Overview
"In every society, culturally unique ways of thinking about the world unite people in their behavior" stated John Bodley concerning culture (Encarta 2005). Culture can be seen through symbols, learned habits and shared ways. This unit will explore another's culture through two specific variables, physical geography and an art genre. Looking at another's culture with respect and dignity will be prevalent throughout this unit. Some important aspects of culture will be pointed out. One will be the symbolic part of culture. This can be through totem poles, storytelling or writing. Culture also is learned through enculturation, in which customs and rituals and family traditions are repeated time and again. This process takes years, but it begins to give us what we call history. Lastly, culture is shared through borrowing of ideas, trading of goods, and living in close proximity. The physical homeland will often dictate the lifestyle through food or access to material and water. This is why I chose to look at land form.
Another important aspect of culture is art. A famous quote of John Dewey is "Art is a product of culture, and it is through art that the people of a given culture express the significance of their lives as well as their hopes and ideals." I and my students will basically be living with the six nations we are studying through experiencing aspects of their culture. We will be looking at the things that help them run smoothly. This can be seen through the Seneca and their planting of food, utilizing and paying attention to the seasons; after the planting, they might take the time for making a maize rug or jacket. They used to follow the weather and plant food, and then they use the food for clothing.
Now as you have read the title, I know you would want to know some specifics. The Native American nations that I will be looking at are the Pomo, Haida, Nez Perce, Seneca, Cherokee and Navajo. We will look at their geographical location related to location and physical environment along with their history The second will be an art genre. The genre may be material or nonmaterial art. Each nation will be introduced in this manner
- location
- history
- art genre
- graphic organizer
In introducing the nation we would locate the nation on a map and discuss landform and directional information. Then we will talk about the history and important customs or lifestyles. In this part I would like to use a graphic organizer to teach a content area skill. This will be associated to a skill previously taught in my regular classroom curricula, and used as reinforcement. I will then introduce a work of art. Then a graphic organizer will be completed. While learning all of these different attributes about culture we can begin to appreciate our culture and respect others.
Objectives
My main goals are to sensitize my students to the qualities of other people of different cultures and how they live. I would like to give my students many opportunities to enjoy emergent literacy skills. This can be through hearing new and familiar stories. For example, I will include a folktale in the Haida lesson. This can also be taught to look at the repetitive text within a story. I would like to give my students the opportunity to use the puppet theatre to practice these skills. They can act out folktales during free time. They will also be able to express language through respectfully listening to and sustaining conversation with their peers. This will be when the students do paired and small group learning using the cooperative learning strategies. Also, practice will give them a firm foundation to perform other skills. This unit will encourage my students to ask questions, make simple predictions, observations and comparisons. This can be as they look at their own culture in comparison to the nations that are introduced. The graphic organizers will teach skills in organizing information. I will talk more about this in the strategies section of my paper. Aesthetic appreciation and concern for the work of art for a different culture will be fostered, when the students create the art piece and become the artist. They will be able to realize that the environment provides resources for creative expressions using a variety of art forms and media. I will use the environment to give my students an opportunity to create a representational piece of art work by looking at an actual work of art. I will be sure that they have exposure to familiar images, object events and people. This will help them to understand customs of other social groups. This can be through discussing the potlatch ceremony, for example. I also want them to be able to use simple map skills, along with geographical tools such as globes and other forms of directional information including a map key. A map is a form of a graphic organizer. The students will be able to use critical thinking and problem solving through the use of some content area information. These content skills will be taught a new way. They will be able to use basic pattern skills. The patterns can be created through weaving or counting numbers. I also want my students to be able understand human influence in shaping history, and to be able to understand the concept of regions related to landforms. The student will be able to learn and understand that an object may have different meanings such as an animal's characteristics for different cultures. Also, through these processes, I will be letting the students understand that these things help with shaping of communities, states and nations (tribes). All of the objectives and goals have been closely related to my social studies curriculum. I want the objectives to foster a strong identity of self as they learn about someone else's culture. This will give them the opportunity to use ideas and environments that value different things their culture. Our culture may value designer clothes where the Pomo nation valued the acorn. What I mean is understanding someone else's culture will assist in understanding ours.
The Pennsylvania Kindergarten Standards http://www.pde.state.pa.us have been included because of their importance with regard to student achievement. In this section I will list the ones that will be used in this unit.
Arts and Humanities
9.1 Production, performance and exhibition of a dance music, theatre and visual arts. This will be with the folktales and puppet theatre. Some of the pictures will be used also.
9.2 Historical cultural context of works in the arts analyze and describe the work. The study about the art attributed to each nation.
9.4 Aesthetic response to works of the arts. When we do the strategies we will be trying to achieve aesthetic appreciation.
Family School and Community Partnerships
P.6 Collaborating with the community. We will be using the lending part of the Carnegie Museum and I will be borrowing some of their pieces on Native American Art. I will also be inviting an environmental organization to explain a compost and build one.
Mathematics
2.1 Number systems and their relations. In the Pomo nation they were skilled mathematicians. I have chosen a number activity for this that includes an estimation and probability.
2.6 Data analysis- The graphic organizers will be collecting data.
Reading, Writing and Speaking
1.6 Speaking and listening- this will be with the cooperative learning groups and discussions about the history of the nations.
1.4 Types of writing- This will be evident with the journal entries related to the work of art. It will also be part of some of the writing activities in the Haida lesson.
Science and Technology
3.1 Unifying a theme using the seasons in the Seneca nation. There will be activities to show how parts make up a whole.
3.2 Inquiry and design- This will be used with the graphic organizer activities and the work of art series of questions.
Environmental and Ecology
4.2Renewable and nonrenewable resources
This will be through the compost set up. There will be milk cartoons and cans to use for art activities.
Social Studies
7.1 Basic Geography literacy. This will mean just knowing left and right, east and west.
7.2 The physical characteristics of places and regions. I will be going over what regions are like, for example, if the area is a forest or plateau.
7.3 Interaction between people and places. This will be discussed in the history part of each nation.
8.2 United States History. This is basically what this whole unit is about.
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