Justin Matthew Harp

Edu 280

Multicultural Lesson Plan

English/Grade 12
 1.) Standards - CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.1

● Observable objective: The students will be able to list their take and opinions based on

numerous articles. They will learn to be able to locate a proper quote, cite properly, and

to have a references page in either or both MLA or APA format. To explain the author’s

opinion and translate it into their own. To apply multiculturalism to the article and

analyze it under a more focused lens to see it and how it is affected by today’s society. To

construct their own opinion after combining the two articles and seeing the opposite ends

of the spectrum. They are to decide and support an idea of their own after having read

and experienced both articles.

Multicultural goal: Understand social, political, economic realities affecting student learning.

● Observable objective: The students will be able to define the opinions of people living in

modern society and explain how each person’s culture contributes to these opinions.

They will be able to find out how their culture and other cultures come into play. They

can compare and contrast the two articles against their own and other cultures. They will

be able to compose their own opinion and make a argumentative essay of how their

culture affects their opinion. They will choose to support their own opinion or justify the

article’s opinion to have a deeper understanding of their own culture and America’s

culture.

● Auditory -Lecture

● Visual - Video, Eye color activity.

● Kinesthetic - Forming groups and moving around for activity.

 ● Interpersonal - Their assignments require them to be able to be understanding of other

people and as to why they have come to that opinion. They will work in groups and may

still need to go beyond their own group and communicate with others.

2.) Materials - SOAPSTone graphic organizer, Google Slides (or preferably write on the board),

The students will need a computer or at least their phones​. (A projector would also be nice to

show the video slides and the articles but this lesson plan is good even if the class is bare

bones.)

3.) Instruction - Learning Process (Two days worth of instruction each 45 minutes.)

Before anything I have expected my students to have knowledge on the basics of both

SOAPSTone and argumentative essays. The SOAPSTone activity is simply to emphasize the

need of textual evidence.

First day of class (45 minutes)

● Introduction: Do the warm up (5 minutes)

Warm up : Show warm up slide for day 1 (Tuesday.) Take all handouts and if possible give a

brief glance to the news articles.

Warm up question: “should we treat people based on their skin color” (Say that that’s basically

racism and it’s bad. But also give examples on how society has preferential treatment based on

skin color. Leave with a question asking whether affirmative action is good {ex. University of

California v. Bakke})

● Mini-lesson:
 SOAPSTone(2-5 min.): I will first teach them all about the parts of the SOAPSTone and what

needs to be filled in each slot. The graphic organizer I have included already has descriptions on

each part. To also remind them to give textual citation or simply cite the article in a different

way. (Remind them that this will help them have their evidence ready for their essay.)

Guided practice :( 10 - 15 min.) I choose a small article and go through the SOAPSTone with the

class using the downtrend article. (Unbelievable: Students Are Getting Bonus SAT Points For

Being Black Or Hispanic). I will see if the students were able to fill out correctly all the parts of

the SOAPSTone with textual citation. {Use an ELMO to show the SOAPSTone as you write

and fill in the parts. If class participation is high ask the students to fill in the blanks.}

With remaining time preferably (Time left). Introduce APA and MLA and how to easily cite

using websites (such as citation machine). Do a hands on with the class by adding textual

evidence to the SOAPSTone and citing the article we just read from downtrend. (Remind class as

to why properly citing in multiple formats will be important further on in life. ex.college)

Introduce the two articles and the backgrounds of both authors that they can pick from for their

SOAPSTone and argumentative essay. Read through it or give a summary of each if possible and

if not they have to look through it at home otherwise they will have a hard time catching up.

(Articles are Can My Children Be Friends With White People? & For Asian Americans, a

changing landscape on college admissions. )

Second 45 minute portion of the day.

 ● Introduction: Do the warm up (5 minutes)

Warm up: Show warm up slide for day 2/Write it on the board (Thursday). Play the video on the

next slide while the warm up is going on.

Warm up question: “Why do I use these two unrelated looking articles? Do you think they are

related or not? Explain why.” (One is meant to segregate and one is meant to integrate

multiculturalism.)

Class activity: Guided Practice - (5- 15 minutes)

I will randomly select students into 4 groups or 4 eye colors. To which I tell them to be in a

certain group. The group’s purposes will be to either support or be against either article. Then I

will ask one representative of each group to give their take on what they think. (Ex. yellow &

green eyes will be supporting or be against article A and blue & red will do the same for article

B) I will also ask them whether I should give them bonuses based on their eye color and ask if

that is fair.

Independent practice (Rest of time left and if unfinished it will be homework): they will finish

their SOAPSTone if they haven’t yet and they will start on their rough draft of their

argumentative essay whether the author is right or wrong. They will have to either reject it as

stereotypes or find evidence as to why what they are doing is right and justified. (Of course I

won’t promote my opinion nor segregation or favoritism in race but I shall try to lead them away

from what I feel is an extreme answer).

Exit slip (this will not take time as they can submit it through google classroom.): The finished

SOAPSTone and whether they have started their argumentative essay and doing it right.

4.) Resources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyXOThOtJ_M&t=226s

English Language Arts Standards » Reading: Informational Text » Grade 11-12. (n.d.). Retrieved

from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RI/11-12/

Yankah, E. N. (2017, November 11). Can My Children Be Friends With White People?

Shyong, F. (2015, February 21). For Asian Americans, a changing landscape on college

admissions.

Saxena, V. (2015, February 25). Unbelievable: Students Are Getting Bonus SAT Points For

Being Black Or Hispanic.

5.) Reflection: I have taught my students on how to make a SOAPSTone filled with textual

evidence. They have been instilled with the virtue of understanding other people’s cultures and

how it affects their point of view and how their culture affects theirs. They are now able to be

critical and look with the perspective of a cultural lens. They also learned how to cite in both

APA and MLA which is an important skill that needs to be utilized even beyond the classroom.

It is better because it familiarizes students with more than just one way to cite as most high

schools do it like this. These are all lessons taught in the eleventh through twelfth grade but

usually done during twelfth grade. The students of all types of learning styles will all be engaged

because all styles of learning is embedded in the lesson. I feel that this lesson is strong because it

touches on controversial topics and it lets us deal with these hard subjects before it is too late.
Because it puts them in situations where they can experience what being of a different culture

can feel like. I don’t know whether this is weak or strong but when I gave them eye colors on

random they were forced to agree with a certain narrative. This may be weak because I am taking

away student control and not giving them a chance to find a unique narrative. But this may be

strong because it shows how we don’t have a choice in which ethnicity we are born into this

world. I also wanted to make them cite from additional resources I gave such as the small article

by downtrend and the video for the warm up. But I was scared that this might heavily influence

their opinion and I didn’t know how that should work when critically looking at your original

author’s cultural bias (Maybe make it so that the additional source shows the contrast of the two

cultural biases ?). All in all the only way I can truly reflect is if I get to see whether their exit

slips were what I expected.

Summaries of articles: (This is just so you won’t have to look through the long articles).

Isn’t penalizing Asians INSTITUTIONAL RACISM??? (This is the effect of multiculturalism)

Article on “For Asian Americans, a changing landscape on college admissions.” summary:
Depending on the color of your skin you are given bonus points or penalized. This basically says
that the college administrators care more about diversity than being the best qualified. And how
the Asians are worried about it because Asians are penalized points just for being Asian.

Article on Should my children be friends with white people summary (This is about segregation):
This article honestly made me feel really angry and not at white people as the author wanted me
to but at the writer. This is basically saying that we should teach our children to not trust and not
be friends with white people because Trump is white and all his supporters are white. And
everything that Trump is doing is racist and bad and how that makes all whites and people who
like or support him also a racist and a bad person. Basically coloring all who disagrees with her
as racists and fascists. And that all whites are racist, that liberals can’t be friends with
republicans.

Downtrend article summary : He is in outrage due to the fact that people are getting bonus points
based on ethnicity. He feels that it is demeaning to people of color and it’s unequal treatment
should not be encouraged.