Title of Lesson: A River Mosaic#136

Key Words for Cross Reference:culture

National Standard: 10
The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics.

State Standard: 13

Teaching Level: E

Lesson Introduction:
Because the human world is made of many culture groups, the ways of life vary from one region and community to another.
The geographic definition of culture as a learned behavior of a people including belief systems, languages, institutions, organizations, material goods - food, clothing, building, tools, machines.
The definition of immigration is moving from one country to another.

Purpose/Objectives:
- to recognize a culture
- to understand that blending cultures creates a mosaic that greatly affects geography in both place and time
- to see the effect of immigration on a particular area

Materials: historical picture books showing life in the 1700's - present
supplies to create a Big Book

Procedure: Phase 1
1. Discuss what the immigrants in the 1800's brought with them for ideas, ways of doing things, and their approach to problems.

2. Explain culture as a distinctive way of life.

2. Look at timelines and children's historical books to see what things were part of the lives of the 1800 immigrants.
- where did they come from - countries and areas in a country
- what names are a result of their arrival - family names, place names
- what changed with the mixing of cultures (ex. daily chores, farming, family values)

3. Chart/list the ideas from the discussion on easel paper and display for students to see.
Phase 2
1. Create a Big Book and have it bound as a "professional" piece to place in a historical collection within the area. Everything about the big book should reflect cultural mosaics. The children will intuitively find a number of ways to share this.
2. Use small groups and vary the groups depending on ideas and skill levels
- make researched sketches of daily life
Extension: -involve mentors for art lessons, readers , use Internet and CD-ROM

- explore art supplies from various cultural sources such as ink, charcoal, water colors, pastels, oil paint, acrylics.
- copy different handwritings of the time.
- include lines of verse or story that children learned in school
Extension: -are they from religious cultural backgrounds or an ethnic background

- include country and city life changes involving the river. (recreation, food, travel, industry, housing)
- look for copies of real photos, samples of old fabrics

Evaluation/Assessment:
Completion of the Big Book with everyone's work interwoven.

Enrichment/Extension:
Write about, illustrate and research particular cultural events such as Jewish holidays, Christmas, Halloween or family customs of particular ethnic groups.

Reflection: How successful was this lesson? Did all students benefit? Were there any surprises? What might you do differently another time? Please note any changes that will make this lesson more effective and useful in the future and pass them along to the NHGA. We appreciate your comments.
Thank you.
The authors. *

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Original file name: 136rtf - converted on Tuesday, 20 October 1998, 20:55