Teaching Sequence

15 minutes	Setting Ground Rules
10 minutes	Class Discussion
15 minutes	Venn Diagram
10 minutes	Group Work
5 minutes	Class Discussion
5 minutes	Reflection

Knowing who you are and where you're from, just as a starting point, can change how a kid responds to everyday challenges in life, and then when they start learning their language... I believe it gives you a sense of belonging.
Kaylah

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Step 1.

Explain to students that over the next few lessons, they will be exploring how some young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples think about themselves and the cultures they belong to and that understanding other people is often easier if you have a strong sense of who you are and where you belong. So in this lesson, students will be having a good look at their own experiences of culture and belonging.

Ground rules:

If you have already created a set of ground rules for sharing information, then remind students of these ground rules before moving on to Step 2.

Explain that because many of the things you will be discussing in this lesson are personal, it's a good idea to set some ground rules for sharing first. Consider the following:

Own your contributions: Use “I think” rather than “you should”
Be respectful: each person has their own beliefs and values
Value diversity: each person has their own world views, experiences and opinions
Listen politely: each person has a right to contribute without pressure or intimidation
Act with honour and courage: be brave in sharing experiences, ideas and opinions
Appreciate privacy: each person has the right to uphold their privacy
Act responsibly: share feedback with thoughtful consideration and a positive attitude towards others

Write your own ground rules on the board, and ask each student to record them in their workbooks. These can be accessed throughout the unit.

Step 2.

Next, ask students to share what they understand by the term 'culture'. Invite students to suggest words or phrases that relate to culture and write these on the board. Alternatively, ask students to write their ideas on sticky notes. This helps keep it anonymous for students. The teacher can then read out the responses to the class before discussing them.

Following this, share a definition of culture with your students. These two definitions are suitable for primary school students:

Culture: the learned and shared beliefs, customs, and social behaviours of a particular group of people or society
Culture: all the knowledge and values learned and shared by a society

Explain that there are both visible and invisible features of culture (for further information refer to the Iceberg model of culture). For example, the clothes that people wear or the art people make could be considered the visible features of culture. The invisible features of a culture could be the beliefs or values of that culture, such as religion or customs relating to marriage or raising children.

In addition, explain to students that there are many different types of cultures and that all students are part of some of these. Cultures include different beliefs, values, customs and behaviours that people belonging to them experience and practice. The way we experience and practice our cultures make up our cultural identities. Mention to students that everyone has a different cultural identity and that no two people will have the exact same way of describing their cultures.

Our understanding of our own cultures are based upon our experience of it, which means that no two descriptions will be identical. Likewise, when reading or listening to descriptions of cultures from around the world you will be observing different people's experiences of them. Experiences and descriptions of cultures are fluid, diverse and personal.

Step 3.

Explain to students that they all belong to at least two different cultures: 1. Family and 2. School.

In the rest of this lesson students will explore the ways that they experience their family culture and their school culture, and they will look at the ways their experiences are similar and different.

Give each student a printed copy of the My Cultural Iceberg. Students will need to work independently to add information to the picture of the iceberg (you may want to complete one in advance to share with students). Students should think about the visible and invisible features of their cultures and add these to the picture of the iceberg, with the visible features above the waterline and the invisible features below the waterline. For the purposes of this activity, students can focus on their school culture and their family culture, either working on the same iceberg for both or one for each.

Some examples of features from school culture could include:

Visible	Invisible
Uniform	School values e.g. fairness, excellence, honesty
School song	Friendships
Friendships	Sense of community
School community/events e.g. assemblies or awards nights	Customs
Food	Religion
Religion	Acceptable behaviours
	Unacceptable behaviours

Some examples of features from family culture could include:

Visible	Invisible
Celebrations	Customs
Food	Religious beliefs
Clothing	Stories
Religious celebrations	Values e.g. being respectful
Family structure (small, big, extended families)	Language
Stories	Political views
Language	Acceptable behaviours
Music	Unacceptable behaviours

Students should then think about and identify:

a). Which features are both visible and invisible and why? What does this say about the influence of invisible and visible elements of cultures on each other?

b). Which features of both cultures overlap? I.e. which features are a part of their culture at home AND at school?

Step 4.

Once complete, invite students to work in small groups to share their iceberg pictures of their cultures.

Remind students to refer to the ground rules for sharing before starting.

After each group member has shared their completed iceberg picture, give each group a piece of butcher's paper and some textas. Each group should work to brainstorm answers to the following question:

How do the cultures that I am part of affect who I am?

Explain that there is no 'right' answer to this question; instead groups should record all their ideas on the butcher's paper.

Once complete, invite all groups to share their ideas with the class.

Step 5. Finally, engage students in a brief class discussion, considering the following points:

How do the cultures that you are part of affect who you are?
How did you learn about the cultures that you are part of?
How does understanding your experience of culture help you understand other people better?
How are we the same?
How are we different?

Reflection

Invite students to answer the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

If you were to repeat the iceberg drawing activity, what other cultures would you include (such as peer groups, sports groups, art, music or drama groups, etc?)
How do your cultures affect who you are?

Brave New Clan - Culture - Tuning In

Go to

Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables

Lesson Details

Skills

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

Additional Info

In this lesson