Materials: Crayons, markers, and construction paper
Create a Culture Web

1. Write the word culture in the centre of a piece of chart paper and circle it.

2. Ask students to brainstorm associations with the word, record the words and phrases that come up on the chart paper, and connect them to culture, creating a web.

3. Discuss the web with the students and agree on a definition along these lines: culture is the values, beliefs, and traditions shared by a group of people.
Introduce Cultural Banners

1. Distribute construction paper and markers or crayons.

2. Ask students to write their name on the banner and any symbols (words or pictures) that show values, traditions, activities, and places that are important for their family. Encourage them to use words or drawings to represent holidays, foods, sports, flags and so on.

3. After they have created the banners, ask students to pass the banners to their neighbours and keep doing so until everyone has had a chance to see every banner.
Discussion
How was this activity for you? What did you learn from doing it?
What are some of the cultures represented in the group?
Follow-up Suggestions
For the next week or two, take a few minutes of each class period to give several students a chance to explain their banner to the class.
Have students work in groups of four to share their banners with each other.

In Britain you are unlikely to meet an Algernon, Archibald or Alfreda – those once popular names have all but died out; and if you do come across a Brian, Graham or Geoff, they are probably older than you. When I were a lad, we had lots of New Testament biblical names – Andrew, Peter, Paul and Mary in our class (though no Judas, strangely enough). Nowadays, names reveal not only the increased multi-ethnic nature of society, but also the influence of parents’ creative thinking – Beyonce is a made up first name, I believe, but Ms Knowles has done ok with it.

Several media articles have recently dealt with the phenomenon known as “Barack’s babies” – the tide of newborns named after the current U.S. president. So, what does his name mean? In Swahili, (from Arabic) B-R-K means “blessed”, Hussein is “good” or “handsome” and Obama is common in the Luo tribe in Kenya. It conveys the idea of “leaning” or “bending”.

What were the top two girls’ names in America in the noughties (2000 – 2009)? Emily (Nice and traditional that) and Madison! Try these out – Brianna, Destiny, Kaylee and Mackenzie – where did these spring from? Checking out the boys, we find under “C” Carter, Carson, Cole, Cody, Cameron and Chase in the top 100. Americans have a tendency to use surnames as forenames, it seems. They also like unusual names for their leaders – Ulysses, Grover, Dwight, Millard and Woodrow among them. Old Testament names are more common than in Britain – Jacob, Isaiah and Noah make the top 100 list. What about Adam? – Surely he should come first!

What’s cool now? Wayne, Lee, Brad and Scott perhaps – all last names originally. The traditional Stan, Alf and Fred are making a comeback too in Britain. Did you notice they’re all monosyllabic? And for girls – choose your continent – Asia and India are on the rise, but Europe is struggling hard to keep up.

I rather like that in Greece students are quite likely to have an ancient hero or mythical god(ess) or nymph name. But do you really want to tell Achilles, Dionysus, Aphrodite or Athena that they’re not quite up to the mark and risk their wrath?

Here are some questions you could discuss with your class:

What is the significance of names in your culture?

How are they decided upon?

Do people ever change their names?

Do women take their husband’s last name when they marry?

Do you prefer a shortened form of your name? (Andy rather than Andrew)

Does your name have an English equivalent? (Raphael – Ralf)

If you could change your name, what would it be? (I’d like to be David myself.)

I shed tears at Ian Whitwham’s At the Chalkface: Great Moments in Education. There is a section in this profoundly human and inspiring book entitled Seth in the Sixth Form. I have now read it seven times. It pricks the ducts.

In it, Whitwham, an inner-city English teacher for over 30 years, and therefore a supremely qualified cataloguer of educational change, describes the effects of the growing pressures of conformity on Seth, a member of his sixth-form class.

Seth belongs to “That fine English tradition of languid bohemians … daft hair and grim pallor and skinny cryptic T-shirts.” Whitwham recognises elements of his own younger self in Seth: a lad who went to Dylan gigs, read (and dressed like) Kerouac, and churned out reams of bad verse that his English teacher tolerated with some indulgence. There is the sadness of a well full of souls in Whitwham’s words as he notes that it was easier to be bohemian in those days: “These days the sixth form is all about modules and targets and uniforms.”

His wistful conclusion is where the waterworks hit. “Jarvis wears kohl and skull earrings and Rhapsody has gone all left bank and discovered François Hardy. They’re bright and funny – and 17. A delight. The best. If we continue to treat them like this, we will lose them.”

It rings a particular bell, as I have taught a couple of Seths last year and this: one female, one male. Hannah, last year, commenting on a singularly poorly achieved red silk suit which I can no longer get away with, remarked wrongly that I was the only teacher in the school who put any real effort into what I wore. She delighted me in doing so, as Hannah herself clearly put a lot of effort into her appearance: hair always an interesting colour, nose stud just so, school uniform creatively customised. In conversation about her, another teacher spoke somewhat witheringly of the parenting she’d received: “They think it’s important that she expresses herself!” he said, a sneer palpating across his upper lip.

Rob, who is in one of the two year 11 classes I am teaching this year, dyes his hair, too. It is an unnatural boot-polish black, extravagantly styled, feathered into the inversion of a quiff so that it covers half of his face. He looks great. Thankfully, the school does not think it would be a good idea to take his natural sense of cool, his rebel spirit, his sense of himself as being a unique soul and deem it unsuitable; and so he crouches over his exercise book, creating another love poem for his girlfriend, his fringe tickling the paper.

My sadness is that in many schools Rob would not be allowed to decide what he does with his hair, which, lest you need reminding, is part of him. Uniform policy is increasingly taking an absurdly draconian shift in its approach to the decisions kids make about how they wear their hair, banning any style more interesting than that you would ordinarily find on an Abbey National correspondence clerk clad in a Next business suit. Uniform policies nowadays are uniformly filled with such pitifully and vehemently ignorant statements as “patterns cut into the hair are not acceptable”. Not acceptable to whom? Or, “hair colour will be restricted to that found in normal hair”. And normal means what, exactly?

This risible zero-tolerance policy on self-expression is increasingly the norm. One school policy promises a punishment as imaginative as anything Tomas de Torquemada might have designed. “Students wearing unacceptable hairstyles should be sent to the head of year, who will arrange for them to be kept out of lessons until the hairstyle has grown out.” Given that it can take a year or two for hair dye to grow out, one can imagine a room full of lonely, educationally malnourished children, sitting ennui-ridden for months on end with little else to do other than willing their hair to grow faster.

Some of these rules could also, by definition, be argued to be racist. When Gladston Preiestley, 13, a student at Hutton CE grammar school, had his hair done in a cornrow he was put into ¬isolation. Gladston’s mum, Mary Tremlett, hit the nail on the head in response: “It’s part of his culture … I want the school to reconsider his hair. I’m not prepared to have my son in isolation.”

Schools outlawing steps being cut into the hair, shaved shapes or braiding do so not only with a deeply flawed sense of both aesthetics and equalities issues, but directly against the government’s guidance on the same. Guidance from the Department for Children, Schools and Families to schools on uniform and related policies states: “An example of indirect -discrimination could be a school that bans ‘cornrow’ hairstyles. As these are more likely to be adopted by specific racial groups, banning this type of hairstyle without justification could constitute indirect racial discrimination.” For ‘could’ read, this has not been tested yet in law, but we suspect such discrimination would be found to be illegal, so don’t push it too far with the fascism.

Some school leaders’ petty insistence on inflicting their own lack of anything resembling panache or style on to ¬people who are experimenting with -versions of who they might be smacks, to me, of horrific jealousy of youth. Should we really be interested in seeing self-expression as punishable non-conformity? If we continue to treat them like this, we will surely lose them.

Now, here are 10 questions you could use with advanced students.

1. What is your school’s policy on hair?
2. Should a school be able to dictate what style is (un)acceptable?
3. Should there be different rules about style, length and colour for girls and boys?
4. Why do girls usually grow their hair longer than boys?
5. How many hairstyles can you name?
6. Why do some men go bald but others don’t?
7. Which balding red-head scores goals for Manchester United?
8. Why do men grow beards?
9. Do blondes have more fun?
10. Add your students’ question here.

Source:
Guardian Newspaper: http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Questions:

1.       Who died on the date he was born, couldn’t spell his name, (or at least spelt it about 7 different ways), never went to university, but enriched the English language with 2000 new words?

2.      How many queens of England have been named Elizabeth?

3.      Which doesn’t have its own parliament?

4.      How many U.S. presidents have been assassinated?

5.      What important events happened in England in

6.      What’s the common nickname used by Aussies to refer to the English?

7.      What’s the capital of

8.     Which of the above has the largest number of English speakers?

9.      What inventions were these people famous for?

10.  What do Paul McCartney, Elton John, Michael Caine, Ian McKellan, Sean Connery and Launcelot have in common?

They are / were all (apart from being old men) ……….………. .

11.   What’s the second biggest English city?

12.  If I ate haggis in Scotland, what would I be eating?

13.  What are the first names of these 26 poets?

14.  What is

15.   Is Puerto Rico American?

16.  Complete the couples.

17.   Complete the titles of these novels.

18.  What would happen to you if you were sent to Coventry?

19.  Which English king is the only one known as “the great”?

20. Which English football / soccer teams are known as

Bonus question:

21. Which poet’s name is an anagram of toilets?


Answers:

1.       Shakespeare

2.      4

3.      c

4.      b

5.      a) The Norman invasion of William, b) The great fire of London, c) England beat West Germany 4 – 2 to win the World Cup.

6.      b) Poms

7.      Washington D.C. Canberra, New Dehli

8.     India

9.      Steam train, light bulb, television – all Scottish

10.  All Knights (and old)

11.   Birmingham

12.  Better not to ask

13.  Look them up

14.  A military show at the festival in August

15.   Yes

16.  a) Ginger, b) Clyde, c) Hardy, d) Juliet, e) Jerry, f) Minnie

17.   a) Peace, b) Prejudice, c) Son, d) Man, e) Sea

18.  You would be ostracized / ignored.

19.  Alfred

20. a) Arsenal, b) West Ham, c) Newcastle

21.  T.S. Eliot

We have converted the exercise above into a pdf in-class exercise ready for you to use with your students which you will find HERE!

Holiday Company offers ‘chav free’ breaks free of children called Britney

A holiday company is offering ‘chav free’ activity breaks aimed at middle class people tired of resorts filled with ‘Britneys, Candices and Dwaynes’.
Activities Abroad has sent out an email to 24,000 people on its database with two lists of names, those they were likely to find on one of their holidays, and those that they were not.

The company came up with the idea after reading about research which said children with middle-class names were eight times more likely to pass their GCSEs than children with names such as Wayne and Dwayne.

The firm then researched the names “you are likely to encounter or not encounter” on one of its holidays.

The unlikely ones were: Britney, Kylie-Lianne, Bianca, Tiffany, Dazza, Chardonnay, Chantelle, Candice, Courtney, and Shannon, while the likely ones were: John, Sarah, James, Charles, Rachel, Michael, Alice, Lucy, Joseph, and Charlotte.

Activities Abroad takes between 3,000 and 4,000 people away on holidays each year, including husky safaris in Canada and volcano trekking in Costa Rica, both of which cost about £2,000. It says its main market is family activity holidays costing between £300 and £1,200 per person.

Alistair Mclean, the managing director, was unrepentant after a customer used her internet blog to complain about the lists, and said she would not be using the company again.

Mr Mclean wrote: “I simply feel it is time the middle classes stood up for themselves. We work hard to make a decent home and life for our families and we pay taxes to contribute to our society and economy. Unfortunately, everybody else in our society seems to take from us, whether it is incompetent bankers or the shell-suited urchins who haunt our street corners.

So regardless of whether it is class warfare or not I make no apology for proclaiming myself to be middle class and a genuine contributor to our society. Do you encourage your children to go off and play with the shell suited, Lambert and Butler sucking teenagers who hang around our shopping centres at night?

Again, my apologies if we offended. I am genuinely sorry that you won’t be traveling with us, or recommending us, in the future.”

However, another blogger called Candice said: “I own my own business, have a post graduate degree, an undergraduate degree, 4 A-Levels, an advanced diploma in life skills, a diploma in performance coaching, GCSEs, speak French and Italian and drive a Merc. Happy slap that you idiot.”

Earlier this month, there were reports of food fights, arson attacks and foul language involving ‘chavs’ on a Caribbean cruise aboard the pounds £330m Ventura. One customer likened the behaviour to “the worst days of Benidorm and the lager louts.” P & O later denied reports that cut-price customers were to blame.

Mr McLean told the Daily Telegraph he had only had 15 negative responses from the 24,000 emails the Northumberland-based firm sent out, while the number of inquiries and brochure requests had

He said: “Everybody is assuming it has had an adverse effect but it has not. We are saying what a lot of people think.”

In the eight or nine years that the company has been running holidays, Mr McLean said it had never had a customer with one of the names on the first list.

Daily Telegraph 27 / 01 / 2009

Chav
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chav, Chava or Charva is a slang derogatory term applied to certain young people in the United Kingdom. The stereotypical image of a chav is a white aggressive teen or young adult, of working class background, who wears branded sports and casual clothing (baseball caps are also common) who often fights and engages in petty criminality and are often assumed to be unemployed or in a low paid job. The term may originate from the Romany term “Chavvy”, which is a general term for young person. In its English form it is generally derogative and appeared in mainstream dictionaries in 2005.



Popularisation in the media

From its origins as a slang term, use of the word spread so rapidly that by 2004 it had become a hugely popular word in national newspapers and common parlance in the UK. Susie Dent’s Larpers and Shroomers: The Language Report, published by the Oxford University Press, designated it as the “word of the year” in 2004. A survey in 2005 found that in December 2004 alone 114 British newspaper articles used the word. The popularity of the word has led to the creation of sites devoted to cataloguing and mocking the “chav” lifestyle.

The “chav culture” has been portrayed extensively in British media:

- The Welsh rap group, Goldie Lookin’ Chain, have been described as both embodying and satirising the chav aesthetic, though the group themselves deny any such agenda, simply making a mockery of the subject. The British car tuning magazine Max Power once had a beige Mk3 Vauxhall Cavalier stickered to make it look like the Burberry check, named it the “Chavalier” and gave it to the band.

- Footballer Wayne Rooney and his wife Coleen, rapper Lady Sovereign, glamour model Jordan, actress Danniella Westbrook, former Big Brother contestant Jade Goody and Kerry Katona have also been labelled “chavs” by British tabloids.

Criticism of the stereotype

The widespread use of the chav stereotype has come under criticism; some argue that it amounts simply to snobbery and elitism, and that serious social problems such as Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, teenage pregnancy, delinquency and alcoholism in low-income areas should not be scoffed at. Critics of the term have argued that its proponents are “neo-snobs,” and that its increasing popularity raises questions about how British society deals with social mobility and class. In a February 2005 article in The Times, Julie Burchill argued that use of the word is a form of “social racism,” and that such “sneering” reveals more about the shortcomings of the “chav-haters” than those of their supposed victims.

See if you can answer these eight questions before you read the text.

1. What’s the most important communications invention in the history of the world?

2. Where were letters invented?

3. What is the smallest particle of sound called?

4. How many different sounds can we make using the 26 English letters?

5. Where is the modern Phoenicia?

6. What significant contribution did the ancient Greeks make to the alphabet? They:

7. How many letters now in the English alphabet did the ancient Romans not have?

8. Which are the two most common writing systems after the Roman alphabet?

What’s the most important invention in the history of the world? The alphabet. The other two wouldn’t have been possible without it. Although there are about 26 major alphabetic scripts in use, they all, except one, have a common origin.

Letters are images of language, invented around 4000 years ago in Egypt. They denote the smallest particle of sound (phonemes) and can be arranged endlessly.
The word “pencil” has two syllables and six phonemes, each represented by a separate letter. English has quite a lot of phonemes – up to 48 – one letter – o – can be pronounced different ways – go, got, ton; as can letter pairings – th as in think and this. The sound of the letter pairing sh can actually be spelt 14 different ways according to some linguists.

Where do our letters come from? The English copied the Romans, who copied the Etruscans, who copied the Greeks (which added letters for vowels), who copied the Phoenicians –a language from a place now known as Lebanon.

The letters were used, even though the languages were completely different.

What we call the Roman alphabet is used by almost 2 billion people. 100 languages use it in 120 countries. The number of letters varies: English has 26, Finnish 21, Croatian 30, but the core remains the 23 of ancient Rome. They lacked j, v & w. (What we write as Jupiter, the Romans would have begun with I. The V in Venus was really a u, just written as a v and pronounced as a w.)

The second and third most used scripts are Chinese and Arabic. (Chinese and Japanese are non-alphabetic. Their writing symbols called logograms represent one word or concept. On an average, Chinese children need three years longer to learn to read and write than children using the Roman script.

What came before the alphabet? Hieroglyphics (pictograms) in Egypt and cuneiform (a syllabary system) in Mesopotamia.

So, there we are (or from there we are).

*Answer: water (= H2O = the letters from H to O).

1. Academic
An academic researches and /or teaches at a university. Studying an academic subject may be contrasted with a vocational or practical course. Dismissing something as academic  relegates it to the irrelevant or hypothetical.

2. AA
Alcoholics Anonymous.
An international self-help group for people with drinking problems.

3. Act of Parliament
A bill passed by both houses of parliament and given the Queen’s assent.

4. Agony aunt
A journalist giving advice on personal problems in a newspaper or magazine column.

5. Anglican
A member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a Christian denomination originating in England.

6. Ascot
An English town famous for its early summer horse racing meeting, Royal Ascot, at which ladies wear interesting hats.
 

7. AWOL
Absent without leave.
An acronym originating in the armed forces, used generally to refer to someone not around when you want them. “He’s gone AWOL.”

8. Anorak
A nerd or geek; someone obsessed with a particular hobby or interest.

9. AD
Anno Domini.
Literally “In the year of the Lord” contrasting with B.C. (Before Christ). There is increasing use of the term C.E. (Common Era) instead of A.D. to avoid the latter’s Christian associations.

10. asap
As soon as possible. “I’ll be in touch asap”.)

B is for…

1. Bling
Ostentatious loud jewellery popularly associated with rap culture.

2. Bimbo
A young female regarded more for her physical than her mental attributes.

3. Backbencher
An MP (Member of Parliament) holding no governmental or shadow ministerial position.

4. BA
Bachelor of Arts.
An undergraduate degree title usually awarded for the more liberal arts or humanities. (Also British Airways.)

5. Bangers and mash
A dish of sausages and puree potatoes. Bangers from the sound of sausage skins exploding when fried.

6. Barrister
A lawyer called to the bar, commonly presenting cases in higher courts.

7. B&B
Bed and breakfast. Cheap accommodation in private houses.

8. Bedsit
Accommodation consisting of a living space both slept and sat in, thus a bedsittingroom, otherwise known as a studio apartment.

9. Best man
One assisting the groom at his wedding. The male equivalent to the bridesmaid.

10. Blue chip company
One whose stocks are regarded as a high value, stable investment.

C is for…

1. Cockney
Traditionally anyone born within the sound of Bow bells (the bells of a church in East London), the term is used of anyone from the East End. Famed for their distinctive “working class” accent, rhyming slang and down-to-earth attitude.

2. Constituency
The area represented by an MP. There are 651 constituencies in the UK.

3.Cricket
The quintessentially English summer game, first mentioned by Joseph of Exeter in 1190. International Test Matches can take five days to complete, County matches may last four days or just one. Recently a shortened version, 20-20, has become popular.
“The very word cricket has become a synonym for all that is true and honest. To say “that is not cricket” implies something underhand, something not in keeping with the best ideals.” Sir Pelham Warner (1873-1963) English cricketer (born in Trinidad).
“There is a widely held and quite erroneously held belief that cricket is just another game.” Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh (and husband of the queen).
“If Stalin had learned to play cricket, the world might now be a better place.” Bishop Downey (1881-1953).
Warning: Under no circumstances ask a cricket lover to explain you the rules.
 


4. Cuppa
A cup of tea, a universal panacea. “Not to worry. Come and have a nice cuppa.”

5. County
A territorial unit. E.g. Devon, Essex and Lancashire.

6. Commonwealth
The association of 52 mostly ex-colonial States headed by the Queen. She is the actual Head of State in 14 of them, while others are republics or have their own monarchs.

7. The City
The “square mile” or financial district in the city of London corresponding to Wall Street in the US.

8. Chunnel
The Channel Tunnel connecting England and France.

9. C.I.D.
The criminal investigation department of the police.

10. C of E
The Church of England, established in the 16th century by Henry VIII.

Continue reading the Second Part of this four part series here…