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Culminating Activity
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UNIT SUMMARY

Unit Title:

Windows to the World: Thailand

Unit Author:

Michael S. Stuart

Grade Level:

10th Grade, General Level Course
Unit Overview:
The students will initially gain a general understanding of Thai geography. This will include an exploration of its natural environment and demographics. The students will then focus on a specific Thai custon and/or tradition. The students will conduct research and teach the class about their subject. In conclusion, the students will discuss and reflect on common themes evident in most or all of the presentations. The students will gain a greater understanding of the cultural richness in Southeast Asia with exposure to new foods, alphabets, arts, sports and ideas. The students will know their histories, how they developed over time and what role they play in Thai life. Most essential, the unit will enable students to ahve a small window to the world and learn to appreciate and value differences.

Essential Questions:
 What cultural characteristics help explain the Thai people?

Culminating Task:
 Each student will focus on one particular cultural aspect of Thailand. The students will research and develop a presentation for the class. The presentation will include a variety of mediums through which they can express their ideas and information.

Vermont Standards

Vital Results:
4.5: Students understand continuity and change
4.3:

Students demonstrate understand of the cultural expressions that are characteristic of particular groups.

  • (aaa) Analyze personal, family, systemic, cultural, environmental, historical and societal changes over time-both rapid, revolutionary changes and those that evolve more slowly.
1.19:

Students use organizational systems to obtain information from various sources (including libraries and the internet:

  • (e) Synthesize and organize information;
  • (f) Present information in appropriate formats.
1.8

In written reports, students organize and convey information and ideas accurately and effectively.

  • (j) Use a variety of strategies to develop the report;
  • (k) Organize text in a framework appropriate to purpose, audience and content.
 
Fields of Knowledge:
6.13:

Students identify and evaluate the concept of culture, including the cultures of indigenous peoples, in various times in their local community, in the United States and in various locations world wide.

  • (aaa) Analyze how culture shapes worldview and how it unifies and divides people (e.g., national, relgious, ethinic, racial and class bias);
  • (bbb) Analyze the globalization of culture and the emergence of new cultural forms (e.g., the spread of American popular culture and the spread of Asian culture).
6.7:

Students use geographical knowledge and images of various places to understand the present, communicate historical interpretations, and develop solutions for problems and plan for the future.

  • (aaa) Use data from an analysis of global distribution of human population and interpret interrelationships among population distribution, land-use patterns, landforms, climate and transportation networks to propose solutions to global problems.

 

Time to Complete Unit:  2 weeks, meeting 10 times during a 75-minute block period

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