Box #1: Culture in Migration

Teaching Units & Lesson Plans

Values: Culture and Important Values

Objective

Students will explore the connection between personal values and ones culture. Students will explore the idea that a social agreement rather than a “right” or “wrong” way of doing things, constructs values and culture. Students will come to understand that culture, such personal values travel with individuals as they migrate.

Michigan Standards

II.3:Location, Movement, and Connections

All students will describe, compare, and explain the locations and characteristics of economic activities, trade, political activities, migration, information flow, and the interrelationships among them. Locations are connected by different transportation and communication networks that channel the movement of people, goods, and information. Location of places along the networks is important in analyzing why some places are different in size and complexity from other places, what connections have developed, why movement occurs, and the consequences of different types of movement

Geographic Perspective

II.1:Diversity of People, Places, and Cultures

All students will describe, compare, and explain the locations and characteristics of places, cultures, and settlements. The mosaic of people, places, and cultures expresses the rich variety of the earth. Natural and human characteristics meld to form expressions of cultural uniqueness, as well as similarities among peoples. Culture is the way of life of a group of people including language, religion, traditions, family structure, institutions, and economic activities.

Inquiry

V.1:Information Processing

All students will acquire information from books, maps, newspapers, data sets, and other sources, organize and present the information in maps,

Time: 45 min.

Materials:

*indicates materials not included in the artifact box

Procedure:

  1. Ask students what are some important values in their home, their classroom community, amongst their friends, etc.
  2. Discuss that different values are important in different cultures homes, clothes, foods, and ways of determining what is important.
  3. Show students where Senegal is located on the map of Africa if they have not yet seen it.
  4. Review the definitions of the different Senegalese values, try to think of examples of how these values could be expressed in more familiar terms (i.e. in the Senegal and the U.S. having jom might be putting yourself through college and giving back to your family.)
  5. Complete the “My Values and My culture” workpage.