Arabic

TCLP mentor teacher Christina Cannon has been chosen to present with colleague Annie Hasan at the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in April 2012. Their CLP proposal will help them cover the cost to attend the conference. Their presentation discussed best practices for teaching songs in the target language, and attendees learned a method of teaching with songs and games that maximizes ‘student talk’ during the class period, keeping students engaged and communicating.

TCLP Host School Alumni Pratt Community School’s Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson was awarded funding for a grant titled “Arabic Language in the World Today”. This proposal included the creation of an Arabic Language Café, where students and their families can practice their Arabic skills in a 'real life' environment. Students used Arabic to create signage for the restaurant, menus, and table learning opportunities. Students waited on tables and utilized their Arabic skills in the ordering and serving of food.

TCLP Arabic Teacher Alumnus Ahmed Mohamed was awarded a grant to implement a professional development project he designed to help other teachers in his home school district in Egypt. The project helped teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) build a pedagogical foundation, exchange best practices for EFL teaching, learn about the U.S. educational system, and share resources. Planned to be a multi-day training program, Ahmed made use of published education materials as well as those provided at no cost by the U.S. Department of State’s Regional English Language Officer.

Mentor Teacher, Dr. Steven Berbeco was awarded a grant to host a best practices workshop and professional networking meeting for the New England Association of Arabic Teachers (NEAAT), which is a network of elementary and secondary school teachers from public and private schools in the New England states. The best practices workshop and professional networking meeting was at the Massachusetts Foreign Languages Association in Sturbridge, MA, October 25th-27th. CLP funding allows NEAAT to offer these events as well as provide teacher-training materials for teachers from diverse schools.

Wendy Pugh, World Cultures Coordinator at Columbia Heights Educational Campus (CHEC) in Washington, DC, received a CLP grant to purchase Arabic language resources for students. CHEC purchased textbooks and CDs on language instruction and Arabic culture to help expand the Arabic language program developed by TCLP teacher Yasser Eldeabes. The school also used the purchased books to implement an Arabic Reading Group that focuses on Arabic language and culture and is open to all students within the District of Columbia Public School system.

Alumna mentor teacher, Laura Koebel, was awarded a CLP grant to implement a three-part project designed to promote the Arabic program at Plymouth High School, inform others about Arabic culture and language, and provide support to current Arabic students.