2. Title of the day’s lesson with a brief description: Discovering Maya Culture Through Art
Students will investigate the Maya culture through literature, art, and music.
3. Materials/resources needed:
• Toothbrush
• Phone
• Abuela’s Weave by Omar S. Castañeda
• Handout “Luis’s Story: Making Gravel at Ten Years Old”
• Handout “Examples of the Mayan Culture”
• Computer with Internet to listen to marimba song (http://www.rootsworld.com/reviews/garifuna.html)
• Mayan art examples
• Map
4. Teacher Preparation:
• Make an overhead of “Luis’s Story: Making Gravel at Ten Years Old”
• Make enough copies of “Luis’s Story: Making Gravel at Ten Years Old” for each student
• Make an overhead of “Examples of the Mayan Culture”
• Make enough copies of “Examples of the Mayan Culture” for each student
• Get music ready to listen to (need the application RealPlayer)
• Make an overhead of the Mayan art samples
5. Minnesota Academic Strand(s) and sub-strand(s) addressed by your lesson:
• 4-8 III. World History B. Classical Civilizations and World Religions 1000 BC – 600 AD
6. NCSS Strand(s) and substrand(s) addressed by your lesson:
• I. Culture Middle Grades C. 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.
7. Goal(s) for today’s lesson:
• Students will understand how art, music, and literature can teach us about a culture.
8. Objective(s) for today’s lesson:
• Students will be able to explain how literature, art, and music can tell us about the Maya culture.
9. Procedures
a. Introductory experiences: Ask students to recall the locations we located on the first day of the unit. Have students relocate Yucatán Peninsula, Chichén Itzá, and Guatemala on the map. Ask students what they know about the Maya or even what they think they know. (5 minutes)
b. Developmental experiences:
1. Read aloud Abuela’s Weave. Ask students what they learned. What did they like or dislike about the story? How did it seem similar or different to our culture? It is different because the children also have to work to help earn money. Family is important to them. They also have a bus system. Their market is similar to one of our department stores. What can we tell about their daily life? They have to work hard to make a living. Some of the kids don’t go to school to help out at home. (10 minutes)
2. Hand out “Luis’s Story: Making Gravel at Ten Years Old” and the questions that go with it. Have a student read the story out loud while everyone else is following along. Give students some time to individually think about the discussion questions, then discuss them as a class. Have students fill in answers. (15 minutes)
o How do Luis and his family meet their need for food? They sell gravel to make money. Luis’ father also sends them what money he can.
o What does it mean that Luis’ father is an “undocumented immigrant” in the United States? He is not an official citizen of the United States. He is living there without the government knowing where he is.
o Why do you think Luis doesn’t wear safety glasses as he works? Since the job doesn’t pay very much, they can’t afford to buy safety glasses.
o What do you think about the life of Luis and his family? They live a very hard life. His dad is in a different country. Luis also doesn’t go to school in order to help earn money at home.
o What might citizens of the United States do to improve the life of someone like Luis who lives in another country? They could fundraise and send money to help out families in this situation or send them everyday supplies, clothes, etc.
3. Hand out “Examples of the Mayan Culture” worksheet. Put the overhead of it up. Fill out the Literature Section as a class. Write in ideas for each box from the students. What do these two stories tell us about the Mayan culture? They have to work hard to make a living. What do these stories tell you about what is important to the Maya? Family is very important to the Maya. Education may be viewed as something less important since the children have to help work to earn money to eat. What can you predict from these stories about the daily lives, beliefs, and values of the Maya? The Maya are very hard working and are very close to their family. Some children don’t go to school because they have to help work, etc. (10 minutes)
4. Listen to a few minutes of “Cinco Pesos” (Marimba Alma Sololateca) from http://www.rootsworld.com/reviews/garifuna.html. Fill out the Music column on the “Examples of Mayan Culture” worksheet. What does the music tell you about the Maya? The music is very upbeat so the Maya may try to always keep a positive outlook on life. This music may have a very spiritual meaning for them. What does the music tell you about what is important to the Maya? Instruments to play the music would be very important. They may also have important dances to go with different songs. What can you predict about the daily lives, beliefs, and values of the Maya? For the music to continue on the adults would have to teach the children how to play the instruments and make music; passing on traditions is very important. Discuss why students liked or disliked this piece of music. (10 minutes)
5. Show students a toothbrush. Ask students what an anthropologist would say about it. They may say that we are concerned with hygiene. An anthropologist studies humans. Show students a phone. Ask students what an anthropologist would say about this. They may say we are very focused on staying connected to other people. We are also very technology based. (This is to introduce students to the pottery, textile, and the painted vase pictures. They will be looking for the same things.) (5 minutes)
6. [Note: we have not done very much with art interpretation. Have them try to look for details and to also make their own guesses about why a certain piece was made the way it was. There isn’t always a known answer to every question.] Put the pottery picture on the overhead. What do you think they used this for? Why do you think they chose those particular colors? How do you think they chose to design it? They could have used it for serving food. Perhaps certain colors were used for certain foods or objects. The design going around the picture could be the hieroglyphics for the artist’s name or simply words they liked. (5 minutes)
7. Now put picture of textiles on overhead. What could this have been used for? What could the colors and design symbolize? If you were designing this, what would you make it look like? It may have been used as a blanket, rug, or even clothing. The bright colors may indicate that the artist is a very happy and welcoming person who also loves to laugh. The design may be important to the Mayan culture or could also just be a design they liked or made up. If I were designing this I would use bright yellow, bright yellow, and different shades of green to make the night sky with the stars and moon over a forest.
8. Now look at the painted vase picture. What could this be used for? What do you think the artist is trying to tell us? Why do you think they chose these particular colors? This could have been used to store dry food since it has a lid. The artist may be telling us a story through the pictures. Maybe this is another way they passed down information from generation to generation. These colors may have been the only ones the artist had. It could also be a serious story since there aren’t bright colors on the vase. (5 minutes)
9. After you have discussed all the pictures, have students individually fill out the Art column on their worksheet. What do these pieces tell you about the Maya? They make detailed pieces of art. They make art that they can use everyday. What do these pieces tell you about what is important to the Maya? It is important for them to make the pottery and textiles to sell and use. What can you predict about the daily lives, beliefs, and values of the Maya? They work very hard to make a living. A lot of time goes into making each piece and sometimes the children need to make them as well. When students are done filling out their own worksheet, have them give you some answers to fill out the column on the overhead. (10 minutes)
10. Give students some time to finish the work sheet. These will be graded on completeness. (5 minutes)
c. Culminating experiences:
• Ask students what we’ve talked about today. We read two stories, listened to marimba music, and looked at some pieces of art of the Maya. Ask students what they learned about the Maya. Tell them that we’ll be continuing with the Maya culture tomorrow. (5 minutes)
10. Assessment(s) used during lesson:
• Many questions will be asked throughout the lesson and a variety of students will be called on. Each student will be called on to talk before other students speak twice.
• Students will also hand in the Examples of Maya Culture. This will be graded on completeness.
11. Resources
Barrett, Steve. "Mayan Culture Today: Using Multiple Resources to Learn About a
Living Culture." Social Studies and the Young Learner Nov.-Dec. 2006. 18 Mar.
2008
Castañeda, Omar S. Abuela's Weave. 1st ed. New York, NY: LEE & LOW BOOKS Inc.,
1993.
NOTE: If you click on the chart, you will be able to see it better.
Name: ___________________________________
Luis’s Story: Making Gravel at Ten Years Old
Luis, a 10-year-old-Maya-K’iche’ youth spends much of his day chipping river rock to make gravel. (The K’iche’ are the largest Mayan group in Guatemala.) His family sells the gravel to people driving by on the highway from their roadside stand.
Luis, his mother, and his sisters and brothers, must make gravel and sell it in order to have money for food. It is dangerous, tedious work. Tiny slivers of rock sometimes fly up into Luis’s eyes. He does not have safety glasses to
wear. The shock of the constant chipping can lead to nerve damage in the hands. Luis and his family don’t make much money for their labor and must work all day, including Saturdays, under the hot Pacific coast sun. Their need to work prevents Luis and his siblings from attending school.
Luis’s father is an undocumented immigrant in the United States who finds work for short periods of time and sends money to his family when he can. The work he finds, however, does not pay very much, and he lives under the
constant threat of being send back to Guatemala. Many present-day Maya live under these conditions.
Discussion Questions
1. How do Luis and his family meet their need for food?
2. What does it mean that Luis’ father is an “undocumented immigrant” in the United States?
3. Why do you think Luis doesn’t wear safety glasses as he works?
4. What do you think about the life of Luis and his family?
5. What might citizens of the United States do to improve the life of someone like Luis who lives in another country?
