Teaching about the US & its Holidays

Happy summer, everyone! (Or winter for those of you on the bottom half of the world!)

In this blog post, since the Fourth of July is around the corner, I wanted to tell you about some folders with lots of great resources that are in the Primary, Secondary, and University folders and highlight one of the lessons in them.

In all three of the level folders, there is a folder called “USA.” (Here’s the links to the Primary one, the Secondary one, and the University one)These folders have a lot of great resources on American culture, who Americans are (to fight the stereotypes our students get from the US media), and even geography! If you’re looking to teach something about the US for the Fourth of July, I encourage you to check them out. The Secondary USA folder has the most resources currently, but even if that’s not your level, you can get some inspiration/tweak some of the lessons to fit your needs.

In the Primary and Secondary folders, there is another sub-folder called “Holidays & Special Events.” (Primary here, Secondary here) (If any of you university ETAs want to see such a folder for your level, please send some lessons to fulbridgelessons@gmail.com! We’re always looking to add more lessons to the database.) You can find resources on a variety of holidays or events in the folder.

Unfortunately, there is currently only one specific Fourth of July lesson, by Leanndra Padgett.

What I like about it, though, is that it isn’t just a lesson that focuses on explaining everything about the US, but turns around and asks the same questions about the host country. It fits in well with the Fulbright mentality of cultural exchange, and it would be easy to change the slides to fit your host country.

Do any of you have favorite holidays to teach or lesson plans? Share them in the comments or send the lesson plans to us!!

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