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OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of the project, "Encounters
with Florida's Cultures,"
students will be able to:
 Plan, schedule and implement group activities.
Engage in group problem-solving and decision making.
Utilize interpersonal skills to accommodate individual
personalities with their varying degrees of commitment and motivation.
Appreciate how your own enthusiasm and commitment to learning can
infect and influence your fellow students.
Create
a multi-media presentation to share information with the class.
Apply knowledge of historical and cultural background to the
contemporary environment of Florida.
Appreciate how the variety of Florida's population enhances and
contributes to life in contemporary Florida.
Discuss the potential and problems facing Florida in the
Twenty-first Century.
FORMATION
OF RESEARCH TEAMS
Students will form their own teams of 3-4 students after they have become acquainted
with classmates. Each team will choose an ethnic group and research its history and
contribution to Florida culture. In forming your teams, you may wish to consider several
factors. Will it be easier to coordinate the schedules of three people rather than
four or five? If so, is it worth the extra effort? All groups, regardless of size, must meet the
same requirements. What is the transportation availability for the group? Are the
schedules of the group members compatible? Is it important that the group members live
close to each other? Is anyone a member of AAA and thus has access to guidebooks, maps,
etc. Does anyone have access to a camcorder or good camera? Who likes to write?
Who knows PowerPoint? Are the
other members of the group as committed to the project as you are?
THE
STUDY
Each research team will choose one of the ethnic groups listed
below:
 Seminole
|
African-American |
Jewish
|
| "Cracker," a European-American
subculture, usually of Scots-Irish background
|
Hispanic-American (choose one):
Spanish, Cuban,
Mexican, etc.
|
Mediterranean (choose one): Majorcan, Italian, Greek
|
| Amish/Mennonite, a European-American
subculture, usually of German background |
Eastern European (choose one): Polish, Russian, Serb,
Czech, Ukrainian, Albanian
|
Northern European (choose one): English, French,
German, Irish/Welsh, or Scandinavian |
| Mid-Eastern (choose one): Arabic, Turkish,
Palestinian, Persian
|
non-Hispanic Caribbean (choose one): Jamaican, Haitian
|
Asian (choose one): Indian, Chinese,
Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc.
|
Each research team will then proceed to learn as much as possible about the ethnic
group's contributions to Florida's culture. Most of this knowledge should come from
explorations into Florida's communities. You and your team-mates will select, visit and
study sites that illuminate the history and culture of the ethnic group. You are also
encouraged to interview people you know or meet from the ethnic group to learn more about
their heritage.
The team needs to create a theme or focus to unify and direct
the study. Most of the team's work will be done through field research. It is extremely important that the entire team participate together in
this field study. Although
there is no minimum number of research sites that are required, certain kinds of
exploration are highly recommended:
Visit a restaurant or grocery store specializing in
the food of the ethnic group (be sure to sample the wares and ask for recipes!).
Visit an art museum, an art gallery, or an historical
museum that contains a collection about the ethnic group.
Visit a neighborhood in which the ethnic group
predominates.
Attend a fair or cultural celebration highlighting
the ethnic group.
Attend a circus performance featuring members of the ethnic
group.
View a movie or video made in the homeland of the
ethnic group or featuring their life in Florida.
Visit a church/synagogue/mosque or attend a service at which many
of the ethnic group worships.
Visit an historic site which commemorates someone from the
ethnic group or an historic event in which the ethnic group participated.
See Floridiana Links for
some ideas.
Be sure to check out The Florida
Memory Project which includes a Photographic Collection of 80,000
photos, a Timeline of Florida History, original documents from the the
Florida State Archives and The
Online
Classroom: an educational web site for students and teachers with
transcripts and scanned images of original diaries, letters, documents and
photographs from Florida's past.
ROLES
AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Each member of the team will be assigned, by team consensus, one or more specific role
and its attendant responsibilities for the project; roles may be shared if the
team members decide that works better for them. Each team must include all roles.
Roles and duties are:
Recorder: The recorder will keep a record of all work completed by the
team -- a bibliography of articles and books read, videos or movies viewed, persons
interviewed, places visited, brochures, postcards,
menus, recipes, etc.
Photographer: The photographer will compile a visual record
(pictures that can be put on a PowerPoint presentation and/or video) of the team's studies. The visual record should include pictures of
the group visiting restaurants, fairs, museums; people interviewed by the group;
architectural sites, historic markers, etc. Make it lively and interesting!
Historian: The historian will be responsible for
researching a history of
the ethnic group's presence in Florida. Historical data should include population data,
dates the group emigrated to Florida, locations in which they settled, difficulties they
encountered in settling in Florida, contributions made to Florida culture, prominent
descendants, etc.
Editor:
The editor will edit the videotape presentation or put together the presentation
in a PowerPoint format (I will be happy to help anyone with PowerPoint
guidance, but if you decide to do a videotape, be sure someone in the group has
some expertise with this medium).
All written work must be typed.
TEAM
PRESENTATION
Each research team will present its findings to the class.
The 20-30 minute presentation will be in the form of a video
or PowerPoint presentation and should include the plan and purpose (focus and conclusions)
of the study, maps noting the locations and dates visited of the
study, pictures of the group visits, historical information about the ethnic
group's presence in Florida, and critiques of
art works.
The Project Notebook will be turned in at the time of the
class presentation
and must include:
4 graded Individual
Florida Reviews
from each group member including
an Interview
with a member of the ethnic group from each group member
Record
of groups' field research: dates, places visited, etc.
Bibliography of books
read, films viewed, artworks analyzed, persons interviewed and websites used.
Samples of food and recipes are welcome but not required.
FLORIDA
REVIEWS:
INDIVIDUAL BACKGROUND RESPONSIBILITIES
In order to have the requisite background knowledge to conduct field research, each
team member must do some background preparation:
- Summary of an article (at least 15
pages long) or book about the impact of the group on Florida life or culture
or the impact of Florida on the group
-
Film review of film that depicts the group in Florida or was made in the group's
country of origin
- Critique of artwork by a member of
the group who lives in Florida or an artwork that depicts the group in
Florida
- An interview with a member of the
group who lives in Florida
The book or article review should be approximately 500-750 words and include a
minimum of five major paragraphs:
1. An introduction which includes the
author, title, and date of the article
and a paraphrase of the author's thesis in one or more sentences.
2-4. Select three major points in the article and analyze how well the writer
defends
those points. What kinds of evidence are used? Is it sufficient
and convincing or lacking
and non-convincing? Are the points logical?
Plausible? Provocative? Do you agree or
disagree with the author? Do
you detect any unfounded assertions?
5. Discuss what the work reveals about the culture's
values and how the
culture has contributed to Florida life.
Be sure to include a properly
formatted MLA Work Cited citation and parenthetical page references for any
quotations, summaries or paraphrases. Review Some
Tips for Writing about Literature.
Each
member must view at least one video or movie from the Florida Video
or Florida Movie List which includes the ethnic group or
a movie or video made in the ethnic
group's country of origin. Follow Guidelines
for Film and Video Reviews for the movie or video. Each review
should be approximately 500-750 words.
Each
member must critique a different art work (visual, performance or
literary) by a member of the ethnic group in Florida, or an art work
that depicts the ethnic group in Florida. Be creative in finding
art -- from museum pieces to folk songs to buildings. Each
critique should be 500-750 words and include information about the
artist, an analysis of the form of the art work (see below) and a
discussion of its importance to the culture. The artist and/or art
work should also be featured on the group's PPT presentation.
Examples
of FORM
may include medium, materials, tools, and execution:
VISUAL ARTS
Lines-may be linear, regular, irregular, horizontal, vertical, diagonal
Color-hues, contrast, combination, symbolism
Light-flat, dramatic, creation of depth
Pattern-decorative, realistic, repetitive,
SCULPTURE
three dimensional, freestanding, contraposato1 relief-low, high carved,
molded, assembled, cast, texture additive or subtractive, relation to
site.
ARCHITECTURE
materials, design exterior embellishment, interior embellishment
(relationship between the two); use of other arts-sculpture, fresco etc.
LITERATURE
point of view, plot, character development, imagery, theme,
literary devices-description, exposition, literary form-epic poem, myth,
prose, poetry, satire etc.
MUSIC
type: classical, jazz, country, folk, etc.; the tempo, the key or mode,
and other notable features of the melody, rhythm, instrumentation, etc.
Each
member must interview someone from the ethnic group. Follow Interview Guidelines
for the interview. Information from the Interviews should be featured in the
group's PPT presentation -- try to get photos of people interviewed.
Suggested sources for articles are:
THE FLORIDA READER
THE WPA GUIDE TO FLORIDA
WPA Life Histories from Florida
FORUM: THE MAGAZINE OF THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL
THE JOURNAL OF FLORIDA LITERATURE
FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY (available in Sarasota County Historical
collection)
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
THE SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE
NATURAL HISTORY
AMERICAN HERITAGE
FLORIDA OFFICE OF CULTURAL AND
HISTORIC PROGRAMS
Florida
Essay Links (do not use
essays assigned in the syllabus for class reading)
For books see:
A Florida
Bibliography
GRADING
This project is worth 400 points (2/5) of your total grade.
A group grade of up to 200 points will be awarded when the project is
complete.
An individual grade of up to 200 points will be given to each team
member based on his/her Florida reviews, art critique and interview.
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