BYU+2011+Agenda

=The Culture Connection: Linking Language, Learners, & Life= toc Presented by Cherice Montgomery, Ph.D., Brigham Young University V Annual BYU Spanish Teacher's Workshop Tuesday, June 14, 2011 from 1:00 - 2:15 p.m.

Description:
In these sessions you will:


 * explore online cultural resources and experiment with engaging tech tools you can use to create meaningful student projects with culture at their core
 * participate in and collaboratively create culturally-infused activities that develop the proficiency of beginning level learners
 * use the rich cultural and linguistic resources that children's literature provides to motivate communication in your classroom

Guiding Questions:
These sessions will address the following essential questions:

1) What is culture?

2) Why is it important to embed culture in second language lessons?

3) How might teachers design opportunities for students to experience and explore culture in meaningful ways that develop students' proficiency in Spanish? [|Annenberg - El triángulo cultural]

4) How might teachers guard against reinforcing stereotypes and prejudices when teaching culture?

5) How might teachers assist students in recognizing the diversity that exists within the target culture (i.e., avoid overgeneralizations)?

Key Principles:



 * **Activate Prior Knowledge & Experiences** - Build on what students already know about their own culture to help them understand cultural ideas and practices that are new to them. Start locally and then build (i.e., self, families, communities, nations). Teach them that they have a culture (i.e., how would they respond to the idea of eating chicken soup on Thanksgiving?)


 * [|101 Characteristics of Americans/American Culture]


 * **Avoid Stereotypes**- Purposefully provide counterexamples to stereotypes and over-generalizations. Try to avoid absolutes (i.e. "All French people . . . ."), "othering" (objectifying the other culture or separating "US" from "THEM," often with the intent to criticize or pass value judgments), "exoticizing" (i.e., emphasizing only what grabs attention or will be perceived as strange or weird by students), "trivializing" (i.e., presenting only what is quaint or silly) or "political bias." You can "type" without "stereotyping."
 * [|Amish Paradise]


 * **Compare, Don't Just Contrast**- Present both similarities and differences between the target culture and the dominant culture of your students (i.e., refrain from "othering" the target culture by emphasizing solely the differences).


 * [|American Culture & American Diversity] (See pp. 41-56 for great activities that help students explore cultural perspectives)


 * [|Cultural Venn Diagram]


 * [|Pre-departure Orientation for Chinese Students (Chart)]


 * **Critically Evaluate Texts** - Consider the cultural content (or lack thereof) embedded in the texts you choose to use


 * **Elicit & Challenge Incomplete or Mistaken Information**- Uncover students' mental models about culture by giving them opportunities to talk about their own culture. Address their misconceptions respectfully. Offer students multiple examples/representations of the phenomena under study so they can see the diversity that exists within the target culture. Be sure to address both "big C and little c" culture.


 * [|Barbara Snyder's Culture Clashes]


 * We & They by Rudyard Kipling ([|Poem], [|YouTube Reading])


 * **Embed Culture in EVERY Activity**


 * [[file:Cultural Circumlocution Pairs.doc]]
 * [[file:Culturally Authentic Realia Mixer.doc]]
 * [[file:Hear Circle Culture.ppt]]
 * [[file:Examining Foreign Currency.doc]]
 * [[file:The Scoop on School.doc]]
 * [[file:Listening Grid Activities.doc]]
 * **Frame the Culture Positively** - Encourage students to avoid value judgments (i.e., "different," not "better," "worse," "stupid," or "weird"). Speak about the culture as though a native speaker were standing in the room--honestly, openly, but respectfully.


 * **Highlight Connections & Relationships** - Focus on the //relationships// between products, practices, and perspectives in the target culture rather than considering each one separately and in isolation.


 * **"Make the Familiar Strange" -** Encourage students to examine their own culture from the perspective of an "outsider."


 * **"Normalize" the Target Culture -** Use culturally authentic images and materials on a regular basis. Try not to "frame" or "teach" the culture as something that needs to be separated or "pulled out" each time (from Deanna Mihalyi)


 * **Prioritize Perspectives**- Encourage students to examine how the beliefs, values, historical events, and physical conditions of the culture influence the logic behind what and how people do things.


 * [|American Culture & American Diversity] (See pp. 41-56 for great activities that help students explore cultural perspectives)

1: Explore
> > - Extensive library of digital texts (including children's literature and museums) from Colombia > > - Culture-based websites in Spanish > > - Searchable database of language maintenance/proficiency development lessons (reading and listening) in a wide variety of languages. Allows you to limit the search to video-based lessons. Click on the individual links to launch the lesson modules > > > - Check out CDs of music, content materials, [|culture kits], flags, and/or maps from the [|Outreach Resource Library] at BYU's Kennedy Center for free. The Center can also help you schedule [|free presentations] for your classroom regarding specific countries. You may also wish to explore their [|CultureGuides]--conuntry-specific teaching units for both elementary and secondary classes > > > - Latin American Network Information Center - Extensive list of texts in Spanish & Portuguese (organized by country) > > > - List of audio courses and podcasts in a variety of languages, including Spanish & Portuguese > > - Site in Argentina containing Quino comics & Mafalda videos
 * Children's Songs
 * Music
 * Nursery Rhymes
 * Resources
 * [[image:thinkthematic/AudiriaLogo.gif link="http://www.audiria.com/index.php"]]- A collection of multimedia texts from a variety of different sources (movies, radio, songs, TV) that teachers can use as the basis for activities

- Blog by Zachary Jones with links to materials in Spanish that reflect popular culture

2: Evaluate

 * Cultural Accuracy, Authenticity, Currency, & Quality
 * Pedagogical Possibilities
 * Creativity & Critical Thinking

[|Discussion Forums]

3: Search


[|18 Free Ways to Download Any Video Off the Internet]

- Links

- Links

- Videos

- Today's front pages from newspapers around the world

- Music

- Videos

- Documents

- Presentations

- Images
 * [|Spanish Art]
 * [|Spanish Culture]
 * [|Spanish Food]
 * [|Spanish Places]
 * [|Spanish-speaking People]

- Videos

- Videos

- Videos

4: Share
[|Discussion Forums]

[|18 Free Ways to Download Any Video Off the Internet]

- Allows you to convert and then download to the hard drive on your computer the videos you find online media type="custom" key="9767444"


 * Three cultural photos (Bonus: Highlight a specific grammatical structure)
 * One quiz question
 * One caption in the center

Your turn! (Other tech tool options)

=B: Inspired by Culture:= Planning Powerful, Proficiency-based Activities

Premises:
 * Learning is the process of forming associations and connections
 * The formation of associations and connections comes from the interaction between thinking and doing
 * The need for interaction between thinking and doing means our planning must focus on STUDENTS
 * A focus on students means we must focus on creating conditions that foster learning
 * Thematic planning is one way to create the conditions essential for learning

In other words, ". . . the selection of a material or activity is also the selection of an array of forces that will influence how students will be challenged to think . . . . The curriculum is a mind-altering device" (Eisner, pp. 13, 72).

"In the absence of our clear intention, our willingness to consciously change the settings of the world we are creating, the default culture is decisive" (Block, 2003, p. 143).

It is not about doing more, it is about layering what you do so that it has more impact. Paso a paso--what is your very next step? Textbook-->supplemental resources-->culture-->connections and comparisons-->communication and interaction-->communities-->integration

[|The Power of Understanding] (Duplicate, Adapt, Innovate)

What is the difference between a topic and a theme?
 * Topic: Tells students what they are going to talk about
 * Theme: Encourages students to explore the **significance** of some aspect of a topic __for themselves__, their community, and/or for others

Jane Harper, Mary K. Williams, Madeline G. Lively. //From Topic to Theme.//





=C: Cultivating Communication Through Children's Literature=

Children's Literature Page


 * Edit the task, not the text
 * Make multiple passes through the text for different purposes
 * Focus on meaning first, then form
 * Don't "teach" grammar, draw students' attention to patterns in the language
 * Make input comprehensible


 * Pre-reading:**

[|Papá] La hora de Francisca - Excusas La hora de Francisca - Predicciones El secreto en la caja de fósforos - Describe & Draw El secreto en la caja de fósforos - Si un dragón viniera a la escuela


 * During Reading:**

Historias del arte

Book exploration time


 * Resources**

- Magazine available in English and the language of your choice. Each issue is organized around a conceptual theme. Excellent visuals make great bulletin board material if you buy these in your local bookstore instead of viewing online. CAUTION: Much of the material in these magazines is NOT appropriate for classroom use, so teachers should preview and select carefully.

- Series of group conversation activities (mostly discussions and debates) organized around themes such as immigration, organ donation, war, etc.

- Magazine produced by the Embassy of Spain (also available through the Spanish Resource Center)

[|Thematic Units from the National K-12 Foreign Language Resources Center]