At Tommy's Road Elementary (TRE), students take Mandarin as an enrichment class twice a week. The classes focus on reading, writing, and listening skills, speaking the target language, and learning about the culture.
Students from Ashford School created their own Egyptian/American wax museum exhibits after they participated in a field trip to the Wadsworth Atheneum to see Egyptian art and the Connecticut Science Center to view the Mummies of the World exhibit.
The field trip involved students travelling to the Phoenix Art Museum, which has an Asian gallery with a Chinese art section. The students obtained a deeper understanding of what they learned this year by interacting and observing real-life examples of Chinese culture.
Students currently enrolled in Mandarin I, II, III, and IV will visit the Yin Yu Tang House, located at the Peabody Essex Museum.
The students at Eastside Charter School did not previously visit Philadelphia’s Chinatown. For most of the students, this year represented their first-time taking Mandarin.
Mohamed Etify received a CLP grant for his host school’s Arabic language and culture club, the Horus Club. The project supported activities that enriched the students’ knowledge about the target language and culture.
John Pecoraro received a CLP grant to support a field trip for Chariho Regional High School. Students visited a Chinese market and purchased items for their graduation ceremony. Students appeared to enjoy this, as it was a different experience than they were accustomed to in their home town. After the Chinese market, we went to the Rhode Island School of Design to tour the Chinese portion of the Asian art galleries. Students were able to view and appreciate various works of art, and also document the artwork using the walkthrough reflection tool.
Chen Ken (Moos Elementary School, 2018-2019) and Rafael Jimenez (Moos Elementary School, 2018-2019) received a CLP grant to attend a Chinese New Year’s Parade on Sunday February 10, 2019. As part of the school's cultural learning, families visited Chinatown for the event. After the parade, students and families explored Chinatown and ate at a restaurant with food from the Sichuan Province. This learning impacted even more students with photographs and story sharing by the students who attened the trip during class.
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.
Sean Fredericks (2016-2018), a mentor teacher from John W. Lavelle Preparatory Charter School in Staten Island, New York, received a CLP grant to take, with Adel Ghattas (2017-2018), the 34 Arabic students at Lavelle on a field trip to the United Nations in Manhattan. The field trip will occur in 2018, the 70th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On this field trip, students will have the opportunity to learn about the history of the United Nations and Middle East Policy from a UN representative.
