The Institute for Cultural Partnerships

Customized Training Services - What’s Your Name?

Enhancing Diversity Awareness in the classroom or after school setting.

The Institute for Cultural Partnerships is pleased to offer a half-day diversity awareness workshop based on What’s Your Name? an exciting, interactive study guide that accompanies our compact disk recording of 22 traditional dance tunes, songs and instrumentals from 11 ethnic communities throughout Pennsylvania. Each of the 15 innovative lesson plans in the guide has been keyed to specific Pennsylvania State Education Standards for Arts and Humanities; Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening; Science and Technology; and Geography. The lesson plans are packed with activities (65 in all) that are coded by ethnic community, curricular area and grade level for easy reference. A Glossary of Key Words and a Pronunciation Key make this study guide accessible and easy to use.

This workshop is useful to all teachers concerned with improving the cultural awareness of their students. Drawing on the resources offered in the Study Guide, participants will explore ways to incorporate diversity and cultural awareness into classes in Language Arts, Communications, Physics, Spanish, Journalism, Geography and Social Studies. Each lesson plan includes a Teacher’s Page with background information about the music and the culture of the performers, definitions of key terms used, at least three activities for use in the classroom, suggested assessment tools and strategies, follow-up activities for further learning, additional resources and Student’s Page that can be copied and distributed.

This workshop will be customized to your curricular needs and will include:

an introduction to traditional arts in Pennsylvania and their use as a window into the diverse cultures that make up our neighborhoods
new lesson plans to engage students in learning about themselves
innovative ways to teach students to appreciate others
practical strategies to encourage students to collect oral history and folklife in their communities
useful tips for teachers interested in identifying and inviting traditional artists into the classroom to work directly with students
resources and ideas for developing residencies with traditional artists
additional resources for expanding cultural awareness opportunities in the classroom

At least two copies of the study guide will be placed in the faculty resource library of each school to ensure that participants have access to What’s Your Name? after the workshop has ended.

Contact Amy Skillman at 717-238-1770 for more information.