Language group

Personal identity - Cultural Identity

For this activity we were handed in a list of one hundred and twelve values. This list covered every kind of values that a person can consider important for his or her life: from leadership to obedience, from passion to relaxation, from being the best to humility and many, many others. At the beginning, each of us had to choose ten of those values. After that, we were told to highlight three of those values. Finally, we could only keep one value.

As you can imagine, this process was not easy at all. It is hard to decide what values play a more important role in one´s life. Justice or love? Happiness or generosity? Certainty or spirituality? I reckon everyone selects the most important values regarding his or her own experiences, the environment and the culture where one has been educated.

This activity didn´t finish here. We had to go further and discuss with the whole group what two values we all shared. I learnt with this activity that beyond cultures and different backgrounds, there are some universal values which are appreciated by all of us. After some discussions, we agreed to choose happiness and love. After all, everybody seeks to being happy, and somehow, loving the others, what we do, what we know, what we hope is a way to reach that happiness. 

The Melting Pot vs. Tossed Salad

Melting the Pot and Tossed Salad are two metaphors that have been used to describe the result in the United States of the process of assimilation and acculturation by immigrants and minorities. On one hand, “melting the pot” refers to a process in which every new cultural group brings some values and costums to the dominant culture but, at the same time, acquires some cultural influence from the mainstream culture. The result of it would be an only American culture for all the citizens.

On the other hand, American culture has been also compared to a “tossed salad”. This idea wants to mean that every group of people conserves their original culture, ideas and flavor but they are also in touch with the others and enhance their flavor. Consequently, there is not an only American culture. Therefore, American culture is the living together of many different cultures. With this last metaphor, we can see the challenges of multiculturalism. Two ingredients in a salad not always match with each other. In the same way, cultures can be very different and it is sometimes difficult finding the common points between them. However, we must believe common points always exist. Respect and open-mindedness are the basis for it, as well as the knowledge of the others, which is just a starting point to love them.

In relation to this, I have to say I really appreciate my mates´ diverse backgrounds. I consider they actually enhance the flavor of culture in our classroom.

The clown´s suitcase

As far as I´m concerned, teaching strategies are for a teacher like the equipment clowns and magicians usually carry with them to show their tricks. Teaching strategies are that hodgepodge teachers use to introduce new chunks of knowledge to their pupils. When well used, teaching strategies are, like in the circus, surprising, engaging, playful and meaningful.

Good and experienced teachers know how to show the contents to their students in many different ways regarding their learning styles: visual, auditory or kinesthetic. According to this, there are many teaching strategies that can be used in primary classrooms: songs, rhymes, board games, riddles, problem solving activities, cooperative games, role play, discussion, guessing games, discovery activities and many others, which vary from one subject to another.

I especially like guessing games to introduce a new topic in my English lessons. For this, I use the mysterious bag. It consists on a cloth bag which always hides an object, a tool or a picture of a character. Children take turns to ask yes-no questions about the mysterious thing, for example:

Is it an object?                 Yes

Is it big?                       No

Can you eat it?                  No

Can you play with it?            Yes

Is it a ball?                    Yes. Can you specify a bit more?

Is it a ping-pong ball?          Yes. That´s right!

With this easy strategy, we can attract children´s attention to the new topic. Furthermore, it´s a good way to refresh the vocabulary they have previously learnt and the structure of questions. Moreover, it will be a good starting point for a conversation about what sports they practice.