Odd Man Out

What is an American?

We're spending a decent amount of time studying cultures in my class right now.  Our social studies department gives 8-10 examples of "ingredients" of culture.  For instance, here are the ones I use:

• Food
• Dress
• Language
• Religion
• Government
• The Arts
• Customs
• Ethnicity
• Values
• Standard of Living

There are more, of course.  (Sports, history, architecture, etc...)  And perhaps some don't belong - is government an ingredient/part of culture or is it something that influences/creates culture: like climate or weather?

Either way, it is perhaps important to note "odd man out."  I feel like this is especially true in America.

When I went to China or when I lived in Haiti, it was evident early on that I was a minority ethnically.  I remember times in Haiti where people would want to touch my hair because they'd never seen hair like mine before.  (My brother got this even more than me because his hair wasn't just blond when he was a kid, it was white.  Our Haitian friends called him, "Blanc Blanc.")  In China people snuck pictures of us, and there were multiple occasions where people asked to take pictures with us, or especially with our daughter because they'd never seen a white person in the flesh before.

We weren't from those cultures, and it was evident.  Our language, our mannerisms, our food preferences...  Most everything screamed, "FOREIGNER!" even though we were trying to embrace the culture we were in.

That said, we can be a part of a culture, and still be the "odd man out."  For instance, although the Han Chinese make up 92% of the Chinese population, there are other ethnic groups that are also Chinese.  And those other ethnic groups are Chinese as well.

I'm pausing to note that there is a difference between culture and sub-culture.  And I'm also acknowledging that within nations there are often multiple cultures.  But lets not get distracted.

There are times you can be part of a culture - completely part of a culture - and still not embrace certain ingredients of that culture.

I believe this to be especially true in America.  In fact, I believe one of America's cultural traits to be diversity.  Even though the majority religion in America is Christianity, there are non-Christians who are part of America's culture.  Even though American cultural food includes McDonalds, there are some who enjoy Pad Thai.  America's ethnicity has always been diverse - more so now that ever.

I have a confession to make: I don't like baseball.  I struggle to watch games when I'm with friends who understand the intricacies of the game.  And I know that baseball is American culture.  It's America's Pastime.   

But I'm still American.  And I still embrace American culture.  But when it comes to baseball, I'm the "odd man out."

Students can earn extra credit by reading and discussing the blog with an adult.  In order to prove that they've read and discussed the blog, they need to write down one example (other than baseball) of how someone can be an American, but be the "odd man out" with certain cultural ingredients.

The Hunger Games and Culture and Goat Cheese

On Monday, I had all the students in the computer lab.  They were looking for examples of culture in the book.  They had to list the ingredient of culture, page number, and give a quote.

First hour found more than any other class, so I thought I'd give them a little treat.

The book mentions goat cheese quite a few times.  (One of the characters, Prim, owns a goat.)

One of the ingredients of culture is food.  And, although I bought the goat cheese at Martins - which is part of our own culture - many of my students had never tried it before.  So, this morning I brought it in for my first hour class to try.

Here's one of the quotes from the book, "Gale spreads the bread slices with the soft goat cheese..."  So, I got them bread as well.  As expected, some students liked it, and some didn't.

True story:  before I left for a year on my own in Croatia, my father would sit me down and have me try random foods that I'd never tried before.  I was practicing being polite, and respectful of what the someone from an other culture had prepared for me.  Maybe it wasn't what I was accustomed to, but I knew to be appreciative of their generosity.  Hopefully I helped pass that mentality on to my students.

As we've been working with culture, I had students draw pictures of each ingredient.  Here are 10.  Each class is represented.  In order to get credit for reading and discussing this blog with an adult, look at the pictures and see if you can determine which ingredient of culture it's supposed to represent.  When you have them listed, have the adult you've read and discussed the blog with sign your paper.

Turn it in Monday in the extra credit spot.  (Also, don't forget the "Made in _______" tags that you may also bring in for extra credit.)  Here are the pictures:

Intro to Cultures

We started in on the ingredients of culture today.  The bellwork question asked about American culture.  What are some things that make Americans who they are?  What do Americans like to do?  What do they speak, eat, play, wear?  What are some qualities they have, and what do they value?

There were a lot of questions along those lines.  I was impressed with the student responses.  Ultimately, we got the idea that America is extremely diverse - and yet we have a distinct culture that we can identify as "American."

I brought up the point that America is interesting in that anybody can become an American after 5 years.  If they choose citizenship, they will be as American as I am.  As American as my mother and father.  It's not the same as if I went to China, or Eritrea.  I could live there 20 years and not be "as Chinese" or "as Eritrean" as my neighbor.

We started the discussion with food - we'll go through a list of 10 ingredients of culture...  The list is definitely not exhaustive.

We also discussed ethnocentrism - which is the belief that your culture is superior to or better than other cultures.  We discussed it in regard to food, but of course, it goes deeper than that.

If you want the extra credit points for reading and discussing the blog with an adult, here are some questions I'd like you to discuss with them: what does the picture at the top of today's blog mean?  What is the point?  Give an example of something American culture took (or borrowed) from another culture and made it into it's own.

Adults, please remember that by signing the half sheet of paper, you're saying that you really did discuss the blog.  Please don't just sign the paper.  (Even if you only discuss it for 5 minutes.)

In Language Arts you probably learned about the Simple 6.  (If you haven't, you will.)  One of the Simple 6 is "challenging vocabulary."  On a scrap piece of paper, I want you to write down 3 challenging vocabulary words from this post, along with their definitions.  (Yes, you may have to look them up, but hey... you're online right now.  Just google search define:__________________ and the definition should come up.)  When you're done, have the adult you read the blog with sign the paper.

Have a great weekend.

Cultural Borrowing?

Continuing on with the theme of cultures, we read about cultural borrowing and cultural diffusion today.  The bellwork asked for examples of another culture that have made their way into our culture.

Some classes noted that Native Americans probably didn't speak too much English prior to 1492.  Or 1592.  Or 1692.

I tried to differentiate between Native American culture and present-day American culture, but I'm sure some of that was lost.

We went over the quiz.  I was surprised how many students got tripped up over the map section.  You may want to ask them what was different about it, and why it was different.

Here's the real question though: what does borrowing mean?  If you borrow something, what does that imply?

Yet, cultural borrowing is when something from one culture makes its way to another culture: i.e. pizza coming from Italy, Spanish moving in from South America and Mexico, K-Pop arriving en force within the past couple of weeks.  Are these cultures expecting it back?  Is Pizza Hut going to have to stop selling pizza in 2015?

As always, if you want extra credit, read and discuss the blog with an adult.  Maybe come up with a better way of phrasing "cultural borrowing."  Then, when you're done, find a scrap piece of paper and write down your favorite piece of "borrowed culture" that's made its way to America, and why it's your favorite.  Then have the adult that you discussed the blog with sign the paper.

Hunger Games Quotes II: Ingredients of Culture

We've started discussing culture - what is it that makes a culture a culture?  What are the ingredients?

There are many ingredients of culture.  Far more than the 10 I give.  But, I give 10.

• language
• government
• values
• ethnicity
• arts
• food
• dress
• customs
• standard of living
• religion

I've got a bulletin board in the back of my room showing this:

We've finished up taking the notes defining and giving examples for each of the ingredients.  Tomorrow they're going to draw pictures for each ingredient.  Today, for bellwork, they had more quotes from The Hunger Games.  They had to determine which ingredient of culture matched the quote.  Here they are:

Quote 1:  "Besides, the Capitol accent is so affected, almost anything sounds funny in it."  p. 8

(You might remember that the same quote was used on Monday as an example of ethnocentrism.  As ethnocentrism is not an ingredient of culture, that cannot be the answer today.)

Quote 2:  "I notice her blouse has pulled out of her skirt in the back again..."  p. 15

Quote 3:  "At first one, then another, then almost every member of the crowd touches the three middle fingers of their left hand to their lips and holds it out to me.  It is an old and rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals.  It means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love."  -p. 24

Quote 4: "He could be my brother.  Straight black hair, olive skin, we even have the same gray eyes."  p.8

Quote 5:  "...(we) eat the rough bread made from the tessera grain."  p. 16  (This one fits 2 ingredients) 

If students want extra credit, they were supposed to read and discuss this post with an adult.  If they've done that, quiz the adult.  See how many ingredients they get right.  No pressure (as they weren't in class.)

When you're finished, write how it went on a scrap of paper.  Have the adult you read and discussed with sign the paper.  Turn it in tomorrow.  Make sure your name, date, and hour are on it.

See you soon.

Culture: Values

We have been discussing culture, and it's ingredients in here the past several days.  I give students 10 ingredients I want them to know.  They're on a bulletin board in the back of my room:

Pretty sweet, right?

Some of the ingredients are easy to understand: food, dress, language.  Others get more complicated: government, religion, ethnicity.

And certainly there are more than 10 ingredients of culture.  What about holidays?  Where do they fit?  Sports?  Should government be on there?  Or is that something that influences our culture - like geography?  I remember a time I boarded a plane at JFK International Airport in NYC.  It was snowing so hard.  I was all bundled up.  We were lucky to even make it to the airport.  And we got of the plane in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  101°.  Maybe geography should be up there...

One that trips up students every year, though, is values.  The definition I give is, "something a culture esteems as good or worthy.  Ideals they try to live up to."  That's an admittedly weak definition.

Students continually confuse values and valuables.  I just had students draw pictures for each of the ingredients of culture.  Every year I have students draw diamonds, or gold earrings for values.  ...Not what we're looking for.

So, I told students values are what you want your kids to become when they grow up.  No parent tells their kid, "today at school, I want you to be as lazy as possible.  Try to sleep in every class if you can.  We want you to live with us until you're 40."  Or "Make sure to be a bully today, honey.  Pull a kid's hair, if you get a chance.  Hopefully you'll get suspended."

We want our kids to be hard workers, honest, helpful, brave.  Trustworthy, empathetic but not whiny, genuine.  Those are values.

Students may receive extra credit if they read and discuss this blog post with an adult.  To prove that they read and discussed it, please write 5 values that the adult wants to instill in the student.  Have the adult sign the paper - proving they read and discussed.  Then, make sure the student's name, date, and hour are on it.  Turn it in tomorrow in the extra credit tray.

A Cultural Friday

As the title suggests, today is Friday, and we are back into culture!

This is Mr. Helmuth posting today; here is what we covered in class.

The bellwork asked us to write a short story using five of the ten ingredients of culture. The story could portray a real event, or it could be made up.

The important thing to remember for this assignment was that we wanted to give examples of the ingredients, and not just say which ingredient we were using.

Following the bellwork, we FINALLY finished off the culture notes, and jumped into a new assignment.

For this, the students were required to draw pictures of each of the ten ingredients of culture (food, government, religion, standard of living, language, values, arts, dress, customs, and ethnicity) without using words.

Due to our easy going nature, Mr. Habecker and I decided not to have the class complete this assignment as homework, so we will continue to work on it next week.

For the extra credit this weekend, tell us a story of something you did this weekend using at least 5 of the ten ingredients of culture,  underlining the ingredients as you go. After reading the blog with an adult, have them sign the paper, put your name, date, and hour on it, and turn it in Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Culture and Cake

After a long weekend, its nice to see everyone back and wide awake today! Mr. Helmuth here with another guest blog post.

Today in class we began with a memory map, which asked us to draw the world and label the continents and oceans. The goal of this assignment was to see how fast we could label these items, and not worrying so much about our drawing skills.

Following the map, we were introduced to the cake that makes our world so different: Culture!

We managed to touch on a few aspects of culture, which we compared to a cake. Similar to a recipe, culture requires ten BIG ingredients: food, customs, religion, standard of living, dress, arts, values, language, government, and ethnicity. 

And remember, while these ingredients are important, there are many other ingredients that can be added for extra flavor. We named history, education, and "swagger" as other possible ingredients. 

For the extra credit tonight, discuss with a parent an aspect of your family's culture, write down what they say, have them sign it, and turn it in tomorrow. 

Ingredients of Culture Pictures (2015)

It's been a little while since students submitted their ingredients of culture pictures, but I wanted to put a couple up.  If you remember, culture is everything that makes a society unique.  It's their way of life.

I gave students 10 ingredients of culture.  Certainly there are more.  Some people might argue that a few of the ones I have listed don't belong.  Here they are again:

• government
• language
• values
• ethnicity
• food
• dress
• the arts
• customs
• standard of living
• religion

I'm going to post 10 pictures students drew.  Each picture represents a different ingredient of culture.  All of my classes are represented in the pictures.

In order to get credit for reading and discussing the blog today, you have to look through the pictures with an adult, and write down what you think each one stands for.  Have the adult sign the paper.  Turn it in tomorrow.

Busy, Busy Days

It's been pretty busy around here.  Grades continue to be updated.  If I were you, I would double-check them to make sure they're accurate.  If there's anything you need to turn in, well...  Get it turned in.

I'm hoping to post some of the ingredients of culture pictures here on the blog, but I might not get that done for a day or two.  We're still studying culture, but we're mixing it with economics.  We're working our way toward globalization.

Today students reviewed the ingredients of culture by writing a short story which included each ingredient.

After that, we got new seats.

Then, they looked in The Hunger Games and found examples of some of the things we've been studying.

They had to find:

• standard of living (3 examples)
• economies
• traditional (1)
• market(1)
• command(1)
• ethnocentrism (1)
• ingredients of culture
• food (1)
• dress (1)
• religion (1)
• customs (1)
• ethnicity (1)
• values (1)
• the arts (1)
• government (1)
• language (1)
• standard of living (already listed above)

I think it went pretty well.

Students can get extra credit by reading and discussing this blog with an adult.  After you've read and discussed it, write a sentence about your discussion.  Have the adult you read with sign the paper.  Make sure your name, date, and hour are on it.  Turn it in tomorrow.

Culture

We introduced culture today, and went over some of the ingredients that go into making a culture.  Ethnicity, dress, language, customs, etc...

We came up with definitions and examples for each, and we discussed stereotyping.

I hope everyone got the concept that when viewing a culture, you have to stereotype.  You have to generalize.  And just because we all break the stereotypes in some way, that doesn't mean we're "un-American."

For instance, we may list hot dogs and popcorn as American foods, but we should still recognize that there are people in America who do not like hot dogs or popcorn.

At any rate, there's no homework for tonight.  However, students should bring their colored pencils tomorrow.  (Along with what they generally bring...)

If you want extra credit for reading and discussing the blog today, you should read and discuss the blog with an adult.  Then, on a sheet of scrap paper write the phrase: "I'll take something to believe: something with long sleeves because it's unpredictable."  Then have the adult you read the blog with sign the paper.

Juxtapositions: The Hunger Games and Banksy

Juxtaposition:  The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.


Throughout The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins has juxtaposed the life of the Capitol with that of Katniss and District 12.  We see it in the clothes, the food, the dress, the customs, the arts; every aspect or ingredient of their culture seems to be placed side-by-side for our comparison.

It should be obvious to readers that she is doing it intentionally.  And, she does it whether Katniss is living at home in District 12, or not.

Here is a paragraph from the chapter we just read today: chapter 26.

     "I slump down on the floor, my face against the door, staring uncomprehendingly at the crystal glass in my hand.  Icy cold, filled with orange juice, a straw with a frilly white collar.  How wrong it looks in my bloody, filthy hand with its dirt-caked nails and scars.  My mouth waters at the smell, but I place it carefully on the floor, not trusting anything so clean and pretty." (p. 347)


The difference between these two worlds is intentionally jarring, meant to illustrate the "let them eat cake" attitude of the Capitol.  (For the record, Marie Antoinette is supposed to have said this, but there's little evidence to support that.)

Of course, after having read the article, "The Real Cost of Clothes" or watching "The Deadly Cost of Fashion" or reading the article "21st Century Slaves" this juxtaposition hits a little harder.  It is impossible to read The Hunger Games after that and not put our own culture into it.

I'm here in my fancy classroom, with clothes, and shoes, and posters on the wall.  Coffee I can have at essentially the push of a button.  A computer in front of me that connects to a SMARTboard on the wall.  Both of which are connected to the internet that connects to computers all over the world.  I don't have to worry about the electricity going out, or not having clean water.


Juxtapose that against the life of a 7 year old child working 17 hour shifts 7 days a week.  (As mentioned in the Junior Scholastic Article on slavery.)

It's evident that The Hunger Games is a warning for all of us.

Art (an ingredient of culture) reflects the culture.   The message we find here in this book, we find in other pieces of art as well.  Banksy is one of the kings of unexpected contrast, and he (or she... or they) is giving the same message:

Collins also does this to show us the horrors of the Capitol, and perhaps what we could become if we're not careful.

     "When I manage to pull my eyes away from the flickering fabric, I'm in for something of a shock.  My hair's loose, held back by a simple hairband.  The makeup rounds and fills out the sharp angles of my face.  A clear polish coats my nails.  The sleeveless dress is gathered at my ribs, not my waist, largely eliminating any help the padding would have given my figure.  The hem falls just to my knees.  Without heels, you can see my true stature.  I look, very simply, like a girl.  A young one.  Fourteen at the most.  Innocent.  Harmless.  Yes, it is shocking that Cinna has pulled this off when you remember I've just won the games."  (p. 355)

In case you didn't catch it, Cinna is using a juxtaposition here as well.  He is showing the Capitol what Katniss really is: a young girl.  The Capitol, for entertainment, sees her as a Tribute; a killer.  Cinna, by dressing her this way shows that she's no monster, or rather it draws attention to the fact that now she is - because the Capitol made her so.  That being the case, those living in the Capitol must ask themselves who the true monsters are.

And as a reader of the book, and viewer of the arts, we must ask ourselves, who do we represent, and what should our reaction be?

If you're a student and you read and discussed this with an adult, write a couple sentences in response to the post.  What did you think?  Did you agree with it or not?  What did the adult think?  What parts did you agree with?  What parts didn't you agree with? 

Have the adult sign the paper when you're done.

Turn it in tomorrow.  (Make sure your name, date, and hour are on the paper.  For real... double check this.)

Explaining the Walk/ Finishing Up

Mr. Helmuth went over the stations of the 9/11 Gallery Walk today.  Surreal teaching moment: I had approximately 10 students who were born before the attacks.

Another surreal moment: Mr. Helmuth was in 3rd grade.  (No offense Mr. Helmuth... I'm sure you couldn't help it...)

He did a great job of breaking down the pictures.  Students often struggle with symbolism and intentional ambiguity.  Mr. Helmuth broke it all down for us though.

After we discussed each of the stations, we finished our culture notes.  (Maybe you should tell the person you're reading this with about one or two of the stations...)

The ingredients of culture are going to tie into everything we do for the rest of the year, so it's important that our students both know them, and explain their significance to culture.


It's a short blog today.  You're welcome.  If you want extra credit, you are supposed to have read and discussed the blog with an adult.  If you did that, write as many of the ingredients of culture as you can remember on a piece of paper.  Then, have the adult you read and discussed the blog with sign the paper.

Make sure your name, date and hour are on it, then place it in the "extra credit tray" tomorrow.

See you then.

Making a Better Cultural Cake

On Friday, we started looking at the ingredients of culture.  I think we made it as far as food, dress and language.  Today we made it a little farther, getting through religion, the arts, and customs.  So, I guess that puts us up to 6 of the 10 I list for class.

I entitled this post, "Making a Better Cake" because if you don't have enough of the correct ingredients, the cake is probably not going to be that good.  Our view of culture is expanding. 

Most importantly, we studied ethnocentrism in a little more detail.  Ethnocentrism is not limited to racism.  Any of the ingredients of culture can be subject to prejudice.  Generally speaking, any time we are offended, it can be tied to our culture.

In order to get the extra credit for reading and discussing the blog today, students should discuss the following questions with the adult they read it with:

• How important is it to be culturally sensitive?  Why?
• Has negative ethnocentrism ever been directed at you?
• Have you ever been ethnocentric?
• What is the difference between showing preference and being ethnocentric?  (For instance, someone might prefer Indian food over French food - does that make them ethnocentric?)

When you're done, write 3 sentences/ thoughts from your discussion on a scrap of paper.  Have the adult sign the paper.  Put it in the extra credit tray tomorrow.

A Yarn About Globalization

My colleague/ student teacher came up with a great activity, which he taught in class yesterday.

You may be aware that we've been discussing what we mean by "culture."  And we've discussed some of the various aspects and ingredients that go into making a culture.  ...What is it that gives a group of people a collective identity?

Well, Mr. Helmuth took it to the next level - one culture interacting with another culture.  If you're an adult, you may recognize this as globalization.  If you're one of my students visiting the blog... you should definitely recognize this as globalization, since we just had a lesson on it.

Mr. Helmuth split the class into groups of countries.  Each country had a major export listed.  Bangladesh exported clothing, Saudi Arabia exported oil, etc...  He then took a ball of yarn, and started in one group.  That group had to determine what it wanted.  It passed the yarn to another group - so if it wanted grain, it would pass the yarn to the United States, establishing a trade partnership.

Because different cultures often speak different languages, and have various other cultural obstacles to overcome, speaking at all was not allowed in this activity.  ...Ok... this also made the activity easier to control.  If the students broke the rules and spoke, Mr. Helmuth came around with a pair of scissors and cut the yarn... stupid break-down in trade.  Sometimes he was the U.N. imposing sanctions.  Bravo, Helmuth!

By the end, an elaborate web of trade was woven all around the classroom:

This activity introduced many topics that could come up later in the year, and which may be used as a reference point later - even if we didn't explicitly discuss it yesterday.  (For instance, this illustrates the idea of economic interdependence, quite well - but we didn't give that term yet.)

If you want the extra credit, you were supposed to read and discuss the blog with an adult.  To prove that you did that, go to google, and type "Define interdependence."  Then, find a scrap of paper and write the first sentence of the definition.  Have the adult you discussed the blog with sign the paper.  If you want to discuss it further, go ahead.  But if you'd rather watch football or something, go ahead.  Thanks for stopping by. 

Culture to Standard of Living to Economy to Human Capital

There is no perfect path to teaching social studies.

I want to review culture, and the cultural ingredients:

• food
• dress
• religion
• language
• standard of living
• the arts
• government
• values
• customs
• ethnicity

But I also want to dig deeper into understanding them.  But digging deeper takes time.  Take standard of living, for instance.

To understand that, we've got to understand the economy.

And to understand the economy, we have to know what GDP is.

And when I teach economy, I want to teach human capital, because they tie together so well.

...But now we're many degrees of separation from culture.

So, Monday we're going to fly back to culture, and hope that we don't all forget the lessons on economics.

If you want credit for reading discussing the blog today, find a scrap of paper and define human capital on it.  (We did this today in class.)  If you were absent, and need to make up the points, go to the "human capital" link.  Figure out what human capital is from that.  Write it on a scrap of paper, and turn it in tomorrow.

More Difficult Ingredients

We've been discussing culture, and the ingredients of culture.  I tried to order them by difficulty, going from the easier to the more complex.  For instance, food is a part of our culture.  Most students already understand food.  In fact, sometimes I think it's all they think about.  ...Especially 5th hour...

And they understand language, and dress.  Most have a general concept of religion, government, customs and the arts.

But ethnicity?  Standard of living?  Values?  These are a little bit more difficult.  In fact, even academics bicker about their exact meanings?  Are ethnicity and race the same thing?  How does nationality fit in?  Is there a choice component?

And how do we gauge standard of living?  Is it just GDP, or is it more than that?

And, as a colleague always says, "We may value our valuables, but they are not our values."

So, we discussed some of the more difficult concepts today.  I did give students a paper, but it is NOT homework.  I don't care if you work ahead, but make sure you bring an AR book along with you if you're an over-achiever.  Don't distract the rest of the class.

If you read consider discussing the ingredients of culture - giving an example for each.  If you do this, find a scrap of paper and write down the ingredient, and its example.  Then have the adult sign the paper.  Put in the extra credit tray tomorrow.

Comfort, Fashion, and Our Cultural Customs

We graded the maps today.  I hope to have the grades entered by this afternoon.

After we finished that up, we read an article on the Chinese practice of foot-binding.  It's been estimated that over 1 billion Chinese women had their feet bound, and the practice lasted approximately 1000 years.

There is so much to teach - and foot binding is hardly representative of Chinese culture - but I can use it as an introduction to the dynasties.  Furthermore, I'll incorporate some of the issues and topics we've discussed in here throughout the year: customs, culture, time, ethnocentrism, values, etc...

In case you'd like to read the article, you can find it HERE.  Here's your warning though: I didn't show the most graphic pictures in class.  I don't think I would have been pushing any boundaries by showing them, but I know that some people are more squeamish than others, and I'd like to respect that.

If you want the extra credit for reading and discussing the blog with an adult, discuss foot binding.  What are your thoughts on the practice?  Is it fair to judge their historical culture based on the culture of today?  Be careful when you answer this...  There are some serious implications to whichever stance you take.

When you're done, draw a picture of a foot, and have the adult you discussed the blog with sign the picture.  Make sure your name is on it as well.  Turn it in tomorrow.

Cromarty Fisherfolk, Farewell

Bobby Hogg died.

 I'm tracking with you. You don't know who Bobby Hogg was, or how he relates to my class. Well, Bobby Hogg (according to this CNN article) was the last speaker of a Scots dialect known as Cromarty Fisherfolk.

As a class, we've been studying globalization, the economy, and the effects of technology on both.  My Banananovian story spoke explicitly about a nation that - due to globalization lost its culture.  It was a fictional story.

This is true.  Some points from the article:

• When a culture becomes technologically advanced, it loses its culture faster.
• Industrialization and trade spurs this on.
• Languages (it is estimated) are disappearing at the rate of one every two weeks.
• 96% of the world speak 4% of the worlds languages.

This was the point the Banananovian story was trying to hit home.  I'm not sure if it was accomplished or not.  But I know my students got something out of it.  One student made me a children's book.  I'm publishing it here:

(Text:  The students on the bus are saying, "An island over there," "I see it," and "Me too.")

 (Text: Arrow pointing at man: "Mr. Frizzile White Becker" - He is thinking about money, and telling the students to follow the Banananovians.  The Banananovians are saying, "follow us.")

(As they follow the Banananovians: Mr. FWB is complaining about the bus breaking down.  They pass the statue of the Big Banana.  Some Banananovians are bowing down to it.)

(Mr. FWB: "Lets take some bananas back to our country."  - Backstory: Up until this point in human history nobody has ever tried bananas before...  -  They load the bananas on the bus.)

(Text: "Mr. Frizzile Banana Becker: 'I'm Gonna Be rich'"  The sign says: "By some Bananas.  10$ Really Good!"  People: "I'll take some."  "Me Too."  "So will I.")

(The text is a little out of order on this picture, but essentially Mr. FBB/FWB tells the students they made $10 Million.  Everyone is excited.  One student suggests going back and paying the Banananovians for their bananas.)

(Back on the bus.  The Banananovians are saying, "They're Back.")

(We give money to the Banananovians, they're grateful.)

(Banananovia 40 years later.  Notice Mr. FBB/Mr. FWB's hair isn't what it used to be.  He's saying, "This place looks GOOD!"  But of course, their culture is no longer the same.)


To get the extra credit for the blog, read and discuss it with an adult.  Then, write 3 sentences base on your discussion.  You may want to include a comparison of the Banananovian story to what happened to the Cromarty Fisherfolk.

Culture, Hunger Games, and Doubling Up

Students have homework tonight!  If they didn't finish their cultural ingredients pictures that we started yesterday - and worked on today - they need to finish them at home and bring them in tomorrow.  ...Completed.  Click the link if you lost your copy, didn't get one, had your dog eat it, or whatever...

We've been learning about culture and society in conjunction with, and through our reading of The Hunger Games.  We can see all of the ingredients of culture depicted in the world Ms. Collins has created.  We see the ingredient of values when Prim says she doesn't care about the money - she cares about her sister.  We see values and customs when the community raises three fingers in salute to Katniss.  (Incidentally, this is also viewed as an act of civil disobedience, a term that will show up repeatedly later on in the year...)  I would be that standard of living shows up as much as any theme in the book.

Perhaps I'm most excited to read the book with Mr. Ogle's language arts classes.  He will be drawing things out of the book (and students) that I won't have hit on.  Working on it together like this is essentially giving students double the language arts time, and double the social studies time.  I LOVE it!  I walked in to his room today for a little planning, and saw his board had some Hunger Games vocabulary on it.  I could only smile to myself.

What does "loathe" mean?  Hunger Games terms on the board.

As of today, every student has a book.  So, we're in.  We've been taxiing on the runway; now we're taking off.

Students may earn extra credit by reading and discussing the blog with an adult.  If they want extra credit today, they should discuss what's been happening in The Hunger Games.  Tell how it ties in with social studies.  Discuss what you like and dislike about the story.  When you're finished, students should write a short paragraph about the conversation they had.  Have the adult they discussed with sign the paper, and turn it in tomorrow.

Again, don't forget about the homework.