Learning Goal

During this unit, students will explore cross cultural understanding, build awareness and empathy for the lived experiences of others, identify and correct erroneous beliefs and misconceptions about our differences, and increase our empathy and connection with one another.

Learning Objectives

• Lesson 1: Exploring Our Stories
• Lesson 2: Eye of the Beholder
• Lesson 3: Learning Not To Judge a Book By Its Cover
• Lesson 4: Cultivating Compassion
• Lesson 5: Engaging in Conversation
• Project: Understanding and Expressing Me

Learning Summary

Lesson 1: Exploring Our Stories
This lesson is designed to help students not only think about who they are and how they would describe themselves, but also about their family and culture. The goal is to build rapport and respect by asking each student to share one family tradition and to listen intently to their classmates’ stories.

Lesson 2: Eye of the Beholder
This lesson is designed to help students consider the human tendency to jump to conclusions and errantly, attribute labels or categories on others that manifest themselves in misunderstanding, judgment, and potential discrimination.

Lesson 3: Learning Not To Judge a Book By Its Cover
The purpose of this lesson is to help students understand the type of overt and subtle discrimination that exists for people whose characteristics do not match “dominant culture” characteristics.

Lesson 4: Cultivating Compassion
The purpose of this lesson is to challenge students to vulnerably step out of their comfort zone and use art to represent a part of themselves in a way that both promotes relationship building and builds an increased capacity for compassion toward self and others.

Lesson 5: Engaging in Conversation
The purpose of this lesson is to help students understand how to engage in conversation in an effort to explore the relationships between culture, identity and social justice.

Project: Understanding and Expressing Me
The purpose of this project is to allow students to process, synthesize, and apply the lessons that they have learned while exploring culture, identity, and social justice in a way that is personally meaningful to them.

Online Teaching Tips for Exploring Culture Identity and Social Justice