1. Culture Day! [Part Deux] Everyday a Bill Heller SUNY Geneseo
Spanish Teacher - Perry High School (retired)
Heller 2009

2. The challenge: Every Day a Culture Day!
To identify and examine cultural products and cultural practices to present as a basis for creating opportunities for communication.
Products:
Authentic documents
Art work
Advertisements
Handicrafts
“Realia”
Literature and sayings
Games
Video and film clips
Practices:
Celebrations
Rituals
Traditions
Superstitions
Gestures

3. Ch Every Day a
Culture Day!
Heller 2009

4. Follow-up Points Ch Every Day a Culture Day!
How do I provide a cultural context in proficiency-based thematic units?
How do I help students discover their own culture?
What “cultural perspectives” can be explored with novices?
How can content-based units provide rich cultural content at the intermediate level?

5. Every Day a
Culture Day!
Providing a Cultural Context
1. Brainstorming cultural connections and comparisons.
2. Use authentic documents for interpretive activities and follow up with interpersonal and presentational – using the IPA model
3. Make culture count in assessments – content and context

6. Every Day a
Culture Day!
Personal Identification
•surnames
•Spanish speaking countries (origin)
•self-portraits of artists
•visiting and calling cards
•metric height and weight
•saint’s days
•non-verbal communication, gestures
•describing portraits by TL artists
•greetings, farewells, politeness
•register (formal and familiar)

7. Every Day a
Culture Day!
Education
•compare/contrast schedules
•uniforms
•courses and textbooks
•student life - tunas
•advantages of learning languages
•classroom commands
•grading practices
•national and college entrance examinations

8. Every Day a
Culture Day!
Shopping
•compare/contrast store hours/business days
•bargaining
•handicrafts/ artesanía
•currency exchange
•flags (colors)
•metric sizes
•traditional clothing
•gifting practices

9. Every Day a
Culture Day!
Family
•artwork of families - Goya, Botero, Lomas Garza
•esquelas - outline family tree from death notices
•Royal Family of Spain
•importance of family
•holidays and celebrations
•greeting cards

10. Every Day a
Culture Day!
Examine Text Types

11. Every Day a
Culture Day!
What is United States Culture?
1. LeLoup’s Coffee Cup Activity
2. The Pledge.
3. Stereotypes of USA Americans from TL perspective
4. The “ugly American” stereotype
5. Symbols – La lotería mexicana; la lotería estadounidense
6. Currency and cultural values

12. Every Day a
Culture Day!
Cultural Perspectives for Novices
1. Venn Diagrams: An easy place to start
2. Cultural Assimilators – Barbara Snyder - Whistling
3. Build a foundation of “cultural literacy” - symbols
4. Develop an appreciation for difference and diversity
5. Point out similarities as well!
6. Use images from target cultures regularly – Paula Heusinkveld -Clemson - Pathways to Culture (1997)

13. Levels of Cultural Understanding (Anthony Papalia)
Ch Every Day a
Culture Day!
Levels of Cultural Understanding (Anthony Papalia)
Position A: Preconventional Level
“We and They”
Position B: Conventional Level
“I with others in the World”
Position C: Principled Level
“I with others in a contextual relativism”

14. Cultural Literacy (Hirsch, 1987)
Ch Every Day a
Culture Day!
Cultural Literacy (Hirsch, 1987)
- necessary to comprehend communication.

15. Every Day a
Culture Day!
Content-based units
1. Barrueta’s “El Tren de la Vida”
2. Fine Arts Unit
3. Games and Pastimes
4. Wise sayings, jokes, riddles, puns and humor/comics
5. Communication – history of language, gestures, language academies

16. The Thematic Year: El Tren de la Vida
Every Day a
Culture Day!
The Thematic Year: El Tren de la Vida
Unit 1: El tren de la vida Unit 4: La juventud
Unit 2: El parto y la niñez Unit 5: El amor y la amistad
Unit 3: La familia Unit 6: La vida es sueño

17. Every Day a Culture Day! Level IV – Culture Activities
1. Brainstorm list of American icons and symbols.
2. Examine American dollar bill.
3. Examine currency from other countries. (symbols, words, colors, numbers, people)
4. Talk about stereotypes. Vision of “typical American” toward Spanish speaking world.
5. Article on Stereotypes of Americans. Comprehension chart.
6. Inventory of “typical” American characteristics.
7. La Lotería Mexicana – Reading on symbols and calling rhymes. Examine symbols. Play game.
8. Prepare and present “Lotería estadounidense”
9. Cultural misunderstanding skits.
10. Develop definition of culture.

18. Every Day a Culture Day! Level IV – Games Activities
1. Introduce vocabulary – game pieces, coins (cara o cruz),
2. The Spanish deck of cards – Los cuatro seises
3. Dominó
4. El Juego de la Oca
5. Serpientes y Escaleras
6. Pirinola
7. Invent a game with a cultural theme.
8. Explore the significance of play.
Grammar
1. Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns

19. Every Day a Culture Day! Level V – Niñez Activities
1. Entrevista con mis padres
2. Preguntas personales
3. de Como agua para chocolate [El Nacimiento de Tita]
4. de Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú [El nahual]
5. «Meciendo» Gabriela Mistral
6. «Botoncito» Gabriela Mistral
7. de Infancia Enrique Cortázar
8. “Una partida de ajedrez”
9. Canción: Hijo de la luna – Mecano
10. Child Development Reading
11. La crianza de un niño – Conversar sin parar, Problema XIX
12. Skits – La Superniñera
13. Retahílas

20. Every Day a Culture Day! Level V – Niñez Activities
14. “Baby HP” Juan José Arreola
15. Mafalda – Tecla 22 de abril de 2005
16. Art – Carmen Lomas Garza – Cuadros en familia
17. Los derechos de los niños
18. Writing: Una anécdota de la niñez
19. Summary: Four views of Childhood
Grammar
1. Review of Imperfect
2. Review of Preterite/Imperfect

21. Level V – El Amor y la amistad
Every Day a
Culture Day!
Level V – El Amor y la amistad
Activities
1. Dinner with 10 famous people past and present
2. Exploring definitions of friendship and love; types of love.
3. “La amistad en Norteamérica” – essay by Julián Marías
4. “La naranja” Poem by Gary Soto.
5. Piropos
6. Rimas – poems by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
7. “Los amantes” – Develop a dialog based on a Picasso painting.
8. ¿Cuánto sabe del amor? – A test by Dr. Joyce
9. El Ixtaccíhuatl y el Popocatépetl – Legend from Mexico
10. El Abanico – You Tube “silent movie” – students narrate the story.