As part of a requirement of the English Language and Literature course, we were introduced to Language in a cultural context. This World culture day was a culmination of Language in cultural context. The grade was divided into 7 groups of different continents wherein each continent had team members who were allocated countries. We had to research about food, culture, language, art, history and literature of the country given and present it in a creative and attractive manner. This gave us exposure to works based in different cultures and the kind of language these cultures use. I was a participant for the continent North America. Our continent explored festivals so the festival that I presented was Halloween.
The learning outcomes that I achieved through this activity are :
Learning Outcome 1 ( Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth): Through this activity, I was able to identify my strengths and weaknesses. The strength was that I was good at creativity and my punctuality. While deciding the decor and activities I gave some ideas which were really creative and worked very well after they were executed. Secondly, throughout the planning process and when we were working, the other group members most of the time did not come and did not do their work but I was quite regular with whatever I was told to do so that really helped me manage my time with other things.
The weakness that I identified as I have never really done many presentations so presenting it to so many people was quite tough for me but then once I began, I gained confidence and my presentations went smoothly.
This identification of my strength and weakness helped me and I believe will help my future also. Now that I know them, I can work on my weaknesses and make use of my strengths as much as possible. This will help me a lot in developing myself and my personality too.
Learning Outcome 2 ( Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process): I had to face some challenges throughout this activity. The first one was that I have never really done many presentations so presenting it to so many people was quite tough for me but then once I began, I gained confidence and my presentations went smoothly. This will help me in future also. This helped me develop the new skill of presenting in front of many people.
The second challenge was managing my time among all the important things during that time, which I was able to do so this activity taught me that these challenges only help us develop new skills.
Learning Outcome 3 ( Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience): This was a student-led event so, we as a group had to decide and plan everything. The planning of everything was not an issue but the main problem we faced was of initiating the plan. There were so many ideas that we had planned but then when we had to bring them to reality there were many clashes and difficulties. But then we resolved them that helped in smooth initiating of this activity. So in all, this helped me in organising and managing my time effectively.
Learning Outcome 4 ( Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences): This event was on 10th March but we started planning and preparing for it almost a month before so commitment was the key that made this an event a success for our team. During this time we had our deadlines and the exams were also approaching so I had to maintain a balance between studying for exams, adhering to deadlines and at the same time working for this event also.
For this event, we had to come early to work, almost 4 times a week so committed to making this event a hit made me be consistent. Through this activity, I have learned that because I was committed to this event, that made me manage all other things too.
Learning Outcome 5 ( Demonstrate the skills and benefits of working collaboratively): We worked in a group of 6 members where 2 of them were the leaders and 1 never showed up. Working with even 5 members was also very beneficial for us. I believe that working in a group is always very good because of more the number of hands, less the amount of work. So it is quite easy for me to work in a group. The work within our group got divided. Although all three members of our group had 3 different festivals each, we still helped each other. Everyone did work collaboratively irrespective of their festival. This made the work easier for all of us and helped me understand the that how important teamwork is for us.
Another learning outcome that I did not think that would be covered through this activity but it did was :
Learning Outcome 7 ( Recognize and consider the ethics and choices of action): As I chose the festival of Halloween so the first thing that came to our mind was pumpkin carving. We first planned to include this as an activity in which the visitors could come and carve the pumpkins. But then we thought that we will have to have so many pumpkins and after the visitors will carve the pumpkins, those pumpkins will be wasted. Not everyone would be knowing to carve perfectly so those pumpkins when carved in different manners could not be used. So we had to drop this idea.
So, we had to think ethically where we don’t just use the resources for our use and waste them but think in a holistic manner and make choices that are sustainable and ethical.
The learner profile attributes that I catered to during this activity are Communicators because I had to communicate our ideas and opinions in the group to understand the perspective of everyone, Balanced because I had to maintain balance between the preparation of this event as well as other deadlines and exams, Thinkers as along with the group I had to think a lot to make our continent the best by making the presentations as interesting and knowledgeable as possible and Knowledgeable because I developed my understanding about my continent and its festivals. In all, this event helped me gain an understanding of how language is used in different cultures and contexts.