Glastonbury Foreign Language Program
Curricular Unit: Cultures of the World (Russian)
Grade: 7
Subject/Topic Area(s): Countries(republics) that comprised the USSR
Key Words: Armenia, Erevan; Belarus, Minsk; Azerbaijan, Baku; Estonia, Tallinn; Georgia, Tbilisi; Kazakhstan, Astana; Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek; Latvia, Riga; Lithuania, Vilnius; Moldova, Kishinev; Russia, Moscow; Tajikstan, Dushanbe; Turkmenistan, Ashgabat; Ukraine, Kiev; and Uzbekistan, Tashkent.

Standards:

Major standards— 1.3, 2.1, 3.1, 3.2, 4.2
Supporting standards— 2.2

Brief Summary of Unit (including curricular context and unit goals):

This is a unit on the republics of the Soviet Union and their emergence as independent nations. In this unit students will work with a partner on an assigned country to research the geogrphy, history, current government, major products, ethnic groups, lifestyle, religion. language(s), arts, free time activities, holiday, national dishes and what's in the news.

Number of days for activity: 7

Materials and resources (including technology and multimedia):

Computer research (Culturgrams and websites)
Books from Library Media Center and classroom
Articles from National Geographic and other sources
Postcard collections
Unit outline of required topics
Teacher slides of selected countries
BBC Russian Language and People Episode #2 (Intro to Russ Lang and Geog)
Map of Russia and surrounding nations
FACES (Cobblestone Publishers) Ukraine,The Baltics, & Armenia

Identifying Desired Results

•  What essential questions will guide this unit and focus teaching/learning?

What is culture?
What is Russian culture?

•  What enduring understandings are desired?

Student will understand...

that speakers of Russian live not only in Russia, but in many of the countries that made up the Soviet Union; that the Soviet Union incorporated peoples of many nationalities and backgrounds that made the concept of molding one unified nation a formidable task.

•  What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this unit?

Students will know…

the names and capitals of the fifteen countries that comprised the Soviet Union and at least one feature that makes each one unique.

Students will be able to…

make a Power Point presentation or an oral report with a Story Board to the class to showcase their research findings and show evidence of the unique attributes of their country.
practice cognate recognition by reading cities and countries in the target language.
say in the target language the nationalities (male and female), the language spoken, and how to say that a person lives in this country.

Vocabulary:

Grammar:

•  What do they already know that will help them learn new information? Where and when did they learn it?

Location of Russia and Moscow. Some knowledge of the European countries and capitals. The Ural Mountains as the divider between Europe and Asia.
World Geography is a focus of the Grade 6 Social Studies curriculum.

Determining acceptable evidence

•  What evidence will show that students understand?

Performance Tasks:
Power Point or Story Board presentation

Quizzes, Tests, Prompts, Work Samples:
Matching Quiz on countries and capitals
True/False quiz on individual countries unique attributes (student generated)
Geography game
Country/capitals crossword puzzles

Unprompted Evidence (observations, dialogues):
Student questions following the presentations

Student Self-Assessment:
Group reflection on what makes an outstanding presentation

Lessons:

Links to Relevant Web Sites:  

www.culturegrams.com
www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook
www.cyberschoolbus.un.org
www.wave.net
www.geohive.com
www.peacecorps.gov/kids/world

Assessment Blueprint (Performance Tasks)

Task Title:
Approximate Time Frame:
Standards:
Purpose: check those that apply Formative – Summative –
Description of Task:



Evidence of desired understanding:

Criteria of judgment:

Evaluative Tools: check those that apply
Analytic Rubric –
Holistic Rubric –
Criterion (performance) list –
Checklist –

Assessment Blueprint (Other Evidence)

•  What is being assessed?

•  Describe the assessment.  

•  What is the purpose of the assessment?      

•  Criteria of judgment/evaluative tools: