| Overview:
Students often respond better to a subject when they can make a personal connection with it. With the growing number of Latino students in the classroom, making references to icons in their culture can facilitate new learning. When teaching about any region, the geography is often the starting point and setting it up in a significant way can help keep the students’ attention throughout the unit. Prior Knowledge:
•Internet Use
•Knowledge of Longitude and Latitude .Lesson Objectives:
Students will analyze the impact that geography has on the development of culture.
Opening Activity:
Activity 1 LOCATE VOLCANOES ON THE PACIFIC RING OF FIRE
Have students look up the latitude and longitude of 15 volcanoes on the Pacific Rim of Fire. Students can plot them either on their own student map, or use push pins to place them on the large wall map. Have students answer the following questions in a quick write:
In what pattern do these volcanoes seem to exist? (in a circular, round form.)
What do you think is the cause of this pattern? (Plate tectonics.)
Teachers can then explain why this area is called the Pacific Rim of Fire, and how several volcanoes located in this ring have had an impact on the development of their respective cultures.
Activity 2 WHAT IS CULTURE?
The American Heritage Dictionary defines culture as “the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.” In other words, culture is learned and is not inherent or genetic within us. Students can learn to discern between culture and genetics by doing an activity about culture. Students work in groups to decide whether the following scenarios reflect a cultural or genetic trait: •Eating cereal and milk for breakfast (cultural)
• Shaking hands as a greeting (cultural)
•Crying when sad (genetic)
•Applauding to show appreciation (cultural)
• A mother breast feeding her newborn (genetic)
•The heart as a symbol of love (cultural)
Having gained this understanding, students will examine the role of cultural icons. The Oxford English Dictionary defines an icon as “a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol, especially of a culture or movement; a person, institution, etc., considered worthy of admiration or respect." Students will learn in the next activity that many times, the geography of a region rises to the status of a cultural icon, and it can tell much about the culture it represents. .Activity 3 COMPARING AND CONTRASTING LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES
Students will read legends of both Fuji and Popocateptl. Before the reading, it may be helpful to review the elements of legends:
•Characters
•Setting
•Conflict
•Plot
•Resolution
•An explanation of an aspect of nature or a human action
•A metamorphosis
As students read these legends, have them take notes on the legend chart.
The Legend of Mt. Fuji
(womensearlyart.net)
The Legend of Popocateptl by Luz Nuncio Shick , Translated by Karen Sunde
A long time ago, in the great city of Teotihuacán, there was a Toltec king who had a very beautiful daughter. This princess’s hair was as black and smooth as a winter night, her eyes as large and dark as the water of a secret lake, and her smile so beautiful that people said the sun looked over the mountains each morning just to be the first to see her.
Many rich and famous princes from all over the Toltec domain came to court the princess, but she didn’t fall in love with any of them. The king, who wanted his daughter to marry a rich and well-positioned man in Toltec society, became impatient. At times he would ask the princess if one or another of her suitors appealed to her, hoping for a positive answer. "I don’t know," answered the girl. " I only know that my husband must be someone whom I will love at first sight and forever."
One day, a Chichimecan prince arrived in the city. The Chichimecas didn’t have as splendid a civilization as the Toltecs. They lived from hunting and fishing in the mountains. The Toltecs thought that the Chichimecas lived like dogs and laughed at them.
This Chichimecan prince came to visit the great market of Teotihuacán, where vendors sold beautiful objects of gold, ropes of brilliant colors, exotic animals and many other valuable objects. The same day, the Toltec princess was in the market, buying baskets, cloth and carpets for the palace. It happened that, accidentally, among all the people and noise of the market, the prince and princess found one another. Without a word from the prince, the prince and princess fell in love forever as soon as they saw each other.
They both knew very well that their love was forbidden. Without a doubt, each should not marry just anyone of their city and their class—rather, the Toltec princess should marry a Toltec prince, and the Chichimeca prince should marry a Chichimeca princess. The women who accompanied the princess realized what had happened and quickly returned the princess to the palace. The prince also returned to his palace in the mountains. He tried to forget the beautiful princess, but he could not.
After a time, the prince decided to return to Teotihuacán, to ask for the princess’s hand. One day, he dressed in his finest clothes and went to the palace of the Toltec king. Here, he ordered his ministers to speak with the king, asking that the princess become his wife. When he heard the prince’s ministers make this proposal, the king trembled with fury and shouted, "My daughter will only marry a Toltec prince, not a Chichimecan who lives in the mountains like an animal!"
When the princess heard this, she felt very sad. She had a great deal of respect for her papá, but knew that she would not be able to live without the love of the Chichimecan prince. She left the palace and met the prince to tell him that she wanted to marry him. They left for the mountains and married that night.
The following day, the princess returned to Teotihuacán and told her father that she was now the wife of the Chichimecan prince. She pleaded with her father to forgive and understand her. But, the king was furious. "How can you do this to me?" he asked his daughter. "Leave and never return! And, you will take nothing Toltecan, neither food nor goods; no one will give you anything! I forbid it!"
The same thing happened to the prince when he returned to his palace. His father shouted, "You married a Toltec? You are not my son! You are not Chichimecan! Don’t ever ask any help from any Chichimecan!"
With very sad hearts, the prince and princess reunited and began to look for a place to live in the mountains. No one would give them help or a place to rest and take refuge from the cold winds. They ate only herbs and fruits because the prince had nothing to hunt or fish with. Little by little, the lovers were dying.
One long and very cold night, the prince realized that soon they both would die. They were in a small valley, just able to see the great city of Teotihuacán. The princess thought about her home, and the prince looked at her sadly and lovingly, knowing what she was thinking.
"My beautiful princess," he said, "soon we are going to die. We are going to separate in this world so we can be together forever in the other. Sleep in my arms tonight one last time. In the morning, you will go to a low mountain looking over your city, and I will go to a higher mountain that also looks over your city. There we will rest; there I will care for you always; there our spirits will be only one spirit.
On the following day, the two separated, and each began to climb a mountain. The princess climbed the mountain Iztaccíhuatl, and the prince climbed the mountain Popocatépetl. When the princess arrived at the top of the mountain, she slept, and the snow covered her. The prince knelt down, looking at his princess, and the snow also covered him.
To this day, we see the prince and princess in the peaks Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl. At times there are great rumblings from within Popocatépetl. It is the prince, crying for his princess.
For more examples of volcano legends go to:
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/kids/legends.html
Students will compare and contrast the legends of Mt. Fuji and Popocateptl using the volcano legends chart. In cooperative groups, students will discuss the main differences between both legends, and prepare a brief presentation of their finding s for the class. Students can share their findings group per group, but each group must try to name an original finding not previously mentioned. Performance Task Assessment: Impact of Volcanoes on Society
Using the legends of both volcanoes, students will search the web for current events related to the volcanoes. Sources can include: • Newspaper articles (The Japan Times or The Guadalajara Reporter)
•Festivals or Events correlating to the volcanoes
•Volcanic Activity or evacuations
•References in literature or poetry
• Idioms or proverbs containing references to volcanoes
•Student or teacher websites with references to the volcano
Students must then formulate a judgment about how profound the impact of this volcano is on its society, and whether it is considered an icon. This is an open-ended task, as making an accurate and universally agreed conclusion is not the point. Students can make their presentations orally, written, graphically, or technologically. The focus should be on each student reaching their own original conclusion, and making assertions and inferences based on the evidence they have gathered.
As an extension activity, students can name a cultural icon in their world and explain how it reflects their community’s beliefs or ideas. Rubric: |
 | Grade: 6 Course: Ancient Civilizations California Content Standards Addressed History/Social Science Standards
Comparative civilizations.
This approach invites students to investigate the histories of major civilizations one after another. A single civilization may be studied over a relatively long period of time, and ideas and institutions of different civilizations may be compared.
Civilizations in global context.
This conceptualization strikes a balance between the study of particular civilizations and attention to developments resulting from interactions among societies.
Inter regional history
Students investigate in comparative perspective events occurring in different parts of the world at the same time, as well as developments that involve peoples of different languages and cultural traditions in shared experience. This approach includes study of particular societies and civilizations but gives special attention to larger fields of human interaction, such as the Indian Ocean basin, the “Pacific rim,” or even the world as a whole.
Thematic history.
Here students identify and explore particular historical issues or problems over determined periods of time. This approach allows students to explore a single issue in great depth, often one that has contemporary relevance. . . . |
