Multicultural Awareness and Appreciation Adaptations
Diversity of Learners Adaptations

On this site are links to lesson plans adapted for multicultural awareness and appreciation as well as lesson plans adapted to address the needs of a diversity of learners.  The phrase "original lesson plan" refers to lesson plans written by working teachers and/or employees of the Department of Education.  The phrases "multicultural awareness and appreciation" and "diversity of learners" refers to lesson plans that result from the adaptation of original lesson plans, but were not written by the original author of the original lesson plan.*  Lesson plans adapted for multicultural awareness and appreciation were written in a variety of formats and were designed to help K-12 students understand the diversity of the United States as well as the global world in which we live.    Lesson plans adapted to meet the needs of a diversity of learners follow a similar template which involves applying Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences as well as tips for work with students with specific disabilities.

The links at the end of this page will take an individual to a list of lesson plans that address academic benchmarks as defined by the Ohio Department of Education by grade level and academic area; one lesson plan will not address only one academic area and therefore will be listed multiple times.  These lesson plans are labeled as "original lesson plan," "multicultural awareness and appreciation," or "diversity of learners."    Below are the steps used to adapt and/or include lesson plans.  Understanding this process will hopefully assist teachers in better understanding how to adapted lessons for multicultural awareness and appreciation as well as for meeting the needs of a diversity of learners.

1. Original lesson plans were obtained on the internet.  These lesson plans were written by an employee of the Ohio Department of Education and/or a working teacher.
   
   
2. Original lesson plans were copied and pasted, as written, into a page in this website and labeled "original lesson plan."  Credit for the original lesson is given.
   
   
3. Once an original lesson plan was selected, if not obtained from the Ohio Department of Education, it was reviewed on the basis of academic benchmarks by Dr. Debra L. Clark* of Kent State University and a determination made as to it suitability.  If it was determined that the lesson addressed a specific benchmark, the benchmark was included in the chart at the beginning of the original lesson plan.   If the original lesson plan was written by an employee of the Ohio Department of Education, the benchmarks were included in the original lesson plan and a chart of those benchmarks are included at the beginning of the lesson.
   
   
4. Once benchmarks were identified for the original lesson plan and the plan was included in this website, the next step was providing links to other web pages.   At the top of each original lesson plan is a link to this page (indicated by the word "home"), a link to the page containing other lesson plans in this subject area and grade level, a link to the multicultural awareness and appreciation adaptation for this lesson (indicated by the word "awareness"),  and a link to the diversity of learners adaptation (indicated by the word "diversity").  
   
   
5. Once the page for the original lesson plan was complete, the process began for writing a multicultural awareness and appreciation adaptation.   These adaptations took many forms, however two distinctly different foci were involved.  The focus for those lesson plans adapted for elementary and middle school students (K-8) was to create an interdisciplinary lesson tied to the original lesson plan.  Because many high school teachers are not engaged in interdisciplinary teaching, the focus for lesson plan adaptations at this level was to keep the lesson within a specific content area as much as possible.  Thus, if an elementary or middle school teacher does not want to use an interdisciplinary approach they are advised to examine higher grade level adaptations to gain a better understanding of how to make adaptations, but stay within a content area.  If a high school teacher is interested in interdisciplinary teaching they are advised to do the same with lower grade level adaptations.
   
   
6. Once the multicultural awareness and appreciation adaptation was complete the process of identifying Ohio academic benchmarks proceeded as it did with the original lesson plan.
   
   
7. Once the Ohio academic standards for the multicultural awareness and appreciation adaptation were identified and charted at the beginning of the adapted lesson plan, the process of creating an adaptation to address the needs of a diversity of learners began.  These adaptations all followed a similar template which included applying Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences and providing a few tips on working with students with disabilities.   Once written, Ohio Academic Benchmarks were again identified, charted and posted at the beginning of the adaptation.
   

Teachers are invited to pursue the links below as well as corresponding lesson plans and adaptations.   Perhaps a teacher will locate a lesson he or she could use in the classroom.  Or perhaps, through the process of reading multiple lesson plans and their adaptations, teachers will gain an understanding of how they might adapt their own lessons to address multicultural awareness and appreciation, as well as meeting the needs of a diversity of learners.