| Lesson
5: Core Elements of Wabanaki Culture
and Cultural Continuity
Class
time needed: 40 minutes
- Materials
Your “Classroom Culture as a Circle”
diagram
Teacher Background Core Elements
of Wabanaki Cultures
Teacher Key to Core Elements
Teacher Key to Cultural Continuity
- Objectives
Students will be able to define three
core elements of Wabanaki culture: Lifeways,
Homelands and Independence.
Students will be able to identify examples
from their culture circle that might
represent the concepts of Lifeways,
Homelands and Sovereignty.
Students will understand that although
cultures change over time, core elements
of culture continue.
- Introduction
This activity asks students to learn
about core elements of Wabanaki cultures
and how those core elements continue,
even though culture changes.
- Procedure
1. Introduce, define and add each core
element of Wabanaki cultures to the
culture circle, using the teacher background
information and the Teacher Key
to Core Elements.
2. After introducing, defining and listing
each element, ask students to choose
parts from their classroom culture circle
that might be considered part of a core
element. For example, what parts of
the classroom culture circle might be
considered part of “Lifeways?”
What parts might be considered part
of “Homelands? ” What parts
might be considered part of “Sovereignty?”
Capture their answers on the board.
Be sure to remind students that core
elements are not the same as parts of
culture. Core elements are important
“big ideas” or values that
crisscross many different parts of a
culture.
3. Ask students to think about core
elements from their culture. What are
some of the most important “big
ideas” or shared values in their
culture? Brainstorm together as a class.
(Teacher note: remember, every person
belongs to many different cultural groups
at the same time, i.e. “Mainers,”
“Americans,” “Women”
or “Catholics,” for example.
Don’t necessarily steer students
toward “American” culture
only. Let them answer freely, and ask
them to explain their answers.)
4. Using the Teacher Key to Cultural
Continuity, add the “changes”
boxes and arrows to your classroom culture
diagram: social, economic, physical
environment and political. Explain to
students that outside events affect
parts of culture and core elements.
In turn, parts of culture and core elements
affect outside events.
5 Ask students to brainstorm some examples
of an outside event or change that might
affect a part of culture. For instance,
what parts of culture might be affected
by the discovery of life on other planets?
How? How did a change in the physical
environment like the tsunami or Hurricane
Katrina affect parts of culture?
6 Ask students to brainstorm some examples
of parts of culture that might affect
outside forces? For example, how could
a culture’s ideas about land change
the physical environment? How would
a culture’s preference for a certain
type of food cause economic changes?
- Debriefing
1. Culture is complex and changes or
adapts over time, but core elements,
or big ideas, stay the same. That’s
called cultural continuity. Why is learning
about a culture’s core elements
important?
2. How will learning about core elements
of Wabanaki culture help you to better
understand the choices Wabanaki people
have made through time?
3. You learned about the affects of
outside events on parts of culture.
How will this help you better understand
Wabanaki history?
4. You learned about the affects that
a culture can have on outside forces.
How will this help you to better understand
Wabanaki history?
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