Objective: Students will choose an object to which they have a strong sentimental attachment and create an adage or maxim to attach to it.
Teaching Plan: The day before, instruct students to bring an object to which they are highly attached and would be very sad if it went missing. For the sake of object analysis framework, encourage students to avoid photos.
Do Now: Show the trailer for Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo: https://youtu.be/x4Nrd68bhH0?si=m_fuxTO_OXVGDkFD. Ask the students if they are familiar with the show and what they understand her goals to be.
Students complete the Object Analysis Worksheet for their object (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W4vR7onh6Sn22lIutW94BcTMYPBMlwml6PwWhbUtA0A/edit?usp=sharing). Teachers may model this with their own object.
Then, students will sort through printed out/written adages and maxims. On a piece of poster paper, they will sort the adages into various categories that make sense to them. Teachers may suggest the following: adages about efficiency, spirituality, humor, family, productivity, love, loss, healing, etc.
Here is a beginning list of adages that may be used. All of these adages include some reference to objects. The purpose of these adages is to showcase various perspectives on how to use objects and display some sort of cultural value.
List of Adages - encourage students to add their own and/or include non-English ones as well
- A stitch in time saves nine
- Waste not, want not
- Hit the nail on the head
- Everything and the kitchen sink
- One man’s junk is another man’s treasure
- Throw a wrench in the works
- Sweep under the rug
- Have a lot on one's plate
- Wear your heart on your sleeve
- Born with a silver spoon in one's mouth
- Cash cow
- Kick the bucket
- Burn the candle at both ends
- Out of the frying pan into the fire
- Tener mala leche
- Importar un pepino
- Ser pan comido
Once students are done, as a group, teachers and students will discuss what these adages reveal about their cultural values.
Then, students will create a short adage that encapsulates why they value their object of choice.
