In a CRT curriculum, the goal is to create a complementary relationship between different knowledge systems.
- it should “draw parallels between knowledge derived from oral tradition and that derived from books.”
- it should also “engage students in the construction of new knowledge and understanding that contribute to an ever-expanding view of the world.”
The goal for me, as a teacher, will be to take information from books or spoken words and bring it to understanding of the students within my classes. I will take information from different culture and find a creative way to bring it into common knowledge that will allow the students to make their own parallels to the information.
For groups poster, we came up with the idea of taking a Romeo and Juliette story that most people have at least heard of. They will most likely know the story or the names. We drew the Romeo and Juliette story in a picture that captures the original story to show that it is important to not assume that all students know the same content. We drew it to demonstrate the importance of teaching the common knowledge.
From there, we drew fish in another section. They are both salmon. We drew from the similarity that fish die after they give birth. It is cultural knowledge and links the culture to a story that might need to be taught. This is to teach those that don’t know the story of R&J.
For those that have read or seen the Shakespeare play, there is another lesson that could be taught. We drew another section of the poster to show two ravens. This is to teach about the Tlingit culture from something that is already known (R&J). The information would be to show that two ravens were forbidden to be married.
The students would then be asked to make a play where the plot was about two ravens that were in love. Then at the end, if the students want to, they could act out another students play.
Mason,
I like the idea that you are asking students to consider things that may be taboo in a particular cultural context by drawing parallels between these respective love stories. So it could not only be an exploration of a taboo but uncover the reasoning behind them and the validity of the reasoning. Just thoughts.
M
Mason,
I would love to sit in on your future class. I am excited to see what other parallels you draw on between cultures, it is creative and applicable. Chiming in on Matt’s thoughts, I do think this specific topic/tactic will be a great way to begin discussions on topics that are not always explored in a traditional classroom setting.
I thought your poster was really cool, and I especially liked the circle of linked stories/ideas that could go either direction – especially since the salmon and the raven represent very different, but equally valid, takes on the Romeo/Juliet theme. It’s good to be reminded that there’s no one way of making a topic relevant to students – there are many ways, and we always have to be thinking about new approaches.