The Library of Congress
collage of wedding, christening, and burial ceremonies Exploring Cultural Rituals
Nanci Douglas & Mary Ruddy

Using photos, documents, and music from American Memory and other resources, students in a communications skills class investigate rituals and customs of various cultures.

They then interview family members to deepen their understanding of their own cultural celebrations. Using their oral presentation skills, students present one cultural ritual from their ethnic group to the class.
Objectives:

Students will:

  • improve their oral and written communication skills;
  • write correct bibliographic citations for primary sources; and
  • gain tolerance and acceptance of all cultures through the exploration and analysis of holiday and stages of life rituals which unite a group by preserving cultural identity and heritage.
Time Required:

Two weeks

 
Recommended
Grade Level:

6 – 12

 
Curriculum Fit:

Communication skills, English, U.S. history

 
Standards:

McREL 4th Edition Standards & Benchmarks

Geography
Standard 6. Understands that culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions

Historical Understanding
Standard 2. Understands the historical perspective

Language Arts
Standard 4. Gathers and uses information for research purposes
Standard 8. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes
Standard 9. Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media
Resources: American Memory Collections: Student Handouts:

Procedure

Activity 1:   (1 class period)

Divide the class into groups of four. Give each group wedding photographs from The South Texas Border, 1900-1920 along with photographs of Asian and African American wedding couples. Students will be analyzing the photographs using a Material Analysis Guide. Students discuss similarities and differences of the ritual events.

Give students 5 minutes to write down the answers to the following questions:

Write student answers on board noting similarities or differences in rituals.
Tell students they will be investigating their family traditions.

Lecture and visuals: on christening, wedding, funeral, and holiday customs.
Discussion of attributes common to many rituals:

Activity 2:   (1 class period)

Schedule library time to use American Memory resources.

Demonstrate how to search collections and how to limit a search to photographs, text documents, sound recordings or film. Show Search Help.

Show students American Memory documents of a German-Russian wedding, entitled Catherine Margaret Weber, and a Hispanic wedding, entitled Cecilia Richards Alvarez, from American Life Histories, 1936-1940. Students work at library tables using MLA Style Citation Format for American Memory Text Document, Bibliography for American Memory Text Document, and Written Document Analysis.

Ask students to find the author, interviewee, title of collection, protocol, address, and date of interview as wedding documents are read aloud to students.

Students write a bibliographic citation for the Weber document as you model the correct bibliographic form.

Give students class time to complete the bibliographic citation of the Alvarez document on the Written Document Analysis. Students will complete the Using MLA Citation Format worksheet and the two Written Document Analysis worksheets at the conclusion of the class period.

Activity 3:   (1 class period)

Students will listen to and read lyrics to wedding and funeral music from:

Students compare and contrast themes, gender roles, and religious overtones in the music using VENN Diagram Form. Students also complete an Intercultural Music Activity worksheet for bibliographic information.

Activity 4:  (1 class period)

Students create Intergenerational Interview questions, and use the Intergenerational Interview Form to obtain information from parents and/or grandparents regarding christening, wedding, funeral and holiday customs in which they participated as children.

A letter should be sent to parents and guardians explaining the assignment. English Version Letter and Spanish Version Letter.

Activity 5:   (3-4 class periods)

Students choose and present orally to the class one christening, wedding, funeral, or holiday ritual from their ethnic group. This presentation demonstrates their knowledge of the particular custom. Requirements for the oral presentation are visuals, outline of presentation and student question for the test.  The student test question will be used to encourage active listening. Teacher explains Oral Presentation Rubric.

Activity 6:   (1 class period)

Students also compare and contrast the ritual they have chosen with a historical counterpart using the American Memory collection. Students will be given search terms to use with the specific collections. Students use the American Life Histories-Compare and Contrast worksheet to help find information for this assignment. This three-page essay must include historical differences, modern similarities and reasons for continued popularity or disappearance in culture.  Schedule library time for research.  Essays will be evaluated by using the Compare/Contrast Rubric.

Evaluation and Extension

Teacher evaluates students on their oral presentations with the Oral Presentation rubric and their written essays via the Compare and Contrast rubric.

Students will also be evaluated by student-generated test questions.

Extension may include portfolios and cultural fairs.

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Last updated 01/03/2003