Draw the Frames
STUDENT MATERIALSSTUDENT MATERIALSS-1DRAW THE FRAMESWORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200 / LESSON 1.2 ACTIVITYPurposeWorking with frames allows you to understand how and why people lived the way they did throughout history. They help you recognize how communities, such as societies and nations; networks, such as those for trade and exchange; and the production and distribution of goods impacted, and still impact, people in different parts of the world. Viewing history through frames gives us a usable knowledge of history that allows us to make sense of the world today and think critically about the future. The process of depicting frames by drawing them makes the information more memorable as you mix language with imagery.ProcessFirst, take out a piece of paper and use about one-third of the paper to draw a picture of a community. You can choose any community you want—it could be your own, or it could be a community you learned about in other social studies courses, such as an Indigenous American village; the city-state of ancient Athens; Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus River Valley; Memphis in Ancient Egypt; the pre-Columbian city of Teotihuacan; colonial Boston; or a Maori village in New Zealand. Your picture should include the following elements:•people •at least one place where people live•at least one place where people work•at least one place where people spend leisure timeYou’ll only have about 5 minutes to draw this picture. Don’t worry—it doesn’t have to be great, and you can use stick figures as needed. Once you’re done drawing the community, think about something that your community produces. Add this to your picture by drawing a representation of the thing being produced. Next, think about where the thing your community produces is distributed. Add these places to the picture. Now, look for networks in the picture and add lines and arrows to show the networks. Be prepared to share your drawings and explanations of each of the frames. Then, you’ll get into groups of 2 to 3 and your teacher will assign one-third of the class to communities, one-third to P&D, and the final third to networks. In groups, complete the following statements to define and explain your assigned frame in your own words: •A community [or P&D, or network] is....•This is an important frame because... Once all groups have completed the statements, you’ll get together with the other groups that worked on the same frame and come to an agreement on one definition and explanation regarding why the frame is important. Then, nominate one person to report out to the class. Once everyone is done, your teacher will display these class definitions and explanations so that you can refer to them throughout the class. Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0.