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Teaching about Cultural Identity
Social studies gets put on the backburner. With all of the resources and support for math, reading, and writing, there are very few quality social studies resources that help teachers understand how to tackle the subject. It is no wonder that many teachers and students find it boring. But social studies is anything but boring!
Social studies is the study of humanity, from economics to history to culture to geography. Learning about how the world works is so important! Especially when you are teaching about culture and identity — a topic that helps students develop their personal identity and develop awareness of other cultures and ways of living. Teaching about culture is also a great way to reduce bullying and increase tolerance for cultural differences in food, traditions, and families.
In this guide, you will explore everything you need to know to help students develop their cultural identity. Click on any of the links below to explore a specific area of this guide.
- Cultural Identity Overview
- Cultural Identity Pacing Guide
- Cultural Identity Skills
- Free Cultural Identity Lesson Plan
- Cultural Identity Resources for Teachers
- Cultural Identity Videos
- Cultural Identity Games
- Comprehensive Cultural Identity Unit
Cultural Identity Overview
Cultural Identity Pacing Guide
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 |
| What is Cultural Identity? | Story of My Name | Family History and Heritage |
| Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 |
| Clothing and Culture | Food Traditions | Homes Around the World |
Note: Each lesson is 45-90 minutes long.
This is the same pacing guide as the one found in my Cultural Identity Unit.
This skill-based unit is perfect for globally-minded teachers who want to impart twenty-first century skills on their students and inspire them to understand the world around them through understanding cultures and traditions better.
Included in this unit are 6 lessons with step-by-step lesson plans, engaging slideshows with discussions, projects, and crafts to help students explore their own identities and the identities of their classmates.
Cultural Identity Skills
Teaching about cultural identity helps students develop their personal identities and understand their classmates better. It also imparts a set of skills that will help students throughout their lives, like developing global awareness and having respectful discussions.
In a comprehensive unit, students will learn skills like:
- Self-awareness, where students explore and describe factors that contribute to their personal identity.
- Global awareness, where students give examples of how experiences may be interpreted differently by people from different cultures and describe the ways that parts of their lives serve as expressions of culture.
- Community building, where students build relationships with peers, and develop empathy and acceptance for classmates who may have different cultural practices.
- Discussion skills, where students have respectful discussions about nuanced topics and develop skills for communicating across cultures and differences of opinion.
- Tolerance and respect, where students respect their peers’ beliefs and cultural practices, encourage others to do the same, and address bullying when it occurs.
Free Cultural Identity Lesson Plan
Are you looking for a way to introduce culture to your students? Students may or may not know the meaning of cultural identity, so I created this What is Cultural Identity lesson plan with a mini slideshow and craft. This lesson will help students:
- define culture and cultural identity with examples.
- describe aspects of their identity, like their family history and where they live.
In this lesson, students will discuss culture and identity, and then create a foldable to share aspects of their own identity.
Cultural Identity Resources for Teachers
At Globally Taught, we are passionate about cultural education. Explore some of our other blog posts to help you develop a cultural classroom.
- How to Help Students See Their Culture
- 19 Brilliant Books About Different Cultures
- 5 Powerful Videos for Teaching about World Cultures
- 8 Powerful Habits to Build a Multicultural Classroom
Cultural Identity Videos
A great way to engage students is through videos. Videos can be a great way to explain challenging concepts, especially where a visual explanation is important, like showing what life looks like in other parts of the world. Videos can also help students remember information through catchy songs and beats.
Explore some of our favorite channels for teaching about culture and identity, like HiHo Kids, BBC’s CBeebies, and Travel Kids.
Teacher Tip: Use safeshare.tv to share videos without ads or distractions!
Cultural Identity Tools We Love
Interactive tools are a great way to engage students when teaching about cultures around the world. Use interactive tools to help students explore what life looks like around the world.
Dollar Street by Gapminder gives you a view into everyday life in hundreds of homes at all income levels across the world. Explore what homes, families, and food look like at different income levels around the world to contrast some of the skewed perceptions students may have about other countries.
Google Arts & Culture is a free tool for cultural organizations to showcase and share their art and cultural pieces with a global audience. They have over 2,000 cultural institutions in over 80 countries sharing millions of digital images, artifacts, museum photos, and online exhibitions around the world.
Little Passports World Adventures is a paid subscription that sends crafts each month to experience cultures around the world. They feature a new country each month.
Comprehensive Cultural Identity Unit
If you want to skip the work that goes into developing your own unit, explore our comprehensive unit for upper-elementary students.
This unit will help you feel prepared and excited when teaching about cultural identity by providing you with 6 detailed lessons with more than 200 pages of slideshows, activities, crafts, and projects.
This unit will save you dozens of hours of time, and skyrocket engagement during social studies. Instead of patching together resources, this unit will provide you with consistent lessons that students will love. Keep reading to learn more about what’s included in our comprehensive unit.
Cultural Identity Unit with Project-Based Learning
Discover cultures around the world and develop cultural identity with this set of projects for students! These cultural identity projects are a highly engaging way to develop personal identity and build a strong classroom community.
With 6 lessons, 8 projects, and 14 activities, you have everything you need for your students to develop their cultural identities. Perfect for the first weeks of school!
Add to Cart Buy on TPTUnit Details:
✦ A 2 to 3-week-long comprehensive unit for elementary students
✦ Over 200 pages of lessons, activities, projects, and slides
✦ 1 ZIP file organized into 6 lessons by topic
You’ll Receive:
- 6 Lesson Plans: Family History and Heritage, Traditions of Food, Story of Our Names, Homes Around the World, Clothing and Culture, and What is Cultural Identity)
- 8 Projects and 14 Activities like…
- Design a home for a mystery culture
- Write a family recipe
- Draw a typical lunch in your culture
- Create a family tree
- Write the story of your name and draw a self-portrait
- 6 Slideshows with detailed discussion guidance built into the slides
- Quick-Grade Project Rubrics
- Answer Keys and Student Samples
- Editable Parent Letter
- Exclusive Unit Bonuses: Unit Pacing Guide, Unit Overview with Learning Targets, Standards Alignment Guide, Before/After Unit Written Reflection, Bonus ‘About Me’ Phone Feed Craft with Rubric
Lessons Included:
- Lesson 1: What is Cultural Identity
- Lesson 2: Story of My Name
- Lesson 3: Family History and Heritage
- Lesson 4: Clothing and Culture
- Lesson 5: Food Traditions Around the World
- Lesson 6: Homes Around the World
- Unit Bonus: Writing Reflection