Recently, I ran across an article talking about the revival of old habits and it got me thinking about how these habits would impact family life, consumerism and the environment today. After thinking about it for awhile, I thought it might make for an interesting lesson for students to explore and learn more about. Thus, the lesson Old- Fashion Habits–Worth It or Not? was born!

Set

• Ask student to think about what the term “old-fashioned” means to them. You may get some interesting responses, but basically it means no longer current or common; not modern.
• Now, ask students “What are “old-fashioned” habits?” Have them work with their shoulder neighbor to answer this and generate a list of what they think are old- fashioned habits to share with the class.
• As students share their ideas, create a master list on the board. Ask students if they believe these habits are worth reviving?
• Explain to students that you will be assigning some old-fashioned habits for them to explore, learn about their impacts as well as the pros and cons before deciding if it’s worth reviving.

Materials

• iPads or Laptops
• Projector & Screen

Activities

• Depending on your class size, this activity could be done individually or assigned to small groups. Give each student or small group an “old-fashioned” habit to analyze and evaluate. The list of habits can be found under the attachments section below. Cut them apart and randomly assign or let students sign up for the habit ahead of time…your call. Note: you can pick and choose and/or add other options to this list before letting students choose.
• Once students have their “habit”, they are to put together a visual presentation to share with the class that includes the following:
  • Name of Habit
  • Definition & Description of the Habit: What it is and how it was used in the past.
  • Analyze the Impact of the Habit 3 Ways: #1: How was family life affected by this habit? #2: How was the environment affected by this habit? #3: How was consumerism affected by this habit?
• After students have completed the impacts of this habit, they are to evaluate three pros and three cons of the habit.
• Now that students have completed the above, they are to create a visual that includes their findings along with images, examples and connections to modern life which will be shared with the class. Note: Images can be hand-drawn, cut from magazines or printed from the computer. Note: If you want students to create their visual using digital platforms, they could create a single page poster in Canva or Google Slides (adjust page size).
• Once visuals are completed, students share their visuals orally with the class.
• Instead of students taking notes on all of the habits, set up a gallery walk with the visuals for students to be able to physically get out of their seats in order to move around the room as they complete a follow-up exit assignment (see below). Even if your students created a digital visual, they can still do a gallery walk via their screens. Learn more about how this can be done via this post from Ditch That Textbook.
• Ask students to share and discuss their follow-up exit assignment answers and keep a runny tally on the board to see which habits students think are worth bringing back. If you are doing this assignment with different classes, it would be fun and interesting to see what the final results are and how they compare between groups.

Attachments

• List of Old-Fashion Habits (PDF)
• Old-Fashion Habit Research (PDF)
• Gallery Walk Follow-Up Exit Assignment (PDF)