Page 290 - Beyond Methods

278 Raising cultural consciousness are associated with Thanksgiving in the two or three cultures of their
focus.
12.2.5 Ask them to display their work on a poster board for every- body to see and read.
12.2.6 Select some students and ask them to give a brief oral pres- entation explaining the historical origin and practice of Thanksgiving in the cultures they selected. You may ask students at higher levels of proficiency to explain the historical and cultural rationale behind those practices.
12.2.7 Lead a discussion in class, giving time for students to answer questions from the class and the teacher.
12.2.8 After the presentations, ask students who volunteer to tell the class what they think are the common and different threads that run through different origins and practices of Thanksgiving.
12.2.9 Sum up the discussion, bringing out the similarities and dis- similarities in cultural practices, focusing mostly on what the learners may have missed.
12.2.10 Finally, ask the students to write a cross-cultural perspective of Thanksgiving in two or three different cultures, and include new cul- tural knowledge they may have gained by doing this project and from listening to other students in class.
Like Cultural Profile, Project Thanksgiving gives L2 learners an op- portunity to compare and contrast popular festivities, thereby promot- ing the construction of cultural meanings. An important aspect of this project is that beneath the apparent differences in the cultural practice there is an underlying commonality in the cultural process that is more universal than one would presume. In fact, the next microstrategy demonstrates this point even more tellingly.
Microstrategy 12.3: Hero and Hero-Worship
12.3.0 I would like to begin with some detailed background infor- mation on this microstrategy because it was prompted by a teacher- student conflict I had to resolve (see also Kumaravadivelu, 1999b). A few years ago, I was teaching in the MATESOL program of a univer- sity in the southeastern United States. In addition to courses in TESOL, the program at that time offered classes for advanced international students aimed at improving their reading and writing skills. It was part of my administrative responsibility, as director of the program, to periodically review the teaching effectiveness of instructors teaching those classes.