Cultural Day in High School

1. Description of the task

1.1 Class profile

Age: 15-16 years old

Proficiency: B1 / Intermediate

Class size: 20

Grade and school: 3rd Grade High school Students

1.2 Duration: 3 Class Hours

1.3 Aims of the teachers

Exposing students to different cultures, including their festivals, food, art (famous

artists, writers and poets), places of attraction, and helps them understand the

connection between the language and the culture in which it develops.

Developing intercultural awareness for the global citizenship

Developing autonomous learning

Making contribution to teamwork skills

Helping them to use websites, generally Internet, accordingly in order to obtain

information they need

1.4 Objectives of the task

Students are supposed to;

collaborate on the task with one another

assess the websites they will use based on their specific tasks

demonstrate what they did at the end of the task

create meaningful and purposeful interaction through language

use the internet effectively for collecting data

1.5 Material Evaluation

Language Learning Potential: As it will be group work, students can easily have

interaction among them. The quality and quantity of practice learners receive gives

students an opportunity to have a meaningful task by collaborating with one another.

Meaning Focus: Students are provided with comprehensible input when they work on

their tasks.

Learner Fit: Learners’ age, needs and proficiency level are taken into consideration

while this task is being prepared.

Authenticity: Instructions and the authentic websites students will use are beyond the

classroom.

Positive Impact: Materials enable students to have interaction and participation so it

can be regarded beneficial.

Practicality: The uses of authentic websites make students feel they are in touch with

daily real live.

2. Procedures of the Task

2.1 Pre-Task

Teacher starts the lesson with greeting and says that they will begin the class with some

pictures.

(Every picture reflects different aspects of different cultures.)

The teacher shows these pictures one by one and gets some ideas (places of attractions

(Collesseum, Tivoli Gardens…), food, festivals (Benin, Folklore festival) etc.) about them

from the students and the teacher writes the students’ answers on the board (mind-mapping)

because these answers will be used during on-task activity. Then, she puts these pictures on

the board and asks some questions below.

What do these pictures stand for?

(Students are expected to give the answer ‘Culture’. If they do not, the teacher

provides some clues to make them find for the next questions.)

What are some things that define a culture? For example, music, language, ...

What is its value?

Why does it matter?

(The teacher’s aim is to make students motivate to the lesson as emotional readiness is

a precursor for next activities. By the help of these questions, students can talk about

their culture or other cultures and so they are actively engaged in the topic.)

After the exchange of information about cultures, the teacher says:

T: It seems that you have very great ideas about culture and its value in a society. I’m

grateful to hear your voices on this topic and now it’s time to work with different

cultures deeply. We will have fun as we meet new cultures.

2.2 On-task:

The teacher divides the class into 5 groups. The teacher writes the five cultures on the paper

which was defined beforehand. In order to avoid inequity they cast lots for choosing the

cultures. The defined cultures are: Europe, Scandinavia, Africa, Middle East and The Far

East. Each group chooses a paper and then they delegate the duties. Taking into consideration

the key points of the culture the students make research on the Internet and handling these

points they design a cultural day. Each one of the students in a group makes research in a

specific area related to culture such as food & drinks, traditional clothes, places to visit etc.

The teacher recalls that they will prepare a booklet about the culture given to them based on

their research. They visit websites and collect data for their design. Sample websites are given

below:

1) EUROPE (festivals)

https://www.fest300.com/magazine/top-12-european-festivals

Other links related to European culture:

http://www.thelovelyplanet.net/traditional-dress-of-england-outcome-of-the-local-and-

european-clothing-repercussions/

https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/28.24.69.0/religion/the-truth-about-religion-in-europe

http://www.food.com/topic/european

2) SCANDINAVIA (traditional clothing)

https://www.etsy.com/uk/search/clothing/womens-clothing?q=Scandinavian+costume

Other links related to Scandinavian culture:

http://www.scandikitchen.co.uk/scandinavian-food/

http://goscandinavia.about.com/od/annualeventstraditions/

http://www.holestories.com/top-must-see-places-in-scandinavia-iceland-norway-sweden-

finland-denmark/

3) AFRICA (religious beliefs)

http://blog.oup.com/2014/05/15-facts-on-african-religions/

Other links related to African culture:

http://www.our-africa.org/foods

http://travel.cnn.com/stunning-african-spots-552779/

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Africa-/155241/i.html?_sop=16&Gender=Women%2527s

4) MIDDLE EAST (places to visit)

http://www.ucityguides.com/cities/top-10-cities-and-places-in-the-middle-east.html

Other links related to Middle Eastern culture:

http://travel.cnn.com/20-best-middle-east-dishes-324556/

http://www.raqs.co.nz/me/clothing_types.html

5) THE FAR EAST (food & drinks)

http://tallahassee.eat24hours.com/far-east-cuisine/4272

Other links related to Far Eastern culture:

http://www.originaltravel.co.uk/far-east

http://leonsplanet.com/han_festivals.htm

https://chineseclothing.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/whats-the-traditional-dress-associated-

with-the-far-east/

They collect data from websites like given above and make investigation. They can budget

(700 Euro) for clothing or foods and they can use these cultural elements while making their

presentation or preparing their booklets. Of course all the cultural elements are not available

for the students but they can give an order from some websites which shipping to Turkey.

2.3. Post-task

T: You have completed your research about cultures. You have visited so many websites

by taking your research field into consideration and found very interesting things,

probably. And now, it is time to share them! Are you ready for the presentations and

meeting different cultures around the world? I believe we will see very different

things. So, who wants to begin?

A voluntary group begins their presentation. Each person in the group must take the floor

during presentation and it is already inevitable because each of them has a part of culture to

research.

After each presentation, a whole class discussion will be organized. This discussion can be

made of two steps. Firstly, the rest of the class will comment on their friends’ presentation

and they can ask anything they are curious about. Secondly, the whole class will discuss

generally the culture presented. They can discuss the similarities or dissimilarities with

Turkish culture or they can talk about the most interesting thing (food, festival etc.) to them.

As an assignment, the teacher asks each group to prepare a booklet about the culture they

research about:

T: All of you did really good job and thanks to you, we met different cultures and learned

what we do not know about nations. This time, I ask you to prepare a booklet about the

culture about which you researched to inform other people. In this booklet, there will

be a cover page where your research area (for example Europe, Africa) is highlighted.

You can put photos of these countries on the page. Other page will include information

about food/cuisine of that country. One page may be about festivals, one may be

traditional clothes or places of attraction. You can also add things you find worthy

talking about. It is totally up to you. It would be nice to put a paragraph including

general information about food/festival etc. at the beginning of the related page and

then give some specific examples. I’ll show you an example.

T: Be sure that your assignments must be shared on our class blog until the day before

next class. And remember that this one will be added to your final exam. Also, we

spared three class hours to this task. So, I know that you will do your best and pay

necessary attention to booklets. Thank you.

REFERENCES

https://www.gianteagle.com/Cooking-Ideas/Cooking-Guides/Taste-of-the-Far-East-Asian-

Cuisine/

http://www.seriouseats.com/images/2014/12/20141125-hot-pot-guide-shao-zhong-17.jpg

http://thewoksoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/DSC_0190.jpg

https://www.organicfacts.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Edamame.jpg

http://www.shopbelmontmarket.com/wp-content/uploads/page_img_sushi_01.jpg