Diversity Awareness for K-6 Teachers by McLeod Rona Leach;

Author:McLeod, Rona Leach; [McLeod, Rona Leach]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Unlimited Model
Published: 2017-04-13T16:44:13+00:00

Activity Twenty-Four

Road Signs

Traveling up and down highways, bypasses, freeways, and even country roads is a part of our everyday existence. Being able to travel—and travel well—depends on many factors, including the availability of accurate road signs. Road signs are an important part of our lives, yet seldom do we stop to think about their value and diversity.

Even though your students do not drive, they travel with parents, grandparents, other family members, and friends. Many even travel back and forth to school on the school bus. Students encounter road signs daily. The suggested activities provide a springboard for you to dive into other significant and meaningful ways to teach about diversity, using simple items that are around us: road signs. Let’s jump right into this adventure!

Outlined Suggested Activities

Initiate a classroom conversation about road signs and their purpose. Without sharing your opinions with students, allow them to start off by sharing different types of road signs they have observed. List these on the blackboard, a flip chart, or a Smart Board where students can readily see the names of each. Once the list becomes large, ask students to help you put the road signs into distinct categories of function and purpose. Ask them to explain why all signs are not in the same categories. How might the different categories impact traveling from one point to another?

Mathematics: Describe the geometric shapes of some of the road signs, such as stop signs, caution signs, no-U-turn signs, follow the circle, and so on. Discuss points, angles, lines, and other characteristics. Have students identify angles and lines as they discuss the signs. Talk about color, and what a color means with respect to specific categories of signs.

Assign groups of students to research specific categories. Give them several weeks to finalize their class report on the many different road signs in a category. Make sure that you review with them where they are and the direction they are moving within this time, for a final report.

Language Arts: Provide guidelines for students to develop essays about a town without road signs. What types of problems might result in such a town? Once completed, allow students to read and share their diverse opinions and ideas.

Art: Over a period of several weeks, ask students to bring in newspaper and magazine clippings of various types of road signs. Take time during art class to work with your students as they develop a collage of travel with all their road signs represented.

Critical Thinking: Take a poll of the number of students in your classroom whose parents travel long distances with GPS systems. How might these travel devices impact the availability of road signs in the future? Where might one find temporary road signs? What are temporary electronic road signs? Why are these signs used?

Have students think about and answer the question “If I could be a road sign, what type would I be and why?” Share in class. Discuss the great variety and importance of each sign. Continue to talk with students about what signs they see each day as they travel from home to school.

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