Lesson 6

Lesson Question: How does Inuit culture compare to my own culture?

Standards Met:
Performance Expectations for Middle Grades: Theme 1: Culture, from EXPECTATIONS OF EXCELLENCE: CURRICULUM STANDARDS FOR SOCIAL STUDIES, developed by the National Council for Social Studies.

The learner can:

.	compare similarities and differences in the ways groups, societies, and cultures meet human needs and concerns;
.	explain how information and experiences may be interpreted by people from diverse cultural perspectives and frames of reference;
.	explain and give examples of how language, literature, the arts, architecture, other artifacts, traditions, beliefs, values, and behaviors contribute to the development and transmission of culture;
.	explain why individuals and groups respond differently to their physical and social environments and/or changes to them on the basis of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs;
.	articulate the implications of cultural diversity, as well as cohesion, within and across groups.

Standard 4 - from LEARNING STANDARDS FOR THE ARTS:

Theater: Students will gain knowledge about past and present cultures as expressed through theater. They will interpret how theater reflects the beliefs, issues, and events of societies past and present.

Students will be able to:

• compare and contrast different cultures and values;
• write and enact a skit to express the results of their cross-cultural inquiry;
• cooperate in small groups (threes) on learning tasks;
• create a rubric for assessment and peer evaluation;
• give and receive peer evaluation;
• reflect on the learning experience for future improvement.

Set-up: Ask for students' ideas and input on how to create a skit that illustrates contrasts and similarities between Inuit culture and their own culture. Help students focus on skits that involve meetings between people representing different cultures -- for example, a cross-cultural friendship or an exchange of goods.

Teaching and Learning Tasks:

In groups of three, students will write a short play or skit to represent either differences or similarities between Inuit culture and their own. You and they should develop a rubric for scoring the skits.

Assessment: Using rubric developed above.

Closure: Students will perform their skits for the rest of the class.

Reflection: Consider whether the resulting plays accurately represented differences and similarities between cultures. Refine your approach if necessary by guiding students early in the process to develop dramatic but revealing skits.