Culture Lesson Plan

Teacher(s): Cameron Harrison

Date: April 3rd, 2022
Subject / grade level: Theater, 5th grade
Materials: Different scripts, video for examples, music clips – both can be found on YouTube. Video and
music clips from shows like In The Heights, West Side Story, Moana, Encanto, Coco, Hamilton, Ragtime,
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Once on this Island.
State Standards: TH:Cn10.1.5.
a. Explain how drama/theater connects oneself to a community or culture.

Lesson objective(s):
• Students will be able to relate how drama/theater can help them relate to a community through a
play or musical.
• Students will be able to look at different plays and how they can relate to a community or a person.
Differentiation/Accommodation strategies to meet diverse learner needs:
• For a student that struggles with reading, I would find an audio version of the script or allow them
to watch the play/musical.
• For students who struggle with the lesson, I would try to find a play or musical that catches their
interest.
ENGAGEMENT
• The way that as the teacher I will be able capture my student’s interest would be by showing them
many different plays/musicals that have many different kinds of music, stories,
• The kind of questions that students should ask themselves after this exercise is who are the
audiences that these shows are trying to reach. Who are these shows designed for? What
community are they trying to represent and what culture are they pulling from to perform this
work?
EXPLORATION
• A hands on activity that I would do with my students is by putting all of the examples on a piece of
paper in a bowl, then let a student draw one and that is the example I will pull up to have them
watch.
• Big conceptual ideas that I want my students to explore are - How do they show how culture
affects each person individually as a character? Where do they relate to different characters within
the culture? Where do you see culture emphasized?
EXPLANATION
• I would have students be making a list of the ideas of what they have seen to be able to break down
where they seem communities and culture being shown. I would also be pausing the video at times
to be answering questions so that way students can process things as they watch.
• Higher thinking questions I would ask are – How does your community affect you? What
communities do you belong to? How do the music speak to you culturally?
ELABORATION
• By immersing them in many different types of musicals/shows, it will give them a broader range of
knowledge of the kinds of work that are available to them.
• Vocabulary that will be introduced is – culture, demographic, perception, audience, community,
and creativity.
• This knowledge is applied in our daily lives because we meet many people of different
cultures/communities constantly and it helps teach us to respect their backgrounds and appreciate
a culture that is different than their own.
EVALUATION
• Students will demonstrate what they have learned by writing a review of one of the shows that they
have watched and describe the aspects of the culture/community that they observed.
• They will also give their thoughts on the relevancy of why it is important to learn about and respect
other cultures.
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