Let's Take a Cultural Journey

Introduction

Let's Take a Cultural Journey

This webquest has been designed for 4th grade A2 level students as a take home exam for FLE308 Teaching English to Young Learners class. 14 Students are enrolled in private Doğa College and they have 6 English classes each week.

In this webquest, you will get to know more about five different countries and their cultures from your seats. Have you ever wondered how the other children in other parts of the world live? How do they see the world? How different and similar are you in your cultures? What language do they speak? What are their religions?

Get ready for the cultural journey of 5 different countries!

Explore this webquest to learn about the different cultures of India, China, England, Ethiopia, and Greece.

Let's go...

Task

You will visit five different websites to learn about the cultures of five countries. While you are going over the pages, do not forget to compare the languages, native lingo, and traditions of these cultures with your own culture!

Think about similarities and differences about them. You will write your opinions about these cultures and you will also make a presentation.

Process

Let's Take a Cultural Journey

1- You will work on this webquest individually.

2- You have two "Cultural Journey" handouts in front of you.

3- Use the first handout to add information about your own culture in Turkey.

4- Keep the second "Cultural Journey" handout, you will need it later.

5- Visit all of the website links below to learn about these five countries.

6- While you visit the websites, read about the native lingo, languages spoken, and traditions that the various cultures have. For each country, you need to click on the links on the left part of the page to learn more. Take a special look at "Day in the Life" and "Native Lingo" link to learn how other children live in other countries and what phrases they use in daily life.

China India England Ethiopia Greece

Click here to go to an online dictionary website to find the words you do not know.

7- After you examine all links, choose the most interesting country for you.

8- Prepare your second "Cultural Journey" handout and fill in the blanks with the culture of that country.

9- Your teacher will give you a sheet of "Letter Writing Paper".

10- Now, take this "Letter Writing Paper" to write an informative letter to your parents or relatives. Tell them about the similarities and differences between Turkish culture and the most interesting culture for you. Take your paper to home and share it with your family.

11- After you finish writing, your teacher will collect your writing papers and will give you feedback about them. You will get your papers back when the lesson is finished.

12- Later, the classroom will be divided into two groups. Your teacher will give each group a cartoon paper.

12- In each group, there will be 7 students. You will form your own groups. And you will prepare a short presentation about each 5 countries. In your presentation, you need to write about differences and similarities, languages, cultures, religions and 1 most interesting fact.

13- After you finish writing, you will present your paper to the rest of the classroom.

Evaluation

Cultural Journey WebQuest Rubric

Name: ___________________________

1- Rubric for Writing Letter Activity

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Content	Poster presentation clearly tells all of the necessary information which is mentioned i the task part.	In the poster presentation, there is 1 missing point which is mentioned i the task part.	In the poster presentation, there are 2 missing points which are mentioned i the task part.	In the poster presentation, there are 3 missing points which are mentioned i the task part.
Grammar	There are 2-3 grammatical(spelling, punctuation, word usage) mistakes in the poster presentation.	There are 4-5 grammatical (spelling, punctuation, word usage)mistakes in the poster presentation.	There are 6-7 grammatical(spelling, punctuation, word usage) mistakes in the poster presentation.	There are more than 7 grammatical(spelling, punctuation, word usage) mistakes in the poster presentation.

2- Rubric for Poster Presentation

CATEGORY

Poster	Followed the instructions and all information is typed into the poster correctly.	Followed all but 1 of the directions provided and all the rest of the information is typed into the poster correctly.	Followed all but 3 of the directions provided and all the rest of the information is typed into the poster correctly.	Didn't follow 5 or more directions. The information in the report is not correctly done.
Presentation	Spoke clearly and loudly for all to hear. Held poster up for all to see.	Somewhat difficult to understand or wasn't loud enough to hear. Not all were able to see the poster.	Wasn't able to understand what the student was reading or was asked to speak up once. Flashed poster for all to attempt to see.	Was asked to speak up more than once. Poster was flashed but no able to be seen by anyone.

Total Points: ____________

Conclusion

We came to the end of our journey. I think you are tired after seeing so many countries.

Well done!

Today you have explored 5 different countries and their cultures and you did not have to visit these countries to learn about them. You learnt how other children in other countries spend their lives. You saw similarities and differences among these cultures. Was there anything special for you? Anything surprising?

You have seen that we are all different but the same! There are different cultures, religions, and traditions but we can live together. This means we are unique people who live in a diverse world.

Respect others if you want to be respected by others.

Credits

Credits

http://society-politics.blurtit.com/32767/what-are-cultural-differences

http://agypsy.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/cultural-differences-between-ind…

http://questgarden.com/169/42/1/140327160138/conclusion.html

http://www.wikihow.com/images/3/3b/Understand-and-Admire-Cultural-Diffe…

http://www.idist.ru/Informazia/bolshoj_mir_s_ladoshkami.jpg

http://haydardirici.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/genetik-acidan-insanlar…

http://www.siliconeer.com/past_issues/2013/november-2013/PAGE-TRAVEL-BA…

http://questgarden.com/98/96/3/100322095035/index.htm

http://www.cicb.net/en/home/examples

http://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/book_of_body_language/chap5.h…

http://www.pinterest.com/ljag/world-cultures-for-kids/

http://stayathomemoms.about.com/od/activitiesandfun/a/world-cultures.htm

Author Biography

Ahmet KURNAZ
My name is Ahmet Kurnaz and I am a 3rd year FLE student at Middle East Technical University. I have created this webquest as a take-home exam in FLE308 Teaching English to Young Learners class. I have had some short-term experience with young learners but I have a long road to go to be the ideal teacher for them.

Permission

This webquest can be used for educational purposes.

Teacher Page

by Ahmet KURNAZ, METU

In this webquest, students get to know more about five different countries and their cultures from their seats. They will try to have answer for the questions such as: Have you ever wondered how the other children in other parts of the world live? How do they see the world? How different and similar are you in your cultures? What language do they speak? What are their religions? Also, this webquest will give them a chance to see that differences are not something that they should be afraid of, but it is something that creates uniqueness and diversity in the world.

Resources: