Classroom Resources - Oral History & Timeline

Summary
Objectives
Materials Needed
Procedures
Assessment
Extension Activities
Relevant Curriculum Standards


Summary:

Holo Mai Pele chronologically displays the events of Pele from her arrival to Hawai'i, through her battles, her relationships, her victories and her despairs. This lesson helps students to gain a clear understanding of components of specific historical events through personal and family experiences and beliefs and to put such into perspectives that allow for more informed decision making to take place. Students will create a chronological timeline for the events in Holo Mai Pele, then gather oral histories to create both a personal and familial timeline.

Objectives:

Students will:

• increase primary resources for classroom project focuses;
• make connections between student and their family, their community, and their environment;
• foster and improve positive communication and social skills;
• understand and utilize the inquiry process of questioning and cueing;
• understand first-hand the economic, social, aesthetic, and political components of their own family and community;
• reflect on their own everyday experiences and personal beliefs;
• appreciate who they are and their own place of setting;
• use language and literature to gain insight into their own and other's lives, and to build understanding of different cultures, including value systems, languages, traditions, and individual perspectives;
• identify and evaluate the aspects of accuracy, bias, point of view, and timeliness in information in the form of oral histories;
• use social and interpersonal skills in discussing and understanding varied opinions and opposing viewpoints;
• analyze and evaluate situations and characters to build understanding of self and others and make judgements;
• express their own feelings and thoughts on historical and current topics of interest to them and to others;
• comprehend and interpret oral messages on a variety of topics by listening, observing, reading, and discussing.

Materials Needed:

• Tape of Holo Mai Pele
• Family Members
• Roll of freezer paper
• Markers
• Ruler
• Tape Recorder/Tape

Procedures:

1. If tape is available, view Holo Mai Pele. You can also use this website's summary of the Pele legend, poetry excerpts, and video clips, which can be found at Holo Mai Pele - The Story. In groups of 2-3, have students write in chronological and sequential order their interpretation of what is happening in the story. Students are to identify major events of the story.
2. Review the essays on Hawaiian Culture, Hawaiian Mythology, and The Hula to place the dance in historical context.
3. Describe or review the purpose of a timeline. What can a timeline depict? What symbols are used on the timeline? What examples of a timeline exists?
4. Students in their groups will develop a timeline displaying the major events of the story. Students will decide that they will use words, pictures, or symbols as representations of these events, characters, etc.
5. Students will share their timelines with other members of their class and display their timelines in the classroom if allowed.
6. Students will reflect on their own lives and write major events that they remember. They will gather pictures, "artifacts" of their own lives and display them on a timeline. Students will share their individual timelines of their own lives with other members of their class and display their timeline in the classroom if allowed.
7. Students will choose members of his/her family in conducting an oral history of their own family. Students will use the inquiry process in identifying between 20-30 questions focusing on their own family and events that they feel are significant.
8. Students may choose to record the oral history.
9. Students will transcribe the questions and responses on a piece of paper.
10. Using the information given by family members, students will create a timeline of their family. Students may decide to use words, pictures, or symbols.

Assessment:

Student will complete three timelines:

1. Focusing on the Videotape, Holo Mai Pele,
2. Themselves, and
3. Their families.

As a class, criteria will be developed using the following:

1. Presentation
2. Use of accurate information
3. Adequate research completed
4. Use of different resources
5. Ability to articulate meaning of heraldries

Extension Activities:

• Students will create a map of origin of family members.
• Students will research the social, historical, economical, and political aspects of the place of origin of their own family.
• Students will practice the creation of timelines with literature, major historical events, etc.
• The class will maintain a timeline of their school year.
• Students will maintain an individual timeline of themselves throughout the school year.

Relevant Curriculum Standards:

This lesson correlates to the following McCrel K-12 Standards, located online at www.mcrel.org/compendium/browse.asp.

Language Arts Standards

• Writing
• Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process
• Uses the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing
• Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions
• Gathers and uses information for research purposes
• Reading
• Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of literary texts
• Listening and Speaking
• Using listening and speaking strategies for different purposes
• Viewing
• Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media
• Media
• Understands the characteristics and components of the media

Historical Understanding Standards

• Understands and knows how to analyze chronological relationships and patterns
• Understands the historical perspective

Thinking and Reasoning Standards

• Understands and applies the basic principles of presenting an argument
• Understands and applies basic principles of logic and reasoning
• Effectively uses mental processes that are based on identifying similarities and differences
• Understands and applies basic principles of hypothesis testing and scientific inquiry
• Applies basic trouble-shooting and problem-solving techniques
• Applies decision-making techniques

Geography Standards

• Environment and Society
• Understands how human actions modify the physical environment.
• Understands how physical systems affect human systems
• Understands the changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources
• Understands how geography is used to interpret the past
• Places and Regions
• Understands the physical and human characteristics of place
• Understands the concept of regions
• Understands that culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions.

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