Duration
Two class periods
Objectives
Students will understand the following:
- The privileges and responsibilities of childhood vary from culture to culture.
Materials
For this lesson, you will need:
- Trade books and reference materials (including online sources) about children in at least four cultures outside the United States
- Computer with Internet access
Procedure
- Once easier to define, the term family is now a challenging concept in the United States, where families take many forms. Given globalization, the term family will undoubtedly need further clarification as cultures around the world experience one another up close. Tell students that you want them to research one aspect of family—the role of children—in a variety of cultures outside the United States.
- With a world map available as a resource, ask students, "If you could look at any part of the world, where would you want to go to learn about the role of children?" The four parts of the world covered in the documentary "People around the World" are
- river towns on the Nile,
- a rain forest in South America,
- a Tibetan plateau, and
- a Bangladesh rice farm.
However, you may feel free to have your students range further afield or stay closer to home in studying children in other cultures.
- Before setting students loose on reference materials, determine the things they are particularly interested in learning about their peers in other parts of the world so that they can focus their research. Here are some questions students may want to concentrate on:
- What kind of and how much education do children in the other culture get?
- In what kind of home do the children live?
- What, if any, high-tech tools do children have?
- What kind of work are children expected to do to help the family?
- Go over with students the trade books, reference books, and Web sites you have identified for them to explore, depending on which culture they are investigating.
- Teach students the rudiments of research:
- Writing down the name of the source that provides information
- Looking for facts and opinions that answer their research questions
- Writing down in one's own words facts and opinions from the source
- Let students who are investigating the same culture work together, learning, first, to share reference materials and responsibilities and, then, to share findings.
- Ask each group to select one student to represent it in a panel discussion on children around the world, for which you will be the moderator.
- Go over the basics of panel discussions:
- The panel is made up of experts on a preselected topic.
- The discussion consists mostly of responses by the members of the panel to questions and comments from a moderator and from other members of the panel.
- The questions can ask for facts or opinions.
- Ask students what they think the moderator's responsibilities are. Explain the responsibilities as follows, if necessary, so that students will understand why you, as moderator, do what you do:
- Setting up the room or auditorium to make discussion easy and to help the audience hear questions and responses
- Explaining why the panel has been brought together
- Introducing each member of the panel (There should be a name tent, or placard, for each panelist to sit behind.)
- Clearly stating each question, directing it to the panel at large or to one individual, then giving other members of the panel a chance to respond
- Calling on panelists who indicate they have questions for one another
- Noting for the audience what points panelists seem to agree on and what points they seem to disagree on
- Watching the time and eliminating some planned questions if necessary
- Opening the floor to questions from the audience
- Summing up the discussion and thanking participants and audience members
- Go on to elicit or state the responsibilities of each member on the panel of child experts, as follows:
- Becoming very familiar with the details of how children are raised and what their responsibilities are in a specific culture by doing research in primary and secondary sources
- Preparing to respond to the overarching topic of the panel—the role of children in a given culture
- Contributing to the discussion by listening actively and indicating that he or she has questions or comments about what another member has said
- Giving copanelists time to respond; that is, not monopolizing the discussion
- Proceed with the panel discussion. See "Evaluation," regarding a postmortem on the strengths and weaknesses of the participants.
Adaptations
You will need to identify pictorial sources to use when asking students to describe childhood in other cultures.
Discussion Questions
- How do the geography and seasons of the regions studied affect children's lives there?
- In general, what do you think of the jobs the children in the regions studied have to do? Debate whether or not the way the jobs are divided among the boys and girls in the regions studied is fair.
- Compare and contrast your pets to the kind of pets children elsewhere in the world have.
- Discuss advantages and disadvantages of living in a modern versus remote culture. Can people really be happy in either culture?
- How would you go about modernizing the culture of the regions studied if the people were receptive to the idea?
- How do children in other parts of the world show respect for their elders?
Evaluation
With the students who will be in the audience for the panel discussion, consider developing an evaluation chart that they can each use to rate each participant. Qualities on which participants might be rated include the following:
- Familiarity with details of the culture under investigation
- Clear, easy-to-hear speaking skills
- Level of participation
- Quality of questions asked of other panelists
You may suggest that students use symbols to indicate how a participant performs on each measure—perhaps "+" for "good," "?" for "poor," and "*" for "excellent."
Collect the evaluation sheets. Review them, keeping your own evaluations of each student in mind. Meet with each participant individually to discuss the strengths and weaknesses.
Extensions
Playtime
Ask students to create original games they might play if they lived in an isolated part of the world. Have students use materials on hand for props or equipment and teach the game to their classmates or to students in another class.
Public Opinion
Lead students through the process of polling people of various ages to determine their feelings and thoughts about children in their cultures.
Suggested Readings
A is for Africa
Ifeoma Onyefula, Cobblehill Books, 1993
This Nigerian author's book of words and pictures shows us the many faces and worlds of African people.
Africa (Eyewitness Books)
Yvonne Ayo, Dorling Kindersley Books, 1995
Beautiful illustrations and brief descriptions describe life in Africa. Read about the social life and customs, history, clothes, myths, medicine, houses, musical instruments, and food of Africa.
Welcome to the Green House: a Story of the Tropical Rainforest
Jane Yolen, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1993
Read a description of the tropical rainforest and the life found there: animals, birds, fish, flora and fauna. Look at the beautiful pictures of this amazing world.
Buddhism (World Religions series)
Catherine Hewitt, Thomson Learning, 1995
This book describes the history and explains the beliefs and practices of Buddhism.
Buddha
Susan L. Roth, Doubleday Book for Young Readers, 1994
This folktale tells the story of how Siddhartha became the Buddha, the Enlightened One.
Everybody Cooks Rice
Norah Dooley, Carolrhoda Books, nc., 1991
This wonderful story tells how rice is cooked in many different ways by families from different cultures. Try the many different recipes given at the end of the story!
Count Your Way Through Africa (through Korea, China, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia and the Arab world)
Carolrhoda Books, 1987-90
This is a wonderful series of books. In each one, you learn to read and pronounce the numbers from one through ten in these different languages as you learn about the land and people of the country.
Resource
Children Around The World
Links
Rosetta Stone
This is a delightful quiz for students, studying ancient Egypt, to use as a very simple self-assessment tool.
Basin Irrigation In Egypt
Provides info on artificial irrigation and has downloadable graphics of feeder canal and river basins.
Rainforest Facts
A detailed explanation of what the rainforest is, how its products help humanity, and how it is in danger of extinction.
Insects
Creepy, crawly, disgusting, yucky. Whether the rainforest or the Nile, you will find insects. This author gives detailed lessons, across the curriculum, on how to teach about insects.
Tibet Home Page
Gives the viewer a greater knowledge of the tenet of Buddhism, which is the core of understanding "Mustang."
Shangri-La Home Page
Tibet and the Himalayas are inextricably linked. The images of these peaks, whether aerial or land views, the bio-diversity of the flora and fauna of the area, show the variety of life found here.
Vocabulary
ancient
Definition: Of or relating to times long past, especially those before the fall of the Western Roman Empire (A.D. 476).
Context: That is why Contru Rampache, the old lama, has come here to the ancient village of Mustang.
biodiversity
Definition: The condition of nature in which a wide variety of species live in a single area.
Context: For the benefit of generations after us, we should work to maintain biodiversity.
culture
Definition: A group of people who share a way of life, ideas, customs, and traditions.
Context: A group of people who share a way of life, ideas, customs, and traditions.
globalization
Definition: The process by which people all over the world share things and the world seems smallerica.
Context: By making it easier to communicate, the Internet is leading to globalization.
moderator
Definition: The person who directs the activity of a group of people called together for a discussion
Context: The success of presidential debates depends on the intelligence and discipline of the moderator, who asks questions and keeps track of time.
panel
Definition: A group of people chosen to do something such as discuss a topic or judge a competition.
Context: Everyone on the panel had the same opinions, so the discussion wasn't too interesting.
Content Provider
Discovery Education
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