Microlesson Development

Week 2: Discussion of Instructional Problem

Overview of the instructional problem

According to N., Pam M.S., deculturation is the process where aspects of one culture is lost after contact with another one (Psychology dictionary). Young individuals of Arabic origins who have been born or raised in a non-Arabic speaking country, gradually lose their attachment to their heritage, language and culture. Being part of the daily life of the country where they live, it's easier to completely dissolve into the culture that they grew up in. Whether they don't care about learning their original language because of its difficulty level, because they do not relate to it anymore, because they are being forced in to learning it using the traditional schooling system, or because it was a reason why they have been bullied, attacked or avoided in their schools or public life, the conclusion remains that they should start by slowly building the attachment to Arabic as a language and as a culture, and introducing them to its beauty and richness. Although the traditional Sunday schooling system might work in some cases, in most cases it does not make use of the modern approaches that would attract teenagers and make them interested, passionate and curious. The steps of a gradual modern approach targeting teenagers would be: 1- Attract attention 2-Build interest 3- Make them curious 4- Support deeper learning.

goal

Being the first of a series of courses, rather than being a traditional language course, its main goal is encouraging the young learners to go ahead and become curious to explore the beauty and authenticity of their culture and language. The objective of the introduction is to make these individuals who usually suffer from deculturation, confusion and sometimes exclusion to know that they are not alone and that there are thousands of people living their experience and that it’s ok and positive.

Authentic assessment (summative assessment)

Some ideas for the summative assessment include:

• An interview with an Arabic speaker using some guidelines,key topics and keywords that have been covered during the course.
• A quick multiple choice quiz covering the facts that have been learned during the course.
• An infographic or a visual demonstrating the ideas covered in the course. (These can also be hand-created then photographed or scanned)

Terminal Objective based on Bloom’s Taxonomy of higher order thinking skill (HOTS)

By the end of the lesson, learners will be able to

• Remember some numerical facts about Arabic and its speakers.
• Understand how other languages were inspired by Arabic.
• Explore some examples demonstrating the interaction of Arabic cultures with other cultures.
• Identify some most important Arabic inventions.
• Conduct a simple interview in Arabic
• Execute a look up for Arabic words using online tools.
• Explain a couple of interesting Arabic words and identify their meanings.

This acquired knowledge will be assessed through fun activities by the end of every module. Rather than a straightforward quiz, some activities will require some research, interaction through forums and interaction with other people.

The terminal objective of this course is to provide learners with a fun online engaging experience that will partially dissolve the rejection barrier and encourage them to go further into acquiring more knowledge.