1 Purpose: This lesson should challenge students and introduce them to other cultures and ideas while promoting life long learning. UTL 303 8:00-10:00 AM
“Mixed Blood” Socratic Seminar
Courtney Krebs – World Geography
Date: March 10, 2010
Lesson #3
Learning Objective:
Students will be able to conduct and participate in a Socratic Seminar, covering the
article “Mixed Blood”, about defining race in our culture as well as others. Students will
be evaluated on their participation in the seminar asking or answering at least twice.
Materials/Resources/To Do List
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Before the day of the lesson:
o
Pass out the article, Mixed Blood
o
Assign the 4 discussion questions at the end, and
o
Student must write 4 of their own questions (Part of Grade)
o
Run copies for optional Genetic Diversity activity
For the lesson itself:
o
Arrange classroom into a circle
o
Prepare some questions to help lead the seminar
T.E.K.S Addressed In Lesson
(17) Culture. The student understands the distribution, patterns, and characteristics of different
cultures. The student is expected to:
(A) describe and compare patterns of culture such as language, religion, land use,
systems of education, and customs that make specific regions of the world distinctive; and
(22) Social studies skills. The student communicates in written, oral, and visual forms. The
student is expected to:
(B) apply appropriate vocabulary, geographic models, generalizations, theories, and
skills to present geographic information;
2 Purpose: This lesson should challenge students and introduce them to other cultures and ideas while promoting life long learning. Introduction
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Students will come in, take out their questions and reading packet, and prepare to begin the
seminar.
•
As an opening to the seminar I will make an opening statement and prose question to the
class.
o
Race is a modern idea. In ancient times, language, religion, status and class
distinctions were more important than physical appearance. The distinction between
white and black did not appear in writing until around 1680.
Instructional Activity
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Opening question, to begin the seminar:
o
Keeping this statement in mind (See above), why do you think that our culture,
as Americans, defines race by skin color?
•
Students should respond to my questions, as well as other classmates. They are
required to either answer or ask a question a total of two times, during the seminar.
•
Some follow up questions are:
o
What do you think are some implications are of classifying people based on skin
color?
o
Do you know of another way that cultures classify, or define, race? - Rwanda
o
According to Fish, Americans have having a harder time classifying themselves as
black, white, or Asian, or Hispanic. He says, “currently, the most rapidly growing
census category is “other”, as increasing numbers of people fail to fit available
options. Do you have any ideas for new ways of people to define, or identify
themselves?
o
What is “hypo-descent”? (255) How does “hypo-descent” effect how we as
Americans classify each other? (Barack Obama, Tiger Woods)
•
Review Questions (from the chapter, all students must come with answers to these
questions):
o
What is Fish’s main point about the way Americans define race?
o
What is the difference between the way race is defined in the US and in Brazil?
3 Purpose: This lesson should challenge students and introduce them to other cultures and ideas while promoting life long learning. o
What evidence challenges the view that races are biologically defined types?
What evidence would have to exist to prove that human species are genetically
divided into races? – a genetic marker that all of one race has and no one of
another race has.
o
Why does Fish feel it is important to understand that race as Americnans use it
does not represent biological reality?
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a
common heritage that is real or assumed- sharing cultural characteristics[1][2] This shared
heritage may be based upon putative common ancestry, history, kinship, religion, language,
shared territory, nationality or physical appearance.
Independent/Guided Practice
•
As the students ask and respond to questions I, as the leader, will clarify, keep students
on task, and ask probing questions about the students responses. I will also model how
to go to the text when asking questions and ask them to do the same in their responses.
Closure/Reflection
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In order to close the Seminar I will debrief the students on some of the points they
brought up today (referring to the notes I have taken during the seminar) and remind
them that the overarching theme of this piece is that race is socially constructed
and that as anthropologists we can analyze and discuss it in a variety of
ways. We must be relativists and understand that cultures define “race”
differently.
•
If the seminar finishes with enough time (roughly 20 mins.) left in class students will
participate in a genetic diversity activity.
o
I will ask students to stand next to someone in the class that they feel they
share the most genetic traits with. I will give them the example of hitchhiker
thumb, tongue curl, earlobes, skin color etc.
o
After the students have grouped themselves I will give them a trait worksheet
and they will mark which traits they have and which ones they don’t.
4 Purpose: This lesson should challenge students and introduce them to other cultures and ideas while promoting life long learning. o
When they have completed the worksheet I will go down the list and group the
students based on who contains the same attributes – widows peak on one side
of the room and no widows peak on the other.
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The objective of this activity is to reinforce the idea that we are more likely to be
more genetically similar to someone who looks different than us than the
same.
Changes for Next Time:
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Consider calling on students who have not responded in order to encourage them to
participate.
•
Avoid answering students’ questions directly in order to allow other students to answer
the questions.
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During closing activity consider pairing students at the end and going group-to-group
checking for genetic similarities. This will lengthen the activity if necessary.
•
Consider having students briefly summarize the Socratic Seminar before turning in their
responses and questions.