Classroom Activity

Florida Cultural History through Imagery

Procedure for Classroom Activity

1. Discuss how students can become good historical detectives and uncover clues from history. Students will have visited the site to search for evidence and hunt for clues.

2. Divide the class into groups. Each group should select a presenter. Students will use different sets of images to compare and contrast. Ask students to play detective. They will carefully observe details to analyze each photographic clue, keeping in mind that photographers, architects and artists, like speakers and writers, have points of view and a story to tell.

3. Brainstorm to discern the historical circumstances, conditions, geographical setting, economy, social status, and cultural interaction evidenced in the images. Students will determine the bias or perspective of the artist. Students will ask questions; who, what, where, why, how, when, to form a hypothesis about the image; we think, we believe, because. Students will search for other clues to test their hypothesis. The presenter from each group will present their findings.

4. Debate the findings. Did other groups reach the same conclusion? Rethink the original hypothesis and make necessary changes according to the findings of other students.

Review and Evaluation

1. Summarize and review student’s responses to the statements. Discuss in particular any of the criteria or conditions that have been identified during the activity. Also discuss reasons why students may have changed their opinions during the activity.

2. Have students create or cut pictures from newspapers or magazines that reflect the image of their culture today from their perspective.

3. Compare and contrast images of today and yesterday.

Procedure for Field Trip Activity

1. Plan a field Trip to the host museum of Myths and Dreams: A Millennial Exhibition Exploring the Cultural Legacies of Florida and the Caribbean. (See web site for schedule).

2. Follow the same procedure for classroom activity using the images in the exhibition rather than the web site.

Florida Department of Education

Sunshine State Standards

Social Studies 6-8

Time, Continuity, and Change [History]

Standard 3: The student understands Western and Eastern civilization since the Renaissance.

1. understands ways in which cultural characteristics have been transmitted from one society to another (e.g., through art, architecture, language, other artifacts, traditions, beliefs, values, and behaviors).
2. understands the historical events that have shaped the development of cultures throughout the world.
3. knows how physical and human geographic factors have influenced major historical events and movements.
4. knows significant historical leaders who have influenced the course of events in Eastern and Western civilizations since the Renaissance.
5. understands the differences between institutions of Eastern and Western civilizations (e.g., differences in governments, social traditions and customs, economic systems and religious institutions).

Standard 4: The student understands U.S. history to 1880.

1. knows the factors involved in the development of cities and industries (e.g., religious needs, the need for military protection, the need for a marketplace, changing spatial patterns, and geographical factors for location such as transportation and food supply).
2. knows the role of physical and cultural geography in shaping events in the United States (e.g., environmental and climatic influences on settlement of the colonies, the American Revolution, and the Civil War).
3. understands the impact of significant people and ideas on the development of values and traditions in the United States prior to 1880.
4. understands how state and federal policy influenced various Native American tribes (e.g., the Cherokee and Choctaw removals, the loss of Native American homelands, the Black Hawk War, and removal policies in the Old Northwest).

Standard 6: The student understands the history of Florida and its people

1. understands how immigration and settlement patterns have shaped the history of Florida.
2. knows the unique geographic and demographic characteristics that define Florida as a region.
3. knows how the environment of Florida has been modified by the values, traditions, and actions of various groups who have inhabited the state.
4. understands how the interactions of societies and cultures have influenced Florida's history.
5. understands how Florida has allocated and used resources and the consequences of those economic decisions.