02/26/2019 -Teaching deep culture in the elementary school

Teaching deep culture in the elementary school sounds like a challenge for most teachers. On the other hand, it is a great chance to us as teachers to have different worlds in one same class, there are many opportunities to take advantage of this situation.

By having different culture students in one same class, we can create and offer different activities for them that will help them to acquire and internalize each students experiences or customs.

To mention an example, let´s imagine we have a classroom where we have different nationalities students, we could have an activity related to their own independence day, so students could make a project explaining their indpendence day and share important features to the rest of the class, you know, dates, how did independence occur?, how do they celebrate this holiday in their own countries? and then invite the rest of the class to ask questions they are interested in. It sounds great, isn´t it? because we as teachers will also get information about different countries´independence day, and if you are a history lover just like me you will be so excited to do this activity in your own classroom.

Or even better you could talk with your school authorities to show a cultural fair, where different countries students could show what are some of their attractions, typical food, celebrations and so on. Thinking in this activity really excites me, because students will feel proud of their own roots and cultural identity and I´m sure they will love to share their own cultural information to all the assistants.

Having this model of activity will be a complete success  as an English teacher because I will not only apply english course but also cultural teaching and it really excites me.

Parents will love to see their children explaining and sharing about their own personal cultures, I can imagine their happy proud faces. It will be a real success. 

Mexican parade, where people shows typical dances and colorful clothing.

Peruvian typical food

Different Venezuelan beaches








As we can see I have shown just three examples of what students could show in the cultural presentation. A Mexican student could talk about their different dances and customs, music could be a nice topic here, as well. A Peruvian students could talk about their food, bring some samples to let the public taste and a Venezuelan student could talk about beautiful beaches in their country. 

I will definetely propose this activity for this coming school year, I know it will be a memorable event.

What do you think about my ideas?, Do you have any other ideas about how combine culture into our english classes? I would like to read about them.