Last updated: September 24, 2024
Lesson Plan
Culture: Languages, Food, and Stereotyping
People of various cultures and languages participated in the fur trade.
NPS/D. Ocheltree
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 3.L.4, 3.L.4.a, 4.L.4, 4.L.4.a, 4.L.5, 5.L.4.a, 5.L.5.a, 3.RF.4.c, 4.RF.4, 4.RF.4.c, 5.RF.4.c, 3.RI.1, 3.RI.2, 4.RI.1, 4.RI.2, 3.SL.1, 4.SL.1, 5.SL.1
- State Standards:
- 4th History 1.1.c. Explain through multiple perspectives, the human interactions among people and cultures that are indigenous to or migrated to present-day Colorado. Including but not limited to: historic tribes of Colorado...Spanish explorers...traders.
- Thinking Skills:
- Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts.
Essential Question
• Identify and analyze the adjectives that Josiah Gregg uses to describe three different cultural habits.
• In what ways does Gregg’s account, read mostly by Anglo readers, contribute to stereotyping and why would that be problematic?
Objective
Identify and analyze how Josiah Gregg's Anglo male perspective influences his interpretation of cultural expression as observed in speech, mannerisms, and diet.
Background
Overview Background:
The southeastern Colorado trading post known as Bent’s Fort was established in 1833 along the Arkansas River bordering Mexico. As a major stop between Independence, MO and Santa Fe, NM, Bent’s Fort was a multicultural and international commerce hub on the Santa Fe Trail. Built on the homelands of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, deemed unorganized U.S. territory during this period, Bent's Fort traded primarily in buffalo robes procured by the Cheyenne and Arapaho people. Traders and merchants from dozens of other Native American nations and Mexico successfully supplied, traded, and exported items here until 1849.
The lessons in this unit are based on and include excerpts taken directly from Josiah Gregg’s 1844 published journal titled The Commerce of the Prairies. As a young man, Josiah first embarked with a caravan on the Santa Fe Trail in 1831. For the next nine years, he detailed the commerce, cultures, customs, ecology, and politics of the time. His insights detail firsthand experiences across the southern Great Plains during the fur trade era giving us a fuller picture of the lives and livelihoods for people at Bent's Fort.
The unit overview is as follows:
Lesson 1 – Geography of the Plains – Navigation Tools and Isolation
Lesson 2 – Riverways – Sustenance and Safety
Lesson 3 – Optical Illusions and Mirage
Lesson 4 – Climate, Drought and Seasons
Lesson 5 – Flora on the Plains – Grasses, Trees, and Agriculture
Lesson 6 – Fauna: Draft Animals, Buffalo and Rattlesnakes
Lesson 7 – Culture: Languages, Food, and Stereotyping
Lesson Background:
This lesson directly engages cultural difference and confronts subtle bias and stereotype as perceived by the dominant culture. Through a peer activity, students will focus on reading non-verbal cues during a student-directed conversation. The lesson has the capacity to encourage inclusivity and multicultural understanding. Prior knowledge of the fur trade era will help give this lesson context. See Introduction to Bent's Old Fort PowerPoint in lesson materials.
Prior knowledge of the fur trade era will help give this lesson context. See "Introduction to Bent's Old Fort PowerPoint" in lesson materials.
Preparation
Materials needed:
- Josiah Gregg "Culture: Languages, Food, and Stereotyping" narrative text (original) with note-catcher or Josiah Gregg "Culture: Languages, Food, and Stereotyping" narrative text (alternate) with note-catcher
- Native American sign language exerpts from Indian Sign Language by William Tomkins, Dover Publications, Inc. New York, 1969.
Materials
Companion text for lesson 7 that contains an original version and an alternate version with modified vocabulary.
Download Josiah Gregg Lesson 7 Culture: Languages, Food, and Stereotyping Narrative Text
Extension resource for various common words in Native American sign language
Download Native American sign language excerpts
An optional 37-slide introduction to Bent's Old Fort with notes to build prior knowledge of the fur trade era before teaching lesson 7.
Download Introduction to Bent's Old Fort PowerPoint
Lesson Hook/Preview
Place students in pairs for a 3-minute conversation. Assign one as person “A” person and the other as person "B." Tell the person A to start a conversation about any topic they like with person B, but advise person A to secretly take mental notes regarding any gestures and vocal variety made by person B during the conversation.
Define culture on the board. Explain to the whole group that today’s lesson focuses on how different cultures communicate which includes their facial expressions, gestures, vocal range, and body language. Tell students that aside from causing harm to others, there is no right and wrong way to communicate – just different ways humans express themselves.
Check in with the student pairs. Call on Person B volunteers to share their topic of conversation and decribe it in terms of its mood. Was it exciting, boring, sad, humorous, scary, etc.? Follow up by asking why person B categorized the conversation that way. Was it the speaker's tone of voice, eye contact, enthusiasm, shared interest in the topic, etc.?
Next, call on Person A's to share their mental notes on person B’s behavior during discussion. Set the expectation that students are sharing facts, not evaluations (e.g. “Person B waved their hands while they talked”, not “Person B talked crazy” or “Person B talked fast”, not “Person B talked too fast.”) Give feedback that supports expressional difference.
After all have shared, ask students, “Does every member of your family talk or express themselves in the same way?” (Expect most to recognize differences within their own families.) Explain to the whole group that how we interact with each other is influenced by our culture and families, but the way we express ourselves is also individual. Tell students that when studying cultures, it’s important to remember that the habits of one member does not represent the entire culture.
Procedure
1. Define stereotype on the board - “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing”
2. Give background on Josiah Gregg. Remind students that Gregg comes from an established settlement in Ohio during the 1830s and 1840s and his travel west put him into contact with people groups he had never encountered before.
3. Read aloud the original or alternate version of the Language section of Josiah Gregg narrative text “Lesson 7 Culture: Languages, Food, and Stereotyping.”
4. After reading the first three sentences, stop and consider the statement "It is rare that such a variety of ingredients are found mixed up in so small a compass." Ask students to brainstorm what Gregg intends to mean by using this figurative language (namely, many different peoples located in a small area).
5. Finish reading the Language section aloud to the end.
6. Put students in small groups. Direct them to circle the describing words/adjectives that Gregg uses for each individual culture in the first two paragraphs. Then use the notecatcher to align the groups with their descriptions. (There are 6 total groups: French, German, Polish, Creek & Chickasaw, and Mexican.)
7. For unfamiliar words, have students use context clues to determine meaning. Many terms have already been underlined. Together, the whole class will clarify meanings together after the group work.
8. Call on students to offer definitions for vocabulary. (See above or generate new synonyms).
9. Go over correct answers to notecatcher.
10. Assign reading of Mexican food section in small groups, pairs, or individually.
11. Refer back to definition of stereotype. Tell students that when Gregg's journal was published, it was read mostly by Anglo readers out east. Ask students to find any sentences in the text that might cause a reader to develop a stereotype about a culture. Ask volunteers to share the sentence and what the stereotype might be. For example, Gregg describes Mexicans as "loquacious" giving the impression that Mexican culture is necessarily a talkative one. Consider if the stereotype puts that particular culture in a positive or negative light.
12. Conclude by discussing how stereotyping can be harmful. (See optional Social Emotional Learning extension).
13. Pass out Exit Ticket.
Vocabulary
culture - the customs of a particular nation or people
seldom - rare
discordant - clashing
volubility - constant speech
gesticultations - dramatic body language
frigidity - unmoving
phlegmatic - unemotional
eccentricity - strangeness
exiles - foreigners
stoical - frozen
pantomimic - exaggerated
sundry - various
loquacious - talkative
Assessment Materials
Josiah Gregg Lesson 7 Exit TicketJosiah Gregg Exit Ticket containing Lesson 7's essential questions.
1. Identify the adjectives that Josiah Gregg uses to describe three different cultural habits.
2. In what ways does Gregg's account, read mostly by Anglo readers, contribute to stereotyping and why would that be problematic?
Josiah Gregg Exit ticket containing Lesson 7's essential questions.
Rubric/Answer Key
Josiah Gregg Lesson 7 Exit TicketJosiah Gregg Exit Ticket Answers to Lesson 7's essential questions.
1. Identify the adjectives that Josiah Gregg uses to describe three different cultural habits. Potential answers include: dramatic French, frigid and unemotional Germans, eccentric Poles, frozen Creek and Chickasaw, and talkative Mexicans.
2. In what ways does Gregg's account, read mostly by Anglo readers, contribute to stereotyping and why would that be problematic? Potential answers include: Gregg doesn't directly insult these cultures, but his descriptive language communicates he is entertained by their habits which suggests he thinks their conduct is outside of reasonable expectations. If Gregg's account was a reader's first introduction to a Frenchman, German, Pole, Creek, Chickasaw, or Mexican, the Anglo reader would be likely to view them as inferior.
Josiah Gregg Lesson 7 Note Catcher answer key
Supports for Struggling Learners
This lesson contains an alternate narrative text to modify the vocabulary.
Enrichment Activities
Social Emotional Learning extension: Relate personal experiences of being judged on your looks, behavior, or who you associate with. (Ex. “you’re just like your brother, sister, father, mother, cousin, friend, etc.”). Discuss how that experience makes a person feel. Consider why people tend to make those judgments or have those biases. Identify how judgments/stereotypes limit people’s ability to see each other for who they are.
Social Studies extension: Pair students with the Native American sign language handout to practice communicating a few words via sign. Determine the advantages and disadvantages of sign between Native American nations as well as its use with non-native peoples.
Language extension: Look up common words, phrases, and their pronunciations in the various languages Gregg refers to in the lesson: French, German, Polish, Creek, Chickasaw, and Spanish.
Science extension: Find traditional recipes and cooking tips for the foods Gregg mentions in his text.
Additional Resources
Josiah Gregg's The Commerce of the Prairies two volume 1849 digital publication.
Commerce Of The Prairies (1849) Josiah Gregg : Victorian Vault : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Indian Sign Language by William Tomkins, Dover Publications, Inc. New York, 1969.
Related Lessons or Education Materials
As a young man, Josiah Gregg embarked with a caravan on the Santa Fe Trail in 1831. For the next nine years, he kept a journal detailing the commerce, cultures, customs, ecology, and politics of the time making eight trips along this trading route. His journal titled The Commerce of the Prairies was published in 1844. All lessons in this unit are based on and include excerpts directly from this text. The unit overview is as follows:
Lesson 1 – Geography of the Plains – Navigation Tools and Isolation
Lesson 2 – Riverways – Sustenance and Safety
Lesson 3 – Optical Illusions and Mirage
Lesson 4 – Climate, Drought and Seasons
Lesson 5 – Flora on the Plains – Grasses, Trees, and Agriculture
Lesson 6 – Fauna: Draft Animals, Buffalo and Rattlesnakes
Lesson 7 – Culture: Languages, Food, and Stereotyping