Multicultural Night
"Students and their families have been exposed to people, programs, resources, and connections that can open doors for them, and they are able to navigate and access those opportunities" (Johns Hopkins, n.d.).
Introduction
Our school is lucky to have students/families from countries all around the world. In order to highlight this, as well as provide access to different cultures, food, and history for the students, we host an annual Multicultural Night. The Multicultural Night has been happening for the past few years and was started by fellow teachers. The event facilitates a chance for students to talk about cultural differences, food, history, music, and dance. This is often many students' only opportunity to engage an exchange of cultures with many of the countries represented at the event. While I try to create an environment in my classroom that is culturally inclusive and representative, many students take pride in a night that is explicitly dedicated to portraying their history. Below is an interest form that the teachers sent to all the students in the school to find out who would like to represent a country at the event. Scrolling down the list, one can see the number of countries that our students (or their parents/grandparents) come from. However, the students do not get a chance to explicitly celebrate their heritage often throughout the year. The Multicultural Night gives the students an opportunity to share about the countries that they or their ancestors came from in a welcoming and entertaining setting.
Sign-up List Highlighting the Diversity in Our School
Connection to Standards
This event also aligns with the ACTFL World Language Standards, as one of the standards is Culture. On top of learning different languages, ACTFL pushes for learners to "interact with cultural competence and understanding" (ACTFL, n.d.). They "reflect on the relationship between the practices and perspectives," as well as "products and practices" of different cultures (ACTFL, n.d.). Throughout the night, the students interacted with other students and families from different countries, gaining new perspectives on other people and parts of the world. In my classes, we often talk about diversity and different cultures, as well as the traditions and experiences of my students, but the event offered an explicit setting where many other students, teachers and parents were. The event provided a larger space for food, music and performances, as it can be much more difficult to provide this in my classroom.
ACTFL World Language Standards on Culture
Countries and cultures from all over the world were represented by students and teachers.
I teach Spanish levels one and two, so my learners fall underneath novice and intermediate learners. As seen below, ACTFL sets benchmarks for learners of all levels. On top of understanding and identifying the language at certain levels, it sets benchmarks for Intercultural Communication. At a novice level that means to "interact at a survival level in some familiar contexts," while at an intermediate level that means to "interact at a functional level in some familiar contexts" (ACTFL, n.d.). The event provided an opportunity for my students to apply what they learn in class in a real exchange. Many of the countries at Multicultural Night were Spanish-speaking countries, so there were many Spanish-speaking tables. In order to get food from the tables, students would need to interact with the students, parents and teachers behind the tables. This provided the students a setting that is not often available to them outside of a Spanish-speaking country.
ACTFL Proficiency Benchmarks for Novice and Intermediate Learners
Underneath the proficiency benchmarks for Intercultural Communication, there are performance indicators (photo below) to help guide teachers and students in their language and cultural journey. When the students participated in the Multicultural Event, they used language and behaviors to interact with each other. Looking at language, novice-level students "communicate with others from the target culture in familiar everyday situations, using memorized language and showing basic cultural awareness," while intermediate learners "converse with peers from the target culture in familiar situations at school, work, or play, and show interest in basic similarities and differences" (ACTFL, n.d.). This event was a great opportunity for my lower-level students to practice everyday expressions that they learned in class, while my more-advanced students had a chance to further experiment with their Spanish. Looking at behavior, novice-level students "use appropriate rehearsed behaviors and recognize some obviously inappropriate behaviors in familiar everyday situations, while intermediate learners "recognize that significant differences in behaviors exist among cultures, use appropriate language learned behaviors and avoid major social blunders" (ACTFL, n.d.). At the event, the students had an opportunity to interact around many different cultures and witnessed different dances and performances.
ACTFL Proficiency Benchmarks for Novice and Intermediate Learners
Planning the Event
Since our school has a large population of students from many different countries around the world and a need for a context for them to celebrate their diversity, a few teachers at our school organized the first Multicultural Night a few years ago. Since then these teachers have organized the event with the help of different teachers each year. I have helped organize the event over the last three years. It takes many weeks of preparation and organizing. In November, a group of five to six teachers at our school met to decide the first steps to take. We sent out a survey to teachers at the school, asking which day worked best for those that wanted to participate. Once we decided on a convenient date, we created interest forms for students in English, Spanish, and Portuguese — both digital and physical copies. We then asked teachers at the school to advertise the event to their students. Our goal was to reach as many students as possible — not only to come to the event, but to participate by performing, bringing food or artifacts, or helping with set-up/take-down. For the next few weeks, teachers in the school reminded their students about the upcoming event and instructed them to meet with the organizing teachers to figure out how many students would represent each country and how many countries were going to be represented. Below are the physical and digital versions of the sign-up sheet.
An English Copy of Student Sign-Up Sheet
Google Form Sign-Up
Between the digital and physical forms, we received over 100 people interested in participating or helping out, as seen in the photo below. We leveraged the large amount of people interested and divided up the work in preparing for the event. Students and teachers prepared their artifacts and food that they would bring to the event, art students painted all the flags of participating countries, and many teachers brought in supplies necessary for the night to run smoothly.
Sign-Up Results from Teachers and Students
Setting Up the Event
On the day of the event, many teachers and students stayed after school to work on the decorations and set-up. The art students brought over their paintings of the flags of all the participating countries (with labels), as seen in the photo below. Teachers brought in supplies to set up the room for the event. Another teacher and I brought in the table cloths. We set up tables for each participating country and then hung flags behind each one. Many students stayed after school to help us move the tables and chairs into position, and a few teachers and administrators set up the sound system for the music and performances. We had to work quickly, as the celebration started just a couple hours after school.
Tables for the event each representing a different country
We hung up flags behind each table.
We set up chairs for the performances.
By the time that we had set up the tables, chairs, flags and sound system, parents, students and teachers began bringing in their artifacts and food to complete the table set-up. Students and teachers tested the microphone and sound system before quickly rehearsing. At 5 pm, we were all ready to start.
The Event
In my classes, I encouraged students to come even if they did not want to represent a country or help with set-up and take-down. I gave out extra credit to anyone that showed up, but the students that took their time to represent a country or help clean were provided a much more significant amount of points in participating. At 5 pm, parents and students began trickling into the cafeteria. Within 30 minutes, the space was full of people chatting, eating, and appreciating each other's cultures and stories. Many of my students were mixed in the crowd. They had to check in with me to get credit for showing up that way students could not lie and fake showing up. Around 6 pm, performances began, and a crowd of students, teachers and parents watched the performers. and cheered. There was spoken word, musical performances, and dances. There were a few teachers that performed dances and spoken word. A few students sang for the crowd. During a few moments, students started joining in a Jamaican dance, as well as a Mexican dance. In the first photo below, the students go around all the tables, talking and eating. In the second photo, a teacher at our school performs spoken word, as the attendees watch and cheer for her.
Hundreds of students and their families showed up for the event.
Teachers and students participated in performances, including spoken word,
Overall, the night was a success, with hundreds of attendees and positive feedback from students, teachers and parents. There were many opportunities for attendees to partake in cultural exchange. The time flew by, with the two hours not seeming like enough time for most people there. However, other teachers and I felt like two hours was sufficient, as many of us never left school and were exhausted.
Reflection
On the next school day, I had students that attended and/or participated in it to write a reflection in order to receive extra credit. This allowed me to gauge how students felt regarding the event, what they gained from it and how it could be improved? Here is the PowerPoint, as well some student samples. The students mentioned how much fun they had, with the food and performances being a big success for them. Some students talked about how they wished the school would host more events like this every semester and not just once a year.
PowerPoint Used for Student Reflection
Student Reflection #1
Student Reflection #2
The students echoed similar thoughts on the event — that it was entertaining, the food was tasty and they learned something about other countries/cultures. The Multicultural Night provided students an opportunity to engage with other students, teachers and parents in a cross-cultural experience. They were able to practice with many of the Spanish-speaking tables, as there were many family members there that did not speak English. It was a learning experience for everyone there, including myself. I especially enjoyed going to the different tables and speaking with the students and parents about their experiences, since many of them had lived in other countries before moving to the United States. The performances were also entertaining to watch, especially when it was a student or staff member with whom I was familiar. After a successful third year of planning the event, I look forward to helping provide students access to future Multicultural Nights in the coming years.
References:
ACTFL. (n.d.). World-Readiness Standards. Retrieved February 1, 2020, from https://www.actfl.org/publications/all/world-readiness-standards-learning-languages/standards-summary