The main point of this lesson was to talk about respect. After a lot of thinking, I ended up defining respect as “understanding that other people’s feelings, thoughts, traditions, etc. are just as important as your own.” This certainly isn’t the perfect definition, but I think that it was simple enough for the 3rd graders to understand, while still retaining important parts of its meaning.
I illustrated this by talking about Islam. My cousins lived in Morocco for a couple years when I was a kid. My family and I went to visit them while they lived there. I remember learning that Islamic countries don’t have any pictures of animals or plants in their art and I remember realizing that their different beliefs had led to art that I couldn’t have imagined. It is my first clear memory of understanding that different could be desirable and beautiful.
There are many traditions and beliefs in Islam like this one that are not common in mainstream American culture. However we need to respect those differences, we need to understand that their beliefs are just as valid as our own.
This is the signature of a sultan from the Ottoman Empire. The art project was for the students to write their names sort of like this calligraphy. This turned out to be a great opportunity to talk about unity and contrast.
For the project, the students make art using their own names. They practice writing their names in different ways till they found one they liked. Then they drew their names in big letters, and used pattern to fill in the spaces.
I don’t think that this week’s lesson when as well as previous lessons. I ended up doing a lot of talking. I wish that I had prepared more questions to give the class a chance to discuss what we were talking about. I certainly learned how to be more clear and focused for the next time I teach a lesson about respect.
When they were working on their art, I spent a few minutes reviewing what we had learned in the lesson. This ended up being a great way to emphasize the most important points of the lesson, especially because I had spent so much time talking.
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