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CULTURE IN
A BOX
OBJECTIVES: Students will:
Consider
the definition of culture, and reflect on what this means to them.
Create "culture
capsules" containing artifacts and information that will help students of the
foreign country understand their particular cultural group.
Write
reflective essays examining the research and "culture capsules" completed during
class, as well as their own personal experiences with cultural heritage and
ethnicity.
SUGGESTED
TIME ALLOWANCE: 5 days
ACTIVITIES / PROCEDURES:
WARM-UP/DO
NOW: Upon entering class, students respond to the following prompt in their
journals (written on the board prior to class): "What is culture? How does your
cultural heritage define who you are? Consider your language, religion, value
systems, neighborhood, etc." After a few minutes, allow students to share their
responses. How do students think the cultural factors they identified might
change for their future children, grandchildren and great grandchildren?
Divide
the class into groups, and have each group select 10 objects to put in a culture
capsule to be sent to the foreign school. The groups should set themselves the
goal of trying to explain their way of life to people of the foreign country.
What 10 objects will give people the most complete picture of Greek teenagers
today? Try to include something for each one of the five senses. But please
prefer a recipe to a cooked meal.
Each
group will work on their "culture capsules" by completing the
presentation file : They have to include
map of
the home country
statistical data illustrating the population of their
country, climate (e.g. average temperature/ photos of seasons)
illustrations or pictures
examples
of this group’s language
examples
and images of this group’s customs, including holidays, beliefs or values (newspaper
clippings, images, artifacts, etc.)
information pertaining to locations where large communities of these people live
Allow
students to complete the Wrap-Up/Homework assignment before sealing the culture
capsules.
Procedures
1. Divide
the class into small groups that will each research and orally report on one
cultural aspect. The goal is for the class as a whole to gain appreciation for
the variations and similarities among different cultures
2. Assign
one of the following cultural aspect (or others that you may prefer to focus on)
to each of your groups:
one song
or piece of music;
one item
of food; (recipe)
one
example of a leisure time activity;
one
contemporary hero ;
one book
or magazine;
one
proverb;
a list of
popular words and phrases.
A
landscape
one
product
You can
see an example ready to be filled in the file
culture capsule (ppt) or you may see the Greek culture capsule zip
file 544kb in
www.netschoolbook.gr/culturecapsuleGR.zip
In small
groups, students can nominate the contents of the capsule designed to represent
aspects of their country.
At the
end of the week, a session should be set aside for each group to share their
culture capsule. They need to explain why they nominated each item as
representative of aspects of their country.
WRAP-UP/HOMEWORK:
Individually, students will write an essay reflecting upon their research,
“culture capsule” creation and their own personal cultural identity, by
responding to the following prompt (written on the board for students to copy
before leaving class): "Describe your own cultural heritage and identity, and
explain if your family is native-country born or immigrants. How does your
personal ethnicity or cultural heritage compare with the culture of your twin
class? What are the similarities? What are the differences? Why is it important
for future generations to know about and understand other people’s cultural
heritage? Be sure to include information from your research, as well as your own
personal experiences." This written piece should be added to the "culture
capsule" web page, along with the essays of the other members of that particular
group.
EVALUATION / ASSESSMENT:
Students
will be evaluated based on initial journal responses, participation in class and
group discussions, thorough research on a particular culture aspect, thoughtful
participation and completion in the creation of a "culture capsule," as well as
thoughtful completion of a reflection essay.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
It would also
be great if the objects within the box would be displayed to the public for a
few days.Each
school gets to know a bit more about the culture of the country from which the
box was sent. The only thing you have
to
be careful about
is not sending things that are breakable.
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