Grade 7: Who are the Ancient Egyptians, Who are the Egyptians, and Who Am I? (part 1)
This lesson can be integrated into a Social Studies unit on Ancient Egypt. This lesson examines group identity, in particular the Egyptian identity. Students will be asked to compare their perspective of Egyptians in the present day to Egyptians in ancient times. This lesson is important because it examines how group identity can become homogenized by media. Students will analyze the representation of Ancient Egyptians with present day depiction of Egyptians in books, television, and film. This lesson will open up a discussion on stereotyping, a P.L.O in Language Arts. This lesson will take 2 to 3 class sessions to complete and should occur near the end of the Ancient Egypt unit.
Objectives
It is expected that…
Students will demonstrate their critical thinking abilities
Students will be able to compile information from a range of sources
Students will be able to identify viewpoints, opinions, stereotypes, and propaganda in literary, informational, and mass media communications
Materials
T.V/D.V.D
Film - The Mummy
Blackline Master 1 - T - Chart
Blackline Masters 2 & 3
Activities
Teacher has students fill in the following statement: Ancient Egyptians are_________________________________. Once students have completed their sentence/s, have them pair up with another student and share their responses. The whole class comes together and each pair reads out one statement they feel represents Ancient Egyptians.
Next the teacher erases the word Ancient and leaves the statement Egyptians are_____________________________ on the board.
Teacher poses question: Has the meaning in your statement changed? Why/Why not?
Student discussion with teacher as facilitator.
Teacher opens up discussion on cultural stereotyping. What is cultural stereotyping?
Teacher poses question: How are Ancient and present day Egyptians portrayed in media? What do they look like? What are their occupations? Are they heroes or villains? (Many students may say that they haven’t seen Egyptians in media, push the students thinking and ask them what cultural group Egyptians represent. For example, do they represent Asia, the Middle East, or Arabs?)
Have students think back to films and television shows they have watched where a character appeared to be “Egyptian.” Describe the role they played. Describe their character traits?
**It may be helpful for the teacher to shows clips of the movie, The Mummy to show stereotypical Egyptian images to guide students. **
Teacher gives student T - Chart where students write down the representation of Ancient Egyptians and compare it with the representation of present day Egyptians in mass media.
Teacher has students write down what is similar and different in the representations?
Student reflection for homework: What did you learn today?
