Ahlan ya colleagues, Welcome to the Arabic K-12 Bulletin, a biweekly resource for elementary, middle, and high school Arabic teachers, administrators, and researchers. In this issue, you will find announcements about two study abroad programs high school Arabic students may be interested in, as well as an interesting examination of "language prejudice" in the Current Research section. While the article is examining prejudice around different usages of American English, this topic might be an interesting one to explore with students of Arabic about the Arabic language. As always, if you would like to reach us please send a message to arabick12@gmail.com. Lucy Thiboutot, Editor |
The Arabic K-12 Teachers Network consists of more than 1,000 educators, administrators, and researchers interested in the Arabic K-12 field in the U.S. It is a free membership provided by the National Capital Language Resource Center's Arabic K-12 Project. Recent issues of the Bulletin are archived here: http://bit.ly/10KRZi3 . All members are welcome to submit posts in English or Arabic and may do so by e-mailing their content to arabick12@gmail.com specifying their content for the listserv. This listserv is focused on elementary, middle, and high school Arabic teaching. Job openings at the university level can be found on the AATA's website . |
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES NEW RESOURCES FOR YOUR STUDENTS AND CLASSROOM GRANT OPPORTUNITIES AND JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS NADA'S WEBSITES: "Zamzar" BELAL'S ACTIVITIES: "Fee almesh-mesh" MEOC BOOK RECOMMENDATION: "Where the Streets Had a Name" CURRENT RESEARCH: "Language Prejudice and What Schools Can Do About It" FOCUS ON LEARNING: "Watertown High School Hosts Visiting Teacher From Egypt" |
Workshops and Webinars The ACTFL Arabic SIG is currently conducting a survey to collect more information about Arabic teachers' experiences and their role as representatives of Arabic language and culture. It takes no more than 10-15 minutes, it is totally anonymous, and there is no identifying information required. To take the survey, follow the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FNB3WS5 For any further questions, please send an email to: arabicsig@gmail.com . Primary Source announces a new online course "Windows to the Islamic World: Art, Architecture, and Music" that will run this fall. This is a 4-week course open to all K-12 educators running from November 6, 2013 – December 10, 2013. Participants in this course will learn about the key features of Islamic art, Arabic calligraphy, "Arts of the Book," Islamic architecture, and the music or "soundscapes" of Islam. More details and registration information can be found at http://bit.ly/1fS7MBg . Aldeen Foundation and Qatar Foundational International are offering an online free professional development program for Arabic educators called Interactive Arabic Classroom from October 7 to November 18, 2013. The course allows you to spend about 90 minutes per week listening to lectures and watching instructors model the best teaching practices, and also interact with experienced teachers during live classes online. Space is limited, and registration runs from September 16-30. Register online at http://bit.ly/199Uluv and email Mrs. Thouraya Boubetra with any questions at aldeenarabiconlineeducation@aldeenfoundation.org . Concordia Language Villages is offering Qatar Professional Development Workshops this fall with full scholarships, substitute teacher reimbursement, and travel stipends for current and future teachers of Arabic, October 10-13. These workshops will bring together K-16 Arabic language teachers from across the United States to explore innovative instructional strategies. All Arabic language teachers are invited to apply for this workshop. To register: http://bit.ly/Xm0v7y . The Center for Advanced Study of Language (College Park, MD) is interested in seeking participants for a study on how learners of Arabic understand and decipher cultural allusions in Arabic. Participants who are native speakers of English, at least 18 years old, not native or heritage speakers of Arabic, and have completed at least 3 years of university-level Arabic courses are welcome to apply. Each participant receives $25 cash after right taking the test. Testing will be conducted at a convenient location near the participant. Contact kburk@casl.umd.edu for more information. Professional Conferences The annual meeting of the Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) from October 10-13 includes a Middle Eastern Outreach Council (MEOC) teacher workshop on Saturday, October 12, from 9am-4pm, at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. This workshop explores the diverse Middle Eastern, North African, European, Latin American, and Caribbean origins of cultural traits that permeate everyday life in Louisiana and the southern United States. Workshop attendees will also get access to the MESA FilmFest and the MESA book exhibit. Registration is $25, but if you register before September 30 you get a $10 discount! To learn more and register: http://bit.ly/17V7OWd . The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) conference will be held November 22-24, 2013 in Orlando, FL. ACTFL is dedicated to the improvement and expansion of the teaching and learning of all languages at all levels of instruction. Register online by Oct. 30. For more information: http://bit.ly/12dLiY5 . Teachers in New England: the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association (MaFLA) conference program is now online. Check out the workshops and sessions for the upcoming conference in Sturbridge, MA, October 17–19, 2013. There will be several sessions especially for Arabic teachers, too! For more information: http://bit.ly/17pr4N1 . Call For Proposals and Papers The 17th National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages is scheduled for April 24-27, 2014, at the Westin Chicago Northwest, IL. Proposals are solicited for individual papers, colloquia, and poster sessions to be presented at this conference. Submissions should fall broadly within the conference theme, "Collaboration and Internationalization: Enhancing and Sustaining Quality Outcomes for LCTLs." The deadline for receipt of proposals has been extended to TODAY, September 30, 2013. If you have any questions regarding proposal submission, please contact the NCOLCTL Secretariat at: secretariat@ncolctl.org or Tel: (812) 856-4185. The Foreign Language Association of Virginia (FLAVA) will be holding its annual conference October 3-4, 2013 at Williamsburg, VA. FLAVA is seeking papers, panels, and workshops on teaching Arabic L2. Last year we had eight sessions on Arabic that where well-attended by teachers of Arabic, French, Spanish, Chinese, and more. School teachers as well as college professes are strongly encouraged to share their teaching and research with teachers of other languages attend this annual meeting. For more details: http://bit.ly/Xf3aBL . |
The Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Abroad Program offers scholarships to American high school students to spend the 2014-15 academic year in countries that may include Bosnia & Herzegovina, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mali (semester), Morocco, Oman, South Africa, Thailand, Tunisia, and Turkey. This post 9/11 program focuses on increasing understanding between people in the U.S. and countries with significant Muslim populations. For more information: www.yes-abroad.org The National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) offers merit-based scholarships to U. S. high-school aged students for overseas study of seven critical foreign languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Korean, Persian (Tajiki), Russian and Turkish. The NSLI-Y program is designed to immerse participants in the cultural life of the host country, giving them invaluable formal and informal language practice and sparking a lifetime interest in foreign languages and cultures. Applications for summer 2014 and academic year 2014-2015 programs are due November 5, 2013. For more information: www.nsliforyouth.org The National Middle East Language Resource Center (NMELRC), in cooperation with Qatar Foundation International and Brigham Young University Independent Study, is offering a hybrid online course for high school students. The high school implementation of Arabic Without Walls, winner of the 2010 Distance Education Course Award, covers the basics of both spoken and written Arabic and enables students to acquire real-world communication skills. This process starts with students attending a one-day course in their region and continues as they work online with a tutor and a cohort of students who form a tight-knit learning community. Students who have done so have gone on to win NSLI-Youth Scholarships to study in the Arab world. For more information on registration, cost and credit please visit: http://bit.ly/1bfmfcG . The Institute for Middle East Studies (IMES) Title VI Outreach Program at The George Washington University (Washington, DC) maintains a film and book library and Skype-a-Scholar program that is free and available to area educators. You can view a list of all of the library resources and find out more about the films using our new Film Guide which contains synopses of the films and classroom usage ideas for educators. The Skype-A-Scholar program brings university experts to your classroom through Skype, to converse with students for an in-depth, innovative learning experience. Contact imesnrc@gwu.edu for more information on these programs. Wikispaces (http://bit.ly/1fbMfTM) offers free wikis for K-12 teachers. Wikis are simple group websites that are easy for anyone to edit. They are great for classrooms, work groups, clubs, and more. Wikis can be public or private, have no advertising on them, provide unlimited usage, and are completely free. Created by Bill Zimmerman, Make Beliefs Comix (http://bit.ly/1dfZYgu) is a free site that allows users of all ages to create educational comic strips. Visitors can choose their characters, their characters' emotions, and add talk or thought balloons. The site is great for language learners and creative types. American Councils for International Education coordinates the U.S. Department of State's FLEX, YES, and A-SMYLE programs, where students from the Middle East and other areas of the world have competed against their peers and earned a scholarship to come to the U.S. for a full academic year. The students live with an American host family, attend school and become a part of the family. Anyone interested in hosting an exchange student for a period of two months to a full academic year, and the ability to provide a safe, supportive, English-speaking environment is welcome to contact the programs for more information. For more information: http://inbound.americancouncils.org . The Peace Corps offers the World Wise Schools website, with cross-cultural learning resources including lesson plans, videos, publications, an online game, and more. Take advantage of these free resources to develop your students' global competencies and prepare them to be engaged, 21st century global citizens. Connecting With Teachers Connect with hundreds of Arabic teachers in America and from around the world on the Teachers of Arabic Language K-12 (TALK12) page on Facebook. Teachers can chat, swap ideas, and give each other advice: http://www.talk12.org . |
Grant Opportunities The National Foreign Language Center solicits proposals from schools, post-secondary institutions, school districts, state and regional educational agencies, language associations, and community-based organizations to participate in the STARTALK project. STARTALK's mission is to promote the learning and teaching of critical languages in the United States through summer programs that follow best practices in language instruction. To learn more and create a new proposal, visit STARTALK's proposal page: http://bit.ly/15rzc1u Qatar Foundation International (QFI) announced a Request for Proposals for new round of QFI Arabic Teachers' Councils. These councils are intended to support the teaching of Arabic in the US by funding local K-12 teacher networks so that they will have the opportunity to meet, network, share resources and ideas, assist schools that would like to start new programs, and reach out to their communities to educate them about Arabic language and culture and advocate for Arabic programs in the schools. QFI is seeking host institutions who will act as initial organizers, administrators, and facilitators for the QFI Arabic Teachers' Councils. Awards for the Teachers Councils are for up to $50,000, and applications are due October 4, 2013. To apply, visit QFI's Grants Management Portal and follow the instructions listed on the Request for Proposals: http://bit.ly/18XUpgj. Contact arabic@qfi.org to receive a copy of the Request for Proposals. Job Openings The Tucson Unified School District is seeking an Arabic teacher for Safford K-8 School in Tucson, Arizona. Arizona Elementary Teaching Certificate required. To learn more information and apply, follow the link: http://bit.ly/1941IHl . Amana Academy Charter School (Alpharetta, GA) is searching for a curriculum designer to map the Arabic curriculum from K to 5th grade. For more information, contact Eman Maamoun <emaamoun@amanaacademy.org>. Military and Global Leadership Academy at MG Davis (Charlotte, NC) is seeking a full-time elementary school Arabic teacher for the 2013-2014 school year. To apply, contact the school's principal, Ann Laszewski <Ann.laszewski@cms.k12.nc.us>. |
Nada Shaath (Bell High School, CA) suggests: Zamzar (http://www.zamzar.com/). This is a site to help you transform your songs, videos, images, and documents into different formats. Do you have a favorite website to share? Send us a link and a short description, and don't forget to include the name and location of your school! |
Belal Joundeya (Renaissance Academy, UT) suggests: Fee almesh-mesh. In English, this title translates roughly to "When pigs fly!" Students sit in a circle in chairs. Each one has a flashcard. One student is out of the circle. Students close their eyes and you touch 2-3 students' heads. The student who is out of the circle doesn't know which of the students were touched. Students open their eyes. The student outside of the circle comes and asks students questions related to the topic. Students who were not touched answer the questions correctly. The student who was touched answers with "fee almesh-mesh," which is the sign for everyone to jump up and change chairs. The one student who doesn't find a chair is the next to step out of the circle. |
The Middle East Outreach Council (http://www.meoc.us) recommends the youth literature book Where the Streets Had a Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah (Scholastic Press). Where the Streets Had a Name offers an intriguing story set in today's Palestine, where political realities affect daily life. The narrative is real, sensitive, and often very funny. The young main characters (both Muslim and Christian) are well-developed and easy to relate to, and their adventures on the way to Jerusalem will appeal to young readers. One teacher reviewer commented, "I appreciated the fact that the author's telling showed multiple perspectives on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but did so without sounding preachy from any one perspective." |
Language Prejudice and What Schools Can Do About It
By Kim Marshall | Marshall Memo #503, September 24, 2013, http://www.marshallmemo.com In this article in Teaching Tolerance, Walt Wolfram describes a study in which 3-5 year-olds preferred a Standard-English voice to a voice with an African-American dialect. "Children acquire attitudes about language differences early and these attitudes quickly become entrenched," says Wolfram. "While other forms of inequality, prejudice, and discrimination have become widely recognized and exposed in recent decades, language prejudice is often overlooked and, in some cases, even promoted." Part of this comes from children being taught Standard-English conventions – certain words and usages are "correct" and others are "incorrect." Another part comes from regional dialects and stereotypes that accompany them. "New York regional speech is often viewed as aggressive and rude," says Wolfram. "Southern speech might be seen as backward and 'country.' Voices in television cartoons frequently portray villains as accented speakers of English. Standard English is reserved for superheroes and winsome characters." These stereotypes need to be challenged, says Wolfram, and he describes a middle-school curriculum piloted in North Carolina. Students were taught about regional dialects and shown the snap judgments they made when they heard a voice on the phone. They learned that dialects aren't sloppy versions of Standard English but follow consistent rules and logic. For many minority students, the curriculum was the first time a teacher had told them that their dialect was not "broken" and that using it didn't mean they were less intelligent. "[T]o understand language," says Leatha Fields-Carey, a North Carolina teacher, "is not only to know how to speak and write 'Standard English' correctly, but also to value the rich tapestry of language in all its forms."
Wolfram suggests three steps that teachers can take to chip away at language prejudices their students may have: • Regularly expose students to language differences. Get them connecting with students in different parts of the country via Skype and discuss different dialects and pronunciations. • Challenge assumptions about language differences. If a student says that another student's pronunciation or word choice is "weird" or "funny," initiate a discussion. • Put language differences in context. In history and ELA classes, students can learn about the cultural roots of language differences. "Sound Effects: Challenging Language Prejudice in the Classroom" by Walt Wolfram in Teaching Tolerance, Spring 2013 (p. 29-31), spotted in Education Digest, September 2013 (Vol. 79, #1, p. 27-30) http://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/general/Sound_Effects.pdf |
Watertown High School hosts visiting teacher from Egypt
By Adam Sennott | wickedlocal.com, September 24, 2013
Source: http://bit.ly/1amUlba Watertown Public Schools will be hosting a special guest this academic year.
Teriza Gorgy Malak is teaching Arabic at Watertown High School and Watertown Middle School this year as part of a fellowship she was awarded from the U.S. State Department. Watertown Public schools also received a grant from the American Councils for International Education, which will cover the costs of hosting Malak including her salary, living expenses, and travel. Malak is one of 16 teachers from Egypt and China selected to participate in the State Department's Teachers of Critical Languages Program. Annemarie Boudreau, Associate Principal at Watertown High School, said hosting Malak would expose students to a broader global perspective. "[One of our goals] is to create these life long learners who want to be involved in a multicultural or global experience," Boudreau said. Though Malak's home base is the Middle School, Boudreau, WHS was interested in having Malak teach there because they are considering adding an Arabic program to their curriculum. "It's kind of the foundational piece," Boudreau said. "If we have a really positive experience, and she does as well, we might be able to have an opportunity to apply again in January for the next fall for another one." Malak will be teaching two sections of Arabic I at both the Watertown High School Middle School, said Boudreau, who's also Malak's administrative mentor at WHS.
So far 22 students have signed up for the two Arabic classes Malak teaches at WHS, Boudreau said. While Malak has only been in Watertown for a short time, she is already becoming familiar with people in the community. Including School Committee Member David Leon and Town Council Member Vincent Piccirilli. She said spending time with American families has been one of the best parts of her experience in Watertown so far. "...Spending time with them, having dinner with them everyday, I like this part," Malak said. "I like this part of the experience, besides working everyday." In addition to meeting people around town, said she has also visited Harvard Square, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, and likes taking walks along the river in Watertown Square.
"I'm getting to know the place," Malak said. "It's not too quite and it's not too busy. It's good." Malak said she has enjoyed teaching the students at the middle school and that while she teaches her class at the high school at the end of the day and her students are tired, they are still eager to learn. "They still want to learn, and are interested and enthusiastic about it," Malak said. "I love it." |
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