Proverbial Wisdom™:A Teacher's Resource
Middle and High school teachers will find the Proverbial Wisdom game provides countless opportunities for stimulating introductions, instruction and group activities. Some of the following lessons involve only using the proverb cards, broken into three categories: definition, sketch and picture. Others involve actually playing the game. No matter which approach we used in our classrooms, we found students intrigued and excited as they learned new proverbs and gained understanding of old proverbs and idioms.
There is a lot of reason for educators to take proverbs seriously instead of taking them for granted. Distilling collective folk wisdom into concise expressions of truth, proverbs have been among us for generations as guidelines for life. Not only are they convenient conversational shorthand, but the study of proverbs is a distinct academic pursuit with its own name, paremlology. The study of proverbs offers insights into language, culture, and the society from which they arise.
For example, in the middle of this century, our culture accepted and even began to celebrate individual differences. Out of this arose, "Different strokes for different folks," says Wolfgang Mieder, chairman of the University of Vermont's German and Russian Department, and the world's foremost expert on proverbs.
Meider says that proverbs date to as early as 800 BC and back. The first known collection was found on the cuneiform tablets in Sumer. Some proverbs appear the same way in several languages, an example being, "One hand washes the other." Other proverbs use the same words but are interpreted differently among cultures. "A rolling stone gathers no moss" salutes movers and shakers in Scotland, but in England it means stability and tradition are best.
Meider believes that proverbs show us something about how we think, "how we are ruled by traditional attitudes." He says that by studying proverbs he discovered a window on any number of human societies. Some of the classroom activities that follow are designed for social studies classes to focus on this aspect of proverbs. Other activities and lessons are designed for language arts, science, home economics, health and art classes.
Proverbs are part of our country's social glue. They provide a common language that reflect common values. Unfortunately, proverb literacy is down, but Proverbial Wisdom provides activities and opportunities to make our rich proverbial heritage "feed for fodder."
We think students and teachers will enjoy and benefit from these ideas and the countless other ways that creative teachers will devise to employ Proverbial Wisdom in their lesson planning.
Art: Drawing with PerspectiveClass Rules: Proverbs to Live by
Language Arts: Creative Writing & Problem Solving
Persuasive Writing: Debate & Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking Skills: Analogy Practice
Language Arts: Persuasive & Creative Writing
Literature: The Phantom Tollbooth
Language Arts: Writing Activity, Origin Myths
Language Arts: Writing Activity, Story Telling
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