Action Related- Students learn that they can use individual or collective assets to navigate and challenge systemic injustices or inequity of opportunities, or to increase pride in cultural identity.
Louisiana Culture Unit
While I am not a native resident of Louisiana, I am fascinated and connected to the state’s unique traditions and culture. While famous for its food, art, music, and swampy wetlands, being a Louisianan is much more than simply listening to jazz. My goal in implementing a unit of study around Louisiana was to increase my students’ awareness and pride in their cultural identity. Understanding and connecting with one’s cultural heritage, and identifying with the facets and traditions of the region helps inform students’ perspective of the world, and the issues that surround their community. In order to grow into an informed, active member of the community, students first need foundational knowledge of where they come from, and the historical legacy left by their regional predecessors. I sought to provide students with opportunities to experience various aspects of this culture, so they could form their own views and feelings towards their home state, and its quintessential features.
During this unit of study, students immersed themselves in local literature, sang and listened to traditional folk music, created regional specialty foods, shared family recipes, and explored specific holiday traditions. I wanted students to have the opportunity to demonstrate their creativity but also their cultural pride based on the content they had explored during this instructional unit. In preparation, students demonstrated their individual assets, by designing and building their own Mardi Gras floats, adhering to specific grade-level rubrics. Students incorporated ideas from the pictures and books from their studies, as well as generated their own novel designs. These student projects culminated in a student-led parade, thrown in front of the rest of the school, prior to the Mardi Gras holidays. Presenting their final work products to not only the age-level peers, but also their upperclassmen further validates my students’ perspective. It reinforced their ability to display cultural representations of Louisiana, and “authorizes” their experience as integral members of that culture (Fletcher, 2010).
Building Background
During the first two weeks of this unit of study, students engaged in cross-curricular activities, in order to gain hands-on experience and develop associations with regional vocabulary and staples. In learning centers, students used matching and classifying skills to sort through the sensory bin and locate common items found at seasonal Mardi Gras balls, such as crowns, rice, and doubloons (small colored coins). Collectively as a group, students used multi-media and technology tools in order to find and print pictures of major Louisiana cities that celebrate Mardi Gras, including New Orleans, Eunice, and Baton Rouge. I wanted to first give students the opportunity to explore using their senses, because I felt it increased student motivation and curiosity to further study their native culture.
In the photo and video above, two students search for a specified list of common Mardi Gras ball items, including a mask, different colored strings of beads, and doubloons. Students work cooperatively to locate the items, and each student practices applying and using the new vocabulary, with teacher prompting as necessary.
Additionally, students read several age-appropriate texts written by Louisiana authors, as well as listened and sang traditional songs that often accompany special occasions or regional celebrations. Seeking to connect students to members of their community, I invited a guest speaker, the head pastry chef/baker at Rouse’s Grocery Store to visit our class, and teach students how to make a King Cake. Students molded the dough, and decorated the baked pastries with their own versions of the traditional cake colors, evidenced by the two photographs below.
In this video, a student with language deficits selects a themed book of choice, My Aunt Came Back from Louisiane, by Johnette Downing. Student mimics teacher language in order to sing along with the story/song, while exploring state geography and regional resources, as depicted in the text.
Family Engagement
One important aspect of Louisiana culture and community is the familiar ties and relationships that life in the Deep South is built around. Including and engaging families is not only crucial in investing parents and stakeholders in their student’s educational journey, but also reflects how integral family involvement is to many communities in South Louisiana. To account for this aspect of culture, I asked parents and families to assist their child in the material gathering and brainstorming of their planned Mardi Gras floats. Given my students’ ages and various levels of fine motor ability, certain tasks necessary when building a float also require adult supervision. In addition, I sought to increase student investment in their cultural identity by making this event a shared experience with our families. Parents not only monitored the building of students’ individual floats, but also were active participants in the parade itself. Many parents mobilized their child’s float, while others threw celebratory items into the crowd, or played music, recreating an authentic parade experience. In this way, students and their families collectively demonstrated pride and enthusiasm in their cultural identity through a display of their own creativity and art on their floats.
Above, is the initial parent-family letter I sent home in order to engage families in the collective Mari Gras project.
Pre-Planning
While the majority of student float building occurred on their individual time, students worked collaboratively in class to generate various ideas regarding theme, colors, and backdrops they would possibly use. Students garnered design ideas from classroom decorations, research done using multi-media and internet searches, as well as their background knowledge from attending parades in the past. Students brainstormed and prepared individual sketches that represented their possible float design, and discussed the details with their tablemates in order to gain feedback and share ideas. Our team decided the theme for the parade was “Zoo-Lu”, which is a play on the parade Zulu, which is traditionally held on Mardi Gras Day, and showcases African American pride, as individuals of color were underrepresented or left out entirely from Mardi Gras Krewes, prior to 1960. The Krewe of Zulu was also one of the first social clubs to racially integrate, and today is known for its diversity of participants.
(Above left): Students garnered possible float ideas from the Powerpoint Presentation showcasing various Mardi Gras designs (Above right): student engages in themed dramatic play and acts out a parade scene while exploring and discussing possible parade interactions of her own to a nearby adult.
Student Work Products
On the Friday prior to the Mardi Gras holidays, students exhibited their finished work products-their themed floats-not only to their peers, but to the entire student body during parade time. Several students donned animal costumes, or self-made masks. The floats were decorated as animal habitats, in animal print, or some were even the animals themselves. Below are photographs of students' completed Mardi Gras parade floats, prior to walking or “riding” in the parade.
In conclusion, following our unit of study on Louisiana, students demonstrated their mastery not only of key social studies concepts, but also a renewed sense of cultural pride and knowledge of their heritage and regional traditions. By applying this knowledge to a real-world activity, in this case, designing and displaying a Mari Gras parade float, students demonstrate their increasing agency in advocating for the preservation and representation of their unique cultural identities as Louisianans.