#reflectionpost Thanksgiving week and much more

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving, so as always, I devoted the whole week working with material that had to do with this holiday.
This holiday has a lot of meanings and sometimes, depending on the school or the students, I can't discuss everything with everybody.
For example sometimes I can't focus on the religious meaning of the holiday or talk about what truly happened instead of the story of the pilgrims sharing food with the indians. It also depends on the level.
Keeping al this in mind, I try to carefully choose the material I am going to use and the time I am going to spend with each class or student.
The international language that I can always use is "Food"
People all around the world celebrate around a table, mostly with family, so this is a common thing for all of us.
What do people eat on Thanksgiving? Who do people celebrate with? Why is it  festive?
What are the favorite recipes of the season?
With adult students I also suggested that they try some of the recipes.
You don't even have to create your own material, there are numerous videos with festive recipes to try. You can even turn the video into a listening comprehesion task, or ask them make a summary or descripe the recipe in their own words.

You can also find  Listening / Reading / Grammar /Vocabulary exercises with a simple Google search. Here are some links that I dound interesting:
Texts with exercises 1
Texts with exercises 2
Exercises with food

With adult adn more advanced students, I tried a different approach.
What about the different side of the story? Did the pilgrims really shared their food with the Indians?

We watched the video and I asked them to do some research on this subject. What really happened? What's their opinion?

Last but not least is the project idea I always suggest, especially in my classes.
Make a poster with thigs you are grateful for. This can be an all-year-round activity and instead of a poster, students (or even yourself) can start a gratitude journal. This can include pictures, small texts or even lists. It's a great opportunity for students to express in the foreign language.

That's all folks for today.
Hopefully new post soon.