Sister Partnership Between West Park Academy and Xinjin Experimental Primary School
The students are going to be pen pals between my host school in Chicago, Illinois and my home school in China. In order to experience Chinese culture, the students who participate in the pen pal activity in America are going to Chinatown in downtown Chicago in May as a field trip. The students will taste Chinese food in a Chinese restaurant, they will be able to apply their ability to use chopsticks. They will also look at the architecture there, they will take the activities we did.
Culture Box
Cai Qi's home school and host schools were willing to establish a long-lasting sister-school relationship. Therefore, they decided to do a series of activities to help students and teachers in both schools understand and learn from each other better. First, they arranged a culture box activity to help groups of students and teachers to get to know each other and learn the culture and practice target language from each other. Second, they paired students and teachers in the U.S. with students and teachers from China to help them establish long-lasting communication.
Sister School Virtual Bilingual Video Class
Sister School Virtual Bilingual Video Class aims to bridge the geographical distance between two sister schools and create a platform beyond classrooms for students on both sides to improve their target languages, their cultural awareness, and their cross-cultural communication abilities. The virtual bilingual video class meets the needs of both Liuyang No.1 High school, which lacks native English teachers this year, and Chariho Regional High School where students of Mandarin classes can't have Chinese field trips beyond classroom during this special year.
Sister Schools Project
Deadline Date
Wang Ling received a CLP grant to build a sister school relationship between her host school in Rhode Island, Chariho Regional High School, and her home school in China, No.1 High School of Liuyang. The main goals of the project were to coordinate regular virtual exchanges for students at both schools, offer professional development opportunities for teachers in the U.S. and China to share best practices, establish exchange programs for Chinese students to study at Chariho Regional High School as international students and for U.S.
Sister School Relationship with Nettlehorst Elementary School
Deadline Date
Kong Yanli received a CLP grant to build a sister school relationship between her home school in China, Yichang Foreign Language Junior High School, and Nettlehorst Elementary in Chicago, Illinois, which is in the same district as her host school in the U.S. The relationship started with a pen-pal program, joint-classroom projects, and the establishment of a Chinese Club at Nettlehorst Elementary and will develop into an in-person student exchange. The visit to the U.S. took place in the summer for about two weeks as a summer camp.
Sister City Project
Deadline Date
Guo Jin received a CLP grant to help her start a sister city project between her host school and home school. The sister city project built upon the success of the Chinese Club at Suder Montessori Magnet School by allowing access to Chinese language and culture with more students. The grant was used to obtain Chinese resources for the students to have more firsthand contact with China. The resources included primary sources like books and newspapers, in addition to tools to support students with Chinese cooking, art, dance costumes, and field trips.
Creating a Positive Learning Environment for Language Classes through School Partnerships
Deadline Date
Ezzat Hassan (2015-2016) will be leading a field trip for students at his home school, Gesfa Secondary School for Girls, to Cairo to visit sites of cultural and historical interest. During this field trip, students will have the opportunity to practice English in a particular context. Prior to the field trip, students will have the opportunity to learn about American culture through webinars held by teachers at Ezzat's host school, Mentor High School. Following the field trip, Egyptian students will share their experiences on the trip with students in Arabic classes at Mentor.
A Bridge between Egypt and America
Deadline Date
As part of a cross-cultural Critical Language Project, TCLP Teacher Tamer Elsharkawy and his students explored Alexandria, Virginia. His students shared what they learned about Alexandria, Virginia with students in Egypt and in turn, students in Egypt shared what they learned from a field trip to Alexandria, Egypt. Both groups of students practiced their target languages of Arabic and English through the project.