A lesson for secondary school students on the Hindu festival, Diwali
In this final project, I focused on a lesson that showcased a major holiday in my culture called Diwali. This lesson was presented in my English classes where I take class time to have conversations with students about culture and cultural-identity. I gave this presentation the week before Halloween as this was when Diwali was and I adapted the lesson to all of my classes from 1 ESO to 2 Bachillerato (7th to 12th graders). To adapt the lesson, I would recommend for students with lower levels of English, focusing on discussing all of the videos and content clearly while keeping their speaking engaged by asking them questions to ensure their comprehension of the material. As the level improves between classes, I would suggest focusing more on having open discussions about knowledge of world religions and asking them to compare their religion to hinduism or even other religions.
For this lesson, I created a presentation about the ins and outs of Diwali. I broke up the material to create a logical flow from beginning to end because most of my students, and even the teachers, at my school had never heard of the holiday. Throughout the presentation I would pause and ask my students comprehension questions about the material as well as have them discuss a question with each other and then share back to the class. This was to give them a space to focus on their spontaneous speech production and also have them reflect on topics that are easier to understand and discuss. I also had a game of Kahoot prepared for my classes that had a lower level of English and trouble staying focused. The game allowed them to test their comprehension of the information as well as have a bit of fun.
The material within this topic benefitted the students in many ways. On fact, when I recently reflected on the new year with my students, they said that this presentation on Diwali was the one they learned the most from in 2019. Students practiced their speaking through conversations with each other and with me, improved their geographic understanding of the world, practiced their listening skills as well as increased their competency and knowledge of other cultures and religions of the world. Something I also specifically emphasized to them is the idea of having multiple facets to one’s identity, and that being one culture is often not how people view themselves. Explaining to them what it means to be a first-generation American allowed me to share the duality of my Indian and American backgrounds, which I believe they began to understand by the end of the lesson.
This lesson is one of many lessons that I have planned for my students about sharing culture and talking about cultural identity. It can be completed in one class period and since it is about a holiday, it should be done around the time of the holiday which is usually in late October or early November. As the language assistant, my role was to share my knowledge on the topic but also work with the teacher to moderate the class discussions we had. Using various videos and songs helped make the students more engaged and able to dive into the aspects of the culture that cannot be understood without actually seeing them.
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