Culture & Subculture Unit
$29.95
Invite your students to examine their culture with an outsider’s lens and wonder for the first time why do we do things the way we do. This unit investigates concepts related to culture, subcultures, and social norms.
By the end, students will be able to answer, “How does culture define me?”
Description
This unit can be done well in 4-5 weeks and aligns with standards from various states. And all student materials come in print-and-go PDF and editable Google files!
Included in this Culture & Subculture unit:
Overview Materials
- Teacher Unit Overview with general notes, links, standards, and a pacing guide
- Daily Lesson Plans with step-by-step details, planning, and lesson takeaways
- Detailed Answer Keys for each activity
- Student Unit Review and Skills handouts with self-checking questions and “I Can…” standards statements in student-friendly language
- Student Unit Notes sheet for building deep and nuanced mastery of concepts of the unit
- Editable Parent Permission form to inform families about sensitive topics that are covered in this unit
Student Activities
- Culture Shock: read and reflect on the lived experiences of immigrants as they explain their most memorable culture shock moments once arriving in America
- 2 Crash Course Guided Notes: provide an overview of concepts with these videos and embedded “pause and talk” real-world application tasks (perfect lecture or textbook replacement or want a flipped classroom experience)
- Our Culture: closely examine, discuss, and reflect on the culture of your school by creating effigy dolls, applying sociological concepts
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding: watch this endearing based-on-real-life rom-com to see all the elements of culture from a comedic angle
- Case Study: The Baguette: investigate and discuss the culturally iconic bread and what it represents to French culture
- Break a Norm Project: plan and conduct one’s own sociological experiment, reflecting on and sharing results (always a huge hit with students!)
- Tourist Brochure Project: create an inviting overview of other countries’ cultures, including high, pop, and folk cultural elements
- Lives of the Amish: learn about the subcultural Amish way of life and compare its values and norms to mainstream American culture
- Case Study: Japanese Skateboarding: investigate and discuss the spread of this subculture worldwide and how it’s both thriving and unwelcomed in ultra-polite Japan
- Subculture Sketch: research and share with others details and purpose of various subcultures in American society to find commonalities and develop empathy for others
Lecture Kit
- 90-Slide Deck: introduce concepts with images and real-life examples; broken into four 30-45-minute lectures to deliver throughout the unit
- Guided Notes & Quizzes: support and assess learning with these no-prep tools
Assessments:
- Open-Ended Essay: encapsulate understanding of concepts by forming a personalized and supported answer to the not-so-simple question, “How does culture define me?”
- Short Answer Test Questions: succinctly assess students’ mastery of concepts and application to the real world and their own lives
- Sociologist’s Journal: builds deep reflection on personal beliefs and experiences about concepts
This resource includes 113 PDF pages, plus Google files.
Note: this unit includes viewing two films (My Big Fat Greek Wedding and The Lives of the Amish). An editable parent permission slip is included if needed.
What grades is this intended for?
This was designed for an upper high school level course.
Can I use this in a homeschooling setting?
Sure! Everything in this kit can still be used in a solo or a small-group setting.
Is this editable? What file types does this resource come in?
The main resource is a secured, non-editable PDF file intended to be printed.
Included are links to editable Google files, to customize to your classroom needs and assign digitally if you choose.
What standards does this address?
Several! Standards vary, but this resource supports these from various states:
- Define the key components of a culture like knowledge, language, customs, values, norms, and objects, sorting into material and non-material components of culture
- Compare and contrast different cultures, noting cultural universalism
- Explain how ethnocentrism affects a culture
- Distinguish between folkways, mores, and taboos; explain why these rules are important to a society and the sanctions that accompany them
- Conduct research and analysis on a sociological issue
- Define and explore the defining characteristics of subcultures in the United States
- Compare cultural norms across different cultures and subcultures
- Analyze shifts that happen in culture, like cultural diffusion and cultural change
What are the terms of use for this resource?
This resource, including all ancillary files, may be used as needed for regular, non-commercial single-classroom use between a teacher and their students.
This includes printing copies and sharing digital files with students through a secure platform, like Google Classroom or Canvas, email, or a classroom-only shared drive.
The using and sharing of any part of this resource in any manner outside the above-mentioned capacity is strictly prohibited. Prohibited uses include, but are not limited to,
- posting files on the open internet or in a Facebook group
- emailing files to or sharing print copies with others (without purchasing additional licenses)
- uploading or storing files in a shared cloud drive accessible by anyone other than students
- including any part, or any derivative work, within any commercial endeavor like curriculum development, professional training, or for-profit teaching like Outschool, or selling this resource as your own in either print or digital formats
Doing so violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), copyright law, and these terms.
By downloading this resource from Let’s Cultivate Greatness, the original user has been granted one license for a single teacher (or number of teachers matching the number of licenses purchased) and their students at any one time.
Let’s Cultivate Greatness retains the full copyright of this resource.
I used this unit in high school sociology and am so grateful. I've taught sociology for 8 years. It's humbling to acknowledge this unit plan did a better job than I was ever able to. It is engaging, progresses logically, and is easy to implement. - Joshua P.
Outstanding resource! Well worth the money spent! Students were actively engaged throughout the unit and I personally love the quizzes and unit journal, as a way to check understanding, but also really have the students express their own ideology. - Stephanie S.
This has been my most useful purchase from Let's Cultivate! The Culture Shock activity generated a LOT of conversation within my classroom and opened up interest in how people around the world live. The Breaking A Norm project was a great way to have students apply their understanding of major concepts. Thank you! - Janelle B.
