Welcome to a Trip around the World!

Tool Kit: Culture Grams

Culture grams is an on-line data base that was established in 1974. Five years ago it was
acquired by Proquest and was given a complete “overhaul”. The aim of Culture Grams is
to foster an understanding and appreciation of the world’s countries. It does this by
breaking its information up into four organized researchable divisions.

1. World Edition: Students can access information from various countries in the
world via a continent search or direct country name search. Once a country is
selected, the student is linked to its “Culture Grams” home page which features
information written by natives of the country and a Culture Grams editor. The
World Edition holds texts for 202 countries including the192 members of the
United Nations and foreign dependencies. It is updated annually, and all stats
come from UN reports and CIA fact books. On each World Edition Culture Grams
page, students may navigate using a tool bar or picture icons to obtain information
such as flag outlines, video clips, slide shows, photo galleries, recipes, famous
people, graphs, national anthem, language lessons, time comparisons with
country, interactive mapping of travel distances to the country, currency, and
historical/ political/ economical/and cultural categories of information.
2. Kids Edition: The Kids Edition has all of the same information listed above, but
the text is written at a mid to upper elementary level.
3. United States Kids Edition: Holds information for the 50 states and Washington
D.C.
4. Canada Kids Edition: Holds information for the 13 provinces and territories

Overall, this is an amazing tool. It appeals to the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learner.
It pulls in the reluctant reader, gives current and credible information to the researcher,
and allows for unlimited school-wide connections when considering curriculum
coverage, multi-cultural awareness, and state standards.

Lesson Plan

Background: Since our middle school works on teams, social studies is always the
“shared” subject. Therefore, every teacher on the team always has at least one subject of
it to teach. This translates into every core teacher in the building being a social studies
teacher, and no one teacher in the building being a social studies specialist. In addition,
most of the people teaching it did not major in any type of social studies degree, however
they are “highly qualified” enough to teach one section of it. Since this subject is not
anyone’s “main” focus, social studies tools and additional resources sometimes go un-
used.

In addition, information and comparisons with our country and the world that we live in
can work into any curriculum: music, foods, art, PE, science, math, language arts

Purpose: to introduce the Culture Grams tool kit to the staff in a hands-on activity that
will encourage its use and get staff thinking about its application to their curriculum

Location: during one of our building’s SIP (School Improvement Planning in-service
days), the library would be one stop for staff as they rotated through their attendance
sessions.

Activities:
1. Introduction of Tool Kit/brief summary and overview by librarian
2. Information on how the database can be accessed both at home and at school
3. Quick overview on the four modes of organized information.
4. Librarian demo of sample country/ available facets of information by looking at
one specific country –modeling the navigation of the tool kit
5. Practice: staff will move to a computer in the library and log onto the Culture
Grams homepage.
6. Staff will complete a database scavenger hunt located at each station that will
acclimate them with the various components of the tool kit.
7. Upon completion of the scavenger hunt, staff will turn completed scavenger hunt
into the librarian for a prize.
8. Librarian will give the staff member a specialized sheet that aligns with their
respective teaching curriculum units and suggestions for how Culture Grams
might be used or incorporated to enhance the topic of study.
9. Teachers will complete an exit slip in which they will journal about three
questions:
• List something that you learned today:
• When could you use Culture Grams to support and enrich something that you are
teaching?
• What else do you need from me to actively integrate Culture Grams somewhere
into your curriculum?