Geographic Alliance of Iowa

Speaking Through Clothing
by Kelly Davidson

Grade Level
Middle School

Inquiry Questions
Who was Mahatma Gandhi?
What messages do clothing styles communicate?
How do people dress in India?
Do people in India dress the same or different?
What are some states in India? Where are they?

Objectives
Students will

Standards
Standard 1: How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.
Standard 2: How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and environments in a spatial context.
Standard 3: Analyzing the spatial organization of people, places, and environments in a spatial context.
Standard 4: The physical and human characteristics of places.
Standard 5: That people create regions to interpret earth’s complexity

Themes
Location, Place, Human-Environment Interaction, Movement, Region

Multiple Intelligences
Verbal-Linguistic, Visual-Spatial

Materials
Pictures from Ask Asia web site

1886 - Gandhi in typical Gujuarat clothing
1890 - Gandhi as a law student in London, England
1900 - As a lawyer in South Africa
1906 - In South Africa
1913 - Preparing for a protest in South Africa
1915 - Gandhi and Kasturba arriving from South Africa
1940 - In traditional loincloth and shawl
1942 - Wearing a loincloth

Place/Location note cards:

1. Porbandar, India
2. London, England
3. Bombay, India
4. South Africa
5. Sabarmati, India
6. Dandi, India
7. New Delhi, India
8. Amritsar, India
9. Allahabad, India

Large wall map of the world
Large wall map of Asia or India
Post it notes
World Atlas set
Book, Gandhi by Demi
Blank World Map, one for each student
Costume Grid
Blank India state map, one for each student
Five Themes of Geography handout
7 Pictures from the Coloring Book of Indian Costumes web site http//www.globaled.org/nyworld/materials/india/worksheet2.html

Time
3-4 class periods

1. Ask the students who Mahatma Gandhi was? What do they know about him? Fill in any background information for them. See the Ask Asia site for bibliographical information. A&E Biography could be shown, if desired.
2. Select nine different volunteers to take a place/location note card. He or she will be responsible for finding the location or the place on a note card. Select eight different volunteers to examine a photograph of Gandhi from the Ask Asia site. They will be responsible for finding a similar style of dress in the picture book that will be read aloud later in class. Each volunteer will also be responsible for using a post-it to stick his/her picture or location to the world or India wall map.
3. Introduce the book, Gandhi, by Demi. Inform students with locations that when their location is mentioned in the book, we will pause and allow him/her to use a post-it to attach the location name to the wall map. Inform students with photographs that when a similar style of dress is shown in the book illustrations, we will pause and allow him/her to use a post-it to attach the photograph near the appropriate location on the wall map.
4. Read the book and pause as needed.

Answers

1915 - Gandhi and Kasturba arriving from South Africa - front cover

1. Porbandar, India - 1886 - Gandhi in typical Gujuarat clothing - p. 2
2. London, England - 1890 - Gandhi as a law student in London, England - p. 5
3. Bombay, India
4. South Africa - 1900 - As a lawyer in South Africa - pp. 7-10
                          - 1906 - In South Africa - pp. 7-10
                          - 1913 - Preparing for a protest in South Africa pp. 11-12
5. Amritsar, India, - 1940 - In traditional loincloth and shawl - pp. 17-20
6. Sabarmati, India - pp.19-20
7. Dandi, India - pp.19-20
8. New Delhi, India - 1942 - Wearing a loincloth - p. 24
9. Allahabad, India - p. 25

5. Discuss: How Gandhi's clothing style changed throughout time. Did certain events cause him to change? Did his style become more complex or more simple? Why? Can they relate to the power of how one dresses and looks to convey meaning? Have they ever worn something to convey a message? Hats, hair dye, piercings, name brands?
6. Randomly assign each student one of the nine locations from the wall map. Each should use an atlas and other classroom resources to find the five themes of geography for the assigned location. Students should discuss their findings. Besides the messages discussed previously, were Gandhi's changes in clothing style related to geography or culture? Climate, cultural norms, etc.?
7. Give each student a blank map of the world. Using the wall map and an atlas, students should locate and label each of the nine locations. In addition, students should trace Gandhi's journey. All maps must have a title, key, symbols, color, compass, and scale.
8. Place students in seven different groups. Give each group one picture from the "Coloring Book of Indian Costumes" web site. Have them study the picture. This will serve to give the students some additional and visual information about diversity in India. Have each group locate their Indian state and answer the questions on the Costume Grid.
9. Have groups share their information and place their picture on the wall map of India. As groups share, the rest of the class should use the information given to complete their Costume Grids.

   10. Discuss:

   11. Allow time for students to thoroughly complete their girds and to shade in and label each state mentioned in this activity on
          a  blank state map of India.

Assessment
Participation, Five Themes of Geography handout, World map, Costume Grid, India map

Enrichment Ideas
Write a biography of Mahatma Gandhi
Create a time line of his life
Research clothing styles in India
Find photographs in books or from the internet of clothing styles similar to the coloring book pages
Design a brochure for an Indian state
Experiment with tying a turban or sari

Web Resources
The American Forum for Global Education        http://www.globaled.org/nyworld/materials/india/towhatextent.html
Ask Asia         http://www.askasia.org/for_educators/fe_frame.htm