This is one of the first assignments of the semester. It focuses on the paragraph, beginning with an examination of important cultural artifacts, and leads into longer essays on cultural values.

ENG 2100T Cultural Artifact Assignment

What is it?

1. Students are asked to bring in an artifact (or picture of the artifact) which is important in their culture.
2. On the day when artifacts are brought in, each is placed on a student desk by the teacher with no one knowing whose artifact it is. Each artifact is given a number.
3. Students are given a chart to fill out, in which they identify this information for each artifact: a) what they think the artifact is, b) its purpose, and c) its origin.
4. When students have visited each station, they go sit with their own artifact, prepared to give a short presentation about the artifact, and answer questions about it.
5. As a homework assignment, each student writes a paragraph about his/her artifact.

This paragraph is used as a scaffold to thinking about audience in writing, students’ own culture, and the different cultures of their classmates.

Cultural Artifact Worksheet

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