Learning Objectives

• Understand the importance of using digital text and other media to support the inquiry process and classroom instruction. 
• Identify strategies for using CultureGrams: Kids, States, Provinces, and World editions in the classroom. 

Teach with Tables and Graphs

Make visualizing data easier for students using tables and graphs. CultureGrams: Kids, States, Provinces, and World editions give students access to population, economic, and education data. Educators and students can build graphs and tables. Use comparison graphs to discover statistical extremes and commonalities among multiple countries. 

Learn how to build your charts and graphs using this step-by-step guide: CultureGrams Working with Data Tables. 

Comparison Table

Select multiple nations or regions. Select categories for comparison. Click Report Options to print or download the table as a CSV file. 

Comparison Graph

Select up to 10 nations and four categories. Click Print to print graphs.

Explore the World with CultureGrams: Kids, States, Provinces, and World Editions 

Using digital tools helps students understand culture, geography, and traditions that differ from their own. In her eBook, EdTech Essentials: The Top 10 Technology Strategies for All Learning Environments, Monica Burns advocates for educators to use technology to help students "build their capacity for understanding how to explore the world." (35). 

Go to Chapter 3: Introduce Opportunities for Students to Explore the World from the eBook. Complete the Pause and Do activity below. 

Pause and Do

Pause and reflect on how you help students "build their capacity for understanding how to explore the world" using technology in your classroom. Read Chapter 3: Introduce Opportunities for Students to Explore the World from the eBook. Think about how Burns challenges educators to leverage technology to build empathy through access, connection, and reflection. 

Leverage Technology to Build Empathy

Immersive experiences give students access to the perspectives of people from other countries and cultures. Learn to use CultureGrams: Kids and World editions to create immersive experiences using interviews, videos, and recipes. Educators can use these tools to create activities that extend learning or engage students outside the classroom. 

• Interviews: CultureGrams: Kids and World editions offer interviews with people of all ages. Use these interviews to help students learn about daily life in a different country or culture. CultureGrams: Kids Edition includes Life as a Kid articles. Students build empathy as they learn about education, recreation, and family life for children across the world. Pair interviews with poetry, short stories, and novels to build background knowledge about a place or culture.
• Videos: CultureGrams: Kids and World editions include videos showing holiday celebrations, daily life, and history in different countries. Use videos to help students see traditions and celebrations in different cultures and countries. Videos connect students to information for country research projects and world language classrooms.
• Recipes: CultureGrams: Kids, States, Provinces, and World editions include recipe collections for each country, state, and province. Take students on a culinary trip around the country and the world as students learn about, prepare, and share dishes that connect to the unit of study.

Reflecting on Your Learning 

1. What are two things you are doing in the classroom that will make integrating CultureGrams: Kids, States, Provinces, or World editions easier?
2. What features do you like most about CultureGrams: Kids, States, Provinces, or World edtions? How will you share these features with students?
3. In Chapter 3, Burns encourages educators to use technology to answer students' questions about the world around them. In the section, Teachable Moments, she offers prompts educators can use to give students a moment to explore a question about a new place. How can you use CultureGrams with your students to explore one of the prompts?