The last two weeks at Culture Club, I've been trying to get students to think about their own culture. First, they thought about their zone or town. The next week, they thought about Ethiopia as a culture. In order to do this, I had students create what I called a "Culture Map," or a visual representation of their culture loosely based on a bubble map.
Here was my example:
It had the added bonus of teaching students a little bit about Seattle culture and how it was more than just generic American culture. I divided the map into four corners - Food, Famous People, Landmarks, and Symbols. I hope it's obvious which corner is which. I got a reaction when I mentioned that Bruce Lee claimed Seattle as his home. He's popular here because for some reason Ethiopians love watching martial arts films. Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain sailed over their heads, though.
The results of their own maps varied. Many students complained that they couldn't draw. Academic culture here, as well as Ethiopian culture in general, is not too concerned with the arts. I told them that it didn't matter how well they could draw, but to draw something. Still, they were hesitant, so I told them they could use words but they HAD to be English words. Still, my wonderful counterpart did a great job of combining both. Here's his example of Gurage culture:
My counterpart, Elfineh, divided his map into food, holidays, crops and traditional ceremonies. And the result is, a cool little map of Gurage culture including a Meskel fire (left - with the cross) and two happy newlyweds dancing (right). I think that's a bowl of kitfo in the upper right hand corner, but I can't be sure. I was just happy Elfineh was participating.
The following week, I introduced students to the concept of folktales. I explained that every culture has stories that they share with their children, even Ethiopia. But it had been my experience that many Ethiopians didn't know their own folk tales.
That's where your Better World Books came in.
I used "The Perfect Orange" as a read aloud to model what an Ethiopian story looked like, and checked for comprehension by asking students to make predictions as I read, or to summarize what had already happened. By the end of it, all students showed that they understood the tale. It helped that many of the words used were Amharic words - like injera, "Ato Jib" (Mr. Hyena), and shamma. The main character even had a common Ethiopian name - Tsahai - that students immediately recognized. Comparing to the western stories I've read to the fifth and sixth grade students at Belay's school (Where the Wild Things Are and the Lorax), I was reminded how remarkably easy it is for students to comprehend a story when they already have the background knowledge. As a teacher, this has only further reinforced in me the importance of building background knowledge when I share more Western stories with the students.
After the read-aloud, students were given one of two Ethiopian folktales. One I had photocopied from "Fire on the Mountain" (thanks, Mom!) and the other I'd taken from "The Lion's Whiskers" (the collection of stories, not the illustrated version). Students were tasked with reading the story, familiarizing themselves with it, then telling it to a partner who had not read the story. This practiced reading comprehension as well as oral English and retelling skills, although I did say if it became too difficult to retell in English they could explain it in Amharic, because that still showed they understood the English text. They worked so well together I had to go about and take pictures. I was also impressed to see mixed-gender groupings. Here are my students sharing their folktales with each other.
Hooray for teamwork! I was happy to see my students working well together. Next week is "Ferenge Christmas Week," so I'll be explaining how Americans (in particular) and other Westerners celebrate the holiday on December 25th. I plan on making snowflakes and paper chains. Any other craft project suggestions are more than welcome, as well as anything you think I should share.
Here was my example:
It had the added bonus of teaching students a little bit about Seattle culture and how it was more than just generic American culture. I divided the map into four corners - Food, Famous People, Landmarks, and Symbols. I hope it's obvious which corner is which. I got a reaction when I mentioned that Bruce Lee claimed Seattle as his home. He's popular here because for some reason Ethiopians love watching martial arts films. Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain sailed over their heads, though.
The results of their own maps varied. Many students complained that they couldn't draw. Academic culture here, as well as Ethiopian culture in general, is not too concerned with the arts. I told them that it didn't matter how well they could draw, but to draw something. Still, they were hesitant, so I told them they could use words but they HAD to be English words. Still, my wonderful counterpart did a great job of combining both. Here's his example of Gurage culture:
My counterpart, Elfineh, divided his map into food, holidays, crops and traditional ceremonies. And the result is, a cool little map of Gurage culture including a Meskel fire (left - with the cross) and two happy newlyweds dancing (right). I think that's a bowl of kitfo in the upper right hand corner, but I can't be sure. I was just happy Elfineh was participating.
The following week, I introduced students to the concept of folktales. I explained that every culture has stories that they share with their children, even Ethiopia. But it had been my experience that many Ethiopians didn't know their own folk tales.
That's where your Better World Books came in.
I used "The Perfect Orange" as a read aloud to model what an Ethiopian story looked like, and checked for comprehension by asking students to make predictions as I read, or to summarize what had already happened. By the end of it, all students showed that they understood the tale. It helped that many of the words used were Amharic words - like injera, "Ato Jib" (Mr. Hyena), and shamma. The main character even had a common Ethiopian name - Tsahai - that students immediately recognized. Comparing to the western stories I've read to the fifth and sixth grade students at Belay's school (Where the Wild Things Are and the Lorax), I was reminded how remarkably easy it is for students to comprehend a story when they already have the background knowledge. As a teacher, this has only further reinforced in me the importance of building background knowledge when I share more Western stories with the students.
After the read-aloud, students were given one of two Ethiopian folktales. One I had photocopied from "Fire on the Mountain" (thanks, Mom!) and the other I'd taken from "The Lion's Whiskers" (the collection of stories, not the illustrated version). Students were tasked with reading the story, familiarizing themselves with it, then telling it to a partner who had not read the story. This practiced reading comprehension as well as oral English and retelling skills, although I did say if it became too difficult to retell in English they could explain it in Amharic, because that still showed they understood the English text. They worked so well together I had to go about and take pictures. I was also impressed to see mixed-gender groupings. Here are my students sharing their folktales with each other.
In fact, if you have any Christmas traditions you have with your family, please send me a note. I can compile them into a handout for students so they can see examples of Western holiday traditions. Ethiopians also celebrate Christmas, or the day of Christ's birth. They call it "Genna" and it is celebrated on January 6th every year, the same day as the Orthodox calendar.
Yet another way "Do They Know Its Christmas" got Ethiopia all wrong. ;)
Cheers and happy holidays, everyone! Please post those Christmas traditions for me before next Monday!
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