russia; M & Ms - America; Lollipop - England; Halva -Turkey).

d. Students get different candies. They work in groups trying to guess which country each candy is from. (If the Teacher is not sure they will deal with it, she/he can write different countries on the board at random like points on a map) b. students come out, curtsy and present the names of the countries saying: This is Barambo. It is from Georgia.

e. Students work in groups. They get short texts and read in groups.

f. Class work. Teacher asks to find and underline adjectives. Students read them out.

g. Teacher puts the name of the candy on the board, country and adjective. as below:

h. Drilling adjectives: tennis game – a) Teacher: country / Students: adjective. b) Students: country / Students: adjectives. The sample is provided by the teacher.

i. T divides the classroom into 3 groups. Group 1 is responsible for guessing the candy, group 2 –country, group 3 - origin. When Teacher shows the candy groups call out the words.

Filler

Teacher gives out the country names, students shape their countries and others guess and name the adjectives.

Production

a. Teacher asks students to choose their favorite candies and speak about it, e.g.: My favorite candy is M & Ms. It is from America. I like American candies. They are delicious/ sweet/fantastic/great.

b. Students listen and write down the notes about their friends’ favorite candies and report. e.g.: Mari’s favorite candy is M & Ms. It is form America. She likes American candies.

Cooler

“Countries of the world” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOti8U_-BNM) students get country names on the colorful slips of paper. Teacher starts the music, as students hear the country they have in hands, they stand up and wave it.

Conclusion

However there’s an endless list of lesson possibilities, candies were a good visual representation of diversity for my students. We believe that this is one of the most important social lessons because the world is getting more and more diverse and accordingly, lessons on this topic became a priority. We should teach children to love others and appreciate differences at an early age. It has a lifelong impression. They understand that however, we are all different and unique, we are the same and share the world around us.

References

English Language Through Civic Education ELCE Program. Module 6 – diversity. George Town university center for language education and development.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOti8U_-BNM

Please check the Methodology and Language for Primary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Methodology and Language for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.