Grade 6: Understanding Culture and Society

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

• describe family customs and routines
• identify elements of Chinese cultures in the local community, British Columbia, Canada, and the United States

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Understanding Culture and Society in other grades click on an icon below.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• As a class, discuss family rules. Ask students to list them, noting differences and similarities among the rules of their classmates.
• Read and discuss with the class a story related to students' daily routines in China. Invite students to talk about their own daily routines. They could also discuss similarities and differences between routines in various cultures.
• Ask students to identify on a map of Canada places where they have Chinese friends and relatives. They could do the same on a map of the United States. Students could also generate a list of some North American cities that have Chinatown areas.
• Plan a class trip to Chinatown or a local Chinese community. (Contact the Vancouver Chinese Cultural Centre about organized tours of the city's Chinatown.)
• Suggest that students gather information about the contributions of early Chinese-Canadians, using various resources (e.g., books, newspapers, videos, CD-ROMs), then discuss the results as a class.
• Invite a speaker to talk to the class about her or his experiences growing up as a Chinese-Canadian.
• Have students in groups compare retail careers in Canada with those in China, then discuss as a class.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

• When students describe and share their family customs and routines, invite them to show their awareness of relationships across cultures through a variety of representations. For example:
  • Venn diagrams showing common and unique features
  • picture charts comparing features of a Chinese activity with related activities in other cultures
  • collages of pictures, symbols, and words from a variety of cultures that are related to a common theme (e.g., greeting words, family celebrations such as birthdays and weddings, family members' titles)
  Assessment could be based on the number of features students include, the logic of the associations they show, and the accuracy of their portrayals of cultural features.
• After students have researched contributions of Chinese cultures in their own and other communities in North America, ask them to respond to prompts such as:
  • I think the most important thing I learned was that ____________ .
  • I was surprised that ____________ .
  • Something that reminded me of my own family was ____________ .
  • I would like to learn more about ____________ .

• Ancient China
• The Ancient Chinese
• China
• China's Bravest Girl
• Chinese Designs and Symbols, Second Edition
• Chinese New Year
• Coming to Gum San
• Early China
• Favourite Folktales of China
• Five Heavenly Emperors
• Focus on China
• Introducing China - A Teacher Resource Book
• A Little Tiger in the Chinese Night
• Long is a Dragon
• Mooncakes and Hungry Ghosts
• The Mouse Bride
• Notes on Things Chinese
• Old Tales of China
• Oxford History Study Units
• Red Eggs and Dragon Boats
• Story of the Chinese Zodiac
• West Coast Chinese Boy

• The Dragon's Tongue Series
• Jing: A Chinese Girl
• Pandas in the Wild
• Rebeka Goes to China

• Chinese Folk Songs
• Chinese Mandarin Resource Book - Volumes 1, 2, and 3
• The Chinese People
• Out of the East Horizon
• Zhongguotong

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