TO THE TEACHER

 

This project is based on several didactic units linked by the different festivals and celebrations held in English-speaking countries, especially in the United Kingdom and in the United States. All units cover approximately 35 hours tuition.

Having this as the main point of the project, you will find interactive activities related to these festivals. Most of them are self-correcting, so that the student can improve the learning in an autonomous way.

All the activities are based on reading and writing and everything is presented on a webpage format.

What can you find in this project ?

• An Introductory Unit : this unit introduces the topic of ‘Festivals’ in a general way. An Initial Assessment sheet is also included in case you want to use it at the beginning. You can also find 2 more Assessment Sheets related to Stevie Wonder’s life. The KEYS to all these activities can be found at the end of this document.
• A Calendar : this calendar is divided into 12 months and if you click on a month, the different festivals and activities prepared for that month will be displayed.
• 8 mini-projects related to some of the festivals. These mini-projects are not self-correcting so they can be taken as assessment. The ‘mini-projects’ can be found in the following celebrations :

Project 1 : Top 10 New Year Resolutions.
Project 2 : Chinese New Year.
Project 3 : Kwanzaa.
Project 4 : Valentine’s story.
Project 5 : US Constitution.
Project 6 : Halloween.
Project 7 : Guy Fawkes’ Night.
Project 8 : The Colours of Christmas.

• A ‘Useful Links’ list provided to expand the students’ knowledge on a festival already studied.

These are the festivals you can find in the project:

JANUARY
• New Year
• Chinese New Year
• Kwanza
• Burns’ Night

FEBRUARY
• Valentine’s Day
• Pancake Day

MARCH
• Easter
• St. Patrick’s Day

APRIL
• April’s Fool Day

MAY
• Mother’s Day

JUNE
• Father’s Day

JULY
• Independence Day

AUGUST
• Edinburgh Festival

SEPTEMBER
• Harvest Festival

OCTOBER
• Halloween

NOVEMBER
• Thanksgiving Day
• Guy Fawkes Day

DECEMBER
• Christmas


Each unit is structured as follows :

• A ‘Brainstorming’ activity : there is a short activity – different for each unit – to introduce the festival the students are going to work with in the unit.
• A Reading text on the festival. All these texts have been taken and adapted from the Internet to make the situation more real and motivating for the student.
• Some interactive activities related to the festival studied. Most of these activities are interactive but some of them can be worked as ‘non-interactive’ mini-projects so that the teacher can use them to evaluate the students’ progress.

The main objectives of this project are :

• to present a motivating material for the student and for the teacher alike, using the new technologies.
• to enhance Reading and Writing, which are two of the four linguistic skills proposed in the General Curriculum for Secondary Education.
• to make students aware and interested in other cultures and in festivals held in other countries.


Due to the specific characteristics of this material, it can be used as a ‘Credit Variable’ or as material to be used on a specific date, if you want to work on a particular festival.

HOPE YOU ENJOY THE PROJECT !!!