1. Analyzing: What is Culture? /
Kathy G. Short, 2012
Neighborhood Memory Maps
Our memories connect us to the experiences that are significant in our lives and shape how we think about ourselves and the world. Mapping these memories provides a vehicle for exploring the inscape of our cultural and personal memories. Listening to others tell their stories allows us to travel the landscapes of the world. Memory connects us to the values and events that define our cultural identities and creates bridges that connect us to each other. We learn about and value the funds of knowledge from our families and communities that we each bring to the classroom. This knowledge provides the potential for these funds of knowledge to be integrated into our relationships and the curriculum as resources for learning.
1. Teacher ‐‐ Draw your own neighborhood as a child in front of your students, and as you draw, tell stories about growing up in that neighborhood.
2. Ask another teacher or adult in the room to briefly share their neighborhood memory map so that children see more than one way to draw their maps.
3. Ask children to draw a map of a neighborhood that is significant to them. Their neighborhood can be large or small, outdoors or indoors – their backyard, a room in their house, a city block or subdivision, a small town, a beach or forest area, etc.
4. Ask children to label the stories on their maps – the places where something happened that is a memory. Young children can dictate the labels. Some children may need to share their maps orally with a partner to discover their stories before they are ready to create labels.
5. Encourage children to share their stories in pairs and then add other labels to their maps.
6. Children can choose one story from their maps to develop into a complete oral or written story to share publically with others in a book, family newsletter, video, etc.
7. Children can also talk about similarities and differences in their memories and maps across their classroom community.
Resources: My Map Book by Sara Fanelli (HarperCollins, 1995)
Mapmaking with Children by David Sobel (Heinemann, 1998).
Neighborhood memory maps by Fifth Graders
Adapted Neighborhood Memory Map for use with Revolution is Not a Dinner Party.
1) Have students label the memory map
a) Geography- Location
b) Cultural Memories
c) Personal Memories
2) Utilizing Document Camera & Promethean Board, project map in Introductory pages of Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party. Label as above (small groups and then whole class): a) b) c).
2. Heritage and History / Cultural X-Rays
Materials:
1. Cultural X-Ray (outline of a body with a large heart inside)
2. Crayons or colored pencils
3. Literature in which characters explore their cultural identities, particularly books in which characters are exploring multiple identities. (See or more information for a list of suggested books.)
How:
1. Read and discuss picture books in which the characters explore their cultural identities.
2. Discuss the aspects of culture that influence each character’s life and thought. Chart these patterns of culture.
3. Have each student create a personal cultural x-ray using an outline of a body shape with a large heart inside. The metaphor of an x-ray highlights the need to understand what is on the outside as well as the inside of each of person’s cultural being. On the outside of this shape, students create labels to describe the behaviors, appearance, and other aspects of their identities that others can observe or easily determine (e.g. age, family, gender, language, religion, family composition, places they have lived). On the heart shape inside the x-ray, have students place the values and beliefs that they hold in their hearts and that may not be immediately evident to others around them. Using a mirror, they also fill in the body shape to reflect their actual physical appearance. The three questions students ask themselves in this process are:
What am I?
What is important to me?
What do I look like?
4. Students often struggle with placing values and beliefs in their hearts, instead they list people and things that they value, such as their families, rather than why they value these. If this happens, read aloud books, such as A Day’s Work (Bunting, 1997) and talk about the values and beliefs that are reflected in the interactions between the boy, his grandfather and the employer. Ask students to return to their hearts and think about the values and beliefs that they have gained from each person or thing in their heart (e.g. “What values do you gain from your family?”
“What do they add to your life?” “Why are they significant to you?”).
Idea Sheet
1. Use Cultural X-rays as a literary response engagement. Students can create cultural x-rays for characters from novels that they are reading either as a class read-aloud or in literature discussion groups. They can work as partners, choosing a character from the novel that they see as significant and for whom they gradually build an x-ray to show that character’s multiple cultural identities.
2. Begin a study of a cultural group by asking students to brainstorm the aspects of culture that would be significant to explore if they want to understand a person from that culture. They can record these on a large-sized x-ray on chart paper. They can also use the x-ray as a way to record insights they are gaining into the culture through their reading and explorations.
For More Information
Fleck, L. (1935). The genesis and development of a scientific fact. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. NY: Basic Books.
Giff, P. R. (1997). Lily’s crossing. NY: Delacorte.
This engagement is grounded in anthropological theories of culture, especially the work of Clifford Geertz and Ludwik Fleck.
Children’s Books that Explore Cultural Identity.
Ada, A.F. (2002) I Love Saturdays y domingos. NY: Atheneum/Simon and Schuster
Bridges, S. Y. (2006). Ruby’s Wish. CA: Chronicle.
Browne, A. (2001). Voices in the Park. City: NY: DK Children
Bunting, E. (1996) Going Home. NY: HarperCollins
Bunting, E. (1997). A day’s work. NY: Clarion.
de Paola, T. (1979). Oliver Button is a sissy. FL: Voyager Books/Harcourt Brace.
Elya, S.M. (2002) Home at Last. NY: Lee & Low Books
Herrera, J.F. (2000) The Upside Down Boy/El niño de cabeza. CA: Children’s Book
Press
Igus, T. (1996) Two Mrs. Gibsons. CA: Children’s Books Press
Lacapa, K. & Lacapa, M. (1994) Less Than Half, More Than Whole. AZ: Northland
Levine, E. (1989) I Hate English. NY: Scholastic
Mandelbaum, P. (1990) You Be Me, I’ll Be You. NY: Kane/Miller Books
McKay, L., Jr. (1998) Journey Home. NY: Lee & Low Books
Recorvits, H. (2003) My Name is Yoon. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Rodríquez, L.J. (1997) América is Her Name. CN: Curbstone Press
Rosenberg, L. (1999) The Silence in the Mountains. NY: Orchard Books
Say, A. (1993) Grandfather’s Journey. NY: Houghton Mifflin
Shin, S.Y. (2004) Cooper’s Lesson. NY: Children’s Book Press
Williams, K.L. (1991) When Africa Was Home. NY: Orchard Books
X-RAY/HEART MAP ADJUSTMENT:
Focus this activity on heritage and history. Have students divide the heart map into two sections: Heritage and History. Outside of their body are aspects of history related to self and is evident to others. Inside would be the values and beliefs they hold in their hearts related to their history or history itself. Outside the students’ body map would also be aspects of their heritage evident to others, and within their heart map would be the values and beliefs they hold in their heart related to their heritage.
3. What is Revolution? / Revolution:
Students identify word definitions and root words.
Students identify the best definition as it relates to the book/Cultural Revolution of China.
Discuss all definitions and connect to background knowledge of revolution.
Literary Devices Hand Out:
1. Make a list of emotionally charged words the author uses in part one of the book.
2. Study the list of literary devices listed below. Place a check mark by any of the techniques used by the author in the novel. Write an example of each literary device.
_____symbolism
_____irony
_____foreshadowing
_____metaphors and similes
_____ imagery (sight, smell, hearing, etc.)
_____repetition
_____jargon
3.Find the similes on pgs. 5-6, pg. 30, pg. 65 & pg. 90. CITE/WRITE THE SIMILE.
Argue why each simile is a good/bad comparison. What insight does the simile give us into the things being compared?
a. (pgs. 5-6)
b. (pg. 30)
c. (pg. 65)
d. (pg. 90)
4. Which simile affected you the most, and why?
(To Work initially with Exposition)
Plot Analysis Chart
Graphic Organizers - Reader's Handbook Ch.6 eStudy Guide
4. Chapters 1-4 Contradictions and Change / Chapters 1-8 (Part One) Questions:
1. What is “normal life” like for Ling before things begin to change in her home?
Describe her home, her interactions with family, conversations and daily life rituals in Chapter 1.
2. What are Ling’s parents’ occupations?
3. Why is Ling’s relationship with her father significant to her character? How is it different from her relationship with her mother?
4. “The summer of 1972, before I turned nine, danger began knocking on doors all over China.” is an example of what literary device?
5. In Chapter One, give one example of propaganda:
6. Name five characters that are introduced in Part One and their relationship to Little Flower/Ling, the main character.
7. How does Comrade Li change (or show his intentions differently) during Chapters 1-7?
8. What is Ling’s reaction to this change?
9. What is the significance of the Chapter names in Part One?
10. Describe the act of heroism that takes place on pg. 99. Why might this act be rare in a political climate and circumstance such as the Cultural Revolution?
11. What do you think bourgeois means?
12. CONNECT: Has anything in your life ever changed radically? (Moved, changed schools, new brother/sister, loss of someone?) Explain.
5. Section 2: Bamboo in the Wind / Writing Prompt:
Using text-based evidence from the book, compare and contrast Mao’s propaganda (pg. 104) with the Physician’s Creed (pp. 105-106). Relate to the theme and the central conflict. What is the inner revolution that Ling is experiencing?
6. Poetry Analysis
What is resilience? / Thematically Related Poetry
Near the Wall of a House
Near the wall of a house painted
to look like stone,
I saw visions of God.
A sleepless night that gives others a headache
gave me flowers
opening beautifully inside my brain.
And he who was lost like a dog
will be found like a human being
and brought back home again.
Love is not the last room: there are others
after it, the whole length of the corridor
that has no end.
—Yehuda Amichai
Near the Wall of a House, by Yehuda Amichai - Poem 074 | Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools, Hosted by Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2001-2003 (Poetry and Literature, Library of Congress)
7. Character Analysis / Character Analysis Chart
Students create a chart in order to compare characters, their cultural influences, and character traits throughout the story.
Example:
Character’s Name / Character’s Traits / Character’s Culture / Characters Changes Over Time
Ling
Little Flower
Dr. Xiong
Father
Comrade Li
Pimple Face
Nui
Narrative Letter to Mao:
Perspectives/Voices
1. Choose one of the following characters: Pimple Face, Gardener Zong, Mrs. Wong and write a NARRATIVE LETTER addressed to Chairman Mao.
2. Follow Narrative Letter format.
3. EXAMPLE:
Dear Chairman Mao,
Why/Thank you for/Can you/Can I…(etc.)
8. Section 3: Bridge Behind Mao / Story Ray
Kathy Short, 2009
A story ray is a reader response strategy that shows the unfolding of a novel, chapter by chapter. Each person is responsible for the creation of one visual ray, representing a selected chapter from the book. Each story ray provides a strong sense of a particular chapter, with a focus on ideas, themes, characters, setting, mood, and tone. The completed rays offer a visual sense of the plot, characters, and issues in the book.
Story rays focus on images, symbols, colors, and words or phrases that seem especially significant within a chapter. They are constructed by readers asking themselves:
-How can I offer a visual essence of this chapter?
-What color(s) do I use for the background and for the images I choose to represent? Why are these colors significant to this chapter?
-What images (symbols, artifacts, items) should I represent on this strip of paper? What's the significance of each? Should I repeat any images? What layout should I use to capture a strong sense of my chapter?
-Should I include words? A quote? A short phrase? If so, where do words belong on my story ray? Should I repeat them? If so, why?
Tips: Leave little or no white space on a ray (unless white is essential to the ideas or mood being creating). Avoid using colored pencils unless bold colors can be created from this medium. Consider using more than one medium and think creatively about the media (collage, torn paper, paint, pastels, mixed media, etc.)
The rays are then hung on the wall to show the unfolding of the book from chapter to chapter.
Variation
Another way to create a story ray is to ask reader to use their rays to focus on what they see as the major themes and issues from the book using visual images and a few key words. Rather than an unfolding of the novel, this type of ray provides a visual representation of the key themes and issues across multiple readers.
Story Ray
Kathy Short, 2009
A story ray is a reader response strategy that shows the unfolding of a novel, chapter by chapter. Each person is responsible for the creation of one visual ray, representing a selected chapter from the book. Each story ray provides a strong sense of a particular chapter, with a focus on ideas, themes, characters, setting, mood, and tone. The completed rays offer a visual sense of the plot, characters, and issues in the book.
Story rays focus on images, symbols, colors, and words or phrases that seem especially significant within a chapter. They are constructed by readers asking themselves:
-How can I offer a visual essence of this chapter?
-What color(s) do I use for the background and for the images I choose to represent? Why are these colors significant to this chapter?
-What images (symbols, artifacts, items) should I represent on this strip of paper? What's the significance of each? Should I repeat any images? What layout should I use to capture a strong sense of my chapter?
-Should I include words? A quote? A short phrase? If so, where do words belong on my story ray? Should I repeat them? If so, why?
Tips: Leave little or no white space on a ray (unless white is essential to the ideas or mood being creating). Avoid using colored pencils unless bold colors can be created from this medium. Consider using more than one medium and think creatively about the media (collage, torn paper, paint, pastels, mixed media, etc.)
The rays are then hung on the wall to show the unfolding of the book from chapter to chapter.
Variation
Another way to create a story ray is to ask reader to use their rays to focus on what they see as the major themes and issues from the book using visual images and a few key words. Rather than an unfolding of the novel, this type of ray provides a visual representation of the key themes and issues across multiple readers.
Story Ray
Adapted variation for Revolution is not a Dinner Party/Middle School Learners:
1. Have students choose 5-10 significant plot events (depending on the paper you use), dividing the paper up and using one section for each significant event. (Following instructions above).
2. Have students determine the CENTRAL CONFLICT and write their claim on the back.
3. Then, with their Story Ray partner/group, have the students write on the back of each plot event how this plot event demonstrates or embodies the Central Conflict. (i.e. Is Evidence for their Claim of what the central conflict is.)
Note: the back narrative will go backwards if each writing work is directly on the back of the picture it relates to. However, it is easier to grade and relate one side to the other if it is done this way.
9. Final Essay / Essay Format
Argumentative Essay- Human Rights
Topic- Is it ever okay to violate a person’s human rights? Why or why not?
TITLE
- INTRODUCTION: explain the thesis (be precise but do not present evidence)
- BODY- Paragraph #1Topic sentence (main argument of the paragraph)
- Specific examples to support the topic sentence are given in Paragraph #2 and Paragraph # 3
- CONCLUSION: Restate Paragraph # 1. Write a quick summary of the thesis; argue implications of the thesis.
10. Student Led Inquiry &
Action Project / INQUIRY PROJECT
What are Human Rights?
The Universal Declarations of Human Rights states “everyone has the right to live in freedom and safety.”
What are other basic Human Rights from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
What do they imply and mean?
What rights do you think all people should have?
How can they be ensured?
PAULO FREIRE INQUIRY PROCESS: