WELCOME, LET'S EMBRACE DIVERSITY!

Hi, welcome to our blog! 

We will use the blog and the wiki as two e-learning tools by means of which we are going to build up two of the most important values in our current society: intercultural awareness and learning English. So, to begin with, we are going to stand out the reasons which justify the importance of advocating for an Education that supports appreciating and valuing cultural diversity. Making students aware of the great need of building intercultural awareness and valuing diversity is the starting point to help children prepare to adapt to a changing world where diverse cultures will coexist peacefully. This new point in Education implies providing students with enough skills to become open-minded world citizens, able to see other people beyond their culture, race and language. Certainly, the worhtiest value in today's world is to be able to understand, appreciate and work with others in order to achieve a common goal. Let's do it together!

SUPPORT MULTICULTURALISM, MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE !

WARMING UP

1. What does intercultural awareness mean?

Let's give a collective definition of intercultural awareness taking into acount the following words: APPRECIATION, CULTURES, NO DIFFERENCES, RESPECT, TOLERANCE, WORLD, DIVERSITY, PEACE, UNDERSTANDING. 

2. Why is it so important to teach young students to appreciate diversity?

"Our willingness to talk openly about identity and to help foster a positive sense of self in children can make an enormous difference in affirming the rich diversity of our human community and helping children make bridges across cultures and traditions. Some people fear that by affirming children's identities in terms of home cultures and traditions, we may be promoting separatism. That is not the case. The more that children have a solid grounding and understanding about who they are and where they came from, the more they learn to move with grace and confidence among communities different from their own, and the closer we get to building a world of respect, curiosity, sharing, and humanity"(Gonzalez-Mena J., Pulido-Tobiassen D., Article "Teaching "Diversity": A Place to Begin").

3. Building intercultural awareness through the Olympic Games

Let's see what some kids think about the Olympic Games!

TASK I. LET'S KNOW MORE ABOUT THE OLYMPIC GAMES (Estimated duration 45')

- The class will be divided into 5 groups of 5 students each.

- This task requires that you work in small groups in order to enhance social skills and cooperative learning strategies with the intention of achieving common effective outcomes.

- You should be responsible enough to use critically, creatively and ethically the Information and Communication Technologies; from which you are expected to gather, manage and select information which you will have to tranform into meaningful knowledge.

-  I am going to monitor your work, writing down the way each of you contribute to the group. If there is anything you need, do not hesitate to ask me.

-  All of you will have to contribute equally to the group project. Additionally, creativity, innovation, precision  and a good use of English will be especially appreciated in the final assessment of the task.

- Description of the task: Each group will be given one of the five topics below, on which you are expected to look for certain information which will be included in the wiki. The main purpose of the wiki is that all together can discover knowledge, learn to present information properly and enjoy your partners' work while you are familiar with the most outstanding characteristics of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Group 1. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES. PURPOSES OF BOTH CULTURAL EVENTS. 

Group 2. REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES.

Group 3. HOW MANY COUNTRIES CAN PARTICIPATE IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES? WHO ARE THE "ATHLETES WITHOUT A COUNTRY"?

Group 4. WHICH ARE THE SYMBOLS OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES? WHAT DOES EACH RING COLOR REPRESENT IN THE FIVE RINGS OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES?

Group 5. WHAT SOCIAL EFFECTS DO THE OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES HAVE NOWADAYS?

TASK II. LET'S INVITE PEOPLE TO THE OLYMPIC GAMES! (Estimated duration 45')

- The class will be divided into 5 groups of 5 students.

- With this task you are going to work in small groups. It will help you enhance social skills and cooperative learning strategies.

- You should be responsible to use critically, creatively and ethically the Information and Communication Technologies to work cooperatively in this funny task so that the information you obtain will have to be transformed into meaningful knowledge.

- It is quite important that you are creative and original enough to select some pictures and to design some slogans by means of which you encourage people all over the world either to participate or to attend the Olympic Games Celebration. This Ceremony is regarded as a wonderful and amazing international sporting event where multiculturalism and intercultural awareness immediately arise. Also, it offers people an extraordinary opportunity to meet people from different cultures which implies learning more about their lifestyles, traditions or languages; always demonstrating RESPECT for all of them.

-  I am going to monitor your work, writing down the way each of you contribute to the group. Furthermore, I am going to be at your disposal in case you need my help.

- Description of the task: You are going to be involved in the design of a digital leaflet via google.doc (I am going to provide you with some accounts to register in google.doc in case you do not have one). You will have to work applying cooperative learning techniques, exchanging ideas and opinions about how to make your leaflet better, making decisions and reflecting on your own work at the end of the task. Your leaflets will be shared with your partners through the wiki so that all of you can enjoy theses projects.

BE ORIGINAL AND CREATIVE IS THE KEY, LET'S GO!

There is an example of leaflet below. It was used to invite people to attend the Olympic Games in London 2012.

TASK III. LET'S BRING MULTICULTURALISM INTO THE CLASSROOM! (Estimated duration 45')

- The class will be divided randomly into 5 groups of 5 students again.

- For this task, we are going to use the following website http://www.mapsofworld.com/flags/. Consequently,     you should be responsible to make a critical, creative and ethical use of the Information and Communication Technologies. 

- Since I am going to monitor your work, I can advise and help you in case you need anyhting. 

-  All of you will have to contribute equally to the group project which, in this case, will be to design a poster.

- Creativity, innovation, precision  and a good use of English will be especially appreciated in the final assessment of the task.

- Description of the task: The aim of this activity is to make students acquainted of all the countries existing in the world. So, each group will have to choose one country in each continent so that each group will work with five different countries. Using google.doc to design their posters, which will be uploaded to the wiki, including the flag, some pictures, videos and short sentences to explain why these countries are so wonderful and we should visit them. All your posters will be used to decorate the classroom, promoting multiculturalism, at the same time you learn more about different countries which are somehow unknown for you. 

Example of poster made with google doc drawing:

Task IV. LET'S TALK ABOUT CULTURE AND DIVERSITY! (Estimated duration 45')

Did you like the tasks dealing with multiculturalism and the Olympic Games? Why?

To what extend do you think that there is a connection between cultural diversity and the Olympic Games?

Why do you think that appreciating diversity and building intercultural awareness are so important? 

Which cultures do you feel attracted to?

What countries would you visit in future? Why?

In future, are people of different cultures going to coexist peacefully like in the Olympic Games?

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION!!