In response to the chapter about food and popular culture in Tooning In, I have developed a unit with concepts inspired by the major points in the text. The target audience would be grades 9 & 10 in a social sciences class (psychology, sociology, etc). The unit is in outline form with the purpose of each activity, the mystery question to be considered and resolved (if possible), and the basic activities. Many of the “activities” would be the ‘final project’ for that part of the unit—there would be lots of discussion and teacher provided notes along the way before arriving at most of these projects.
Food as Cultural Currency Unit
Part 1: Saturation
Purpose: To become mindful of how/where food and body image inundate us
Question: How long can you go through a day without a message relating to food crossing your eyes/ears?
Activites:
A. Find 10 examples of ‘food message media’ and create a basic collage
B. Journal 90 minutes of after school time minute by minute noting ANY food related image you find
C. Reflect: Where did most of the food images come from? What were the messages in the images? Did they impact your thoughts or actions? (how) What did you realize by doing this activity?
Part 2: You Are How You Eat
Purpose: Consider how people eat and how our personalities may be reflected through our food behaviors.
Question: What do someone’s eating habits say about their personality and ability to connect with others?
Activities:
A. Choose 3 people you eat with fairly often. You should know their personalities as well. One person should be a peer, one an ‘adult’ and the third anyone you choose.
B. Observe their eating habits (without telling them) and record your observations. Include notes on what they eat, how quickly they eat, do they mix the food on their plate, and where they eat.
C. Read the short article from Divine Caroline
D. Respond in a short reflective piece: Did their eating habits match the article? What are you more aware of after this activity? Do you think food behaviors/choices are reflective of personalities? Why or why not?
Part 3: The Ideal
Purpose: Consider how the ‘attractive female’ has changed over time and what cultural changes are a part of that.
Question: How and why has the image of the ‘attractive female’ changed?
Activities:
A. Find a picture of a woman of ‘western culture’ in the 1400s, the 1700s, the 1800s, the 1920s, the 1950s, 1980s, and today
B. Reflect: what are the similarities and differences do you see? (T-Chart or ven diagram)
C. Answer: What is likely the major reason the shift from ‘curvy’ to ‘skinny’ happened?
D. Read the article summarizing the ‘desirable woman’ in western culture.
E. Create a digital piece (PP, edited movie, digital poetry, etc) that shows the shift and at least one cultural reason for the shift from the 1400s to today.
Part 4: Talk Back
Purpose: Critically analyze a commercial and respond with other messages
Question: What messages are in mainstream commercials and what message do you want to send?
Activities:
A. Read “The Guide to Body Image”B. Find a commercial that is on TV today (Youtube, etc) that has ‘body image messages’ in it
C. Watch the piece several times noting the hidden messages and overt body image messages
D. Download the commercial and create a talk-back piece:
a. Over ride the audio (pick some of these options)
i. Say what you think of their portrayals/messages
ii. Be witty, serious, thoughtful, etc
iii. Change the commercial to be sarcastic
b. Add other images to convey your thoughts or change the meaning of the commercial
E. Present the piece to the class
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Thanks, Lisa. Some great ideas on how to incorporate the ideas from the reading into a meaningful lesson. Moreover, it looks like this would be appropriate for a variety of subjects. Getting students active in popular culture is an important takeaway.
ReplyDeleteI like how you put together this unit. I think it meets so many criterias. I think how you integrated the two (food and image) was very creative. I think this lesson will be very interesting, especially for the students working on this project.
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa,
ReplyDeleteI really like your blog entry about food. I think you did a really good job planning it out. I also liked the specifics of the readings and the activities. I think these are really good ideas. I especially like the activity of journaling of the students in relation to their surrounding of food. I think making personal connections in this way will help to see that eating healthy is a lifestyle rather than just 'eating.' I also think you did a good job incorporating different aspects of food habits into this assignment. You talked about personal connections but also the media and the the problem with body image in western culture of women. Although men are also starting to develop body image issues as well. Overall, I think this is a very good example of an assignment in relation to food culture.
Lisa:
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the great resources in your post.
I really appreciated how you incorporated media creation and literacy into the activities. Seems like a great way to maximize your impact. Do you do that sort of thing often? Where, how do kids get at those resources? Curious since I'm not in a school environment (except the U, which is so resource-rich as to make my head spin sometimes).
I also really liked the idea of studying gender representations over time. Seems like that could be a hugely rich and interesting are of study for young people, and as you intended, give them an interesting basis for comparison. I was conflicted over the singular focus on women, though. Felt like it was super suitable, with lots to learn/digest including equity issues. But wondered if and how boys would process it? I also wondered about whether the changes are as dramatic as with women and maybe not as provocative?
At any rate, I really enjoyed the post and assignment ideas. Thanks!
g/
The
Lisa:
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas for assignments on food with our students. We teach them how to add, multiply, read, and write in cursive. So why do we not devote time each day in teaching the importance of respecting our own bodies? If you do not mind I would like to borrow some of your assignment ideas...especially the journaling ones to help my female students feel better the bodies they are in.
Thanks for the great ideas!
Dear Lisa,
ReplyDeleteYour blog entries are really extensive. I am catching up on comments and will come back and make some more a little later on, its quite late and I am getting very tired. Two weeks or so ago, I was trying to write and entry to your piece on the Circle of Courage and since I could not remember how one used the Google Login kept losing everything I posted as comments for both you and Megan. I felt somewhat badly to be so technologically inept at it and then I was away for MEA for travel to see family and got behind on this altogether.
The Circle of Courage concept is elegantly simple, and it can be quickly grasped, and so very effective as a guide for a student to find their balance. It the media hype on body idealized images, it is very good to have a concept of independence, the ability to resist peer pressure or societal pressure to buy into visual or other stereotypes.
I see being able to inner direct and have a strong sense of identity as essential in life. We need to belong, but we can pick our community and communities we belong to with care and resist pressures to conform to values and identities others may try to create for us but that do not fit us.
I think quiet times of prayer and reflection and meditation are pieces that have helped me overcome many issues that distracted me from what I believe are my best investments of my time and energy. This is an admission of being a person of faith, and I hope that that does offend you. I think that the Native American view of the Earth and its living things in the idea of the web of life is a good summary of all that the science of ecology has to say. I especially perked up when I read this post on the Circle of Courage a couple of weeks ago.
My comments are in process, I will be catching up bit by bit and add more to your and Megan's blog pages. Pardon me for now, I am fading bit by bit and need to sign off for now,
Best to you,
John