Guerna TS#15

Date/Time: August 21st, 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM EST
Location: Dirac Library
Topic/Skill: Speaking & Listening Lesson: U.S. Holidays and Celebrations 
Student: Wei Wang


In this session I introduced Wei to the theme of U.S. Holidays and Celebrations, we began with a warm-up where I asked Wei about holidays in her home country and who she typically celebrates with (family, friends, or community). To activate her curiosity and connect prior knowledge, she was shown photos representing American celebrations, such as fireworks, football games, and Halloween costumes, and asked to guess which holiday each represented. This activity engaged her visually and set the stage for vocabulary building.

The main part of the lesson centered on introducing and categorizing U.S. holidays into three groups: federal holidays, commonly celebrated holidays, and ethnic/religious holidays. For each category, Wei was provided not only with the name and date of major celebrations, but also key traditions, such as parades for Independence Day, family meals at Thanksgiving, and costumes at Halloween. This helped her see both the official importance of some holidays and the more popular, culturally significant ones that shape everyday life in the U.S. The ethnic and religious holidays (such as Easter, Hanukkah, Ramadan, and Lunar New Year) were especially valuable for showing the diversity of American celebrations and allowing her to make connections to familiar traditions from her own culture.

Listening practice was reinforced through a Holiday Announcements activity, where short descriptive passages about holidays (e.g., Independence Day, Halloween, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving) were read aloud. Wei listened carefully and then identified which holiday was being described, sometimes summarizing key traditions in her own words. After this, we moved into a Role-Play segment where Wei practiced using the new vocabulary and cultural knowledge in practical speaking scenarios. She role-played inviting a friend to Thanksgiving dinner, asking about local events like parades, shopping for holiday decorations, and explaining one of her own country’s holidays to an American classmate. These interactive exercises helped her practice both asking and answering questions naturally, while also comparing and contrasting her cultural background with U.S. traditions.

I ended the lesson with a guided discussion in which Wei reflected on which U.S. holiday she would most like to celebrate, which ones reminded her of celebrations in China, and which seemed most meaningful or most fun. She was encouraged to give reasons for her choices, which gave her the chance to practice extended speaking while using newly learned vocabulary.

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