Linguistics 577 - Lesson Plans: Culture

Culture Lesson Plan

Halloween

Teacher's Name: Ru-yi Rebecca Wang
Learners' Age & Language Proficiency Level: low-intermediate 10th grade students in Taiwan

Objectives:

Students will understand the origin of Halloween and what people do at Halloween.
Students will have the opportunity to compare Halloween with Lantern Festival and Ghosts' Day in Taiwan.

Materials needed:

a door cover of Halloween
a pumpkin basket
a video tape (teacher- produced)
a kid's costume, blank strips of paper
strips of paper with
information on them

TEACHING/LEARNING ACTIVITIES:

Warm-up/Introduction:

Hang a door cover and ask the students what they can see in it and (2 mins.) if they know what holiday it is in America.

Presentation:

1. Vocabulary in the door cover is introduced: witch, broomstick, spider, (25 mins.) ghost, pumpkin, black cat, bat, etc.

2. Explain what people do at Halloween. Introduce more vocabulary: costume, Jack-O'-Lantern, trick or treat, mask. Play the video tape which includes Halloween decorations, a little party at a pre-school, and kids' going trick-or-treating. Then have several students describe what they saw in the tape.

3. Have the students read the short paragraph in the textbook Ask if they have any new words. Explain those words. Then ask several comprehension questions about the paragraph. 4. Tell the students the origin of Halloween and All Saints' Day.

Practice:

1. Pair work of information gap. There are two pieces of informationó why (20 mins.) are there witches and how a Jack-O'-Lantern is made. Each one of the pair has one piece on a strip of paper and need to explain the information to his partner, who is going to write it down.

2. Have the students sing the song "Jack-O'-Lantern." If necessary, teach vocabulary, like "stride", "far and wide."

Homework:

Ask the students what holidays in Taiwan are similar to Halloween: Lantern (3 mins.) Festival and Ghosts' Day on the lunar calendar. Ask them to write a short paragraph for each and bring it next time.

The paragraph from the textbook:
The last day of October is Halloween. It is a children's holiday. They enjoy wearing strange clothes and masks. In most parts of the United States, children visit their neighbors in the early evening. They are given a few pieces of candy. Some of the older children do not take candy but ask for a few pennies instead to give to the United Nations Children's Fund.

Two questions and answers for information gap: 1. Why are there witches? What symbols are associated with witches? Long ago in Britain, people used to go to wise old women called "witches" to learn about the future. They believed that these witches had the power to tell the future and to use magic words to protect people or change them. There were many beliefs about witches, who are now a symbol of Halloween. For example, people believed witches flew on broomsticks to big, secret meeting where they ate, sang, and danced. Black cats (bad ghosts) often accompanied them. Bats are witches' best friends. They don't like light.

2. How is a Jack-O'-Lantern made?
(1) Buy a nice orange pumpkin.
(2) Wash the pumpkin.
(3) Put newspapers on the table.
(4) Cut a large hole around the top. Use a sharp knife. Be careful.
(5) Take out the seeds.
(6) Cut out eyes, a nose, and a mouth.
(7) Put a candle in the pumpkin.
(8) Put the top on. Turn off the lights. Now you have a Jack-O'-Lantern.

* The above answers were provided by two teachers at ELC.

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