Saudi Aramco World : Classroom Guide November/December 2013

Volume 64, Number 6November/December 2013

For students: We hope this guide will help sharpen your reading skills and deepen your understanding of this issue’s articles.

For teachers: We encourage reproduction and adaptation of these ideas, freely and without further permission from Saudi Aramco World, by teachers at any level, whether working in a classroom or through home study.

— THE EDITORS

Jump to If You Only Have 15 Minutes...

Jump to McRel Standards

Class Activities

This edition of the Classroom Guide focuses on production, distribution and consumption—economic processes that always take place within the contexts of history, politics and culture. The activities have students look at three products featured in this issue of Saudi Aramco World: pistachio nuts, pearls and Rock ‘and’ Roll. Two brief activities round out the Classroom Guide.

Production, Distribution and Consumption

The focus of economics is how people organize the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. A lot of people find economics intimidating, so in these activities, you will hardly see the word again. Instead, you’ll get a chance to work with some of the basic concepts of that discipline in the context of three of the articles in this edition. The activities are organized loosely around each of the three products.

Pistachios

Read “In Search of the Mother Tree.” (If you want to enhance your understanding of the article before you dig into these activities, skip to the “If you have 30 minutes” section of this Classroom Guide, complete the activity there, and then come back to this.) Author Eric Hansen set out to find the one tree that gave rise to virtually all the pistachio trees in the United States. You might think of him as a botanical detective. But embedded within his quest you will find some information about the distributing, marketing and selling of the nuts. That’s what you’re going to look at.

Let’s begin with the fact that the pistachio “has always been a luxury,” as Hansen put it. Why do you think it has luxury status? To answer, think about something in your own life that you consider to be luxurious. What characteristics does your luxury have? Think about its physical qualities—a diamond is bright and twinkly, for example—as well as about its availability and social value. How do those characteristics compare to the characteristics that make pistachios luxurious?

The cultivating, selling and buying of pistachios takes place in a setting that extends beyond the orchards where the trees grow. What political event in 1979 gave the American pistachio industry a big, unexpected boost? Write a paragraph explaining the connection between this incident in international politics and the pistachio industry. Then step back and think about what that connection might look like with products other than pistachios. Choose a product—you might think about something as mundane as olive oil or something as valuable as gemstones—and do some research to find out how it has been affected by global politics. Have volunteers share their findings with the class. What general statement can you and your classmates make about how selling products is related to politics?

Rock ‘n’ Roll Music

Beyond pistachios in your study of commodities is music—specifically the recordings of music that Ahmet Ertegun produced and distributed through his company, Atlantic Records, and that millions of people bought. Read “Rock and Roll Ambassador.” Working with a partner, identify who made the music. Who were the musicians? The producers? The distributors? And who were the consumers, or audiences? (Keep in mind how they may have changed over time.)

The article provides an intricate picture of how music and the music business both shaped and were shaped by the political, cultural and technological circumstances of their historical era. Go through the article and highlight or underline the places that mention or discuss these contexts. Compare your markings with a partner’s to see if you’ve spotted the same things. Discuss any discrepancies to decide what does and doesn’t belong in the category of contexts for R&B.

One of the major issues during the time period in which Ertegun worked was race relations in the United States. With your partner, review the parts of the article that discuss the topic. Make some notes to answer these questions: How did the context of race relations affect music? How did it affect Ertegun’s business? Another factor was the development of television. How did the new technology affect music—including those who made the music, those who sold it and those who bought it?

Now, with your partner, come up with a graphic that shows the interrelationships among race, music, television and the record industry. Some questions to guide your work: How did Ertegun’s decisions about the audience (consumers) he wanted the music to reach affect which musicians became commercial successes? How do you think the music affected race relations in the United States? Post the completed graphics around the room, and look at other pairs’ work. How are the graphics similar? How do they differ?

Pearls

Finally, consider pearls. “The Pearl Emporium of Al Zubarah” provides a fascinating look at a settlement in Qatar (pronounce it like “cutter”) that quickly rose in prominence and then fell, in part because of its connection with one product: the pearl. After you’ve read the article, make a T chart. Title the left column “Factors that led to settlement,” and the right column “Factors that led to rapid decline.” Fill in the chart with information about Al Zubarah from the article. Once you’ve done that, think about the factors in your chart in terms of production, distribution and consumption. How was Al Zubarah’s location connected to the production, distribution and consumption of pearls? How did the presence of other pearling sites—in other words, competition—affect Al Zubarah? Finally, look at the politics of the era. How did political instability affect the pearl trade and Al Zubarah’s fate? Sum up your answers to these questions by writing answers to the following:

How was geography related to the production, distribution and consumption
of pearls?
How was politics related to the production, distribution and consumption
of pearls?
How did competition affect pearling?

Summation

You’ve done some thinking about how production, distribution and consumption play out in the cases of three commodities. Now it’s time to pull it all together. Review the three articles and the activities you’ve completed. Discuss with your partner (or work alone, if you prefer) what generalizations you can make. Write them down. Then take it a step further. If you were to make a guide for students who want to explore the contexts within which economic activity takes place, what would you include? Make an outline of your guide. Include in it the different topics you would address. Write a sentence explaining why each topic is included—in other words, what makes it important to address. Write another sentence identifying an example and explain how it illustrates the topic.

IF YOU ONLY HAVE 30 MINUTES...

Understanding how an author organizes a piece of writing can help you both to understand what s/he has written and to learn some tricks of the trade for your own writing. “In Search of the Mother Tree” is a case in point, and this activity will help you discover the underlying structure of the article. Just follow these simple steps.

1. Read the article through once.

2. Number the paragraphs of the article.

3. Read each paragraph and write a one-sentence summary of it, numbering your
sentences to correspond to the numbers of the paragraphs.

4. Read your list of paragraph summaries. It should give you a good summary of the whole article.

5. Now look closely at the numbered list. Which paragraphs seem to go together to create a coherent section? A section will generally focus on a specific topic. For example, paragraphs 3-6 form a section that provides background information about pistachio trees.

6. Once you’ve identified the sections, you should have the first tier of an outline—the tier that’s identified with Roman numerals. Fill in at least the next level of the outline, drawing from the paragraphs in each section to show how the paragraphs support or provide evidence for each topic.

7. Have a class discussion to discuss what you’ve just done. What have you learned about how this article is organized? How might you use this knowledge in your next writing assignment?

IF YOU ONLY HAVE 15 MINUTES...

Look at the pictures of the domes in the calendar in this month’s issue, but don’t read the text that introduces the calendar. Instead, write your own introduction to the calendar based on the images of the domes and the captions that accompany them. What would you put in an introduction so that people who used the calendar would understand the reason for giving a year’s worth of attention to domes? You might want to do some brief research to gather additional information for your introduction. Read each others’ introductions and discuss which elements from classmates’ work you find most useful as an introduction to the calendar.

ND McCrel Standard Correlations

The Pearl Emporium of Al Zubarah

World History

Standard 26. Understands how the transoceanic interlinking of all major regions of the world between 1450 and 1600 led to global transformations

Geography

Standard 4. Understands the physical and human characteristics of place

Standard 9. Understands the nature, distribution and migration of human populations on Earth's surface

Standard 10. Understands the nature and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics

Standard 11. Understands the patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth's surface

Standard 12. Understands the patterns of human settlement and their causes

Standard 16. Understands the changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources

Standard 17. Understands how geography is used to interpret the past

Economics

Standard 4. Understands basic features of market structures and exchanges

In Search of the Mother Tree

Geography

Standard 11. Understands the patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth's surface

Standard 16. Understands the changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources

Economics

Standard 4. Understands basic features of market structures and exchanges

Science

Standard 6. Understands relationships among organisms and their physical environment

Standard 7. Understands biological evolution and the diversity of life

Rock and Roll Ambassador

United States History

Standard 31. Understands economic, social, and cultural developments in the contemporary United States

Music

Standard 7. Understands the relationship between music and history and culture

Economics

Standard 4. Understands basic features of market structures and exchanges

Interpreter of Treasures: Tall Tales

Language Arts

Standard 6. Uses skills and strategies to read a variety of literary texts

World History

Standard 13. Understands the causes and consequences of the development of Islamic civilization between the 7^th and 10^th centuries

Standard 19. Understands the maturation of an interregional system of communication, trade, and cultural exchange during a period of Chinese economic power and Islamic expansion

Common Core

Pistachios

RI.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

W.9-10.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Music

RI.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

RI.9-10.2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Pearls

RI.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

W.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

If you only have 30 minutes

RI.9-10.3. Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.

RI.9-10.5. Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).

If you only have 15 minutes

W.9-10.5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.

Julie Weiss (julie.w1@comcast.net) is an education consultant based in Eliot, Maine. She holds a Ph.D. in American studies. Her company, Unlimited Horizons, develops social studies, media literacy, and English as a Second Language curricula, and produces textbook materials.