MY CULTURE A LESSON FOR UPPER ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY STUDENTS Curricular Area: Social Studies Learner Goal: To give students a deeper understanding of their own culture and the conceptual tools for greater understanding of other cultures. Teacher Background: Our culture is the way we live each day. American culture is really a mix of many different cultures, and is therefore, not that easy to describe. Many of our foods, for example, are borrowed from Native cultures. Some of our music traditions, and popular words and phrases, come from African American people. We often find it difficult to describe our culture because we take our culture for granted and expect other people to have the same culture we have. This exercise helps students describe their culture. Some students may feel they are living in more than one culture, and this option is also quite possible. Activity: Culture is the way of life of a group of people. The “group” means people who are like you. Culture includes the language you speak, the food you eat, your ideas about right and wrong, your religion, the games you play, what you do for entertainment, and many other things. If you became friends with a student from a different culture, how would you explain your culture to a friend? Here is an activity that might get you started. My Name_________________________________ The Name of Your Culture_________________________________ How are People Named in Your Culture__________________________? __________________________________________________ How Many Names Do You Have? ________________________________________ Who gave you Your Name? ______________________________________________ What Does Your Name Mean? __________________________________________ Write two things About the People of Your Cultural Group. How are They Like You? 1. ___________________________________________________________ 2. ______________________________________________________________ Language: List Four Words in Your Culture’s Language. What do These Words Mean? WORD MEANING 1. ______________________________________________________________ 2. _______________________________________________________________ 3. _______________________________________________________________ 4. _______________________________________________________________ List Three Games or Sports Played by the People of Your Culture. 1.________________________________________________________ 2.________________________________________________________ 3.________________________________________________________ List Five Foods that are Commonly Eaten by the People of your Culture. Do These Foods Originate in Your Culture? TYPE OF FOOD ORIGIN IF KNOWN 1. ______________________________ _______________________________ 2. ______________________________ ________________________________ 3. _____________________________ _________________________________ 4. _______________________________ ___________________________________ 5. _______________________________ ___________________________________ List five Items of Clothing Commonly Worn by the People of Your Group. After Each Item listed indicate Whether this is an Item Worn by Females, Males or Both. ITEM OF CLOTHING WORN BY 1.________________________ ____________________________ 2. ___________________________ _________________________________ 3. __________________________ _________________________________ 4. _____________________________ ___________________________ 5. _____________________________ ___________________________ Name Four Holidays that are celebrated by the People of Your Culture. What do you do to Celebrate Each of These Holidays? HOLIDAY HOW YOU CELEBRATE 1._______________________ ________________________________ 2. _______________________ _________________________________ 3. _________________________ ___________________________________ 4. __________________________ _____________________________________ List two values (ideas about how people should behave) that are Shared by the People of your Culture 1._________________________ 2.________________________________________ 1. Human Resources Should Include: Name, address, telephone/e-mail address, and area of expertise 2. Development Steps, Preparing Materials and Planning the Training Session a. Develop agenda/evaluation forms. b. Identify human/material resources to conduct training. These suggested resources will help make the session more effective. • Overhead projector • VCR and monitor • Flip chart and markers • Extension cord • Power point exhibits----to be used as overhead transparencies, slides, or handouts. • Index cards • Training curriculum • Handouts • Workshop Evaluation Forms (See Resources Section) c. Coordinate with MPS Human Resources and appropriate union officials to Select training dates; review/approve topics and evaluation formats. d. Make arrangements with MPS/local colleges and universities for Professional development credit. e. Finalize agenda. f. Develop/disseminate promotional materials g. Do before each training session: Become familiar with the materials in the trainer’s manual and participant handouts. Visit the presentation site prior to the training and review the room set up to determine where you will stand, where the participants will sit and where the projector, screen and computer will be placed. h. Conduct training session/collect evaluations i. Obtain information from participants. On a flip chart, make a list of what the participants want to learn about the topic. At the end of the session, review the list. j. Review evaluations/prepare written report WORKSHOP EVALUATION 1. How did you hear about this workshop? 2. Did the workshop meet your expectations? If so why? If not why? 3. Would you recommend a similar workshop to other educators? 4. What other workshops would you like to see offered in your area? 5. What were the strengths of the workshop? 6. What were the weaknesses of the workshop? TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Nature of Culture 2. Community of Native Students 3. Tribal Sovereignty in the Classroom 4. MN Dakota and Ojibwe Historical and Cultural Traditions 5. Native Civilizations of Americas/ Discoveries and Contributions 6. Native Families 7. Teacher/Native Student Learning 8. Native Art, Music, and Dance 9. Native Storytelling 10. Contemporary Native Literature HOW TURTLE FLEW SOUTH IN WINTER A STORY FROM THE DAKOTA NATION It was that time of year when the leaves start to fall from the aspens. Turtle was walking around when he saw many birds gathering together in the trees. They were making lots of noise and Turtle was curious. “Hay” Turtle said, “What is happening?” “Don’t you know?” the birds said, “We are getting ready to fly south for the winter>” “Why are you going to do that?” said Turtle. “Don’t you know anything?” the birds said. “Soon it’s going to be very cold here and the snow will fall. There won’t be much food to eat. Down south it will be warm. Summer lives there all the time and there’s plenty of food”. As soon as they mentioned food, Turtle became even more interested. “Can I come with you?” he said. “You have to fly to go south”, said the birds, “You’re a turtle and you can’t fly”. But Turtle would not give up. “Isn’t there some way you could take me along?” He begged and pleaded. Finally the birds agreed just to get him to stop asking. “Look here”, said the birds, “can you hold onto a stick hard with your mouth?” “That’s no problem at all”, Turtle said. “Once I grab onto something no one can make me let go until I am ready.” “Good” said the birds. “Then you hold on hard to this stick. These two birds here will each grab one end of it in their claws. That way they can carry you along. But remember, you have to keep your mouth shut”, “That’s easy”, said Turtle. “Now let’s go south where Summer keeps all the food.” Turtle grabbed onto the middle of the stick and the two big birds came and grabbed each end. They flapped their wings and lifted Turtle off the ground. Soon they were high in the sky and headed toward the south. Turtle had never been so high off the ground but he liked . He could look down and see how small everything looked. But then, he began to wonder where they were. He wanted to ask the two birds who were carrying him, but he couldn’t talk with his mouth closed. Turtle rolled his eyes. But the two birds just kept on flying. Then turtle tried waving his leg at them, but they acted as if they didn’t even notice. Now Turtle was getting upset. If they were going to take him south, then the least they could do was tell him where they were! “Mmmph”, Turtle said, trying to get their attention. It didn’t work. Finally Turtle lost his temper. “Why don’t you listen to---------“ but that was all he said, for as soon as he opened his mouth to speak, he had to let go of the stick and he started to fall. Down and down he fell, a long, long way. He was so frightened he pulled his leg and his head in to protect himself. When he hit the ground he hit so hard that his shell cracked. He ached so much that he crawled into a nearby pond, swam to the bottom, and dug into the mud to get as far away from the sky as he possibly could. Then he fell asleep and he slept all through the winter and didn’t wake up until spring. So it is that today, only birds fly south to the land where Summer lives while turtles, who all have cracked shells now, sleep through the winter. PIE/MOA Meeting Minutes April 11, 2008 Updates • LANGUAGE IMMERSION: Representatives from the Alliance of Early Childhood Educators provided update on the language immersion program they sponsor for