Page 292 - Beyond Methods

280 Raising cultural consciousness
Because of the way this microstrategy originated, it appears, as pre- sented here, to be more suitable for a multilingual and multicultural classroom consisting of international students. However, you can adapt this microstrategy by treating cultural variations, as we all should, not just in terms of national variations (as in Japanese culture, American culture, etc.) but in terms of subcultural variations within a nation, such as religion, language, gender, age, or even personal interests.
12.3.1 Ask some of your students to share with the class who their heroes are. Most probably, they will mention some people who are fa- miliar and some who are not familiar to you and the other students. Ask them to explain briefly why they consider these individuals to be their heroes.
12.3.2 Divide the class into small groups. Have members of each group discuss their views about the concept of hero in their cultural or subcultural community, and come away with a consensus definition of hero, with examples.
12.3.3 Have a representative from each group report back to the class, summarizing the group discussion, followed by a brief question- answer session.
12.3.4 Ask them to read about the concept of hero and hero-worship presented in the textbook, or in any reading material you may have se- lected for them. Help them with their reading comprehension.
12.3.5 Ask the students to go back to their small groups again, this time to compare their cultural concept of hero and hero-worship with that of the one presented in the reading material.
12.3.6 Ask a representative from each group to report back to the class once again, this time to talk about perspectives on heroes and hero-worship across cultures or subcultures.
12.3.7 Depending on the proficiency level of the students, you may also direct the students’ attention to, and have an informed dialogue on, the cult of hero-worshipping and its potential harmful effects.
12.3.8 Sum up and complete the discussion, drawing the class’s at- tention to anything they may have missed about the cultural/subcultural concepts of hero and hero-worship, and also try to bring about a class consensus on the subject.
12.3.9 Give a writing task in which they write about which hero or heroes they would like to emulate and why.
12.3.10 Bring the project to a closure by asking a few student vol- unteers to share their thoughts on heroes they want to emulate.