In working with students, and especially second language learners, it is imperative that we make connections to the knowledge that students bring with them. The following activities will allow these students to incorporate their values and culture as they learn about their new culture. In addition, this process of building background knowledge on what students know in the subject matter allows the classroom teacher to differentiate instruction and build upon what students already know.
Many of the students that I serve in the bilingual program, or who are English Language Learners (ELLs), arrive from cultures very different from the mainstream North American one. Often times, these students in their first years have great difficulties adjusting to a foreign culture that exhibits very different values than their own. In allowing these students to voluntarily contribute their experiences, we are able to create a scaffold that will ensure that what they learn is attached to something meaningful.
The following lessons represent a sample of the different elements that are part of this unit and the implementation will be based on short activities integrating all curricular areas. The main goal of these lessons is to develop second language academic proficiency while studying the concepts related to material culture. For such a purpose, close attention is placed upon key concepts, outcomes, accountable-talk, and language structures. These lessons are developed with ELL students in mind; thus, especial importance is placed on comprehensible input by means of modified speech, vocabulary front loading, clear and specific language structures, and accountable-talk.
Unit introduction
The starting point of this unit is with the legend of the
The Blind and the Elephant
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. In this popular and multicultural legend each individual arrives to a different conclusion based on limited observations. Although the main intent of this legend is teaching that the inability to see one’s limitations because of shortsightedness makes one as blind as one who does not have sight, the legend will be here used as a springboard to the study of material culture.
The purpose of the legend in this lesson is to make students aware that when studying an artifact we must look beyond what we think we can see. We need to look past our own conception as we study material culture. Therefore the saying of ‘do not judge a book by its cover’ becomes a congruent motto with the lesson to be taught. In addition, the following print titled
Blind Monks Examining an Elephant
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can
be
used as a mnemonic device in the classroom so as to remind us to look beyond what we can see.
It is also important to remember that as we observe an artifact of a given time period it is the values and ideals that we are studying. In the end, it is not the object that is of importance, but the interpretations that we make from such an object that truly matters. Therefore, it is important to remember that the goal is to provide the students with a framework that will allow for open-ended interpretations based on cultural artifacts within the context of the period room. This lesson is consequently the foundation of such a process.
From the whole to the parts and back
It is left to the teacher’s discretion as to how to continue this unit. It is possible to begin with the whole (period room) and move on to the individual parts (cultural artifacts) or begin with the individual parts and look at the whole. Nevertheless, it is imperative (this being one of the first lessons) that the structure be systematically followed so the students, eventually, will be able to complete the process independently.
Given the fact that this lesson will be ongoing, it is important to create a purpose and provide the students with a general introduction of the following concepts that frame the unit. At a later point in the unit these will be the used as content objectives for each of the lessons.
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· Our cultural values shape how we feel about the objects that surround us
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· The cultural value of an object changes according to the times
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· Artifacts are expressions of a culture and at the same time a medium in the creation and reinforcement of current cultural values.
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· Objects can play multiple purposes (function versus form)
Due to the fact that this lesson will be replicated multiple times using a different artifact or period room, I would write, for everyone to see, at least one of the concepts in order to direct the class discussion.
Since one of the main didactic purposes of this unit is to assist my students to understand that objects and artifacts transmit cultural values and are representative of time and space, I will begin with such a concept.
In beginning with an object, the following questions will direct the discussion.
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· Where is the object located in relation to the rest of the objects?
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· Who made/designed the object?
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· What is its function?
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· For what purpose does the object exist?
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· What are the materials used in its construction?
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· Where does it come from?
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· Are there any variations in the make up?
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· Has the object transformed though time?
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· How has the object transformed through time?
It is essential that the teacher writes down the students’ comments so as to model the correct language structures and needed framework in order for the students to be able to apply this process to the independent study/research paper of a different room or artifact. Additionally, I recommend the use of visuals and the use of multicolor markers to bring attention to the different language structures that are being modeled.
If instead we begin by looking at a given room in a house, let’s say the bathroom, the following questions will serve as a guideline in directing the discussion.
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· What does the setting of the bathroom tell us?
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· What does the interior communicate: simplicity, cleanliness, privacy, etc.?
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· How does the bathroom compare to the setting and the surrounding rooms?
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· What are the functions that take place?
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· How have the different functions that we perform in the bathroom changed over time?
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· What are the objects and material culture related to these functions?
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· Are there any cultural differences in the functions or the makeup of the bathroom?
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· What do material objects in the bathroom tell us about our culture?
I chose the bathroom to begin this unit because it is likely to be a universal room and because it will captivate the students’ attention. We will come back to this activity over and over again. Eventually, once the students understand the structure, they will be asked to independently follow the same enquiry process as the one modeled with a room or an object of their own choosing.
In this follow up activity students observe changes over time by comparing and contrasting urban versus rural and present to past percentage of households with running water, indoor toilets, and bathing arrangements. Using the following two tables, students create three bar graphs representing the differences in 1940 of access to indoor plumbing between rural and urban areas.
Can you picture this? Create a timeline through pictures representing the changes taking place in the kitchen and the bathroom.
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1820, Open fire, water pump. 1860, Open fire, stove, running water, tub. 1900,
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Furnace, enhanced stove, icebox, tub, lavatory, gas lamps. 1938, Refrigerator, air
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conditioning, electric power, light, electric accessories, prefabricated kitchen and
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bathroom utensils.
What is material culture and why should we study it?
As a follow up, and always departing from the concepts that frame the unit, I want the students to identify and make their own one or a combination of definitions on material culture and why it is important that we study it. Once we have reviewed what we did the previous days and re-read the concepts the teacher can begin with a ‘think aloud’ about material culture:
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Almost everything that surrounds us that is inanimate (with the exception of natural
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objects such as a rock or a tree) is part of the material culture in our lives. These
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artifacts speak of what we hold dear or that value for one or another purpose. These
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objects, not only have a function but a value to us as human beings. In the case of
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the rock, the material culture is acquired when that rock becomes part of a wall, or
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a marker delineating where a property ends and the other begins. Same thing can be
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said of the tree, when the value that acquires is related to a function that is not that
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of the intended one.
Today we are going to look at the way that other people describe what material culture is and then I want you to come up with your own description. You may do so through a picture, as a story, through mime, etc. Here there are some of those definitions
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:
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Material culture entails the actions of manufacture and use, and the express theories
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about the production, use, and nature of material objects.
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Material culture is that segment of man’s physical environment, which is purposely
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shaped by him according to culturally dictated plans.
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Material culture is the ideas about objects external to the mind resulting from
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human behavior as well as ideas about human behavior required to manufacture
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these objects.
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The underlying premise is that objects made or modified by humans, consciously or
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unconsciously, directly or indirectly, reflect the belief patterns of individuals who
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made, commissioned, purchased, or used them, and, by extension, the belief
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patterns of the larger society to which they belonged.
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The study through artifacts of the beliefs- values, ideas, attitudes and assumptions-
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of a particular community or society at a given time.
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The study through artifacts (and other pertinent historical evidence) of the belief
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systems-the values, ideas, attitudes, and assumptions- of a particular community or
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society, usually across time.
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Activities and Assessments
The following activities can be used as whole class lessons, small group activities, or independent studies.
Looking through catalogs
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(Sears, Time, websites). Here are some descriptors of some homes: ‘truly magnificent’, ‘noble work’, ‘large in size’, grand in style’ Can you find other descriptor words in the ads? How would you classify these descriptions?
Looking for objects and how they changed over time according to the models, materials, and cost. Create a 10x5 matrix with the following headings for at least two period rooms: object, year, model, materials, and cost.
Creating a chronological/pictorial timeline of significant cultural objects (i.e. telephone). How has the phone changed over time? Who had telephones, and who has them now?
Do objects have gender? What about rooms in a house? In Spanish and some other languages they do have a gender. However, although English is a gender free language (i.e. lamp) what are some objects that have a gender identified to them? Why?
Sorting floor plans
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. After students study period rooms; including functions and cultural objects involved in those rooms, students locate the rooms within a house floor plan. Students then sort chronologically those floor plans. First sorting the period rooms and then the floor plans (i.e. bathroom, bedroom). What would a floor plan of the XXII century look like?
Period room design. What will be the functions and objects of a period room of the XXII century? What functions and object would be included?
Last word and extension activities
As an instructional coach and teacher of English Language Learners, it is important that these students are given ample opportunities to make use of the four language domains in any task or activity in which they partake. The following extensions are representative of activities where students are forced into using the domains of speaking, listening, reading, and writing within different content areas.
Language arts: Introduce the opening legend as a listening center, taping the story. As a written prompt, consider re-writing a story where the students integrate as part of the story descriptions of new objects of the new millennium.
Art: Students design their own objects and describe what these objects would tell about the culture of those who used them. Students make their own technical drawings and then create three-dimensional models. Finally, students build a diorama that includes those objects in the context of a room or space.
Science: Energy use across the time periods studied. Students brainstorm about the relationship between energy and number of rooms. How has the energy efficiency of some common kitchen utilities changed over time? Students will select one such utility (refrigerator, washing machine, drier, pots and pans, etc), create a matrix and then will graph the results across time and energy usage.
Games: Students create their own games related to some of the material culture that they studied as part of this unit. One such game consists of naming three objects and having the other person name some characteristic that they share in common. For example, what commonality do the following three items have? Or what characteristic do the following three items have in common? A chest, a staircase, and a hall-stand?
Categorize the following objects that could be found in a parlor during the Victorian period according to whether they are a symbol of culture (cosmopolitanism or gentility) or comfort (domesticity).
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Seashell, books, needlework, photographs of friend and family members, piano,
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parlor organs, silver tray, étagère (display shelf), bust of a well known artist.
Read the following quote and discuss how did the changes during industrialization affect manufacturing and the household.
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‘It is unmistakable tendency of modern and economic and industrial progress to
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take out of the home all the processes of manufacture…One thing after another has
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been taken, until only cooking and cleaning are left and neither of these…leaves
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results behind to reward the worker as did…spinning, weaving, and soap making
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.’
Compare and contrast. With the use of today’s technology it is very easy to integrate media in the form of pictures and sound. The following sample lesson looks to integrate the artwork of Thomas Hovenden
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and Norman Rockwell
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. Both artists choose the same theme
Breaking Home Ties
, depicting the same scene in two
different time periods. The students will compare and contrast both scenes looking for material culture.
Discuss elements in Edward Lamson Henry’s “The old clock on the stairs
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” and then read the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -
The old clock on the stairs
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. Students will follow the same process as discussed in the second lesson and apply it first to the picture and then to the poem.