In a recent discussion about what revisions need to be made in the TEKS, someone shared that all of the Grade 6 World Cultures TEKS are difficult to bundle into units and to understand. This is pretty consistent with observations I’ve made over many years. Yes, the standards for Grade 6 World Cultures are challenging, because most of them are conceptual in nature and offer little specifics about how those concepts are illustrated by particular content within a region. It would be tedious to explain each of the TEKS in World Cultures in a blog and those of you using the TEKS Resource System have the TEKS Clarification Document (TCD) to provide for this. However, I am going to attempt in this and coming blogs to provide some insights/resources for Grade 6 World Cultures.

Whether you are a veteran to teaching World Cultures or this is your first year teaching this course, some broad understanding of the world cultures course may be helpful and affirming of what you have been doing.

1.  Each regional unit is centered on a conceptual focus, so every standard does not need to be included in each regional unit. It is helpful to introduce students to that conceptual focus when starting a new unit. As students are presented with content in the unit those details are related back to the concept. This gives students a larger organizing “box” for the learning, facilitating retention. The concept is intended to capture what is characteristic of culture or societies in that particular region ie. Sub-Saharan Africa as a region faces development challenges because of physical geography and post-colonialism. Explanation of the conceptual focus is in the overview of the Instructional Focus Document (IFD).
2. World cultures is at heart a geography course. As a geography course, world cultures is centered on two lenses – patterns and processes. Patterns can be visual, such as what can be observed from looking at a map. Patterns can also refer to what is characteristic of a societies institutions or human geography. Processes are the actions (human or physical) that brought about the patterns. Think patterns and processes in each unit. Students first learn about the physical patterns of the region followed by learning about the current human geographic patterns, such as what is economically, politically, and socially characteristic of societies in the region being studied. Subsequent lessons focus on the processes that brought about the human patterns. (In World Geography, students will study the physical processes that brought about the physical patterns.) In Grade 6, students are introduced to the physical patterns of each region because physical geography impacts human geographic patterns. For example, in the unit about Latin America students study the process of migration, as a process responsible for new cultural patterns in the region.
3. Overcoming the lesson planning challenge for World Cultures requires mastery of backward design planning. Backward design planning facilitates time efficiency. Here is a review of the steps in the backward design planning process. 1) Identify the desired results or what do we want students to know/be able to do. This is already done for TEKS Resource System users in the IFD and with more detail in the Learning Goals Planning Tool.  2) Identify evidence of learning or how will students show what they learned. Utilize the assessment creator along with the performance assessments in the TEKS Resource System for this.  3) Plan learning experiences or how will lessons be structured to reach the desired results.

It is wonderful when a search for lessons yields a perfectly aligned, age appropriate, engaging lesson, but rarely is this the case. Clarity about what type of resource to create or search for helps to save precious time. Instead of searching for a ready made lesson, understand what type of resource you need based on the components of a lesson.

Here are some resources for initiating a lesson. Some lesson formats refer to this as Engage, some formats use Anticipatory Set, and some refer to this as “bell ringer” activities. It’s not so important what lesson format you choose as it is to know that students’ attention needs to be focused at the beginning of a lesson. Intrigue the students, preview what students will learn, connect the learning to what students already know, and give purpose for learning this content/skill.

Having  a clear objective or learning goal makes it is easier to seek out resources. Generally in World Cultures the resource most needed is something that delivers the content. Is the information in the textbook? Is there a video or website that has the information? Do I need to create a slide deck with the information? The search for a resource can be significantly narrowed now. Be sure to couple the information resource with a literacy/note taking strategy. Combine direct teaching with a check for understanding after students have explored the content.

Retention of learning is the goal. “Make it stick” with a processing activity. What activities can be designed for students to apply the newly acquired content. Sometimes the performance assessment can serve as this part of the lesson or plan other activities that require students to APPLY the new learning.  Evaluation of processing activities serves as a check for understanding.

Can you see the lesson progression in this lesson about Absolute Location?

The tough TEKS in World Cultures are here for now, but hopefully with the learning goals planning tool and focused lesson planning a search for resources will become more efficient. Next time I’ll share resources for map activities. Happy planning.