This EFL lesson encourages children to critique cultural holidays and festivals

Title – Cultural Lesson
By – Muhammad Aamir
Primary Subject – Language Arts
Grade Level – Intermediate 3-5

Note from LessonPlansPage.com:

This is an English as a Foreign Language lesson sent to us from Sindh, Pakistan. It encourages children to critique the festivals, holidays and traditions of their area. Wikipedia has an article about Sindhi festivals (

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sindhi_festivals

), but this lesson can apply to the holidays of any country or region as well.

Skill Focused:

Speaking

Time:

40 minutes

Objectives:

By the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
• Develop spoken fluency
• Use language for describing occasions
• Express their views and thoughts confidently
• Interact confidently with peers

Warm up:

“If you were not born a human being what would you like to be (it could be anything living or nonliving)?”

Step # 1: (Group Activity – 5 members)

• Teacher gives instructions for the task: “In your groups, think of as many holidays/festival occasions that are celebrated as you can.”
• Teacher facilitates and monitors.
• Teacher now elicits answers and puts them up on the board/flipchart.
• Teacher makes sure that all groups respond.

Step # 2: (Group Activity – 3 members)

• From the list on the board/flipchart, the teacher asks each group to choose one topic about the cultural/social values which they like/don’t like.
• Each group would give a presentation on it to the whole class. Encourage every member of the group to speak.
• Give them 5-7 minutes for discussion.
• Ask each group to come up for the presentation.

Step # 3: (Group Activity – 4 members)

• Teacher gives instructions for the new task: “Discuss and decide the customs and traditions which are of no worth and should be stopped and state why.”
• Teacher facilitates and monitors.
• Teacher announces to stop the activity.
• Teacher now takes feedback.

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Handout

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Cultural Values

In groups of three/four; discuss the following:

Discussion 1:

If you were not born a human being what would you like to be?

Discussion 2:

List all the festivals which people of different religions celebrate which you can think of. Which one do you like best and why?

Discussion 3:

List all the social/and cultural values and customs that you like/dislike. Give reasons for your choice.

Discussion 4:

Discuss and decide “which customs and traditions in Sindh (or your country, state, or province) are of no value? Should they be stopped?” Give reasons to support your arguments.

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