CREATING YOUR STORY CURRICULUM REVISION

Multicultural Curriculum Project: Creating Your Story

Bammeke Jenkins

Jesus Rangel

Patricia Selam

Mabel Tang

University Nevada Las Vegas

Submitted in partial Completion of Requirements for CIG 660

Dr. Christine Clark

May 13, 2015

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Abstract

The research of this paper seeks to explore different approaches to the development of a

curriculum piece that is culturally sensitive and inclusive of the identity, and differences of the

children across the U.S. It explores some important facets as an educator, to keep in mind, as we

build our curriculums to assist children with a full and broader understanding of one another. In

offering a multicultural education piece, in a politically neutral educational environment

traditionally known within school systems now, we seek to foster and sustain not only

affirmation of language, culture, and broader aspects of identity but assist in the efforts of

challenging racism and other biases, as well as the existing inequitable structures, policies, and

practices of schools. Our goal is for the future generations to become successful and well-

adjusted learners that will inevitably make explicit connections to their identity, difference,

power, and privilege within the ultimate goal of multicultural education. We recognize and

realize that this is not simply altering or building a curriculum to reflect more black or brown

faces, rather it is our effort and contribution as educators to be responsible for our part in

providing social justice and dissolving the ideas of segregation within current school models

across the U.S today.

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Creating Your Story

Introduction

We have a very diverse group, Asian, Native American, Latino, and an African in the

diaspora; we have a kindergarten teacher, an architect, a mother, and an assistant director of a

federally funded program for high school students. We wanted to incorporate all cultures into the

assignment/curriculum. What we chose was a curriculum from the postal museums curriculum.

We decided on Owney the Dog, a curriculum designed for a second grade classroom, with

accompanying lessons for students with special needs in reading, mathematics, and writing.

Mabel had done her research and suggested we choose Owney. Just wanting to start, no

one else really argued, so Owney it was. The group chose to make the curriculum for an older

classroom of fifth graders; surely with a multicultural lens. And we also consented to rewriting

the lessons to fit a multicultural perspective. Lesson one and lesson two was revised and would

stand on their own, but we combined four and five in to one lesson. That day, the group worked

out what would be our entire lesson.

The group process is difficult, because people are not just students in a class at a certain

time during the week. If we were just blips in time and space without other obligations, many

more people would embark on this endeavor we call advanced education. The process is difficult

because several members have lives outside of school, and work. Group members have home

lives. One group member was not in class for a few weeks, and although the rest of the group

understands, the process of group work is difficult when members are not all present. The

reasons are more than valid, but it does make the process difficult. Even for the rest of the group,

getting to a common space was not always smooth. Several members work all day and then we

are available for meeting. Members operate on different schedules, another kink in our game
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plan. The worst part of a group process is coordinating all of the different cogs to get a machine

to produce a product. Similarly to wanting multicultural education to be assimilated into

curriculums, it will take many moving parts to achieve that dream.

Critical Analysis

Nieto and Bode (2012, p.5-6) believe multicultural education is for everyone regardless

of ethnicity, race, language, social class, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ability, or other

differences. With this concept in mind, our group chose a curriculum without focus on a single

type and rather selected a unit which could incorporate the different aspects and teach from it.

This led us to deciding on the Owney curriculum from postalmuseum.si.edu (2015). The Owney

curriculum features four different units designed to meet a variety of state standards. Our team

decided to reinvent unit four: our stories in order to better incorporate a multicultural

perspective. The original unit focuses on the subject of writing and teaches students about

autobiographies and how to create their own autobiography. As a group, we discussed how this

unit can be rewritten in a way to encompass the idea of family the different types, cultures,

customs, and aspects of a family. We agreed that families of this day and age have a different

definition of a normal household than previous years. What one considers normal or defines as

normal is not the same as others. Additionally, every student identifies themselves through

culture and customs differently. As educators, we need students to see, learn, and understand

these different cultures in order to diminish the ideas of stereotypes and become more informed

and critically aware. To put it simply, in our multicultural society, all good education needs to

take into account the diversity of our student population. (Nieto & Bode, 2012, p. 58)

After defining the elements of age for this unit, we took into account the social studies

district standards required to be taught within this age group. Utilizing curriculum engine (2015),
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we decided the basis of this rewritten unit is to focus more on recognizing diversity within

communities and providing examples of cultural identity rather than simply a writing unit. Nieto

and Bode (2012, p.343) states one approach to transforming curriculum through a more

multicultural perspective is the strategy of teaching about a specific geographical region and the

cultural experiences of its people. Our goal is to have these elementary students understand

different cultural identities through different perspectives and recognize how diversity makes up

communities and essentially the United States. This approach can develop rich, robust questions

and understandings about specific groups, their histories, and their traditions. (Nieto & Bode,

2012, p.343).

The actual activities of the curriculum were rewritten to incorporate visual

representations of diverse families and/or their daily life practices. Our goal is to have students

expand their perspective of families, understand what other families and cultures are like, and

remind them of their own similarities. This correlates with the second of seven parameters in

developing a multicultural curriculum where Clark (2002) states it must not illustrate

underrepresented persons or peoples as exotic, fantastic, or peculiar. Rather it must illustrate

them as regular people. The ability to see similarities between diverse cultures stems the early

growth of understanding the world through a multicultural perspective. According to Nieto and

Bode (2012, p.360) resources that use photography and interview text to depict the true stories

of real families are powerful tools for developing critical thinking. By having students describe

and depict what is happening in each photograph and then providing those students the actual

story later, will allow for the children to look critically into assumptions made and further

understand the concept of stereotypes.

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This leads into the students developing their own family/cultural story rather than an

autobiography. Our goal is to avoid students from understanding diverse cultures through a

single perspective and avoid misunderstandings through assumptions and stereotypes. The idea

of having students write their own story and sharing it with the class allows for opportunities to

learn and recognize diverse ethnic origins, customs, and traditions as well as allowing students to

recognize different cultural identities making up the community. Ngozi Adichies Danger of the

Single Story (2009) warns people of the risk in critical misunderstandings when hearing only a

single story about a person from a different country or culture. When faced with the unknown,

people tend to pull prior knowledge from literature, media, and assumptions which ultimately

create a single story based on stereotypes. By allowing students to hear and understand different

cultures through a different perspective, it opens their mind critically and informs them of

information yet to be learned. It is our responsibility as educators to provide opportunities for

students to see and understand diverse cultural identities through different perspectives.

Research Process

We began our research process by examining several curriculums along with their lesson

plans. Our main focus was to find a curriculum that already had some multicultural aspects

within its context; which, in return, would lead to further integration of multicultural

characteristics that we had learned in class. We strived to find a curriculum that would further the

knowledge of students by incorporating multicultural traits. All in all, our main focus was to

establish lesson plans within a curriculum that would raise awareness and acceptance toward

different multicultural backgrounds that are present within a classroom. One approach to

transforming curriculum through a more multicultural perspective is the strategy of teaching

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about a specific geographical region and the cultural experiences of its people. (Nieto & Bode,

2012, p. 343)

Curriculum Choice

Our group chose a curriculum that was prepared by the Smithsonian National Postal

Museum; titled, Our Stories, writing lessons through Owney the Postal Dog. The framework of

this curriculum, along with the lessons plans, was composed originally for second grade students.

Our rational for curriculum choice was influenced by the great opportunity to enhance the

established lesson plans by incorporating multicultural aspects.

For example, a pivotal component from the lesson plans created an opportunity for

students to bring photographs they personally identify with. This will lead to further exploration

by having to describe what they see in the photographs. The use of personal photographs, along

with using descriptive language will lead to rich and informative dialogue within the classroom.

Finally each student will have to write their own story from the photographs that they brought to

class.

Description of Methods for Securing Information for Project

The main focus of our lesson plans are designed to examine and interpret personal

photographs which we identify with. We divided the original lesson plans into three parts:

describing photographs, writing personal stories and sharing your story with the classroom. We

kept the same framework around our lessons plans; we just called for students to bring

photographs that they had personal identification with. We believed by doing so, alternate

multicultural narratives about each student would raise awareness within the classroom.

In the first lesson of our curriculum, we would ask students to choose photographs about

themselves or their families. We then would commence in a dialogue where each student had to
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describe the picture by stating In this photograph or This photograph was taken We

believe that this would spark interest within other students to engage in a conversation about the

photographs they presented. If a student could not bring any photographs we would provide

magazines or additional pictures that they could choose from. For students with special

needs/ELLs, we would establish small groups that would provide assistance with descriptive

language. The closing portion of this lesson would require students to compile their pictures and

descriptions within a book. Which would serve as a classroom document that will be used in

future lesson plans.

The second lesson plan would commence by reading the classroom book that was

compiled in the first lesson. The classroom would talk about the descriptive language that was

used to describe each photograph. Most importantly, the teacher must express the different

multicultural descriptions that could be present within a classroom; thus avoiding any harsh

judgement. After class dialogue has adjourned, each student will be given pictures and will have

to describe the photographs through an objective perspective.

For students with special needs, we would provide independent or small groups for

assistance. We then would partake in class dialogue about what each student wrote. Within the

conversation it is imperative to provide a descriptive answer for any multicultural uncertainties

that may arise. The closing portion of this lesson would be to compile the newly acquired

material and make another book. The second book will serve as a multicultural article that could

be used for future reference towards the acceptance of people and their distinct backgrounds.

In the final lesson of this curriculum, the teacher would commence by describing her own

story. The teachers way of describing her story could serve as the benchmark. Then, each

student would be asked to write about their personal story. The students could use some of the
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descriptive language that they used in the first lesson plan to begin describing their stories. The

students will also have the books that were compiled in the first two lessons as guides towards

using descriptive language. Each student would be asked to share what they wrote.

Integration of Required Curriculum Elements

The topic specific portion that we established within the new curriculum was the personal

stories that would derive from the interpretation of the students photographs. The initial lesson

plan was designed for second graders; however, after our integration of multicultural

characteristics, we determined that the curriculum would be appropriate within a fifth grade

level. A large determinant for the higher level was due to the larger and expansive descriptive

vocabulary that a fifth grader would deploy. We would rely on the explanation of everybodys

photographs to raise awareness of the importance of multicultural acceptance. A major driving

force within the integration of multicultural characteristics within the curriculum was to exhibit

that there exist differences within everybodys families. Nieto and Bode (2012, p. 353) states,

Another approach to transforming a curriculum is the strategy of examining a particular them

from a variety of perspectives. Within our newly formed curriculum we would examine the

variety of families that are present within the classroom.

In order to have a successful lesson plan, we must accommodate any student with special

needs or students whom are learning English as a second language. In our lesson plans we have

stated that the teachers will bring additional photographs for students whom do not have access

to family albums or additional forms of media. We would also form smaller groups that would

provide help to any student with certain needs. An additional platform that can be used to find

photographs are web-equipped computers. Students could also type their personal narratives on a

computer.
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Results

We believe that our revised unit demonstrates a multicultural curriculum as opposed to

the original which focused merely on creating autobiographies of students. The new unit

provides visual representations of diverse families and offers multiple perspectives on how these

cultures are depicted. Students will be introduced to a variety of ethnic groups within the

community and learn to see people and situations in an objective point of view without asserting

assumptions or stereotypes. The lessons are similar to the original with grade level

appropriateness in additional to social studies standards mandated by the district to teach. We

changed the focus of the lesson from writing to having students ultimately understand what other

families and cultures are like, distinguish similarities between themselves with different cultures,

and expand their perspective of what family means.

For the class presentation, we will begin by discussing the original curriculum and

describe how we altered it into a multicultural unit and our reasons for making the changes we

did in relation to the course readings and visual media. We will follow by performing a mock

lesson with our colleagues in order to demonstrate/illustrate evidence of a multicultural

perspective. As part of the mock lesson, we will distribute family photographs and instruct the

students to describe and write what they see in the photo, like a simple story to go with the

picture. Once everyone has participated and completed this portion, we will move on to sharing

each persons depiction. If depictions are made with assumptions or stereotypical statements,

then as educators we can demonstrate the false profiling made by providing the true stories

behind each picture. We will conclude by explaining how there are different perspectives to

everything and what people generally learn through stories or media is not necessarily true to all
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individuals. Finally, we will end our presentation by explaining the next lesson to be taught the

following day and how this activity leads into it.

Conclusion

At the end of this lesson students will have a greater sense of different cultures, customs,

and practices. In fact, students will have a greater sense of difference. Hopefully, students will

share enough to create and conduct dialogues which are germane to being different in the

global/general context.

This lesson would have to be taught by an instructor who is savvy, sensitive, and

informed. Someone, who encompasses the spirit of multiculturalism; this is not another

demographic, but it is a perspective and outlook. The instructor is just as significant as the

students. The instructor needs to be trained to moderate the discourse.

The lesson is written to get fifth graders to read, write and tell their stories and appreciate

others stories as well. The lesson is to get fifth graders to hear about other cultures, customs, and

ideas. The lesson is to get fifth graders to open their minds about what may be different, and

experience life from another cultures perspective. This lesson was written to allow the space for

sharing, at a time when students are realizing identity.

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References

Clark, C. (2002). Effective multicultural curriculum transformation across disciplines.

Multicultural Perspectives, 4(3), 37-46.

Curriculum engine. (2015). Retrieved May 2015, from http://curriculum.wiki-teacher.com/

Nieto, S. & Bode, P. (2011). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural

education (sixth edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Owney curriculum. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2015, from

http://postalmuseum.si.edu/education/professional-development/owney-

curriculum/index.html

The danger of the single story. (2009, July). Retrieved from

http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story