Celebrate!

CELEBRATE! HOLIDAYS IN THE U.S.A.
Mikhail Nokhov
BASED ON THE BOOK “CELEBRATE” AND TEACHING MATERIALS PREPARED BY HPU
HYONOLULU, HAWAII,
2009

“CELEBRATE”
Description:
139 pages
Federal Holidays – 10
Celebrations- 10
Recognition Months- 4
10-11 Grade Level, age -14-16

Other Materials
Teacher’s Guide and Notes for CELEBRATE! Holidays in the U.S.A. 2e. Prepared by the materials writing team of Hawaii Pacific University
Part I- Notes to the Teacher.
Part II- Teaching the Holidays.

Notes to the Teacher
Warm up – pictures will help the students to prepare for studying a new holiday or celebration.

Letter from the U.S.A. It is used in order to introduce all holidays. This short letter from an American student should be read in class.
Objectives:
To build background knowledge about the holiday.
To relate the content of the lesson to the local culture and content.
To understand and respond to friendly conversational questions.
FAQ – they are reproduced in every lesson and give a student basic background information about a holiday preparing them for additional English language activities based on them. Objectives:
Students comprehend both oral and written information.

Wh-questions
Who?
Why?
What?
How?
Where?
When?

Checking comprehension. This activity reviews and reinforces important information and phrases from FAQ.
Objectives: To review main ideas from FAQ.
To relate an American holiday to
a local celebration or custom.
To use key words and phrases from
FAQ.
Reading “Celebrate”.
Focusing on vocabulary.
Journal prompt.
Useful websites.
Extension Activities.

Holidays Represented in “CELEBRATE”.
New Year

Martin Luther King Day

President’s Day

Memorial Day

Independence Day
click

Labor Day

Columbus Day

Veterans Day

Celebrations. St. Valentine Day

Thanksgiving Day

Christmas Day

Mother’s Day

Father’s Day

Flag Day

Halloween

Birthdays and Anniversaries

My Contribution to this Project.
While dealing with American holidays and celebrations it would be in good taste to use the local culture as well.
For example: New Year Holiday.
How do people see the New Year in in your country?
What is the weather usually like on December,31?
Do people celebrate the New Year in families, or go to the parties?
Do the people in the family give presents to each other on this day?
Do children write letters to Father Frost?
Do children in Russia give promises?
Is there a New Year tree in every house in Russia?

Memorial Day & Victory Day.
Find out what are common features between the celebration of Memorial Day in the USA and the Victory Day in the Russian Federation and what the differences are.
This activity could be added to the material learnt after the students have read the texts “Memorial Day” and “The Celebration of the Victory Day”.
Depending upon where it is used in a particular lesson this type of activity can activate students’ knowledge of their local holiday – the Victory Day.
Read the text about American Memorial day and find the features common to both holidays and the features, which are different.
After you have read the text answer the following questions and then fill out the chart below.

When are both of the holidays celebrated?
When was Memorial Day introduced in the USA?
When was the Victory Day first celebrated in Russia?
What man can be called a hero?
What features of character should the hero possess?
How do the people celebratethese holidays in the USA and in Russia?
Do they lay wreaths to the monuments of the heroes?
Are these holidays popular both in the USA and Russia?

Memorial Day

Remembrance Day

Victory Day

The students work in pairs and after they have finished filling out the chart they are supposed to make a short dialogue based on the answers to the questions.
Other students may add if the previous pair has omitted anything or make corrections.
Variation: It depends upon the teacher in what way he wants to organize this activity –
The students may feel out this chart at home and make a detailed analyses, they can be given pictures of the celebration of Memory Day and the Victory day and asked to describe the, saying what is common and what is different.
The students are asked to preparea PowerPoint presentation of the holidays by the next lesson and get ready for a monologue.

Project
Project: MEMORIAL DAY
In this project, students of one class will exchange information and collaborate to learn about Memorial Day.Project Overview:
1. BACKGROUND:
a. Students’ levels: intermediate to advanced
b. Technology and other resources needed: computers with the Internet connection, cameras, wetpaint.com .
2. PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
a. Language focus (vocabulary domains, key grammatical structures, pronunciation): adjectives and nouns to describe the holiday, present tense (to describe) and past tense (to talk about history), pronunciation focuses will vary.
b. Skill focus: writing with mixed media
c. Content focus: Memorial Day, its history, traditions, customs, symbols relative days in other countries, battlegrounds, war memorials, museums, etc.

d. Task focus:
- collecting information and pictures how Memorial Day is celebrated in the U.S.A., Remembrance Day in Great Britain and Victory Day in Russia
- reading about the celebration of Memorial Day in the U.S.A., Remembrance Day in Great Britain and Victory Day in Russia.
REMEMBERANCE DAY in GREAT BRITAIN
http://digg.com/political_opinion
www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.UK.
www.answers.com/topic/rememberance-day
MEMORIAL DAY in the U.S.A.
http://en.wikpedia.org. /wiki/memorial day
http://www.usmemorialday.org.
http://usmemorialdayorg.
VICTORY DAY in Russia
http://wikpedia.org/wiki/VictoryDay - (Eastern Europe)
www.msnbc.msn.com//:d/30654932
http ://commons.wikipedia .org./wiki/category: Victory-Day (Russia)

- creating a website with links to the different aspects of the celebrations. Audience: other groups of students from this class.
3. PROJECT LENGTH: 4 weeks
4. PROJECT OUTCOMES: the students will produce a community-based website hosted by Wetpaint.com.
5. TEACHING STEPS:
Lesson 1: Introduction
1. Introducing the topic to students, explaining what the aims of the project are, how important it is to revere the memory of fallen heroes, to take care of the heroes who are in their declining years.
2. Forming groups of 3 or 4 students, each group focuses on celebrating the Memorial Day in three countries – the U.S.A., Great Britain and Russia.

3. Guiding the groups to make a group task list and assign each task to the group members, e.g.,
- brainstorm ideas about what to include in the description: all the students
- photo correspondent: Zaur
- information gatherer: Daud
- secretary: Naida
- drafting the description: all the students
- posting the description on Wetpaint: Naida, with Daud’s and Zaur’s help
- reading and commenting on other groups' descriptions: all the students
- revising the description: everybody
Lesson 2: Getting to know other groups, exchanging questions about their holidays. Lesson 3: Collecting information for the group's multimedia description about the holiday: looking for pictures, looking up information.

Lesson 4: Drafting the group's multimedia description about their holiday.Lesson 5: Posting the group's description draft on Wetpaint.Lesson 6: Reading and commenting on other groups' descript ion Lesson 7: Revising the group's description based on the other groups' comments and questions. Lesson 8: Reading and commenting on the partner group's description.Lesson 9: Revising the group's description based on the partner group's comments and questions.Lesson 10: Evaluation and reflection: a game quiz about the holidays, self-reflection on language learned, content learned, and skills learned.
3. POSSIBLE EXTENSIONS OR VARIATIONS
The three groups exchange their opinions of the work done at the end of the activity.
The Teacher evaluates their activity.

Celebrate!

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