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Classroom Activities

Create Your Own Flag

Level: Intermediate

Time required: 90 minutes

Goals: To create and describe a flag reflecting personal qualities; to gain an understanding of symbols; to practice making comparisons

Materials: colored pens, pencils, markers, or crayons; blank paper for each student; your country's flag or a photo of it; copies of the reading (optional), survey forms (optional)

Preparation: Do some research on your nation's flag—what do the colors and symbols mean? Have the flag or a picture of the flag in class.

Procedures:

1. Tell students they are going to design personal flags—their own flags—but that first, you want them to think about symbols by looking at the flags of two countries: your own country and the United States. Explain that a symbol can be anything (e.g., a picture, word, color, shape, animal) that represents—or symbolizes—something else. For example, birds often represent freedom because they can fly, and green often represents nature because many plants are green. But symbols and their meanings can vary between countries and cultures.

2. Divide students into groups of three or four. Show your country's flag to the class. Write on the board the following questions for group discussion:

• What are the main colors of the flag?
• What things can you count on this flag?
• What symbols are on the flag? What meanings do the symbols have?
• What does this flag mean to you?
• Do you like this flag?

Give groups time to discuss. Monitor groups and provide vocabulary, if needed. Have each group select one student to be the spokesperson. After each group has discussed the questions, bring groups to the whole class and have each spokesperson share what his or her group discussed.

3. Write the passage below on the board or, with students back in their groups, pass out copies of the passage to each group and read the selection to the whole class. Have students read along and circle unfamiliar words.

The United States has many symbols. The most famous is probably the flag. The American flag has 13 red and white stripes. It also has 50 white stars on a blue background in the upper left-hand corner. The stars represent the 50 states. The colors of the flag have meaning, too. Red is a symbol of bravery, blue is a symbol of justice, and white is a symbol of purity. Americans celebrate Flag Day on June 14 each year. On that day, many people fly flags in front of their homes or hold small flags when they go to parades.

After students read the selection as a group, provide vocabulary instruction as needed. Ask basic comprehension questions:

• What colors are in the American flag?
• How many stripes are there?
• How many stars are there?
• What do the stars represent?

4. Have groups compare your country's flag to the American flag. Give them a few minutes to list ways that the flags are similar (the same or nearly the same). Then give them time to list ways that the flags are different. Students can consider any details, including symbols.
5. Depending on your students' level, groups can report their similarities and differences to the whole class in phrases, or they can report by using full sentences. Here are examples:

• The flags are similar because both flags are/have ______        .
• The flags are different because our flag is/ has____        , but the American flag is/

has        .

6. Write the following words on the board: likes,dislikes, hopes, beliefs. Discuss these words with the class. Make sure students understand them before continuing.
7. Tell students they are going to design flags to reflect their own likes, dislikes, hopes, and beliefs. Provide questions to guide students:

• How old are you?
• How many brothers and sisters do you have?
• Where do you live?
• What is the best thing you have ever done?
• What activities do you like to do?
• Do you have animals or pets? What kind? What are their names?
• What do you like to eat?
• What are some things you are good at doing?
• What is a strong belief that you have?
• What do you hope to be in the future?
• Where would you like to go in the future?

Have students brainstorm their answers individually. Then have students discuss their answers with their groups.

8. Hand out white paper and markers or colored pencils. Tell students they will design their own flags, using symbols of their hopes, beliefs, likes, and dislikes. (Students can include one, some, or all of these, as they choose.) Students decide on the color(s) and symbols to use for their flags.
9. When students finish, have them write about their flags on the back of the paper. If necessary, guide your students by having them complete sentence starters:

• The best thing I have ever done is_______.
• My flag represents my interest in________.
• I used the color          because ________.
• My flag has a picture of        because ________.
• My flag shows my hopes, which are _____        and_____        .

• I drew _______        because________        .

      •   One symbol on my flag is ____________        . It   means________.

• I like my flag because        .

10. Have students to show their flags the members of their groups and have each student describe his or her flag to the group by using the suggested sentence starters, if necessary.
11. Have students pair off and compare each other's flags by adapting the sentence structures they used to compare the country flags in Step 5.
12. Post the flags around the room. Make sure students' names are on the front.
13. Hand out a survey form to each group, or have groups create their own forms. Students will use the forms to record observations about the flags. (The Sample Survey Form has space to record details of only three flags; you can make it longer to provide space for details of additional flags.)

With your class, decide on details to include on the survey forms. (For younger or lower-level learners, write out the details ahead of time, with several examples.) Details could be the main color(s), the number or meanings of symbols, and the feeling or mood of the flag. (You or your students might have other suggestions.) Then, assign each group to do an "art walk" and observe the flags while group members take turns writing details on the survey form. Remind students that they are not evaluating their classmates' flags; they are observing details in the flags.

Sample Survey Form

14. Once groups have walked the gallery, they can discuss the results of the survey. Write these sentence starters on the board:

• All of the flags have_________        .

• Most of the flags have________        .

• About half of the flags have        .

Have groups complete and discuss the sentences, using their survey forms. Monitor the discussions and help students with vocabulary. After groups have finished their discussions, ask groups to summarize what they observed on the art walk or to choose their most interesting observation, then report to the whole class.

Extension

After students complete their personal flags, they can work together to design a class flag that represents collective hopes, beliefs, likes, and dislikes. They can hang this flag in the front of the room for the remainder of the school year.

Heather Benucci, a writer and editor of English teaching materials at the U.S. Department of State, has enjoyed working with diverse students and teachers in England, Korea, and the United States. Her interests include computer-assisted language learning, consciousness- raising tasks in grammar teaching, and academic vocabulary acquisition.

Jacqueline Gardy is a writer and editor of English teaching materials at the U.S. Department of State. She holds an MA in TESOL from American University and has served as an English Language Fellow in Serbia. Jacquie has presented nationally and internationally on computer-assisted language learning.