Michelle

Svenson Culture: What it is, Why it is, and How it Changes Social Studies, Grade 6, 45-60 minutes

Background

Wholeness There are many different cultures around the world, but every culture solves the common needs, including: food, shelter (architecture and dress) , expression (art, religion, celebrations), and morality (values). Cultures also change over time to adapt to different needs. By meeting these needs, cultures uplift their people. Science of Creative Intelligence: An invincible culture is founded on stability, adaptability, integration, purification, and growth. When interacting with other cultures, an invincible culture will take what is life supporting and ignore what is life damaging. In this same way, individuals can learn to take what is life supporting from around them and reject what is life damaging. Main Points What is culture? Cultures provide a way of life that uplifts and enlightens their people. They are made up of many components, including food, religion, dress, art, celebrations, and a system of values. I want to highlight the importance of values being associated with different cultures; When you are born into a system, your values will likely align to the common values. For example, we value freedom in America, because of how our nation was formed. Its hard for us to imagine living in Japan because they value order and it doesnt seem very free. How do cultures change over time? Traditional culture endures when it continues to be life-supporting. Elements of a culture that are life damaging eventually die out. The fundamentals of Growth include stability, adaptability, integration, purification and growth. Without these, a culture will eventually die out. Why its important to learn about other cultures? Learning about other cultures, particularly their values, will provide understanding for diverse perspectives. Students will learn to be tolerant and empathetic towards other peoples ways of life due to familiarity and knowledge of how these ways of life come to be. This will help them get along with people from around the world, perhaps even expanding their circle of friends. And with this broadening of their experience (and with the knowledge of the fundamentals of growth), I hope that they will learn to take wisdom from many different places.

 Objectives By the end of the lesson, the students should be able to Understand the components of culture Recognize that the values of individuals are born from their culture and experience Understand how cultures change over time See the value in learning about other cultures National/Iowa standards By recognizing various cultural perspectives, learners become capable of understanding diverse perspectives, thereby acquiring the potential to foster positive relations and interactions with diverse people within our own nation and other nations. Learning Expectations Middle Grades (p. 94) NCSS
Understand how people from different cultures develop different values and ways of interpreting experience. Iowa Core: Social Studies 6-8, Behavioral Standards

Approach This time I prepared a worksheet, too, that Id like the students to fill out. And because discussion worked so wonderfully last time, Im going to try it again. So once more, it will be activity-based discussion. (although less activity than last timewe had too much going on!) Because we are summarizing, I feel that discussion (in groups and as a whole) is the best way to get students to critically think for themselves about the unit as a whole. Materials My Values worksheets Post-assessments: affective survey and map test Posters from previous lessons A chalk board Our brains Differentiation The worksheet is very personalized. Students can go as in depth as theyd likeits about them! Also, discussion is naturally a bit differentiated. Students who feel more confident can contribute morebut I still will be calling on everyone!

Lesson Introduction

Review As this is a summarizing lesson, we will try to look at all of the lessons in the unit in turn during the entire lesson. But it will start out with locating the cultures weve talked about on the map and a review on what culture consists of. So in short, what Id written in the first main point: Cultures provide a way of life that uplifts and enlightens their people. They are made up of many components, including food, religion, dress, art, celebrations, and a system of values. I will write these in a circle labeled culture on the board. Introductory focus (hook): Weve been spending all this time looking at the cultures of other people What about YOU GUYS?

Lesson Development

Procedures Well begin with the My Values worksheet. This will get the kids thinking about what theyve learned about values and where values come from. Afterwards, we will share some of our values and discuss. The kids will get to compare and contrast the values on their sheets. My goal here is to get the kids to realize that we have different values as results of our different experiences. Hopefully understanding the origins of values will allow them to feel more empathy towards people with different values: Its not that theyre wrong and that were right, its that X experience in his life has caused him to think Y, where as B experience in my life has cause me to think A. This will lead into a discussion about what we have in common with other cultures and what they have in common with each other. From here we will lead into what cultures do for people: What is the purpose of culture? (Maharishi says that in the feature of evolution, all cultures are similar. I am hoping for the kids to realize this on their own.) So how can a culture uplift its individuals the most? It has to be the best it can be. Activity: brainstorm in groups of 2-3 what an invincible culture would be like. What qualities would it havewould it be really firm in its beliefs? Would it be open to change? If they need more prompting Ill ask them to think of what would cause a culture to die out (using cultures weve studied as prompts). This will lead into my discussion about Maharishis five elements of an invincible culture (there are some fundamentals of growth): Stability, Adaptability, Integration, purification, Growth. I will use the culture bubble I drew on the board early on to help visualize these points. STABILITY: Stable in cultural values. All of the elements of the circle remain relatively stable. This is the base of a culture.

Adaptability: If a culture is not adaptable, it will become extinct. Integration: Life Supporting elements from other cultures are adopted Purification: Life Damaging elements are eventually dropped Growth: these provide for evolution of the culture and its people. To show an example of this we will talk about a dying culture (the aborigines). The students will identify which of Maharishis five elements it has. We can also talk about a more lasting culture (Japan) if it looks like we have enough time. (So how does traditional culture endure?)

Lesson Ending
Closure Once more, we will talk about why its important to learn about other cultures. I am looking for the following: a. b. c. d. Understanding diverse perspectives; tolerance Wider circle of friends Take wisdom from many places We are all the same: even though the lifestyles of children around the world vary, there are always similarities.

Then we will have a quick discussion about what were some of their favorite things from our lessons. What did they learn? What did/didnt you like about the lessons? Assessment There will be a post assessment of the geographic location of various cultures. There will be a post affective assessment that will help us determine the students changing feelings and attitudes towards foreign cultures.

Name: __________________________

My Values
Think of 3-4 values that you have. If you are stuck, try thinking about values from the cultures we studied or characteristics that you admire in people. In the column on the left, write down the values that you thought of. In the column on the right, try to think of the following things: Why is it important to you? Where did that value come from? (Is it something you were raised with?) For example:
What values do you have? Freedom of choice Timeliness Why is it important to you? I like to have options Where did the value come from? I live in America, where freedom is very important. My sister is always late and that makes me furious

I want to be on time because I know what its like to wait

Your turn:
What values do you have? Why is it important to you? Where did the value come from?