Reflecting Culture Through Folk Tales

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TWO CULTURE

We have done this table regarding to these criterias according to Iben Jensen's text.

Similarities

(Point out what people have the common = good to remember)

Give insights to common problems and issues that young people have.

• Structure
• Animals and certain virtues
• Moral issues (how to behave)
• Explain in a fantasy language
• Explanations on why the world looks like it does

-        The nature

-        (The society) = we put parenthesis because it can change from one culture to another

-        Existential questions (e.g. why is the evil or why is there death?)

Differences

(A window into another culture)

• Different culture has different costume
• Different institutions
• Physical appearance looks different

 

              Keleoğlan                               Nasreddin Hodja                           Lazarillo de Tormes

	Turkish Folk Tales "Keloğlan and Nasreddin Hodja"		Spanish Folk Tale “Lazarillo de Tormes”
Main characters	Keloğlan and Nasreddin Hodja		Lázaro González Pérez
Similarities	§  Both are poor. §  Happy endings §  Stories end with a marriage. §  Reflect the poverty in more or less the same time ( sixteen- seventeen century)
Differences	§  Both are poor, although Lazarillo was a child and Keloğlan was a teenager. §  Keloğlan was more innocent than Lazarillo, because in the first story someone tries to cheat him, and in the second case, the child is who cheats people to eat something. §  In the Turkish story, Keloğlan wants a lot of money because he would like that his mum lives in better conditions. But, in the Spanish tale, Lázaro steals and cheats people in order to himself surviving. §  The first tale is more suitable for children than the second one, because the second it is a novel that talks about many aspects, but there is some version for children. § Children will find motivating and funny the first tale because the story talks about a treasure. On the other hand, the second tale children could find motivating and to be curious about the story, because the main character is a child.
Values/ Moral issues	§  Children can learn the family values in Turkey, and the relation between  mother and son. §  Also, it is reflected respect among old and young people.	§  They can learn that the happiness should be inside you, not because of money. §  They can know aspects about the culture in Spain in the sixteen century ( routine life, different jobs, several towns and cities).
Personal comments ( what we think about the tale)	I think it is good that the story talks about a treasure, because some way it develops children imagination; but in other side,  maybe the story should have more real aspects. Moreover, children can also discover some hidden issues such as innocence, helpfulness, respectfulness etc.	It is fascinating because children can read many adventures that Lázaro lives in the several cities , with different masters, and how his life is changing.  But there is a drawback, because children could find hard to read or even understand what is going on in the story. Also, this story is more suitable for older children than the Turkish tale.

Creating a Good Debate Climate

For a good debate environment 

1. It is not good to have a prejudice if we would like to create a good debate climate. It’s normal to have prejudices as human beings. But in a debate climate, it is not fair to have these kind of prejudices.
2. The teacher should explain how it will be. She or he should set some certain rules.
3. The most important thing in a debate climate is that everybody should respect to each other.
4. At the beginning, it’s necessary to discuss what they think.
5. You have to think about before you discuss.
6. Students have to designate the ways of how to ask the questions about culture in a polite way.
7. The discussion should be student-centered, not teacher-centered.
8. The teacher should not direct the debate.
9. It’s important that the children learn how to explain their opinions. They can link between their thought and their culture.

I have created these features together with Ana in Democratic Citizenship course.

Turkish Folk Tales "Keloğlan" and "Nasreddin Hodja"

Turkish Folk Tales "Keloğlan" and "Nasreddin Hodja"

Turkish folk literature is an oral tradition deeply rooted, in its form, in Central Asian nomadic traditions.One example of this is the series of folktales surrounding the figure of Keloglan, a young boy beset with the difficulties of finding a wife, helping his mother to keep the family house intact, and dealing with the problems caused by his neighbors.

Another example is the rather mysterious figure of Nasreddin, atrickster figure who often plays jokes, of a sort, on his neighbors.
These tales are anonymous and in every tale Keloglan finds himself in a trouble situation and finally he solves the problems with his cunningness.

I have added the link of "Keloglan and Nasreddin Hodja" Folk Tale:
***(This is the story that I have used for the last lesson of Democratic Citizenship)***

http://gamesandtales.blogspot.dk/2009/01/kelolan-and-nasreddin-hodja.html

Fourty four Turish Fairy Tales: 
http://www.sacred-texts.com/asia/ftft/index.htm

Archive of Turkish oral narratives: http://aton.ttu.edu/

The Folktale of "The Bold Boy and the Most Beautiful Girl in the World":
http://vlib.iue.it/carrie/texts/carrie_books/paksoy-8/The_Bald_Boy_Keloglan_and_the_Most_Beautiful_Girl_in_the_World.pdf

You can also have lots of information about Turkish literature, culture, folklore, dances etc visiting our Ministry of Culture and Tourism's website.
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/

Dialogue between two people from different cultures

A is a person from Spain. Her name is María. She is 35 years old. She is not a believer. She divorced a year ago. She has two children: a daughter and a son.   Now, she is leaving alone in the city. She likes hanging out with her friends in the weekends. She is a businesswoman. She likes reading science fiction book and watching romantic comedies.

B is a person from Turkey. Her name is Elif. She is 41 years old. She is a Muslim person. Elif , but she doesn’t wear a scarf  that covers her hair. She is married with one child. She is a doctor. She doesn’t drink alcohol and she doesn’t eat pork. Elif likes doing sport, she really likes playing tennis, and she is very good at swimming.

One day in Copenhagen, María felt ill and she decided to go to the doctor.  So, it was raining heavily, and she hires a taxi. Inside taxi there was another woman , and both of them were going to the same direction : the hospital.  They started talking each other.

A: Hi! Where are you going? Because I really need to go to the hospital.

B: Don’t worry, I have to go there too.

A:  Ok. So, what is your name? Mine is María.

B: Elif. Nice to meet you.

A: Me too. Are you new in the city? Because you don’t look like Danish people at all.

B: No…Actually, I am here 4 years ago. I am almost a Danish person!

A:  I’ve asked you, because in my case I ‘m a foreign person, from Spain. I moved on here a year ago, and it was really hard for me to get to use to this new country. It is so different…

B: Really? For me it was also hard, but step by step you are getting to use.

A: Where are you from?

B: I ‘ m from Istanbul, Turkey.

A: So, you are a Muslim, right?

B: You are right. Are you Christian?

A: Well…actually not, you know, I don’t believe in any religion. I’m atheist.

B:  Why don’t you believe in God?

A:  Because, in my opinion, I can’t believe in something that I couldn’t see.

B: Unbelievable! But in the way you said, you couldn’t see your brain but you know that you have…

A: It is not the same… Do you mind if I ask you something about Muslim culture?

B: Not at all. You can ask whatever you want.

A: Ok, if you are Muslim , why don’t you use scarf? It seems strange for me.

B: Well…Actually it is not necessary wearing a scarf, if your option as Muslim. Nobody can judge you if you don’t wear a scarf.

A: Really? I didn’t know that…But is there some restrictions about food or drinks , isn’t?

B: Of course. For example, I don’t eat pork and I don’t drink alcohol.

They arrived to the hospital, and María was waiting for the doctor. But, it was a surprise when suddenly she saw Elif with a white coat. She was her doctor!

The Spanish woman:

Cultural self-understanding	Cultural pre-understanding	Position of experience	Culture fix point
“I ‘m a foreign person, from Spain. I moved on here a year ago, and it was really hard for me to get to use to this new country. It is so different…”	“if you are Muslim , why don’t you use scarf? It seems strange for me.” "Are you new in the city? Because you don’t look like Danish people at all."	“Really? I didn’t know that…”	“ It is not the same… Do you mind if I ask you something about Muslim culture?”
“I don’t believe in any religion. I’m atheist”	“But is there some restrictions about food or drinks , isn’t?”	“…María was waiting for the doctor. But, it was a surprise when suddenly she saw Elif with a white coat. She was her doctor!”
“I can’t believe in something that I couldn’t see”	“So, you are a Muslim, right?”

The Turkish woman

Cultural self-understanding	Cultural pre-understanding	Position of experience	Culture fix point
“Unbelievable! But in the way you said, you couldn’t see your brain but you know that you have…”	“Are you Christian?”	“and María was waiting for the doctor. But, it was a surprise when suddenly she saw Elif with a white coat. She was her doctor!”	“Actually it is not necessary wearing a scarf, if your option as Muslim.” “Why don’t you believe in God?” “Nobody can judge you if you don’t wear a scarf.”
“I don’t eat pork and I don’t drink alcohol.”

In the lesson of "Democratic Citizenship" Ana and I have created this dialogue after having a look at these the criterias for socratic dialogue made by Dorete Kallesoe:

Dialogue Teaching : 
The teacher should ask open questions which enables students to create a dialogue
The Teacher as the Leader of Conversation:
Teacher should be in the background, only structure the dialogue and summarize the argument
Active Listening :
The students should listen to each other and talk each other in sensible way
Analysing Concepts :
Teacher should explain the definitions of concepts that are the base of the dialogue
The Importance of Argumentation :
The students should learn that they have to argue about their opinions and the teacher should ask students to challenge each others' opinions

Experiences of Refugees

Last week, I couldn't attend the Democratic Citizenship course because I had a terrible pain on my ear and had to go to the doctor to be treated. So I didn't know what was the homework for next lesson. And today, Thomas Thomsen asked us ,who didn't do the last lesson's homework, to find personal experiences of some refugees from the website of red cross or unicef. So, I would like to share what I have found on the official website of unicef. 

As population in a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan soars, focus is on needs of children

© UNICEF JORDAN/2012/Sharpe

Children play in a UNICEF playground in Za’atari refugee camp in northern Jordan. To protect children, restore a regular routine and address the emotional wounds of conflict, UNICEF provides safe 'Child Friendly Spaces' in the camp where children can play, socialize and otherwise begin to live like children again.

By Melanie Sharpe

AMMAN, Jordan, 11 September 2012 - Maradi pushes her 2 1/2-year-old son Safwan on a swing while holding her 4-month-old daughter Sofian. Safwan’s twin brother Omran is back in their tent with Maradi’s husband.

In a playground full of noisy children, Safwan swings back and forth in silence, squinting against the dust blowing in his face and the scorching afternoon sun.

It’s the family’s fifteenth day at the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan.

Refugee population soaring

“For six months, the bombing would begin after sunset. Every night, the children would wake up screaming and crying from bombs,” recalls Maradi.

The family finally fled the Syrian Arab Republic when six people from their village were shot. They left during the night on a bus and travelled on foot through a valley before entering Jordan, where they were transferred to the camp.

© UNICEF JORDAN/2012/Sharpe

Safwan, 2, sits in a swing at a UNICEF Child Friendly Space in the Za’atari refugee camp. Safwan and his family fled the Syrian Arab Republic after fighting intensified in Dara’a.

Za’atari is 15 km south of the Syrian border. The camp opened in late July to shelter the massive influx of Syrian refugees fleeing the violence in their country. A month later, more than 28,000 people are housed at the camp. Half are children aged 18 and under.

When Za’atari first opened, 300–500 people arrived daily. Recently, the number has soared to up to 2,000–3,000 new arrivals each day.

Sun, sandstorms and memories excruciating

Za’atari is on barren desert land. Temperatures soar above 40o (C). There are constant sandstorms. Everyone and everything in Za’atari is covered in a thick layer of dust.

It is not only the living conditions that are incredibly difficult, but also the emotional distress of long months of deadly conflict. Children have been affected profoundly.

“The majority of Syrian refugee children have witnessed extreme levels of violence and brutality,” says UNICEF Jordan Representative Dominique Hyde.

Signs that the children’s experiences have caused them to suffer can be seen throughout the camp. Children replicate killing scenes while playing. Others screech, cover their faces and frantically seek shelter when planes fly overhead.

© UNICEF JORDAN/2012/Sharpe

Syrian children stand outside a UNICEF Child Friendly Space tent at Za’atari refugee camp. As the number of new arrivals to the camp soars, UNICEF is appealing for urgent support to increase the number of such spaces for children and families.

Plans laid for uncertain future

UNICEF is recruiting volunteers in Za’atari to work on community child protection committees. The committees refer vulnerable children to UNICEF and its partners, who, in turn, link them to education, health and other urgently needed services.

With more families arriving every day, UNICEF is planning to quadruple the number of safe places to keep up with the growing needs. 

“We could be facing a dramatic increase in the number of children in Za’atari over the next two months, if trends continue,” says Ms. Hyde. “We are working urgently to increase the number of Child Friendly Spaces so more children and families can receive support.”

Back at the playground, Maradi says all of her family’s basic needs are being met in the camp, but worries about the well-being of her young twins. “They knew something was wrong and that’s why we left Syria,” she says. “But we are slowly getting used to life here. At least there are no more bombs.”

You can also reach the same information here:

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/jordan_65808.html

The Communicative Classroom

In Anne Kristine's lesson, at first we discussed about the purposes of learning English, next we talked about features of being a good learner. After we had wrote it with our own words, Kristine showed us 14 real features of being a good learner, and then we compare what we found and what we saw on the paper. Moreover we had learnt that making a learner capable of doing these features was the aim of creating a communicative classroom. Secondly, we mentioned the components of communicative language ability such as linguistic competence, pragmatic competence, discourse competence, strategic competence and fluency. After we had learnt these competences, we tried to relate them the features of being a good learner. Particularly, I would like to say that this information wasn't new for me because I had already seen that in the subject of  "Linguistics" at my university in Turkey.

                               
Thirdly, we talked about gap activities such as information gap activities, reasoning gap activities, opinion gap activities. It was not new for me because I had already known this from "The Methods and Approaches in Language Teaching" lesson in Turkey. Additionally, the information gap activity was rather easier than the others. But I had to say that I really enjoyed applying the reasoning gap activity. It was very good to use in the classroom because everybody likes acting like someone else. And one of the advantages of this activity is that if you were someone, someone else would make mistake when you were wrong. I think it's pretty comfortable to speak in the target language. 

International Day in Roskilde

 Turkish Educational System

Britt Due Tiemensma, who is a teacher in another campus of UCSJ, invited us to make a presentation taking two hours about Primary and Secondary Education System in Turkey. Before inviting us, she had consulted Anne Kristine to find our e-mail addresses. The reason of the fact that she picked Sıla, Isa and me is that we're coming from different universities in Turkey. After we had learnt to be invited, we divided Turkish Education System into three part according to new 4+4+4 regulation in Turkey and then everybody prepared his or her own part. The first step called "primary school education" was belong to Isa. And the next part of Turkish Educational System that I took was called "middle school education". Sıla was responsible for the last part of our issue called "high school education". To sum up, our presentation took totally two hours, in separately each of them took approximately 25 minutes. After our work finished, we discussed some part of the system with our audiences. Furthermore, I encountered a teacher of mine from Turkey. It was an amazing coincidence to see her in the lunch break and in other small breaks. In conclusion, making a presentation in an international day was very good experience for our academic life. 

That's why I could not be in Vordingborg in 21st November and could not participate in ITC Media Fair. But I'm sure that Paula and Ana would do their best to introduce our Copenhagen excursion about Danish eating habits without me.

Total Physical Response

In EAL lesson, firstly we have created a lesson plan using TPR (Total Physical Response) and then we have applied it to Czech students. At the end of the lesson, our students could still remember what we had taught them in Turkish. In my opinion, it is very useful method to teach language because students can easily recall the target words on the ground that they have used their kinesthetic intelligence.

Testing methods
Name of the activity	Basic movements
Level	Beginner
Duration	15-20 minutes
Materials needed	Gestures and facial expressions
Skills trained (e.g. listening, speaking, reading, writing, communicating)	Listening, communicating
Class organisation (e.g. pair work, group work, etc.)	The whole class, and a volunteer student
Procedure Please explain in as much detail as possible	Teacher enters the class; she speaks in target language and gives commands in target language. Students don’t speak anything, just listen to the teacher  and behaves according to the teacher’s commands
Variation How can the activity be adapted to more skilled/less skilled pupils?	More skilled pupils can be given more complicated commands for example; if teacher  would like to teach grammar rules, she/he can use this dialogue : Teacher : Kristina walk to the blackboard ( Kristina gets up and walks to the blackboard) Teacher : Class, if Kristina walked to the blackboard, stand up (The class stands up )   And less skilled pupils can be given less complicated commands For instance; Teacher can give easier imperatives Teacher: stand up (The class stands up) Teacher: sit  down (The class sits down)
Didactical considerations What are the learning objectives (which linguistic forms do you teach)?	The general objectives of Total Physical Response are to teach oral proficiency at a beginning level. Comprehension is a means to an end, and the ultimate aim is to teach basic speaking skills. A TPR course aims to produce learners who are capable of an uninhibited communication that is intelligible to a native speaker. Specific instructional objectives are not elaborated, for these will depend on the particular needs of the learners. Whatever goals are set, however, must be attainable through the use of action-based drills in the imperative form.
Made by                                                                    Emine Güneş, Arda Dilovan Işık, Bahar Gül, İlknur Ülker

Family

My i-mind map about "FAMILY"

This Friday, we had a lesson with Lars instead of Peter. During the lesson we had discussed about family and then I created my own i-mind map about the topic. While doing this, I have tried to answer these questions:

• "What is family?" 
• "What are the types of family?"
• "What is the difference between nuclear and extended family?"
• "Why is the family important?"
• "What are the main family values?"
• "What is the relation between family and children?"
• "Can parents control the ability to have a children?"
• "What are the main phases of family?"

Questions for the Intercultural Assignment

Intercultural Research Assignment for Democratic Citizenship

When Thomas Thomsan gave us the homework, I was the only one from the teaching experience group being in the class at that moment and I could not understand whether I also had to the same or not. In order to learn what to do, I sent an e-mail to Thomas on the day before our last teaching experience. Unfortunately, I realized the answer when I came back to home. Than, we decided to create our own questions to ask the teacher via e-mail. On conclusion, we have already created and send them to the teacher although we have not received any answer yet. Anyway, I would like to share our questions that I have made with Ana:

1. Do you have students from different countries in your classes?
2. Do your foreign students know Danish well? Do they have a problem about communication?
3. Have you had any problem about cultural differences? If you have, could you give us an example about what kind of difficulties you had?
4. How is the relation between students from different countries?
5. Do you think that your danish students react in a different way to a foreign student because of s/he comes from another country?
6. Do you consider the inclusion as a problem related to economic and human resources?
7. If a new pupil comes from another country, how can you cope with her/him? If s/he doesn't know Danish, how could be the cultural integration in the classroom?
8. Can you see a huge difference between different cultures?
9. Do you teach culture implicitly or explicitly?
10. How do you teach your students to be respectful to the other cultures?
11. Do you need different kind of materials in order to use for the pupils having different backgrounds
12. In your classroom is there any kind of democratic subject such as democratic citizenship?

Homework

At the last lesson of Educational Studies II we talked about homework. And I have learnt that there is a discussion about that "Should homework revoke or not?" in Denmark. I cannot imagine the school without homework. I think that homework is one of the essential parts of learning especially for language learning.  It is necessary for repetition of the things that pupils have learnt before and preparation for the new topic that they are going to learn.

We have also talked about the types of homework. I would not give homework to the pupils in a traditional way. For instance, "You have to read from 6 to 38 pages and then answer 25 questions about the text" . When I start to teach something as a teacher, I would prefer extension homework because it is more interesting to use the tools you cannot have at the school. In other words, I prefer make the students to watch a movie instead of writing so many pages. Besides, finishing homework is also good choice in my opinion. Because sometimes it is not possible to read all the texts and do all the exercises in the class.

In addition to this, we made double circle activity in the classroom. It is not new for me because I have already known this from "The Methods and Approaches in Language Teaching" lesson in Turkey. It gives very good opportunity to speak the target language especially for the shy pupils. When somebody stands in front of you, you feel that you have to react and also have to say something. Moreover, it gives a change to change your partner very quickly without any confusion about who you will chose.

In conclusion it was very good lesson that I really liked. I am looking forward to attend the next one.