changing a lesson to raise cultural awareness

TATER TOTSAddendum: Changing a Lesson Plan

TEAM MEMBERS

• PAOLA MAGDALI TORRES MANZANAREZ

• CAROLINA QUEZADA

• MARIA GUADALUPE GÓMEZ GÓMEZ

• SARAHÍ VIDALES FÉLIX

Words and Phrases

OBJECTIVES

• To present some adjectives

• To practice using the adjectives presented above in context

The Activity in the Book

Modification

Reason

• The Activity• Implementing culture that the students could learn in class.

• Selecting interesting aspects of a country and presenting them in a way that will engage students.

• The modification is on the exercises where we are using cultural facts about different countries, that way, the students learn vocabulary and cultural facts about different countries.

Listening

OBJECTIVES

• To introduce the topic of the listening text through an oral activity involving background knowledge.

• To listen for gist.

• To transfer from verbal to visual information

• To listen for specific information

The Activity in the Book

Modification

• As students listen to a conversation or are engaged with some other materials, you can ask them to 'notice' particular features.

• While revising the true and false questions, the teacher may elicit some questions so that the students could mention what is the simmilarity or difference of the statement in their own culture.

Reason

• Noticing• Asking students to 'notice' gives a focus to the materials by

making it into a task, rather than simply passive viewing or listening

Speaking

OBJECTIVES

• Aim: To give students practice in asking and answering questions about a person they know.

The Activity in the Book

Modification

Reason

• Many books which attempt to teach culture offer only 'discussion' activities.

• Discussion is a valuable form of learning in culture, but we cannot expect all students to be able to discuss complex issues at a high level in a foreign language.

• Often, even high-level students need some preparatory activities with clear goals before they can proceed to discussion.

Reading and Writing

OBJECTIVES

• To read for gist.

• To prepare students for the writing task.

• To relate the topic of the Reading text to personal opinion

The Activity in the Book

Modification

• Assign the writing task changing the instructions as follows:• Imagine that you are from _________.

• Research what a college student normally does in that country.

• Write John an e-mail that includes information about yourself, your country and life in general there.

• Your e-mail should be between 100 and 120 words.

Reason

• The Reading Activity would be left as it is.

• The Reading is about the life of a university student in another country.

• Writing Task would be modified.

• Knowing about culture is a broad topic.

• It consists of all the institutions, all the behaviour, in fact all the man-made aspects of a very large group of non-homogeneous people.

• All that we can do is provide some pathways to enter into learning more about the culture.

• Student research is one of the most powerful tools that we can use with college students because it combines their interests with the classroom.