Design a Classroom Activity About Cultural Openness
Education Assignment
Anthropology 101
Due in class, December 5, 2002
Design a Classroom Activity About Cultural Openness
After reading the two ethnographies – Kawagley on Yupiaq Eskimos and Vigil on Latino high-schoolers in Los Angeles – choose one as the basis for your project. Then,
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think about what you want your students to learn about the lives of the people in your book: how people form families; earn livelihoods; create identities; practice socialization and enculturation; create gender roles; use worldviews and rituals, … |
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select a theme or theme(s) to show the settings of people’s activities – their environments, their communities, their routines, their histories, … |
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use a variety of activities and media to convey your understanding of the holism and openness of culture: consider role-playing, photographs, posters, demonstrations, exhibits (for Yupiaq, think "fish"!), language use (vocabulary words or phrases and where they are used), crafts and technology, classroom management (work groups, sitting on the floor, telling or showing, indoor or outdoor…), reading and discussing ethnographies or films (for older students), planning and participation by community members or family members, … |
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check out a new website on culture, community, and classroom for more ideas. Click here. |
Projects must not be reports on the books. If you do quote (briefly) from the books, use quotation marks and footnotes to show your sources; if you quote from the textbook(s) or other sources, similarly cite each source and use quotation marks. Do (1) state your aims, (2) define your terms, (3) describe the parts of the activity and how they are pertinent to your aims. Be reflective and critical! Check out Smithsonian exhibits downtown (for example, "Americanos: Latino Life in the U.S.") or on-line (for Yup’ik, click on Yupik Masks). For other websites on the Yupiaq, click on Arctic History & Culture, Yupik Author, Native Foods, and Inuit Games. I encourage you to see the exhibits with classmates. Discuss what you are going to do. You may work together on joint projects; but each person should make a clear and solid contribution on which to report.
Use the Writing Center to get a critique of your essay. Call for an appointment.
Extra Credit for Education Majors: Visit and write one page about one of the following "Afrikid Programs" at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art: All in the Lecture Hall.
"Folktales: Celebrating Life" Sat, Oct. 5, Nov. 2, 2 p.m.
"African History for Young People" Sat, Oct. 19, 2 p.m. (Ages 4-8), or Sat, Nov. 16, 2 p.m. (Ages 6-12)
(rev. 11/04/02)
