Lesson Title: Table Manners in the Islamic World and Renaissance Europe

Name: Mary Ellen Sturm

School: Rosa Parks Middle School

Grade: 7

Appropriate Level for Lesson Plan: Middle School

Discipline taught: Social Studies/World History and Culture

Lesson plan is appropriate for: Social Studies/World History and Culture

• Unit 2 on The Influence of Culture on Africa, which teaches about Islam and its spread into Africa; also could be used during
• Unit 4 on The Impact of Economics, which teaches about the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration Length to teach this lesson: One 45 minute period

Big idea: excerpts from Giovanni della Casa’s The Book of Manners and “The Flight of the Blackbird” by Robert W. Lebling

Essential Learner Outcomes:

• Describe major traditions, customs, and beliefs of Islam and its expansion into Southwest Asia, North Africa, and Europe.
• Analyze how people and nations benefit from trade.

Lesson Objectives:

• Students will identify and compare table manners of people in the Islamic world and Europeans during the Renaissance period.
• Students will describe how Islamic customs were spread to Europe.

Short Abstract of the Lesson: Students will examine at their customs today concerning eating. Then they will look at either European or Muslim customs. Finally they will compare customs and discuss how customs were spread from one culture to another.

Lesson Components:

Warm Up: In your Social Studies journal, list several things that you might do to prepare to eat a meal with your family. (After several minutes, the class will compare answers.)

Independent Reading: Teacher will assign one of two readings to the class:
excerpts from Giovanni della Casa’s The Book of Manners or “The Flight of the Blackbird” by Robert W. Lebling. Students will take notes on what Europeans or Muslims did to prepare to eat a meal.

After Reading: Students will examine photographs of European and Muslim artifacts and add to their notes to customs to prepare for a meal.

Class Discussion: Students will draw a T-chart in their Social Studies journal. One side of the T-chart will be labeled “Islamic customs” and the other side of the T-chart will be labeled “European customs.” What were the customs and manners that you discovered? The class will complete the T-chart together.

After completing the T-chart, the class will identify customs that both cultures had in common. The teacher will ask why the two cultures had things that were the same, if they both lived in different geographic regions. (Answer: ideas were spread through trade and in areas where different cultures lived together, i.e. Spain.)

Closure/Assessment to check for understanding: Exit Card

Students will answer the following two questions:
What eating customs were shared by Muslims and Europeans?
How is it that both cultures had some of the same customs?

Materials/Resources:

• Individual students’ Social Studies journals
• excerpts from Giovanni della Casa’s The Book of Manners, (found on page 316 of student textbook, Across the Centuries)
• excerpts from “The Flight of the Blackbird” by Robert W. Lebling:
  http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200304/flight.of.the.blackbird.htm
• Pictures of Islamic and European items such as: ewers, plates, bowls, rugs used as tablecloths from Freer and Sackler Online Collections, Arts of the Islamic World:
  http://web4.si.edu/asia/collections/
• Other websites
  Getty Exhibitions: The Arts of Fire
  http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/arts_fire/
  Los Angeles County Museum,
  http://www.lacma.org/perm_col/ancient/ancient.htm
  National Gallery of Art: Decorative Arts:
  http://www.nga.gov/collection?itacer/
  Victoria and Albert Museum of Art: Exploring Past Exhibitions http://www.vam.ac.uk/exploring/past_exhibitions/
• Exit cards, one for each student

Assessment: There will be a quiz on Islam and its spread.

Keywords: Islamic customs, European customs during the Renaissance, Giovanni della Casa, The Book of Manners, “The Flight of the Blackbird”, Ziryab