This lesson is intended for adult ESL/EFL learners over the age of 18 years. These learners' levels range from beginning high/intermediate to advanced. Exercises in this website are best facilitated in a classroom with assistance of a teacher. Students work in pairs or in small groups, sharing ideas and experiences while discussing tasks at hand. Students must have Internet access for this lesson.
Objectives: To learn about the American Thanksgiving history and customs, students study vocabulary and readings. Students also learn about holiday customs of other cultures by interviewing peers.  
Warm-Up Activities:  Making Thanksgiving Cards and Brainstorming
(1) Teacher shares her own experiences of the Thanksgiving holiday. Students can explore the Internet to find information on the Thanksgiving holiday.
(2) Students learn to make and send their own Thanksgiving Cards.  Have students explore the following pages to make a card.  Encourage students to send the cards to their friends or other native English speakers. 

Warm-Up page: Students send Thanksgiving greeting cards to each other.

A Sample Card and Vocabulary  page: Students learn the writing format of greeting cards. 

"Test your understanding of the words" page: Students review necessary vocabulary for making a card on-line with the Flashcards and Concentration games. 

"Click here to make your card now!" page: Students explore different options on the card-making site and send their own cards. 

Practice Exercises: Reading and Review
[Pre-Reading]

(1) Brainstorming: Students look at different pictures and characters from the Thanksgiving story and create a story by brainstorming in groups. Groups answer questions by creating answers together at http://www.geocities.com/kyungheecho2001/story.html

(2) Reading & Dictation: Students read the Thanksgiving story. Students listen to the recording of the passage and repeat the reading. Students may listen to the recording and write down what they hear.
(3) Vocabulary: Students review vocabulary with Concentration and Matching games at http://www.quia.com/jg/279584.html
(4) Cloze Reading: Students review the storyline by a cloze reading practice at http://www.quia.com/cz/4940.html
(5) Reading Comprehension:  Students test their reading comprehension with a Hangman game at http://www.quia.com/hm/84524.html
Post-Test activities: Making Cranberry sauce and creating games
(1) Make Cranberry Sauce: Students learn to make cranberry sauce by giving directions in pairs at http://www.geocities.com/kyungheecho2001/makingrecipe.html  Use the pictures provided.  For pictures, refer to p.30 from Rice and Stempleski's Explorations.  You may also click here for pictures  and make a hand-out. 
(2) Make a Recipe: Students create other recipes by writing cooking directions at http://www.quia.com/rd/8260.html
(3) Interview on Holidays: Students interview each other about different holiday customs at http://www.geocities.com/kyungheecho2001/interview.html  Follow up this interview by discussing holiday customs in various cultures.  Which customs are unusual?  What things seemed unusual to you when you first celebrated Thanksgiving? 

(4) Research on Thanksgiving: In groups, search for more information about Thanksgiving on the Internet.  Try typing "Thanksgiving" and "ESL" in the search engines.  Students report back what they have found. 

Assessment:
(1) Different Holidays: Students share with the class what they have learned through interviewing peers about different holiday customs.  Students may earn extra points by asking additional questions. 
(2) Cloze reading practice and Hangman game can be evaluated to test the understanding of the story.
(3)  Students' cooking directions can be evaluated.   Encourage creativity in the class.  As a class, write cooking directions for Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, Tuna sandwich, Hamburger, chocolate milk, etc. 

(4) For beginning students, use the Thanksgiving story for a dictation activity.  For intermediate to advanced students, pair up in groups and try to reconstruct a paragraph after listening.  You may write essential vocabulary on the board such as Mayflower, Pilgrim, etc.

(5) As an assignment, write a paragraph on what Thanksgiving is about.  This assignment should be at least 5 sentences long.

      Grading Rubric: (20 pts. total)

  •       2 pts. each for a sentence (2x5=10 total)
  •       2 pts. each for using a new vocabulary word (10 total) --Provide new words such as  Mayflower, Pilgrims, Turkey, Thanksgiving, England on the board.  Students must use these words in a paragraph about the First Thanksgiving. 

Reference:

Rice,  A. and Stempleski, S.   Explorations: An Interactive Approach to Reading, Heinle & Heinle Publishers: New York, 1988.

 

 
   
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