CMagee, Global Awareness Lesson with ePals

I decided to use the ePals for my global awareness lesson because I felt it was simple and could realistically be incorporated into my classroom. At the beginning of the school year, my 9th graders complete a unit on narrative structure and story elements. The lesson I wrote would come in the middle of this unit - students have already reviewed story elements (plot, point of view, tone, mood) and are now moving on to writing their own narratives.

During the lesson, students read excerpts from The House on Mango Street and analyze its story structure. The book is written through a series of vignettes, and not every vignette follows a traditional structure. It is written by a Mexican American author and tells the story of a Hispanic girl growing up in Chicago, so while we read, we will analyze how the author's culture is shown through her writing. Students will research current customs in Mexican American culture and connect with a pen pal in Mexico through ePals. For the sake of simplicity, we will only use the email function of ePals so students can use iPads, computers, or even mobile phones to contact their pen pals. Students will discuss cultural traditions with their pen pals and compare and contrast how their lives are similar and different. I will encourage students to focus on everyday things that seem "normal" to them; for example, are their school routines similar, and do they greet people the same way? At the end of the lesson, students will write a personal narrative about a cultural experience that means something to them. It could be something related to an ethnicity they identify with, or an "American" cultural tradition like watching fireworks on the 4th of July. Students will also write a reflection about what they learned by connecting with their pen pal.

I chose to connect with a classroom in Mexico because it relates to the book students will be reading. Still, it is also relevant to my students because I have a large number of Hispanic students from diverse backgrounds. I hope that the ePals experience will help end some of the negative stereotyping I see, and will help students understand that there are some things that all people have in common.