Running Head: THE CULTURAL CONNECTION

The Cultural Connection

Rachel Brooks
OTL 502
Learning Theories and Models of Instruction

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Step 1:
Content Standard: The student uses the English language to interpret oral input, construct
meaning, interact with confidence both verbally and nonverbally, and express ideas effectively in
a variety of personal, social, and academic contexts (Get to know others, n.d.).
Student Age Level: 12 14
Step 2:
Unpacked Standard:

Students need to able to communicate effectively in the English language with children

from different cultures.

To understand the significance of ones own culture, traditions, and ways of life.
To gain a realistic perspective of their culture and its standing in the world.
To be able to make comparisons between their culture and other cultures in order to grasp

similarities and differences.

To understand, respect, and appreciate other cultures and traditions.
To make friends with others from potentially differing backgrounds.

Step 3:
Essential Questions:

Why is it important to be able to connect to people from different cultures?

How does hearing about other ways of life promote a more open mind?
How does reflecting on your own culture allow you to better reflect on others?
If you could know and understand more in depth any other culture in the world, which

would it be?
How does making international friends positively impact your communication abilities?
Your world view?

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Pre-Assessment: Paired Reading Response

Circle True (T) or False (F)

1) Participating in this activity helped to expand my descriptive vocabulary.

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2) Reading aloud to my partner helped me focus on my English pronunciation and

understanding.
T
3) Working with a partner made the reading easier and more interesting.
T
4) Hearing about another culture made me curious about others around the world. T
5) After reflecting on this particular way of life, I started reflecting on the way I live and
how it compares.

F
F
F
F

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The Cultural Connection: Report & Presentation Rubric

Written Culture Report with Presentation

Exceeds Expectations
4 pts
Task
How well do I complete the
task?

Exceeds Expectations

Meets Expectations

I complete the task with

learned and recombined phrases.

I complete the task with

learned and memorized phrases.

My main ideas are supported

with examples and elaboration
with details.

My main ideas are supported

with some examples.

I respond fully and

appropriately to all or almost all
parts of the prompt.
Comprehensibility
How well does the audience
understand me?

Exceeds Expectations
I can be easily understood.
The message is clear.

Vocabulary Use
How extensive and applicable
is my vocabulary?

Language Control
How accurate are my
grammatical structures?

Communication Strategies
How well do I organize my
writing?

Meets Expectations
3 pts

Exceeds Expectations

I respond adequately to most

parts of the prompt.

Meets Expectations
I can be understood.
The message is mostly
clear.

Meets Expectations

Approaches Expectations
2 pts

Approaches
Expectations
I complete the task with basic
words and basic phrases.
My main ideas are supported
with few examples.
I respond inadequately to some
parts of the prompt.

Approaches
Expectations

Below Expectations
1 pts

Below Expectations
I complete the task with a few
isolated words.
My main ideas are not
supported with examples.
I respond inadequately to most
parts of the prompt.

Below Expectations

I can be somewhat understood.

I can be understood only with

great effort.

The message is partially clear.

The message is not clear.

Approaches
Expectations

Below Expectations

I consistently use extensive

vocabulary to
complete the task

I use adequate vocabulary to

complete the
task.

I use limited and/or repetitive

vocabulary.

I use extremely limited and/or

repetitive
vocabulary.

I use various new vocabulary,

but also some old vocabulary, to
complete the task.

I use various new vocabulary

to complete the task.

My native language interferes

occasionally.

My native language interferes

frequently

Exceeds Expectations

Meets Expectations

Approaches
Expectations

I correctly use grammatical

structures
appropriate to the task most of
the time.

I correctly use grammatical

structures
appropriate to the task some of
the time.

I rarely use grammatical

structures appropriate to the
task.

Errors do not interfere.

Errors do not interfere.

Errors occasionally interfere.

Exceeds Expectations

Meets Expectations

My writing is well-organized.

My writing is organized.

There are some sequencing and

transition words.

There are a few sequencing and

transition words.

Approaches
Expectations
My writing is somewhat
organized.

Below Expectations
I rarely use grammatical
structures appropriate to the
task.
Errors frequently interfere.

Below Expectations
My writing is not organized.
Information is presented
randomly.

There are almost no

sequencing and transition
words.
Mechanics
How accurately do I use correct
capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling?

Exceeds Expectations
I make no or almost no errors
in spelling, capitalization, and
punctuation.

Meets Expectations
I make occasional errors in
spelling, capitalization, and
punctuation.

Approaches
Expectations
I make frequent errors in
spelling, capitalization, and
punctuation.

Below Expectations
I make frequent errors in
spelling, capitalization, and
punctuation.

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Goal Setting Worksheet

This week's goal is

to...

Learn meaning and

pronunication of new
descriptive vocabulary

Objectives I need
to meet before I
can achieve this
goal are...

Understand why terms are

useful for describing people,
places, or things
Take a pre-test to see what is
already known

To achieve my
objectives, I need
to...

Pre-test
Practice
Post-test

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Description and Analysis

From start to finish of this assignment, I was required to collaborate with a teacher whom
I am acquainted with in Madrid, Spain. She works as an assistant English teacher with children
around the ages of ten to eleven years old in a language academy. After discussing my cultural
project for this course, she was more than willing to help as a stand-in teacher. I indirectly
instructed her students to divide into pairs and take turns reading aloud a passage on Polish
culture that I had forwarded via email.
The students seemed to really enjoy the reading and the activity overall, according to the
teacher and the pre-assessment results.
Pre-Assessment Graph
Expanded
Vocabulary
English
Pronunciation
Working with
a Partner

FALSE
TRUE

Another
Culture

Reflection
0

10

15

20

25

30

As the graph indicates, the majority of the students benefited from the exercise in several ways.
The simplicity of the pre-assessment was to communicate the main focus of the lesson and as

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well as the overarching goals for these students outside of the classroom. I definitely believe that
students will experience success through these touchstones. They enable young minds to track
their performance and be aware of what is expected from them, as well as why they have an
important role in the language learning process. As long as it is understood that weekly goals be
maintained and monitored with genuine effort, students will be able to achieve monumental
success.

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Re-engage Students Every 10 Minutes:

First, we take a brief break to sing, dance and clap along to the "Happy" music video by
Pharrell Williams. It is a fun, American song that recaptures energy and happy
engagement, which is ideal for students to succeed.

After listening to the above song, I ask the students a few questions about the song. Did
you enjoy it? What's special about what everyone does in the video? What does it make
you think about American culture? How is this different or similar to your culture?

Once we have had an open discussion about the song, we shall cover some of the key
verbs, vocabulary, and phrases that Pharrell uses as well as why they are significant.

Offering Student Choice:

After explaining the concept of the cultural project, I will offer students a few ways they can go
about understanding and illustrating their culture:
1. Create a Collage
2. Write a Report
3. Construct a Poster
4. Make a Piece of Art, i.e. drawing, painting, etc.
5. Make a Song
Apart from these options concerning how to complete the project, I also would like to provide

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my students the opportunity to present it to the class, if they feel comfortable doing so. Ideally,
the more outgoing individuals would primarily be ready and willing to "show and tell" their
project to their peers. As these students begin sharing, the others will hopefully become more
comfortable with the idea and follow their classmates, especially being that they invested time on
the assignment and it personally relates to them. Otherwise, once everyone interested in
presenting has presented, we will non-chalantly discuss everything we learned from one another
and share our thoughts in a less spotlighted way.
Aligning the Skills:
As part of the class discussion, I will align the skills being taught by addressing the essential
questions of the content standard. Being that all of these questions stem from vital, real-world
abilities, such as respecting other cultures and traditions, the connection between learning and
outside application speaks for itself. As students hear of other norms of life, they subconsciously
reflect on how it differs from their own lifestyle. The key take-away here is that one way of
doing something is neither good nor bad, it is simply different than what one may be used to.
This results in acquiring and working on a skill that is highly valued no matter what direction
you take in life: a stronger understanding and appreciation for people from other nations who
hold different perspectives. More importantly, the pathway for a more open mindset gets paved
and students begin to see how much unchartered cultural territory truly exists within the world.
The desire to connect to this territory subtly gets sparked and from there, they are able to gain a
more realistic perspective of their culture in comparison to opposing cultures.

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Interaction Opportunities:

Utilizing positive nonverbal communication will be a consistent technique in terms of

engaging students. I will acknowledge student presence and contribution via eye contact,
smiling, as well as encouraging tone of voice.

At the start of the course, there will be an informal sharing opportunity where students
talk about themselves, where they are from, their dreams, and any other interesting
information.

I will make a point to ask students their thoughts on relevant course topics, listen to them,
and offer feedback in order to communicate that I understand them and respect their
opinions.

During moments of individual work or reading time, I will hover about the classroom
asking students how they are doing, whether they understand the work, and clarify the
learning so that they can recenter themselves if necessary.

Rules:

We are always kind and greet one another with a smile, hello, or other friendly gesture.
We respect others and their right to say what they believe.
We exert our own genuine efforts to achieve and appreciate our success.
Even when we dont understand something, we know someone near can help us.
We acknowledge that we are all here together as a family of learners who support one

anothers growth.
We understand that effective self-management outside the classroom is necessary in order
to feel ultimate achievement inside the classroom.

Procedures:

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Walk in quietly and greet the teacher.

Go to your desk and get materials organized.
Look on the board for the daily quote and warm-up exercise.
Homework gets collected after completion of the warm-up.
To ask a question or add commentary, raise your hand.
If you need to use the restroom or sharpen a pencil, raise your hand.
When the music goes on suddenly, I need your immediate, undivided attention.
If you finish a task early, feel free to work ahead or read silently.

Specific and Timely Feedback that is Non-Evaluative:

Taking after the Finnish methodology, I will provide each individual student with direct
information about their progress in the overall learning and offer opportunities for
improvement. For example, an extra credit assignment or project that challenges them

and sheds light on the objectives.

I will actively administer praise in order for students to grasp when they are doing

something right, and naturally feel inclined to continue that behavior.

I will communicate understanding towards the students learning frustrations, and then

follow with words of encouragement so that the he or she will want to persevere.
I will pay attention to how certain students learn and progress in the course, copiously
noting all of the important observations in a notebook. From there, I can easily address
students, their actions, and why they are significant in written communication form.

Opportunities for Students to Check Their Progress:

At the end of each week, I shall hand out reflective sentence stems for students to not
only gain confidence in what they know, but truly understand where they stand relative to

the content standard.

Every month, I will provide students with a colorful graph that illustrates how well they
are doing as we move through the course. Key information as to whether their progress
has gone up, gone down, or stayed the same will be indicated.

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Self as well as peer-feedback forms will be included on the rubrics for the purpose of

obtaining open, non-evaluated disclosure.

When working on progressive projects, easy-to-follow checklists will be made available
to the students. This means that everyone has the task broken down right from the
beginning, making it much simpler to digest and conquer.

Opportunities for Student Processing:

After I conclude an important topic within the lesson, I shall give students a few minutes
to write down any questions they have concerning the material. Whether confused,
curious or otherwise, everyone has a moment to think about what is being presented to

them. Thus, they are thinking about what we want them to learn and remember.
Depending on the day, I will then address their questions directly, or instruct them to
work with a partner to answer one anothers questions. With the partner approach, Ill ask
the students whether their classroom companion cleared up everything, then proceed

from there to cover it myself as their ultimate learning guide.

Alternatively, I will get students thinking about what they are learning prior to the lesson
by asking the overarching critical thinking questions. With these ideas floating in their
heads before further details get provided, we provoke their curiosity and they naturally
want to figure them out. During the lesson, I will periodically tie back to these questions
once relevant information is presented. In this way, students can more easily and readily

make the necessary connections to sustain their learning.

Lastly, all of the above styles of questioning and clarifications will be available online
after the weeks lesson(s) has concluded, hinting at the blended format of learning. This is
the extra cushion of processing time that certain students may require and find quite
useful.

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Essential C Activities:

Paired Reading Activity (Module 3): Context

Pre-Assessment: (Module 3): Connection
Goal Setting Worksheet (Module 3): Concentration
Addressing the Essential Questions (Module 4): Curiosity
Informal Sharing Activity (Module 4): Curiosity
Ask Students Thoughts and Offer Feedback (Module 4): Coaching
Hover and Clarify Confusion (Module 4): Coaching
Weekly Reflective Sentence Stems (Module 5): Coherence

Time Devoted to Activities:

Paired Reading Activity: 20 25 minutes

Pre-Assessment: 10 minutes
Goal Setting Worksheet: 15 minutes
Addressing the Essential Questions: 15 20 minutes
Informal Sharing Activity: 15 minutes
Ask Students Thoughts and Offer Feedback: 15 minutes
Hover and Clarify Confusion: 20 25 minutes
Weekly Reflective Sentence Stems: 15 minutes

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References
(n.d). Get to know others. Retrieved from: http://us.iearn.org/projects/curriculum-integrationtoolkit/integration-plans/plan/get-know-others
(n.d). Title: Get to know others. Retrieved from: https://iearn.org/cc/space-2/group-88/about
Buck Institute for Education. (Dec 2010). Project based learning: Explained. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMCZvGesRz8
Goodwin, B., & Ross Hubbell, E. (2013). The 12 touchstones of good teaching: A checklist for
staying focused every day. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.