EDUCATOR GUIDE COMPONENTS

In the activity book, we try not to generalize. With the profiles based largely on what was shared by individuals, the book content explores culture through the lens of one person’s self-identified story and values. In the “Culture Snapshot” featured in this guide, we offer brief overviews of the history of the specific culture’s origin in Minnesota, as well as important cultural mindsets, and state population statistics that could be beneficial to share with students. Where possible, the snapshots were based off research from primary sources directly from that culture. In other cases, we consulted government websites, the Minnesota Historical Society, and heavily relied on information gathered in the book, They Chose Minnesota edited by June Drenning Holmquist, about different immigration stories. It is important to note where information comes from as resources can often represent the internal bias of the authors or institutions they are published by.

In each lesson, a handful of vocabulary words thought to be potentially tricky to elementary-aged learners, or words that have specific cultural meanings/importance, have been selected and defined. In most cases, the online version of Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary was used to provide definitions.

A lesson plan is provided to walk educators through a lesson in the activity book step-by-step. The lesson plan is broken down by each profile’s four main elements: narrative featuring an important topic brought up during the interview, an illustration to exemplify the narrative, an activity to further expand on the narrative and encourage self-reflection on the featured topic, and a reflective question to prompt critical thinking about the topic in a more broad sense.

For each of the Minnesotans interviewed, video clips are available to bring the two-dimensional image to life and further expand on the ideas shared in each interview. Videos are linked throughout the Educator Guide, and also available through the “Our Minnesota Community – Meet the Minnesotans” playlist on the Big Shared World YouTube channel.

Each lesson plan provides at least two extension activities, allowing students to learn more and personally interact with the knowledge they have gained. The additional activities stretch outside core content areas to include art, physical movement, and technology. They offer a way to extend the impact of this resource into a wide variety of content areas including social studies, engineering, art, and more. As well, the extension activities create more specific opportunities to connect the activity book with MDE standards.

A list of additional resources is provided for further teacher and student learning. We realize that this can be a journey of growth for both the adults and children. Thus, we did our best to present learning opportunities for not only the participants, but the facilitator as well. We highly recommend using the topics from the book as a starting point for further exploration, and especially encourage using primary resources, seeking out organizations and cultural centers run by people who seek to educate and celebrate their own culture of origin, as well as books written from the perspectives of those who have lived the experiences they write about.