Overview/Rationale
Chicago is a city of many cultures. Among those cultures I will focus on the Chinese and Mexican cultures. I selected these two particular cultures due to my students’ misconceptions about people of these two cultural ethnicities. Students live in communities that are surrounded by the geographical location of these two cultures neighborhoods. I also chose Chinese and Mexican cultures because my students have a hard time understanding the behaviors and actions of these two culture of people due to limited or no knowledge of their background. There are a few Chinese and Mexican businesses in my students’ neighborhood that allow students and their families to interact with these cultures on a daily basis. As a result, students have some prior knowledge of some of the observed behaviors that these two cultures exhibit but no meaning as to why. Another reason I chose these two cultures are their commonalities among their traditional living structures, customs, and food, and yet obvious differences such as their language, style of clothing, and physical features for students to study and become culturally aware of their diversity.
The purpose of my work, however, is not just to analyze the Chinese and Mexican cultures, but to enhance my students’ cultural awareness. By examining a historical sequence of cultural diversity in Chicago’s neighborhoods, with historical events that took place for Chinese and Mexican immigrants, this unit will offer students an understanding of how members of a culture meld into communities while trying to maintain cultural identity and honor their ancestors. My mission is that I must be able to teach several aspects of cultural differences and location to my students in a manner that they will be able to understand and make connections among these two cultures and themselves. The goal of research is the pedagogical approach for teaching about these two culture’s historical attributes in the Chicagoland area. It is important for students to recognize and comprehend that the Chinese and Mexican cultures have their native country that they came from, and how and when they arrived to America and then settled within the city of Chicago. Students will learn how food, tradition, and location brought cultures together and allowed them to rally in unison in certain areas, and establish their cultural communities and livelihoods. Students will need to be able to discuss and explain how these two cultures among many others contributed to making Chicago a diverse city, and how location plays an essential role.
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