Goals

• To make you aware of the kinds of information about culture, teaching, ESL and related topics available to you on the WWW and to give you access to specific useful sites.
• To help you locate useful resources to help make your teaching more culturally relevant.

Directions:

• Complete the "hunt" in any order.
• The highlighted, underlined text indicates a link. Click on the link and then use the information you find to answer the questions listed below.
• Questions relate to the website listed directly above them but you may need to do additional looking within the site.
• Find the answers yourself and write them in the blanks. (The answer is not so important as the fact that you could find source and the answer. Please do not copy answers from friends -- that defeats the purpose. Do feel free to help one another in finding your way around the web.)
• Occasional short meanderings are encouraged.
• "Bookmark" (or write down, or e-mail to yourself) important web discoveries to return to and to share with the class.
• If you get "stuck" either go to another question and come back later or ask for help.
• Feel free to return to the Scavenger Hunt for more discoveries at other times.

• The Web of Culture:  http://www.webofculture.com
• How many "hits" do you get when you search for Puerto Rico? _________
• What is a cultural "no-no" regarding one's feet in Costa Rica?__________
• What does it mean when people wiggle their noses in Puerto Rico? __________
• What is the unit of currency in Croatia, and its abbreviation? __________

  Kid's Window:  http://www.jwindow.net/KIDS

• What is a traditional Japanese breakfast? __________
• Listen to a child read Momotaro in Japanese and in English. ____

  KidLink Multicultural Calendar:  http://www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/MCC/

• What is Quema del Diablo, celebrated in Guatemala? ___________
• How could your students submit celebrations to go on the calendar?  __________

  Sounds of the World's Animals:  http://www.georgetown.edu/cball/animals/animals.html

• What does a horse say in Thai? ___________
• What does a crow say in Afrikaans? ____________

  Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC)  http://lanic.utexas.edu/

• What language is spoken around Puerto Limon in Costa Rica? (hint: try "background notes, Department of State") ____________
• What is the literacy rate among adults in El Salvador? (hint: try "background notes, Department of State")  ______________
• What happened to Mexican painter Frida Kahlo when she was six? _________

   

  A Few Useful Government Resources

  Start at the US Census Bureau:  http://www.census.gov/

• What is the population of the US today? __________
• Of the world? __________   Of Arkansas? _________
• What is the population of your congressional district?* ___________
• Of your school?  _______
• What is the median income of your district? _________
• Of Jimmy Carter's district in Plains, Georgia? _________

  *Find your district with this Vote Smart Site:  http://www.vote-smart.org/districts.phtml?zip5=30345&zip4=3069&checking=

  Searching and Bookmarking

  Search Engines:
  Alta Vista http://www.altavista.com/
  HotBot http://www.mindspring.net/search/hotbot/
  Excite http://www.excite.com/?1-a-g
  Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com/
  Lycos http://www.lycos.com/

• Find an interesting fact or two about a target country/culture. __________
• Search for sites on your target culture.

   

• Bookmark (or e-mail to yourself, or write the URL here) at least one website of interest that you want to go back to later _______________________________________________________
• Search a topic that is too broad (more than 1000 "hits") Topic: ___________
• Search a topic that is too narrow (0 hits) Topic: ____________
• Search a topic that is about right (maybe 1-50 hits) Topic: _____________

• Search your "just right" topic 4 times using 4 different search engines. How do the results compare? Hints: Use quotes " " to ask for exact phrase. Use + between words to include both.
  
  On-line Bookstores

  http://www.amazon.com/ or http://barnesandnoble.com

• Look for books on your target country in an on-line bookstore. __________
• What's the latest pick for Oprah's book club? http://barnesandnoble.com  ________________
• What book won the 1998 Booker Prize?  http://www.amazon.com/ ____________
• At least how many more on-line bookstores are there? http://stc.net/books.htm  ____________  

  
  An On-Line Dictionary for Learners of English

  Newbury House Dictionary of the American Language  http://nhd.heinle.com/

• Your student came across the word "beaver" in her reading book. Find a picture of a beaver in the online Newbury House Dictionary of the American Language.  _____________
• Use the right click button on your mouse (Windows) or left click (mac) to copy and save the beaver picture.  ____________
  Professional Resources

  TESOL  http://www.tesol.edu

• What does TESOL stand for?  _________
• Where can you find a copy of the TESOL ESL K-12 Standards?  ____________
• Where is the next TESOL convention ? _____________

  
  CAL  http://www.cal.org/

• What does CAL stand for? __________
• Does Carolyn Temple Adger, of CAL, believe that AAVE is "Bad English"?  _________

  
  NCTE  http://www.ncte.org/

• What does NCTE stand for?  ____________
• When is the WLU conference and where will it be held in 2001?
• List three resource links for English teachers listed under NCTE links.

  
  NCBE  http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/

• What does NCBE stand for?  ______________
• Look under "In the Classroom" and find out how to say hello in Serbian...there are two ways.

  
  Japanese Arts Resources  http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/student/japan.html

• Visit the Floating World.  Explain what this exhibit is.

  
  U.S. Department of Education, Office of Bilingual Education & Minority Language Affairs http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/resources/esol.html

• Locate English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Links to:
  Lesson Plans
  General Resources
  Bilingual Education Network
  Center for Applied Linguistics
  Intensive American Language Center
  IDRA - Intercultural Development Research Association
  NABE - National Association for Bilingual Education
  NCBE - National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education
  NCLE - National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education
  TESOL - Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
  TESL Canada

  A Guide for Writing Research Papers  http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/apa_index.htm

• How do you write a reference  in  APA style? __________

Discovery Channel School  http://discoveryschool.com/schoolhome.html

Teaching Tolerance  http://www.splcenter.org/teachingtolerance.html

 The Human Languages Page  http://www.june29.com/HLP/
 Try out a universal translator.

American Association of Libraries 5000 Best Sites  http://www.ala.org/parentspage/greatsites/

 ArkTESOL  http://wolves.dsc.k12.ar.us/arktesol/arktesol.htm
 Print yourself a membership form.

Evaluation

How did you like the Scavenger Hunt? ______________

Did you have fun? _____________

Do you think your students would enjoy this activity? __________________

What did you discover that you'd like to remember and/or share? _______________________________

What suggestions do you have for improving the activity? ________________________________________

What have you learned that you will use in your teaching? ________________________________________