DIVERSITY LESSON PLAN

TEACHER GRADE LEVEL BOOK

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Miss Takeah Dollison 11 /12 English The Tattoo by Chris McKinney
Published August 1999

MULTICULTURAL THEMES
 Consequences of poor decision making
 How stereotypes and the way people treat you affect your self-concept
 Understanding the experiences of those of a different race, gender, and/or socio-economic
status
 Recognizing violence in the community

STANDARDS
1) CCSS.ELA – Literacy. RL. 11.12.2 - Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text
and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and
build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the
text.
2) CCSS.ELA – Writing. W. 11.12.4 - Produce clear and coherent writing in which the
development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

OBJECTIVE
 Through discussion with their peers, students will be able to better express their own self-
concept and be better able to empathize with those different than them with 90% accuracy.
 Students will be better equipped to take part in non-violent problem-solving techniques
with 85% accuracy by evaluating character choices and brainstorming better solutions.
 Students will be better able to relate and connect with others who have a different
background than them with 95% accuracy due to small group discussions exploring the
differences and similarities they have with the characters and their peers.
 MATERIALS
 The Tattoo by Chris McKinney (provided by teacher)
 Computer Access (Word)
 Colored Pens

PROCEDURE
1) Introduce: Announce the book The Tattoo by Chris McKinney. Start a discussion by asking
“Have you ever witnessed or been the victim of discrimination against race, gender, and
socio-economics.? What stereotypes do you see in our community and the media? Of the
stereotypes we’ve talked about, are there any you can remember using?”
2) Read: Break the book into sections of no more than 5 chapters. Break students into groups
of no more than 5 students so that after reading the sections as homework they can discuss
them within their groups.
3) Discuss: For each section, the groups will discuss how they feel about what has happened
and if they see any correlation in their lives or community. They will then work together to
answer the questions.
4) Question 1. What bad decisions did the characters make?
5) Question 2: What good decisions did the characters make?
6) Question 3. What were the consequences and/or benefits of their actions?
7) Question 4. For all the bad choices made, what were other options available to the
character? If there were none explain why with evidence from the reading to support it.
8) Question 5: Can the situation in the book be related to any current events?

ACTIVITIES
 With each section, the students will work in their groups to fill out and turn in worksheets
answering the three questions found above.
 After reading the book, each student will pick a character they can relate to and create a
character map detailing the history of the character, their place in the plot, and any major
decisions they had to make, good or bad.
 Also due with the character map, each student will write a 2-3 page identity narrative on a
moment where they made a bad decision, what the consequences were, how it correlates
with the book, and how what they have learned will change their actions in the future.

EVALUATIONS
The teacher will assess the participation level of each student in their groups for participation
points and then grade each question worksheet for in-depth answers and explanations. The
Character maps will be assessed for accuracy and each identity narrative will be graded on the
writing structure, grammar and punctuation, fluidity, and relation to the topic.

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