Lesson 2: Senegal vs.

Philadelphia Pictures
Location: Powel Elementary
Grade: 4th grade
Subjects: Social Studies & Literacy
Anticipated time: 30 minutes

Goals & Objectives

Essential Questions
Why is it important to learn about other cultures?
What can we learn about another culture?
Unit long understanding goals
Students will compare and contrast the diversity of cultures throughout Africa and
within Senegal, including rural to urban and modern to traditional.
Students will evaluate the ways in which their own culture impacts how they view
the world in order to make non-judgmental observations of other cultures.
Content objectives
Students will refer to specific details in a photograph in order to make inferences
about where the photograph was taken
Students will compare and contrast two major cities in Senegal with Philadelphia
by observing photographs

Standards
Literacy
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with
diverse partners
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.I.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the
text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Social Studies
NCSS Students need to comprehend multiple perspectives that emerge from within their own
culture and from the vantage points of the diverse cultural groups within that society

Materials & Preparation

SMART board
Pictures from Senegal and Philadelphia

Student writing notebooks

Classroom Arrangement & Management

Whole group instruction takes place on the carpet. Each student has an assigned rug spot.
Students will already be in their rug spots from morning meeting. This activity will involve a lot of
participation and student discussion, and I think students will be excited to share their thinking
and have their voices heard. I will establish signals to indicate whether students believe the
photograph was taken in Senegal or Philadelphia. Students may get excited and call out their
answers, especially when an answer is revealed that they didnt expect. I expect a certain
amount of student talk during the activity but also will also reiterate that the reason were using
the signals is so that everyone can share their ideas. I will use the classroom clip chart to
monitor behavior, asking students who arent following the established classroom norms to clip
to the side and allowing those who successfully participate in the activity to move their clips up.
After the activity, Ill dismiss students back to their desks to begin independent reading.

Plan 30 minutes total (5 min think-pair-share, 15 min activity, 10 min discussion)

Launch (10 min)
Think-pair-share: What have you learned about Senegalese culture?
Get them thinking about Senegal again after the weekend,
connect to student research
Students think for a minute, share with the students around them for another
minute, then certain students will share with the whole group
Connect to class generated KWL chart
Activity (15 min)
Introduce purpose for activity telling students well be thinking about the things
we learned about culture and Senegals culture specifically to make inferences about
whether photographs were taken in Philadelphia or Senegal based on evidence in the
pictures
Remind students of prior lesson about non-judgmental
observations and encourage students to state exactly what they see (e.g. refer to
it as building rather than house because they dont know for sure what it is)
Establish signals for whether students think the photo was taken in Senegal or
Philadelphia, tell students Ill be asking them how they made their decisions, specifically
what evidence in the pictures and background knowledge
Project 8 photographs from different parts of Senegal and Philadelphia, include
intentionally tricky ones like someone dressed in traditional African dress in Philadelphia
Call on 3-5 students for each photograph to share how they made decision
Reveal answer, provide context for what the photograph is of
Discussion & Close (10 min)

 Record two questions on SMART board: how did you make your decisions? and
which answers were you most surprised by?
Ask students to share responses to questions and record on board
Summarize student thoughts with statements such as it seemed like a lot of
people had trouble with _____ because _____
Provide additional context by showing a map of Africa and a map of Senegal
Ask if any students remember where Senegal is on the map of
Africa
Show students where the cities Dakar and Saint-Louis are within
Senegal (where many photographs came from)
Turn-and-talk with someone beside you about new learning
Re-visit class generated KWL chart

Assessment of Goals & Objectives

My assessment will be informal based on student comments and participation in the group
discussion. I will be paying attention to which photographs a lot of students had trouble with to
find group misconceptions that remain, such as thinking all the photos of cities were taken in
Philadelphia because Senegal doesnt have cities. I will also be listening for students to share
new learning to see if the subsequent discussion helped disprove some of those
misconceptions. I will also be assessing whether or not students can identify evidence in the
photographs to support their conclusions, as well as whether this evidence is devoid of
language that implies value (such as saying something like That picture is of Senegal because
the people in the picture all look poor.). I will also be looking at their graphic organizers to see if
their notes include any language implying worth.

Accommodations
All students should be able to actively participate in this activity. For students who dont feel
comfortable sharing in the whole group, I will see that theyre engaging through their hand
signals and participation in turn-and-talks. The students who may visually have difficulty seeing
the pictures are seated at the front of the rug.