Lesson Plan: Writing to Publicize an Event - The Cultural Day Festival on Sapelo Island
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Print Lesson PlanOverview
Students will use information about the Gullah Geechee people in the video to create posters publicizing the Cultural Day Festival on Sapelo Island, Georgia.
Why is this an important concept?
Organizing thoughts through the use of graphic organizers helps students plan their writing. Pre-writing activities that promote organization can assist students as they plan the sequence, structure, and content for their writing. Once thoughts are organized, students can reflect on their understanding of the content. In this case, the content relates to understanding a culture. Organizing thoughts is also helpful in expressing thoughts by speaking.
Grade Level:
4-6Suggested Time
50-minutes
Media Resources
- Gullah Music QuickTime Video
Materials
- Gullah Planning Form handout
- Gullah rubric
- Chart paper and markers
The Lesson
Part I: Learning Activity
1. Photocopy a Gullah Planning Form handout for each student.
2. Explain to the class that they are going to watch a video called "Gullah Music." It takes place in the Sapelo Island, Georgia community. The people who live there are descendents of African slaves who were brought to Sapelo Island over 200 hundred years ago. They have preserved the Gullah Geechee culture, which still embraces the music and traditions of the slaves who lived there. The video segment shows examples of several activities from the yearly Culture Day Festival held on the island. As students watch the segment, ask them to think about what information would be most important to share with people who live outside the community.
3. After viewing the video, discuss questions such as the following: What kinds of information about the culture are presented at the festival? How do visitors learn about the Gullah Geechee culture? When visitors learn about the ways the Gullah Geechee people live, how will it help preserve the culture? Use the Gullah Planning Form to organize ideas.
For Students Who Need Additional Teacher Guidance
1. Brainstorm and list on the board activities students remember from the video that reflect the Gullah Geechee culture.
2. Discuss what information is essential to include on posters, such as the date, time, place, and what the event is. Also discuss what kinds of interesting information and images might entice people to come to the festival, keeping in mind that educating others about the Gullah Geechee culture and preserving the culture are two major goals of the festival.
3. To model for students, begin a poster with the essential information contributed by students. Brainstorm ideas about what else could be included on the poster.
4. Distribute the Culture Day poster to small groups of students and ask each group to create a poster advertising Culture Day.
5. Students share posters with the class and discuss how well they think the posters advertise the festival.
6. Use the Gullah rubric to evaluate posters.
Part II: Assessment
1. After watching the video, "Gullah Music," do a small group (or individual) activity: Tell students they are in charge of publicity for the Gullah Geechee Culture Day. Discuss why it is important to display posters for events and what information (e.g., date, time, and place) is typically included on posters.
2. Then introduce their task: to create posters, which provide interesting and important information about Culture Day and will entice people to attend. Discuss what kind of information about the Gullah Geechee culture would encourage people to attend the festival (e.g., particular events), keeping in mind that educating others about the Gullah Geechee culture and preserving the culture are two major goals of the festival.
3. Students share their completed posters with small groups or with the entire class.
4. Discuss which images and words are most effective.
5. Use the Gullah rubric to evaluate the posters.
We assign reference terms to each statement within a standards document and to each media resource, and correlations are based upon matches of these terms for a given grade band. If a particular standards document of interest to you is not displayed yet, it most likely has not yet been processed by ASN or by Teachers' Domain. We will be adding social studies and arts correlations over the coming year, and also will be increasing the specificity of alignment.Media Resources Used in this Lesson:
Gullah Music
(QuickTime Video)
Resource Produced by:
Collection Developed by:
Collection Funded by:
Funding for the VITAL/Ready to Teach collection was secured through the United States Department of Education under the Ready to Teach Program.