LESSON 2: PARTS OF THE HISTORY AND PRESENT Topic:
History/Sources of Knowledge
Time frame: 2-3 days (plus time to sew the quilt
together)
Activity:
- Send out a letter ahead of time letting the
parents know that on a particular day the
students are expected to bring in an item that
represents their culture/background/origin.
Hopefully the students will have them on the day
you do this lesson.
- Have students sitting in the circle with their
item. Although this is like a show and tell, it
can be done at any age if you don't call it that.
Students like to bring stuff in to show their
friends/classmates, usually whether or not they
seem reluctant to do so.
- You can participate in this circle as well. Doing
so can promote understanding and respect between
you and the students. It is important to do this,
because when you are in the circle you are all
seen on an even level, and are all to participate
in some way, whether it is speaking, listening or
both.
- Show and tell.
- Discuss. How much more have you learned about a
particular culture because of what students have
brought in? Do they know more now that they have
seen a symbol of those cultures? Talk about this.
Yes, this is appropriate for grade two students.
They are quite able to understand that they all
have similarities and differences; the
responsibility of the teacher is to promote an
atmosphere of respect and self esteem.
- Make a chart on the board, or preferably on chart
paper. List the object and what it represents.
These can be categorized later.
- Have the students write in their journals about
what they have learned today. Did they learn
anything new? Did they see stuff they already
knew about?
- Summarize what was learned in the lesson above.
Ask students how they learned the most about
their culture. Was it from a book? An object? Or
their family telling them stories? The answers
will vary, but what we are looking at is an
emphasis on oral history. Learning should come
from a variety of sources, but we need to hear
the personal stories of our relatives and
neighbours.
- Point out that we can not learn all about a
culture from a few objects. We can guess about
objects or know a lot about it, but it still
paints only part of a picture. We must look to
each other, teachers, books, and family to fill
in the other holes. Explain that this is what
anthropologists, archaeologists and historians
have done - used pieces of information to create
a story.
- Although such things tell us about part of a
culture, they will never tell us all about it -
it is just one piece in the puzzle. We must keep
that in mind when learning about other cultures.
To illustrate the point, read one of the class's
favourite stories/pieces of literature, poem,
etc. Leave out a very large piece so they will
notice. Show them that this is like an object or
symbol that represents a culture. It is only part
of it.
- The Heritage Quilt is a
patchwork quilt which illustrates the diversity
of the students in a class
- Teacher provides each student with a patch of
material - 30 cm by 30 cm
- Students design a quilt patch which represents
their cultural heritage and interests - they can
put a picture of the object they brought in on it
- Students create the design from markers; will be
sewn later by volunteers: allow for a 2 cm seam
allowance all the way around the patch. (It would
be good to draw the border on the patch before
handing them out to students.
- Students names added to the patches, please!
- The patches are then joined to strips of material
2-3 cm wide of a contrasting colour - this acts
as a grid with the patches in the squares of the
grid
- Hem the joining strips or grid, and use quilt as
a wall hanging in the classroom
- Explain that when the quilt is finished, it will
tell a story about all of us in the classroom,
not just one of us. It will tell a better story
than just one object could. (This activity is
taken from Carol Butler and Maureen Swain's
Cultural Awareness Through the Arts in the Lennox
and Addington County Board of Education.)
- Talk about stories. Ask who knows a story. What
are some of their favourite stories, and why? Are
any of these stories culturally based? Disney
cartoon movies come from cultural stories,
especially those over the last decade. Does
anyone know stories about the Native people in
Canada? North America?
- Ask if anyone has heard of the Haudenoshaunee,
Iroquois, Six Nations, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga,
Cayuga, Seneca or Tuscarora. The subject is only
to be touched on at first.
- Have students write something in their journals
on what was discussed today.
- Go to the site on E Pauline Johnson at
www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/%7Epjohnson/mock.html
Introduce her as a Mohawk (Kanienkeha) from the
Six Nations Territory near Brantford, Ontario.
Read the page above to the class, or have
students read (depending on level). It discusses
her background of a Mohawk father and English
mother. This information should be familiar now
to the students as they have looked into their
backgrounds by this point.
- Continue on to the next page, which is www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/%7Epjohnson/teka.html
: it talks about the Mohawk name Johnson used,
"Tekahionwake." It gives you a little
background into the idea that all Iroquois names
have a meaning behind them; a story all on its
own.
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