October is Diversity Awareness Month. Diversity and multiculturalism mean practically the same thing in social terms. Culture is the totality of values, beliefs, and behaviors common to a large group of people. A culture may include shared language and folklore, communication styles, and ideas and thinking patterns--the "truths" accepted by members of the group.

Members of a culture have similar expectations of life. Culture can be further defined as the body of learned beliefs, traditions, principles, and guides for behavior that are shared among members of a particular group.

Culture serves as a roadmap for both perceiving and interacting with the world.

Activity: The U.S population is more diverse today than at any time in its history. The challenge for teachers is to help students who are forming attitudes and opinions about people who are different from themselves, to build these attitudes upon knowledge, rather than ignorance and prejudice.

One method of doing this is to provide opportunities for students to learn beyond the textbook through mini-research activities on the challenges and accomplishment of members of a variety of major ethnic groups: Asian Pacific Americans; German Americans (October celebration); Italian Americans (October celebration); Polish Americans (October celebration); Hispanic Americans (first half of October celebration); and Native Americans.

Assign students to research a specific ethnic group from the ones listed above (one that is not their own). For the selected ethnic group, each student should provide a summary of significant historic events and/or highlights of five successful members of that ethnic group in a variety of recommended fields: athletics; government and politics; authors and literature; entertainment and music; and scientists and inventors (or add your own).

As an example, the key words for a search could be Hispanic American history; or Italian American scientists, or Polish American authors and literature. Students should cite at least five selected resources.

Oral reports (or PowerPoint) are the best way for students to share what they've learned with the class. (limit to three minutes). These reports/presentations also provide students with an opportunity to develop essential standards-based presentation skills and integrate 21st Century skills into their methods of learning.

History Study Center & ProQuest Learning: Literature Activities: eLibrary Curriculum Edition provides simultaneous searching of History Study Center and ProQuest Learning: Literature with each key word search.

Notice the tabs in the Search Results page: General (the default), History, and Literature. Students should click these tabs on each search to see if there are some unique resources associated with that search.

Of course, a search such as Hispanic American authors would create a great Results list in eLibrary as well as under the Literature tab. A search such as Native American history would generate great additional results by clicking the History tab.

As students select topics related to their assignment, they should also do a separate search of HSC or PQLL depending on the topic or person. Students should use at least one of the resources from each for their report.