Objectives:

The students will be able to:

• Interview a grandparent or other family member to get insight and information about their heritage and culture.
  
• Write a short biography of their grandparent telling "why this ordinary person is important."
  
• Make a section of a quilt with symbols representing themselves and their culture.

Standards:

Exerpted from: Michigan Curriculum Framework: Content Standards and Benchmarks: Social Studies

Strand I Historical perspective

Standard I.2 Comprehending the past
All students will understand narratives about major eras of American and world history by identifying the people involved, describing the setting, and sequencing the events.
Middle School Benchmark 2
Indentify and explain how individuals in history demonstrated good character and personal virtue.

Strand II Geographic Perspective
Standard II.1 Diversity of people, places and cultures
All students will describe, compare, and explain the locations and characteristics of races, cultures, and settlements.
Middle School Benchmark 3
Explain why people live and work as they do in different regions

Visual Arts
Standard 5 Connecting to other Arts, other Disciplines, and Life
All students will recognize, analyze, and describe connections among the arts; between the arts and other disciplines; between the arts and everyday life.
Middle School Benchmark 1
Analyze personal, family, and community connections that involve work by visual artists.
Middle School Benchmark 4
Describe ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated with the visual arts.


For more information about The Michigan Curriculum Framework, and the K-12 Curriculum and Standards, visit the Michigan Department of Education Web site at http://Michigan.gov/mde
The direct link to the curriculum standards is http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-5235_5682---,00.html.

Social Studies Theme 6: Patterns of Social and Political Interaction
The voices and experiences of ordinary people help us understand the social and political interaction and the changing patterns of class, ethnic, racial and gender structures in America.

The History Themes Project is an effort to create for Michigan teachers and students a reasonable and valid selection of important events, people and ideas for United States History.
For more information see: http://michiganepic.org/historythemes/index.html.