This project allows students to discover their personal background and family heritage by interviewing parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles to gather information about their family’s history. It introduces students to using web sites as the main research tool, and the library and CD-ROM encyclopedias as a secondary source of information. Students employ stages of the writing process to prepare essays and reports. Students will use a multimedia authoring tool to create a slide or stack presentation for their class and make a formal presentation of their discoveries.

The project is divided into four sections; this lesson is Lesson I: What I Know About My Culture. Students access their prior knowledge through brainstorming, charting, and drafting their thoughts and ideas about their cultural heritage. Students prepare drafts of essays and reports, and engage in peer review, editing, and final draft writing.

Objectives:

1. To understand students’ family heritage thereby increasing self worth as an important individual in society.

2. To acquire, learn, and/or enhance language arts skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening), which include:
   1. Journal writing, first draft writing, peer editing, second draft writing

   2. Speaking and listening in a collaborative setting

3. To understand and use a word processing computer application

Materials, Tools, and Resources Needed:

Computers with word processing software and presentation software, such as LCD projector or panel.

Prerequisite Student Knowledge:

English-Language Arts: California English-Language Arts Content Standards for Grade 8:
General knowledge appropriate for grade 8 in reading, writing, speaking, listening.

Technology: Basic computer skills (turning on computer, using the mouse, scrolling, getting online, opening and closing programs)

Teacher Preparation Notes: Before starting this unit, you may want to review the availability of web sites for your students. Since you cannot anticipate what cultures your students will want to explore, it would be best to visit the search engines and take a trial run before you ask students to do so. If you do not have enough computers for each student, pair students with like cultural backgrounds; it has proven to be more advantageous than having each student work alone.

Procedure:

Step #1:
Each student pairs up with a partner who has the same or close to the same ethnic background or culture. Students discuss their backgrounds and share what they know about their culture. During whole class discussion, students informally share their information with the class.

Step #2:
Each student uses a chart with three columns to organize information.
(Handout #1) Label each column:
What I know about my culture, What I assume about my culture, What I imagine.

• In the first column, students list everything they know about their background, culture, and ethnicity. Students include music, art, poetry, stories or legends, famous people, historical facts, and anything else that they know.

• In the second column students list all the things they assume (explain that this means what they think they know) about their background, culture, and ethnicity. Students should include everything they’ve heard even though they may not be sure about the information.

• In the last column students list anything they can imagine or predict about what they have listed in the first two columns. Students share with their partners what they have written, and compare their notes.

Step #5:
As a result of the reader-writer peer review, students revise and edit their essays taking turns using available computers. Final drafts of essays are printed out and turned in, and the files saved electronically for future use.

Assessment:

• Criteria for Drafting a Chart: all columns completed with at least five entries for each section. Most of the following areas are addressed: music, people, places, art, poetry stories, historical facts. (Note: this activity asks students to delve into their prior knowledge, and students should not be penalized for not knowing about their cultural background or heritage. Teacher judgment should be the prime factor in grading this activity.}

• Criteria for Writing a First Draft Essay: Use Rubric #1--First Draft Writing

• Criteria for Writing a Final Draft Essay: Use Rubric #2-- Final Draft Essay

Part I of IV: What I Know About My Culture

California English-Language Arts Content Standards Addressed:

Grades 9-10

WRITING

1.0 WRITING STRATEGIES: Students write coherent and focused texts that convey a well-defined perspective and tightly-reasoned argument. Student writing demonstrates awareness of audience and purpose and use of the stages of the writing process, as needed.
Organization and Focus:
1.1	Establish a controlling impression that conveys a clear and distinctive perspective on the subject and maintains a consistent tone and focus throughout the piece of writing
1.2	Use precise language, sensory details, appropriate modifiers, and active rather than passive voice
Revising and Evaluating Strategies
1.9	Revise writing to improve the logic and coherence of the organization and controlling perspective, the precision of word choice, and the tone, taking into consideration the audience, purpose, and formality of the context
2.0 WRITING APPLICATIONS (GENRES AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS):
2.3. Write expository compositions that
(2)	Convey information and ideas from primary and secondary sources accurately and coherently
(3)	Make distinctions about the relative value and significance of specific data, facts, and ideas
National Education Technology Standards for Students Addressed:
1.	Technology productivity tools
Students use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity. Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology - enhanced models, preparing publications, and producing other creative works.