Intercultural Classroom: Table/ Group Signs

On my quest to incorporate more interculturalism in my core FSL I have created little things and activities to add a cultural component to my classes every week at least.  One thing that I incorporated was group names; and those group names are different Francophone countries.

Each of the groups in my classroom has these frames (Tolsby frame from IKEA) with some information cards in it.  As a group, students would read the cards the first day with their new country, and as a group learn the statistics on the card.  (I changed the countries throughout the year so students get to know more than one.)

Through out the month, I will do different activities with that information.  Two activities my students like the best is the running dictation, and the scavenger hunt.

Running Dictation:

Take the additional stats from the students table country and make several copies. Put the copies up around the walls of the classroom (or even the school building).

Put the students in small groups. Each student has a role: there is the runner, the recorder and the checker.  The aim is for one of the students in each group to walk to read the passage on the wall. They remember some of the facts and walk back to their group. They quietly dictate what they remembered to their partner, who writes it down. They pass it to the checker to look for errors. Each trip to the wall must be done by a different student than the previous turn.  Over several turns they will build the page of information. This means they really do have to run back and forth because students will only remember three or four words at a time.

The winning group is the team that finishes first - although you need to check for mistakes (Or have a judge/ judges with the fact sheet to look for errors!). If there are mistakes, they must keep walking to check!  It is a great reading activity-- it gets students to think about the structure of the sentence to try and remember more and more of the information.  

Scavenger Hunt:

I hide additional facts about the countries around the room (or school) and students have to collect the additional facts about their country.  They know it is a fact about their country because I have the flag for the country on each fact.  Students go in pairs or groups to collect the facts around the school.  The first group to find all 5-10 facts, wins. (I made a trophy for the groups that win. Each time we do a group activity, that's what the "countries" win.)  

Sometimes the activities are smaller, like this one: I have the students look up a house in their group's country.  Draw a house from that place (for example Senegal) and a house from your neighbourhood.  Some students label parts of the house, others list differences-- it all depends on the the students abilities.  That comparison is really important in intercultural understanding- it is important to humanize the "other" so that we can see the similarities in contrast with the differences.  These are successful activities too.  

In order for the students to win at these games, they have to be at least a little familiar with the information on their table.  It's not a big cultural focus, but its a good way of incorporating la Francophonie into my classroom.  

In case you want to try this out, here are the cards I made for you to print out and use.  Please let me know of other activity ideas you use them for!  (They are double sided for use in the TOLSBY frames.)

**The link for these cards is also added to the printables page, for easy sharing.  

I wrote a resource! La Francophonie: Haïti

It has been a while since I posted anything of substance on this blog.  Désolée! I have been really busy.  I know, I know... Everyone is busy... but I have been too.  One project that I was working on, and have since finished and now I can share, is that I wrote a resource, La Francophonie: Haiti (ISBN: 9781554099504)

The lovely people at Tralco-Lingo Fun asked me if I would create a resource about Haïti because information for FSL teachers and students was lacking.  Since my new focus/ obsession is Interculturalism in Core FSL, I jumped at the chance.

I have had a love of the country of Haiti for a while.  I find its history fascinating, and its people amazing and resilient.  So, naturally, this resource definitely comes from that perspective.  The resource is full of activities that I have done with my grade 7 and 8 classes, and touches on the theory of interculturalism; the history of Haiti and the culture, with numerous activities to get your students thinking and speaking!

Here's the description from the Tralco website:

"A chance to learn about something new: a history and culture that most students have not been exposed to in their classes! Haiti. The author has used these activities in her classes. 

Students will glimpse into Haitian culture and make connections to their own culture. Teachers are provided with the necessary background knowledge while student activities provide opportunities to explore this culturally rich former French colony. The activities touch on all four strands of French language learning (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing).  

The complex history of Haiti unfolds and includes Haiti from being a slave colony of France to a free state, all in a student-friendly way. Using Google Earth, students will also explore Haiti's geography. They will then delve into into the particulars of the Haitian language, fun folklore, lively music and food with optional hands-on activities. 
A reading activity to exercise critical-thinking will get students thinking: Why is Haiti a poor country? To answer this question, students will have to draw on the knowledge they gained learning about Haiti’s history. There are also lists of resources (websites and online videos) for teacher info to enhance lessons as well as providing opportunities for social justice learning."

If you want to check it out, you can visit the Tralco-Lingo website at www.tralco.com and look at some sample pages.  I could add a sample here.  Would that be helpful? I would love to know what you think!