Peru

//Lesson Title:// Incan Religion and its Impact on Incan Culture

//Instructor:// Ms. Lauren Avery

//Subject:// 6th Grade Social Studies

//Class Period//: 90 minutes

//Class size//: 25 students

//Location//: Peru, South America

//North Carolina// //Standard Course of Study Objective:// **12.01** Examine the major belief systems in selected regions of South America and Europe, and analyze their impact on cultural values, practices, and institutions. //Goals:// //As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:// 1. Identify the region in South America where the Incan empire reigned. 2. Understand the central tenets of Incan religion. 3. Recognize the links between Incan religion and specific attributes shown in Incan art. 4. Demonstrate their understanding of religion’s impact on Incan culture through creating their own replica of ancient Incan art. //Materials and Technology Required:// 1. Laptop projector/Smart Board 2. Handout – guided notes on Incan culture 3. Art supplies: a. Colored paper b. Markers c. Colored pencils d. Scissors e. Glue 4. Small paper bag 5. Sticky notes

//Procedures:// **1.** **Introductory activity: Freewrite (10 minutes)** a. In their daily journals, students will be asked to respond to the following prompt: i. Do you think religion has impacted culture in America? If so, how? Where and how can you see the effects of religion on culture in your own town, state, and maybe even home? b. Students will be asked to voluntarily share their thoughts in a brief discussion. I will be sure to point out that religion does impact culture throughout the world: the ten commandments and the parallel to the US Constitution, Sharia law, for example. **2.** **Overview of Incan Culture (20 minutes)** a. I will have prepared a power-point presentation that will outline details of the Incan culture, including daily life, technology, and mainly focusing on religion and values of the Incan people. It will include information such as definition of polytheism, information about Incan deities, religious celebrations/ceremonies, an explanation of reincarnation, as well as sacred sites throughout the Incan empire, as well as examples of Incan art such as pottery, textiles, paintings, etc. i. Students will be given a guided notes handout and will be responsible for filling in the notes throughout the presentation. The presentation will feature text as well as map images, images of present-day Incan remains, as well as more photographs of Incan art. ii. The last slide of the presentation will be a picture of an Incan vessel/pottery work. Students will be asked to work independently and record what they think the object is, describe what symbols/pictures are displayed on the object, and make predictions about what they believe the images could represent, based on what they have learned about the way art often reflects cultural values and religious beliefs. I will emphasize the way that art “shows” and not “tells” things about a culture, instead of written records, art is often an important way to archaeologically learn about an extinct culture. iii. Students will be asked to volunteer their predictions in a brief discussion. **3.** **Independent Activity (40 minutes):** a. Students will be given guidelines and be instructed to create their own replica of Incan art. They can choose to use art supplies to create a textile, drawing of a vessel, or a painting. Their art must reflect actual Incan values, religion, and accurately portray characteristics that the Incan people valued. b. Upon completing their art, students will be asked to write a brief paragraph explanation for their artwork, which will be collected. It must tell why they chose the type of art they did, as well as explain any images/symbols they chose to incorporate into their art. **4.** **Assessment (20 minutes):** a. Students will be asked to hang up their art work on a certain wall of the classroom/in the hallway and write their class number on a small corner/sticky note near their art work (numbers are done by where they stand alphabetically by last name in the class roster). Students will then draw a number out of a bag at random, which will be another student’s class number. b. Students will be instructed to locate the artwork belonging to the class number they drew and examine the piece. In a paragraph or so, students will tell what they think the artist was trying to show about Incan life, religion, and values in their piece, and explain what led them to come to such conclusions. These will be turned in as an exit pass for the day’s class. Lesson Narrative:

I took this opportunity (the Places of the World activity) to delve into some research about a country that I have always wanted to visit, and hopefully will one day. A friend of mine studied abroad in Peru for six weeks during one summer and I fell in love with her pictures and stories about the ancient Incan culture and the fact that places like Machu Picchu still exist after so much time has passed. I learned briefly about the Inca empire in my World History class here in college, but only spent about 15 minutes on the civilization—not enough to really satisfy my curiosity.

Instead of examining geographical and architectural landmarks of the empire, I wanted to look more at the cultural aspects of the group—which fit well with the NCSCoS goal 12.01. As an adult, I’ve taken several trips to the art museum and feel like I have a good appreciation for interpreting the “little things” in art and trying to figure out what the artist is trying to depict or say…but I knew this may be a difficult concept for middle school students. Thus, I began with something they would be familiar with—religion in their own country and the world we live in now. By asking students to reflect on how religion has impacted society, I think it would help them to be able to identify to the ways that Incan art depicted their values. I also considered here that I could show some more modern religious art (Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, etc) and focus on that as a lesson variation. I like starting the class off with a writing exercise—I think it could help focus the students, and then I am always excited to hear their thoughts and written “journal” type activities transition well into small class discussions.

Transitioning from the discussion about the connection between religion, culture, and art, I chose to do a Power Point presentation because of all of the different types of media that can be incorporated—text, sound, pictures, and even a video clip if I wanted. I think this variety helps maintain students’ attention as well as is more interesting and helpful for visual learners as well. I love the idea of guided notes—I know I couldn’t take successful notes on my own as a 6th grader. Through the Power Point, I am hoping students will understand more about the Incan people, their daily lives, but mainly focus on Incan religion and Incan art. I welcome questions throughout the presentation from the students, which I can hopefully answer, or we can add to our South America KWL Chart (I’d like to keep one of those for all of my units).

After I finish going through the guided-notes portion of the presentation, students will be shown a picture of an Incan artistic artifact and be asked to reflect on its meaning, importance, and discuss what they think it may represent. This kind of shows me if students “got” the connection between religious symbolism/cultural symbolism in art. By discussing their thoughts, I can gauge if I need to further explain the connection I tried to present during my Power Point.

When I feel that the students are secure in their knowledge, I’ll show them an example of what I want them to create (probably one from the previous class, or one I made on my own) and explain that I want them to recreate their own replica of some type of Incan art. I’ll give them choices of a drawing of pottery, a drawing of textiles, or just a simple “painting” (but done with markers because of time/materials allotted). This way, they won’t all create the same thing and it will allow them more freedom to interpret the lesson in their own ways. I want them to write a paragraph or so explaining their choice of art/symbols shown so that I know they didn’t just put a good deal of random pictures on a drawing of a vase and call it a day—this way I’ll know they paid attention and even referenced their guided notes to know what to draw to show the connection between Incan religion/art.

Then my students will spend a good part of class finishing their art and then hang it in the hallway or on the wall in the classroom, depending on where I have space/what the school will allow. They’ll interpret their peers’ artwork by selecting a classmate at random and recording what they think the artwork says about the Incan people’s values, religion, and culture, and what led them to come to their conclusions. For example, if one student had a lot of Llamas with light behind them on their pot, one could infer that they are saying that Incans thought llamas were holy.

Instead of giving students a pop-quiz style assessment based off of their notes, I’ll collect both their paragraph about their own art, and their paragraph about a partner’s art and use that as my assessment. Hopefully, their paragraphs will show that they recognize the bridge that I tried to show between Incan culture and values and religion, and how it is reflected in their artwork. I think that the activity overall would be fun; it would probably be a good change of pace for the students and give them the opportunity to get out of their seats a little, be creative, and introspective about history.