3rd Grade Diversity Lesson Plan

Teacher: Ms. Lauren Ritzer

Date: 9/29/2017

Book: All Kinds of Families, Mary Ann Hoberman,

2009

Grade Level: Elementary Grades 3-6

Multicultural Theme: Diversity, Understanding Cultures

Materials: The book All Kinds of Families by Mary Ann Hoberman, whiteboard, dry
erase markers, pens, pencils, notebook paper and erasers.
Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.3 Describe how a story’s or drama's plot unfolds in
a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a
resolution.

Objective: Students will be able to describe how a story’s or drama's plot unfolds in a
series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a
resolution and apply the theme and/or issues to their own everyday lives at school with 90 %
accuracy.

Procedure:
Introduce: Show the book, All Kinds of Families by Mary Ann Hoberman and say,
“Today we are going to experience what it is like to go to school with a student that is different
than you. Have you ever met someone that is different than you? Were you excited to meet him
or her? Were you scared to meet him or her? How did it make you feel?” Brief discussion about
diversity. Ask students to look at the book cover and make predictions. Write students’
predictions on the whiteboard.

Read: Teacher reads the book aloud, allowing students to read a paragraph one at a time.
Discuss: Student predictions, key events in the book, and choices made by the characters
(Try to make questions a balance between literal and higher level (what student think or infer
from the story.)

• Question 1: What stood out for you in this read?

• Question 2: What was the author’s intent or moral of the story?
• Question 3: Did you want to read more? Could you not put the book down or did
you fall asleep reading it?
• Question 4: What in the story made you think? Specifically, what piece of
the story caught your attention?
• Question 5: Could you relate/identify to any of the characters in the story? If so,
which ones (there are no wrong answers)?
• Question 6: How could you integrate the overall lessons taught in this book into
your own thinking and feelings about people different than yourself?

Activities:
 Activity 1: Small Groups Discussion

• Work in small groups by arranging your chairs in circles of six, so that you are
exactly facing just one other person.
• Once sitting in your chairs, close your eyes and imagine the person directly across
from you is your friend in the book and they are from a different culture than you.
• Don’t open your eyes until I instruct you to and really focus on the person across
from you being that new person you have created in your mind.
• Open your eyes and look straight at that person directly opposite of you.
• Now discuss amongst your group what you perceived the other person looked
like, where they might be from, and what makes them different.

Activity 2: Short Essay

The book ended abruptly. Some might say that it was unfinished and/or too short.

• For this short essay, you will write a one paragraph (minimum 30 words),
finishing the book or an alternative ending.

Essentially you are taking over where the writer left off. I am looking for real
ideas here about how you feel the book should end and where you think the next
book (should there be one), will start.

Evaluation: Teacher asks students to share the ideas of bullying and teasing as she
writes bullet points on the whiteboard. Teacher asks students to compare/contrast the new bullet
points on the whiteboard from the original student predictions at the beginning of the lesson. At
the end of the class period, the teacher collects the short essays to grade later.