Fiestas and the Culture They Show

Unit Summary

Town fiesta is one of the most celebrated occasions in the Philippines. Many Filipinos would go back to their hometown during fiestas than during Christmas as it is an essential part of the Filipino culture.

In this unit, second year high school students assume the role of Tourism Staff that help promote the Filipino culture among the youth by learning about the fiesta of a particular place and showcasing it in a multimedia presentation and distributing brochures about the place to promote it. The showcase will be done during a school exhibit which will be viewed by students from other grade levels and classes.

As students study a particular town fiesta, they are expected to note important details of the place, the people, and the different features of the celebration and try to find relationships in them in people’s ways of life.  They also learn to express and explain in writing, their individual opinion whether fiestas are to be celebrated or not. The showcasing develop among students the skills in organizing and presenting information derived from mass media particularly the Internet and in using visual aids in informative talks. Learning activities in this unit are geared towards inculcating in every Filipino youth the heritage they can be proud of.

Curriculum-Framing Questions 

• Essential Question
  What is essential in life? 
• Unit Questions
  Where do you base your opinion on an issue?
  How does your understanding of a particular issue influence your opinion?
  How do you communicate your thoughts?
• Content Questions
  How do nouns operate in a sentence?
  How do you gather information?
  How can audio-visual aids help you convey your message clearly?
  What are the different styles that you can use in expressing your thoughts and feelings?

Instructional Procedures
Things that need to be done prior to the implementation of the Unit Plan in class:

• The teacher will arrange with the Technology and Livelihood Education teacher, for the latter to teach the students how to use word processing, multimedia presentation and desktop publishing softwares, and how to research and document information from the Web.
• To ensure access to the school’s Computer Laboratory, the teacher will also inform the School Head about the unit and will coordinate with the Computer Laboratory Person In-charge regarding the schedule of implementation.
• The teacher will scout for reading materials (print and non-print) about Philippine Fiestas.
• The teacher will also scout for a video clip of a town fiesta celebration.
• The teacher will send a letter informing the parents about the project so that parents will know what their children will be doing the following month and to ensure their full support.

For things that need to be done during the Unit, please refer to the implementation plan (doc).

Meeting 1: Introducing the Unit 
Venue: Computer Laboratory or a classroom with teacher computer and a multimedia projector.

• In pairs, students read an essay and discuss between them how fiesta is celebrated as cited in the essay.
• Then they answer a pre-given question to check their comprehension.
• Their answers are shared to the class in the form of an oral recitation.
• The teacher then presents a video clip of a town fiesta celebration.
• Students share their own observations on how Filipinos celebrate fiestas based on the video clip they have viewed.
• The teacher simply guides the activity.
• The day ends with a teacher presentation about the Unit (ppt). After the presentation, teacher entertains questions from students and divided them into groups. After the grouping is announced, students meet by group to start planning for the project.
• As a take home activity, each group chooses a specific fiesta celebration in the Philippines that they will showcase.

Meetings 2, 3, 4, and 5: Working on the Project 
Venue: Computer Laboratory

• Teacher presents the guide (doc) on the areas/aspects students should to look into their information search about a particular Philippine fiesta.  This serves as their guide on what to research on. The teacher presents also a hotlist of sites students can visit or browse from the Internet.  Students may also gather information from books, interviews, and newspapers.
• Each group then meets and plans for their project. They also decide on what each member of the group will cover in their search.
• Afterwards, members of each group will start gathering data on how fiestas are celebrated keeping in mind the guide provided by the teacher.
• During these meetings, each group then consolidates, analyzes and organizes the information they gathered and start planning for their multimedia presentation, brochure, and exhibit.
• As students work on their presentations and brochures, teacher also provide students with a guide on how to scan images from magazines or from photos which they need to include in their presentations.
• Teacher also ensures that students cite their sources in their brochures and multimedia presentations.
• As the students work on the tasks assigned to them, the teacher should monitor progress of each group by requiring each group to submit an accomplishment report at the end of each meeting.  The teacher also requires students to fill out their daily journal (doc) to monitor individual progress and difficulties daily.
• During these meetings, teacher should also be available to facilitate work of students and for consultations.
• As students prepare their brochures, the teacher will guide students on what to include in the brochure. Brochures should promote the celebration and the place by showing the history of the place, its topography, its people and the celebration.
• At the end of the four meetings, students should be ready with their multimedia presentation and brochure.

Meetings 6 and 7: Presentation of Group Outputs
Venue: Computer Laboratory

• Each group presents their multimedia presentation (ppt) to the class in preparation for the exhibit.  In this presentation, they show the place, the celebration, the people, and their relationship in the formation of the people’s culture.
• Other groups will share ideas on how to further improve the presentations.
• After each group presentation, the group submits their brochure to the teacher.
• Teacher facilitates and moderates the presentation and giving of feedback. After all the presentations,  the teacher then gives suggestions on how to further improve outputs of each group in preparation for the exhibit.
• If there is time left, students can start working on the revisions of their outputs.

Meetings 8, 9, and 10: Revision of Group Outputs and Preparing for the Exhibit 
Venue: Computer Laboratory

• Each group revises their outputs based on feedback of the teacher and their classmates.
• At the end of the two meetings teacher then approves outputs ready for exhibit.
• Each group then starts to prepare the booth they will put up to showcase the place and the fiesta of the place.
• During these meetings, the class also makes flyers and posts them around campus to announce the exhibit.
• As a take home activity for each day, students write on their daily journal.

Meeting 11: Fiesta Showcase
Venue: School Gym for one whole day

• In the school gym, students set up exhibit that features their chosen fiesta celebration and the place.
• In the exhibit, other students can view the multimedia presentations and the brochures made by each group. 
• The audience is encouraged to ask questions about their displays/presentations. The audience is also entertained by series of dances representing the different fiestas.
• As a take home activity, students again write on their daily journal.

Meeting 12: Reflection and Processing
Venue: Classroom

• The teacher congratulates everyone for their hard work and gives certificates of recognition to each group.
• Relating to what happened during the exhibit, the teacher then poses the following questions:
  • From what you have just experienced, how important are the traditions to you?
  • What attitudes are evident in every Filipino celebration?
  • What do you think is the role of culture in our society?
  • Do you think you were successful in helping promote the Filipino culture? Why or why not?
  
  Teacher facilitates the sharing and discussion.
                
• As a take home activity, students are asked to write about the following:
  • learnings they gained from the experience and
  • their individual opinion on whether fiestas are to be celebrated or not. They are also asked to explain further their reasons for their opinion on celebrating fiestas.
  
  Teacher instructs students to write their learnings and opinions in complete sentences.

Meeting 13: Discussion on Nouns
Venue: Classroom

• A few students are asked to share learnings in class. The teacher then notes down the sentences that describe students’ learnings gained. After several students have shared, the teacher discusses nouns using the sentences given by students and how it operates in those sentences.
• As an activity, the teacher gives back to each group their brochure.  Member of each group then identifies the nouns in their articles and also explains the function of that noun in the sentence.
• As a quiz, the teacher then asks each student to identify the nouns they used when they wrote their learnings and opinion about celebrating fiestas. The teacher then collects both students list of nouns and their functions and their write-ups on their learnings and opinions on celebrating fiestas.

After Unit implementation, the things that need to be done are the following:

• After the exhibit, the teacher ensures that all borrowed equipment were returned and the Computer Laboratory and the school gym were left clean and in proper order.
• After the unit, the teacher makes sure that the students receive award certificates for the tasks completed.
• The teacher also gives time for the class to send thank you notes to the persons who had helped them in making the exhibit successful.
• The teacher transfers all outputs of students to a CD.
• The teacher, in coordination with the Computer Laboratory Person In-charge, deletes all the unnecessary files in the computers her students were using during the Unit.
• The teacher reflects on her implementation experience and revises the unit plan based on the outcome of the Unit. Weaknesses shall be strengthened.        
  

Prerequisite Skills

• Prior to the lesson, students should already have background knowledge on how to use a digital camera and how to create presentations and brochures. Since one of rich references they can use is the Internet, they should also know how to browse for Web resources and cite them properly.

Differentiated Instruction
Resource Student

• Students may choose fiesta celebrations of their municipalities or towns and will just come up with a Microsoft PowerPoint* presentation. 

Gifted Student

• For gifted students who will choose fiestas in their localities, they can interview old folks who can give opinions and information on how different was their fiesta celebration in the past compared to how it is being celebrated today in your locality.
• Gifted students can also choose festivals that are celebrated in the key cities of the country. Aside from brochures and multimedia presentations, they can also come up with a Web site showcasing the fiestas of these key cities. Their Web site can also include a survey section where viewers get to give their opinions on whether or not it is important to celebrate fiestas.

Student Assessment 
In the course of doing their projects, students will be required to fill out a daily journal (doc) for easy monitoring of individual progress and difficulties.

Project outputs of the groups will be assessed using the following rubrics developed by the teacher:

• Multimedia Presentation Rubric (doc) and
• Brochure Rubric (doc).

These rubrics will be presented to students on the first day of the unit to guide students on what they should focus on their presentations and brochures. The group exhibit will also form part of the grade of each group. Students will also have the chance to give feedback to the outputs of the other groups after the presentation in class. This is done to help each group prepare better presentations for the exhibit but will not form part of the grade of each group. 

Students’ write-ups on the learnings they gained from the unit will also form part of the assessment of their individual performance. 

On the last day of the unit, a quiz on nouns and their functions in sentences will be given.

Key Word Search

• Celebrations
• Fiesta celebrations
• Fiesta
• Function of nouns
• Nouns
• Philippine fiestas
• Philippine Festivals
• Town fiestas
• Noting details

Credits
Cecile S. Pagar of Bayugan National Comprehensive High School in Agusan del Sur, Philippines, participated in the Intel® Teach Training for Master Trainers last May 2006. She developed this Unit Plan idea during the training and implemented it in her English class for second year students during the first quarter of School Year 2006-2007. After implementation and together with her Pedagogical Support provider and the National Team from UP NISMED, the plan was enhanced for future implementation. This is the enhanced version of Ms. Pagar’s Unit Plan.