Diversity Lesson Plan

Warmup - Watch videos and discuss with a partner the following:

1. What does "diversity" mean to you? Discuss with a partner (3-5 minutes)
2. Complete the following phrase in your words: “Diversity is about…”

Communicative Task - Which statements do you agree with? Why?

(Compare your results with a partner)

Having friends from different cultures can teach you important things. _______

Too many different cultures can destroy a country's national values. _______

People should learn a foreign language if it helps them earn more money. _______

Women should have certain jobs and men should have certain jobs. _______

Reading Task

Pre-Reading   "American Diversity: 'It takes all kinds of trees to make a forest' 

       

1.  What do you predict this reading passage is about? 

2.  How will the proverb in the title relate to the reading?

During Reading

1. Underline the sentence that you think is the main idea of the paragraph. 
2. Circle specific examples that support the main idea of the paragraph. 
3. Circle any words that you are not sure what they mean.

American diversity is deep because it is a land of immigrants. On the back of U.S. coins, it is written “E Pluribus Unum” which means “out of many one.” Importantly, the phrase is a reminder that there are many different diverse citizens who make up the American people from so many different backgrounds and nations. In fact, all Americans (except for Native Americans who some scholars believe arrived in the Americas by crossing a “land bridge” connecting America and Asia that existed thousands of years ago) are descendants of families that immigrated to America at some time or other. Until the mid 1900-s, most immigrants to the Americas came from Europe; the Spanish were the first Europeans to settle permanently there in the 1500s. Today, Americans are made up of people from all over the world, and are as individual trees -  all are slightly different how they look and how they think, their cultural beliefs and traditions, their spiritual beliefs and religion. In sum, all Americans are individuals from many diverse backgrounds who stand together common in their unity as a single forest in a land made up of immigrants.

Post Reading

1. When did European settlers begin arriving in the Americas?
2. Where do some scholars believe Native American people came from?
3. What are some things that are diverse about America besides the location of where people were descended from?
4. What does the phrase “E Pluribus Unum” mean?
5. What do you think the author’s opinion is on diversity- a good thing? Why?