TCLP Arabic Teacher, Hanan Gawdet, received a Critical Language Project Grant to give Southern Lehigh Arabic students from 7th -12th grade an opportunity to focus on “Ancient and Modern Egyptian Arts.”
First, the students (in 7th to 12th grades) studied and presented to the class in Arabic on Islamic Art, Ancient Egypt, and different cultures in the Arab world. This prepared the students for the class field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, funded by the CLP, where they did further research on related subjects. At the museum, the students were provided with a check list of scavenger hunt questions to answer for their class. Simultaneously, Ms. Gawdat’s class in Egypt took a virtual museum tour in Egypt via Skype, which allowed the them to learn about topics similar to her U.S. students. The Egyptian and American students shared what they had learned with each other using Skype.
After the field trip, the students shared information via a Power Point presentation with Arabic subtitles, photos, and video of their experience at a school assembly. In art classes, the American students also created Egyptian Sculptures and made a giant tapestry using Arabic and Islamic Art pictures that was hung at the entrance to the school.