Talking Walls:

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Talking Walls

• Fitting software into a constructivist model
• Jeanne Pfeifer
• Susan OHara

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Talking Wallswww.edmark.comwww.csus.edu/indiv/p
/pfeiferj

• A treasury of fine lessons on multiculturalism,
  world issues, and history.a jubilant celebration
  of diversity in todays world culture imparting
  optimism in the human journey

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Talking Walls Unit Plan

• Students read Talking Walls and Talking Walls
  The Stories Continue in teams, choose stories
• Explore software appropriate to the stories
• Each team will devise symbols related to their
  stories and enter symbol on a classroom world map
  and timeline
• Students categorize stories in different ways and
  begin to focus on differences and similarities
  across cultural perspectives
• Communicate with students in other parts of the
  world to ask about walls in their community
• Students explore the meanings of customs,
  traditions, and values
• Students go out into their own community to find
  and take pictures of walls (digital or scan)
• Students build a web based wall of their
  community

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What Walls?

• Talking Walls
• Great Wall of China
• Aborigine Paintings
• Lascaux Cave Paintings
• Wailing Wall (Jerusalem)
• Mahabalipurams Cliff
• carvings (India)
• Decorated walls of
• Kaaba (Mecca)
• Green Granite Walls
• (Zimbabwe)

• Cuzco Wall (Peru)
• Taos Pueblo
• Diego Rivera Murals
• Limestone Walls of
• Canadian Museum of
• Civilization
• Vietnam Veterans
• Memorial Wall
• Nelson Mandelas
• Prison Walls
• Berlin Wall

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Talking Walls The Stories Continue

• Friendship, Maine
• Murals at Bonampak
• (Mexico)
• Hadrians Wall (G.B.)
• Wall of Remembrance
• (Holocaust)
• Ndebele (South Africa)
• Levee Wall (Mississippi)
• Chinese Immigrant Wall
• (Angel Island)
• Anti-Graffiti Network
• (Philadelphia)

• Peace Wall, Moscow
• Walled City, Morocco
• Prayer wheel Walls
• (Tibet and India)
• Wat Po Temple
• (Thailand)
• Divali Wall paintings
• (India)
• Dog Wall (Tokyo)
• Peace lines (Belfast)
• Pable Nerudas Fence
• (Chile)

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Classroom Map of the World
Students will create symbols representing the
Talking Walls and place them appropriately on the
world map
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Categorize different walls (time)
15000BC
2001
1400
961 BC
1AD
138 AD
Cuzco Peru
Nelson Mandela
Great Wall
Lascaux
Wailing Wall
Mahabalipurams Wall
Peace Wall
Berlin Wall
Hadrians Wall
Holocaust Wall
CP
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Other Ways of Categorizing

• Other Categories?

• Cultural Identity
• Cuzco Wall
• Ndebele Wall
• Political
• Nelson Mandela
• Peace Wall
• Berlin Wall
• Holocaust Wall
• Religious
• Cuzco Wall
• Peace Wall
• Artistic
• Story Telling
• Inside Out
• Nelson Mandela
• Cuzco Wall
• Peace Wall
• Educational

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Cultural Perspectives

• Students will examine both the timeline and
  categories
• What are the cultural perspectives embedded in
  the various walls?
• What specific values do these seem to represent?
• What are some of the positive and negative
  impacts of the manifestation of these values?
• What seem to be some lasting/common values across
  cultures?
• Are there specific values represented during
  different time periods?
• What is fascinating about differences in
  cultures?
• How can we value and respect multiple
  perspectives and learn from them?

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Walls Around the World

• Using email students will communicate with other
  children around the world
• They will describe what they have been exploring
  with Talking Walls
• Students will ask
• What walls are important in your community?
• Will you send a description and some pictures or
  drawings of these walls?
• Students will make symbols for new walls and add
  to classroom World Map

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What Purposes do Customs and Traditions Serve any
Culture?

• How do customs and traditions differ from
  routines?
• Name a routine that you have
• Describe traditions from your culture
• Describe customs from your culture
• Have any of these changed over time and why?
• What types of customs and traditions from your
  culture did you see in any of the stories?
• How are customs and traditions passed down from
  generation to generation?
• How do customs and traditions reflect the values
  people hold?

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Our Community Wall

• Students will explore and photograph walls in
  their own community and/or school
• Students will scan pictures or use digital
  cameras
• Students will build a virtual, hyperlinked wall,
  which tells the story of their own community
• Students will present their personal Talking
  Walls in a multimedia presentation.

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Topics for Discussion

• What kinds of Talking Walls do you think students
  might focus on?
• What components of this unit infused the
  technology into a constructivist learning
  environment?
• What other ideas do you have for using software
  in a constructivist way?
• Can all software be adapted for use in
  constructivist learning environments?

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Talking Wallswww.edmark.comwww.csus.edu/indiv/p
/pfeiferj

• A treasury of fine lessons on multiculturalism,
  world issues, and history.a jubilant celebration
  of diversity in todays world culture imparting
  optimism in the human journey