Rationale
My second grade student’s need to experience and have a better understanding of what other cultures and ethnicities in our world consists of. Aside from just telling the students and trying to have them visualize different cultures, I think that having visuals through literature and film is a great way to present other cultures to students. Using film is a great tool for showing students other races as well as for giving them an understanding of family dynamics and other geographical areas with their different architectures. They get to make meaning and have their own interpretation of what a culture may consist of. The students need to be able to also relate what they understand from film and literature and apply it to their lives and own culture.
The community where my students come from is not very diverse, and because the population of the school comes from the same community, the school also is not very diverse. However, although only a few miles out you may see concentrations of other cultures, my students do not come across them often. My students are at a disadvantage because they are only exposed to their surroundings and this does not allow them to expand their knowledge of other ethnic groups. This school has the opportunity to receive a Spanish lesson once a week. Throughout the school year, the students learn about the Hispanic culture and its language. The materials that the students learn consist of colors, food, family members, unique holidays and landmarks. Most importantly, they get to experience the language and cultural traditions that I bring to the classroom to show them. I share my personal Latino culture with them. In this way the students have an opportunity to gain a better understanding of another culture and learn more about something that they are not exposed to in their neighborhoods. Although they have this opportunity, however, there is still a lack of further awareness of other cultures. They do not realize that not only their culture and the Hispanic culture exist, but know nothing about the many other cultures throughout the world. I want to enhance their spectrum of diversity by introducing them to the Chinese culture.
With these thoughts in mind a great film that would be ideal to introduce to my students would be Mulan. This film is an elementary level friendly video that outlines important qualities from the Chinese culture. Although it is a Disney animated film and has some additions to the original Chinese legend, it contains meaningful Chinese traditions. In Mulan we will see the importance of geographical location, family, monuments and cultural traditions. This movie will be a tool to help aid the students to be introduced into a new and different culture that they were not aware of. They will also be able to relate to the film and find it enjoyable.
The students will be able to relate this not only to the information that they learn in Spanish, but also to their own lives. In order to help the students truly understand the film, the student will need to learn more information about Chinese culture and traditions. I have had the opportunity to travel to China and have photographs from my trip that I can show my students. I am able to share my personal connection to my experience of the architecture and of interacting with the local people that I met during my trip. I am also able to share my first hand experience when I came into contact with the architecture, such as touring through the temples, palaces and garden, as well as having seen and stepped on the Great Wall of China. The students will be able to see that they too could travel there and have the opportunity to see how China has changed over time. They will then be able to connect the China portrayed in the film to modern day China.
One of the important things that needs to be mentioned first is the location of China on a map. We will locate ourselves on a map and then locate China. The students will develop better understandings of the distances between countries. By watching and discussing the movie Mulan they will be able to learn about similar and different cultures. They will learn about the different expectations of people and their positions in their family households. They will notice that the father is the head of the household and will compare this knowledge to what they know about the role of the father in Hispanic culture.
We will see in the opening scene of Mulan begin with one of the most important structures ever built anywhere in the world--the Great Wall of China. We know that today it is a tourist attraction, but in ancient times building the wall had a different purpose--to protect the country. Students are using the film and literature to interpret their understanding but also realize that it conveys a historical meaning. The film also demonstrates and emphasizes the gender roles within Mulan’s family and Chinese culture more generally. Family is an important concept we constantly speak of in my Spanish classes. The study of the Chinese family will challenge my students to think further about the gender roles in that culture and those homes, but also in their own culture.
Family is a very significant concept that we discuss and learn the value of-- always respecting them. Students learn the importance of family and what a traditional family setting looks like. We discuss the terminology in Spanish and English to ensure that the students have a full understanding of the words. This is an important topic because the students become aware of how the family structure looks similar no matter what race we are. The structure may vary but many times consist of a father, mother, sister and/or brother. It is essential for the students to have the realization that as in their home, in the Hispanic culture or Chinese culture there are norms and expectations for each family member.
When the students are watching this film it may be misleading that all the characters speak English. This is an important component to address, because the language is different and they need to understand that English is not the primary language in China but rather traditional Chinese or Mandarin. The students will first watch clips of Mulan in Mandarin before watching the film in English and Spanish. I want to expose my students to a different language that I am not familiar with, but want to show them that there are always new things to learn. I want my students to have an opportunity to experience a new language, a new culture and the beauty of the diversity in our world.
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