MEDIA ARTS PROJECT The Seven Teachings Grade Subject Topic Description

Transcription

1 The Seven Teachings Grade 3 Subject Topic Social Studies Outline for Foundations for A Strong Community: Seven Teachings The Seven Teaching through media arts Description This project will explore the meaning and purpose of the Seven Teachings in your community. Students will create stories and make videos based on one of the Seven Teachings. The story or teachings of the Seven Teachings or Grandfathers can vary from each region and community. Every story told about the Seven Teachings or Grandfathers could be different. The version of the Seven Teachings or Grandfathers that is being shared depends on how each storyteller learned the story. The story can change and grow over time, just as human beings on the journey of life change and grow. Typically the story of the Seven Teachings or Grandfathers can be told by a local Elder, Healer, Medicine person or community member. Contact your local Native Friendship Centre to see if they have a Visiting Schools Program or if they could recommend someone to come and talk to your class. The following are some web-based resources that will be helpful with background information about the Seven Teachings or Grandfathers and Aboriginal culture in Canada. Wiiji Nimbawiyaang Elementary School Disabilities and the Seven Grandfathers INAC On-line communities: Visit schools North to South and East to West - and learn about some cool projects from First Nations and Inuit students across Canada The Seven Teachings - The Seven Teachings and the animals associated with them:

2 Lesson One Materials Needed: Fabric or large sheets of construction or mural paper, magazines, scissors and glue. Explore the relationship between community and responsible social behavior. Ask the students a series of questions relating to the meaning of community. What is a community? Who makes up a community? What makes a healthy, strong community? The students can come up with a variety of words that describe a healthy community. Create a list of these words. Some of these words will be used to create collages. Have the students clearly write out the words that they came up with for a healthy community on separate pieces of paper. The students will all search through magazines and cut out images based on those healthy community words. Have them paste the words and images on a few large piece of fabric or large sheets of construction/mural paper. When the collages are finished, clear a space in the centre of the classroom or use the gym or another large available area of the school. Have all of the children go into the open space and hold up these artworks above their heads so that the artworks are facing up in the direction of the sky. There should be a large number of students holding up each artwork and every student in the class should be participating. Explain to the children that they represent the strength of the community. Having all of the hands in the circle makes the community strong. Ask the students what would happen when some of the children are asked to leave the circle? What becomes of the circle then? Have the students leave the circle individually. What happens when there are only four students holding up each piece? All of the students except one under each collaged artwork will leave the circle so that they are holding up the artwork on their own. Have the class observe what happens. Lead a class discussion reflecting on the exercise and lesson contained within it. Ask the students how it felt to hold up the artwork as a group. How did it feel to hold up the artwork on your own? Closing the discussion with a comment such as: We are all part of the circle, that has no beginning and no ending and we all play a part may help to solidify the comments from the students. Lesson Two Materials Needed: Flash cards of the seven teachings: One side has the animal and the other side the definition of that teaching. Mobile Construction: Straws, pencil crayons, construction paper/stiff paper, string/wire. Have a discussion about being a teacher. Introduce the different methods of teachings around the world. Outline an example of different teachings. Ask who can or cannot be a teacher? Can your parents be teachers? What about inanimate objects?

3 Can a rock be a teacher? Can the sky be a teacher? Introduce the idea of animals and how they are teachers. How do Aboriginal people learn about the world? How do they learn about how we, human beings, interact with it? Introduce the idea that Aboriginal people learned and still learn from nature, Mother Earth and the animals around them. Introduce the animals from the Seven Teachings. (Refer to the animals and the teachings that they are associated with as listed at the end of this unit). Introduce the animals in the teachings and what they represent. Discuss how each animal represents a word that makes a community strong. Lead a discussion with the class to elaborate on the meanings of each word. The flash cards can be used as a reminder activity to help the students further solidify the connection between the animals and the Seven Teachings Create a mobile that physically shows how the Seven Teachings are connected to community. Photocopies of the character traits and animals of the Seven Teachings can be used in a collage form on construction paper. These pieces of paper can be attached with string to the straws to create the mobile. This will be an example of how everything needs balance and harmony. Lead a class discussion reflecting on the exercise and lesson. Lesson Three Review the animals and their teachings. Review what the teachings mean and how they relate to building a stronger community. Share a traditional Aboriginal story that talks about one of the Seven Teachings with the class. The students will use one of the teachings as the basis of their stories. The students will work in groups and come up with their own story based on one of the teachings. Their stories could be real or fictional. Provide time for the students to work in their groups to write their stories based on one of the Seven Teachings. If some of the groups are comfortable, have the children present their story in front of the class. The teacher leads a class discussion reflecting on the exercise and lesson. Lesson Four Materials needed: 5 cameras, videotapes, and tripods Review what they have learned about the Seven Teachings Introduce how filmmaking is a form of storytelling. Introduction to camera equipment: Set up and operation of tripod and camera. Practice filming/recording. Organize the class into 4 or 5 groups (depending on the size of the class). These groups will be assigned a camera, tripod and videotape. They will use the same camera, tripod and videotape for the whole unit. The groups will sit on the floor in front of their camera and tripod, which will be placed on the floor in front of them. They will return their gear to the same place at the end of each of the production lessons.

4 Conduct a brief warm-up exercise in which the students will stretch and create sounds such as hums and wows and ahhs. Have the students break into groups of 4-6 people. Have the students look at an object in the room. This will be a form of eye spy. Each student will address their group and describe the object that they see without saying what it is. The rest of the group will have to guess what the object is. The purpose of this exercise is to engage the students in the acts of hearing, seeing and describing, which are central to filmmaking. Introduce the class to the art and craft of filmmaking. Reinforce the central ideas of hearing, seeing and describing and the activities that will take place that day. Present, describe and explain the parts, functions and operation of the video camera, tripod and videotape including set-up of the tripod and its parts (i.e. legs, extensions, centre-post, locks, arm, head, tilt and pan) Demonstrate how to insert a tape or memory card into the camera, mount the camera on the tripod, turn the power of the camera on and off and place the camera in record on and pause modes. This presentation will include a discussion and demonstration of camera care and handling. With the help of adult assistants for each group, the students will practice the techniques of camera and tripod set-up and operation. Non-specific videotaping will take place. All of the camera gear will be closed and returned to the front of the class. The students will then be asked to name the parts and functions of the camera and tripod. If time allows, viewing of the first videos will take place. Lesson Five Materials needed: 5 cameras, videotapes, and tripods, name tags, 4 blank panel storyboards, pencils, very short story to share with the class. Have the class assemble in their groups in front of their cameras and tripods. Begin the lesson with the same warm-up exercises of the first class: stretches, hums and eye spy. Review the camera and tripod vocabulary and practices. Introduce and explain the concepts of a shot (wide shot, long shot, full shot, medium shot, closeup shot and extreme close-up) and storyboards. Explain the relationship between them and the necessity to make a storyboard when preparing to make a film. Tell a story with two different endings one with a happy ending and one with a sad ending. Ask the students to imagine what kind of shots would correspond with the text of the stories based on what they have just learned about shots. After telling the stories, the groups will be given blank storyboards and pencils. The students will then draw the kind of shots in the frames that they imagine for each part of the story. This storyboard will be approximately 15 frames, which will amount to 15 shots. Upon completion of the storyboard, explain the technique of setting up the shot, preparing the actor for filming, and then filming the shot using the zoom function on the camera. The groups will then be assigned places to film in the school (hallways, classrooms, and stairwells). The students will then take their gear to the assigned place, set up the gear and film their

5 storyboards. With the help of adult assistants for each group the students will film their storyboards. Upon completion of the exercise, the groups will return to the class, return their tripods in the original position, remove the videotapes from the cameras and then place the cameras on the table at the front of the class. The class will then view the films they just made. Lesson Six The students have now been exposed to both the creation and the use of the story boarding for structuring the visual aspects of a story and creating a video. Show a short clip of a video and a corresponding storyboard that can be deconstructed to see the correlation and structure regarding the use of storyboarding, and the planning of angles and shots. Students start to work in their groups to organize and storyboard the story that they have created based on one of the Seven Teachings. There should be no more than twenty simple shots in their storyboard. Each panel in their storyboard should be considered as to the type of shot (i.e. close-up, medium or long shot) as well as the angle of the camera (high, low, straight on) and if the camera will be moving (panning, zooming). It is important that there is time for the teacher to circulate and support students in their understanding of this task. Lead a discussion with the students about the creation of the storyboards. What was the most challenging aspect? What camera angles and types of shots did they use the most? What was the most fun aspect of the storyboard creation? Lesson Seven Lead a discussion with the class about the shooting element in the creation of a video. What jobs need to be done to make the video? Have the class assist in the creation of a list of activities that need to be accomplished for the shooting session, e.g.: camera operator, director, actors, locations manager, costumes, props, story continuity. The students will work further on their storyboards to completion. The students will also decide upon the jobs each of them will do when they shoot the video. Lead a discussion with the class about their storyboards and the jobs that every person will play in the shooting of their video. Lesson Eight Materials Needed: 5 cameras, videotapes, and tripods, completed storyboards, props for the videos. The class will assemble in their groups in front of their cameras and tripods. Begin the lesson with the same warm-up exercises of the first class: stretches, hums and eye spy. Review camera and tripod vocabulary and filming practices. Continue the discussion on the art and craft of filmmaking. Review the different types of shots that they will be using and what the emotional impact can be from those different shots. Discuss the plan of action with the students to ensure clarity and organization for all. The students

6 will then proceed to their locations to make their films. With the help of adult assistants for each group, the students will make their videos according to their storyboards. Upon completion of the video-making, the groups will return to the class and place their tripods back in the original position, remove the videotapes from the cameras and then place the cameras on the table at the front of the class. The class will then view the films that they just made. Lesson Nine Materials Needed: 5 cameras, videotapes, and tripods, completed storyboards, props for the films, blank paper and pencils. The class will continue to create their videos until every group is finished. The warm-up exercises, review of the camera techniques and of the art and craft of video-making will follow. Discuss the plan of action with the students to ensure clarity and organization for all. The students will then proceed to their locations to make their films. If a group has finished their film then they will undertake another filmmaking exercise. This exercise is a video treasure hunt using the alphabet. In this exercise the students will identify objects that begin with a letter of the alphabet. They will then write the name of the object down on a piece of paper from A to Z. This will be their script. They will then find or create the object and then film it using one of the different shots that they have learned. This exercise will take place all around the school. With the help of adult assistants both groups those that completed their first projects and those that are filming the Alphabet project will film their projects. Upon completion of the exercise, the groups will return to the class, place their tripods back in the original position, remove the videotapes from the cameras and then place the cameras on the table at the front of the class. The class will then view the films that they just made. The Seven Teachings Guide The following descriptions of the Seven Teachings and the animals that are associated with them are taken from: EAGLE - LOVE To feel true love is to know the Creator. Therefore, it is expected that one's first love is to be the Great Spirit. He is considered the father of all children, and the giver of human life. Love given to the Great Spirit is expressed through love of oneself, and it is understood that if one cannot love oneself, it is impossible to love anyone else. The Eagle was chosen by the Great Spirit to represent this law, as the Eagle can reach the highest out of all the creatures in bringing pure vision to the seeker. Though the purveyor of the greatest and most powerful medicine, love can also be the most elusive of the teachings, as it depends upon a world that acknowledges the importance of spirituality.

7 BUFFALO - RESPECT The Buffalo, through giving its life and sharing every part of its being, showed the deep respect it had for the people. No animal was more important to the existence of indigenous families than this animal, and it's gift provided shelter, clothing and utensils for daily living. Native people believed they were to be true caretakers of the great herds, and developed a sustainable relationship with the Buffalo resulting in a relationship that was a true expression of respect. BEAR - COURAGE The Bear provides many lessons in the way it lives, but courage is the most important teaching it offers. Though gentle by nature, the ferociousness of a mother Bear when one of her cubs is approached is the true definition of courage. To have the mental and moral strength to overcome fears that prevent us from living our true spirit as human beings is a great challenge that must be met with the same vigour and intensity as a mother Bear protecting her cub. Living of the heart and living of the spirit is difficult, but the Bear's example shows us how to face any danger to achieve these goals. CHII-NINI (che ninah) HONESTY Long ago, there was a giant called Chii-nini. Chii-nini walked among the people to remind them to be honest to the laws of the creator and honest to each other. The highest honour that could be bestowed upon an individual was the saying "There walks an honest man. He can be trusted." To be truly honest was to keep the promises one made to the Creator, to others and to oneself. The Elders would say, "Never try to be someone else; live true to your spirit, be honest to yourself and accept who you are the way the Creator made you." WISDOM - BEAVER The building of a community is entirely dependent on gifts given to each member by the creator and how these gifts are used. The Beaver's example of using his sharp teeth for cutting trees and branches to build his dams and lodges expresses this teaching. If he did not use his teeth, the teeth would continue to grow until they became useless, ultimately making it impossible for him to sustain himself. The same can be said for human beings. One's spirit will grow weak if it is not fulfilling its use. When used properly however, these gifts contribute to the development of a peaceful and healthy community. WOLF - HUMILITY Recognizing and acknowledging that there is a higher power than man known as the Creator is to be deemed truly humble. To express deference or submission to the Creator through the acceptance that all beings are equal is to capture the spirit of humility. The expression of this humility is manifested through the consideration of others before us. In this way, the Wolf became the teacher of this lesson. He bows his head in the presence of others out of deference, and once hunted, will not take of the food until it can be shared with the pack. His lack of arrogance and respect for his community is a hard lesson, but integral in the Aboriginal way. TURTLE - TRUTH To know truth is to know and understand all of the original laws as given by the Creator- and to remain faithful to them. It is said that in the beginning, when the Creator made man and gave him the

8 seven sacred laws, the Grandmother Turtle was present to ensure that the laws would never be lost or forgotten. On the back of a Turtle are the 13 moons, each representing the truth of one cycle of the Earth's rotations around the sun. The 28 markings on her back represent the cycle of the moon and of a woman's body. The shell of the Turtle represents the body s real events as created by the Higher Power, and serves as a reminder of the Creator's will and teachings.