Abstract
Students from 4 – 6
years old
26th September 2012 – 31st May 2013
Context:
1.
English language Lessons
English lessons
in school which includes working in the course books, cultural lessons and
lessons in children’s culture in English Speaking countries all over the world.
2.
Multi Lingual Language Club
A club after
school hours for children who want to learn more. There will be 5 languages and
cultures briefly taught. English, French, German, Dutch and Italian. Lessons
include information giving, story reading, playing of games, singing of songs,
performing theatre and much more. The lessons are given in the focus language.
3.
World Citizenship Lessons
Lessons during
school hours to all children. The children learn about different cultures all
over the world through information giving, story reading, playing of games,
singing of songs, performing dances and much more. The lessons are given in
Turkish.
4.
Sports Lessons
During sports
lessons the children learn dances, games and sports from all over the world, including
Turkish and Kurdish folk dances.
5.
Music Lessons
On special
occasions like The European Day of Languages and New Year the children learn a
non- Turkish song. They also learn a special multi cultural multi lingual song
further in the school year.
Events
1. Kick-Off
26th September with songs, multi
lingual greetings, language activities, dance movement and loads of handcraft
activities.
2. All year long
Learning of: different cultures all over
the world, different habits and dances in the world, different languages,
different songs and games, sports from other countries, and simple language structures to help them
start conversations in those languages.
Making of a language Portfolio: Children
choose what materials to collect in the language portfolio. At the end of the
year students present this portfolio to their parents.
3. Olympic Day
A day full of sport and games from in and
out the country.
4. The end-of-the-year show
Perform at the-end-of-the-year show: multi cultural dances, songs in English and
other languages taught, theatre play with the learnt language structures.
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European Day of Languages
Fact Sheet
·
Age: 4 – 6 years old.
·
Timing:
o
Start: 26th September
o
End: 31st
May with the end-of-the-year show in theatre.
·
Aim:
o
To reinforce the children’s
learning of the English language and other foreign languages.
o
To make children alert and
active world citizens.
o
To promote tolerance and reduce
racism in school and in the local society.
o
To enjoy learning about
different cultures and languages.
Who are we?
Language teachers: We are
the English language teachers of a kindergarten. The four of us, teach English to children from 3 till 6
years old. 4, 5 and 6 year olds have got 2 hours a day English lesson. 3 years
old have got 3 hours of English every week.
Next to English
lessons we also have a Club after school time for children who like to learn
some more about languages. In this club we don’t only focus on English, but
also on other languages. Our foreign teachers from England and Belgium are
multi lingual and speak French, Dutch, German and Italian.
Language
teachers don’t speak any Turkish in school. Children learn the new language by
interpretation and adaptation.
Class teachers: We are the class teachers of the 3 grades of
Kindergarten at the school. As part of our curriculum we teach the children
throughout the whole year about different cultures all over the world. We speak
Turkish in class, so children can absorb as much as possible in their own
language.
Children: We are the
children of Diyarbakır. A city located in East Anatolia, the Middle East. In
our city live mostly Turkish and Kurdish children. We don’t know much about the
rest of the world yet. Our films and
programs on television are dubbed in Turkish, even the ones for adults. Outside
class there is little chance for us to come in contact with different cultures
and languages.
Luckily, because
of the language program in the school, children of people from outside the
country come to our class too. Together we can learn Turkish, English and many
other things.
Target group
The target group
of this project are the children from a kindergarten in Diyarbakır, East Anatolia, Turkey. The children are between the age of
4 and 6 years old. They are divided over several classes.
2008 classes
The 4 years old
classes will participate to the project during branch lessons and world citizen
lessons.
2007 - 2006
classes
The 5 – 6 years old classes will participate to the
project during branch lessons, world citizen lessons and Language Club lessons.
Cooperation between branch teachers and class teachers
Because of the
size and importance of this project branch teachers and class teachers will
work closely together to achieve the impossible. We can learn from each other,
and from the children and parents. Everybody will be a student and a teacher at
the same time. We will learn that having a different culture or speak a
different language doesn’t necessarily mean you have to live in another
country. Just looking at your neighbour (=colleagues)... and we’ll discover more about them then we
ever expected.
Getting to know
each other is important.
- Some of the teachers have Arabic as native language or are not Turkish from birth, but we don’t know
- Foreign teachers don’t automatically speak English in the country of origin, but we don’t know
- Some teachers can speak more than one language, but we don’t know
- Some teachers have experience in working with children with disabilities, but we don’t know
- ... We don’t know... YET!
Involvement of parents
A very important
part of the project is the involvement of the parent. Because we work with very
young children, parents still have the biggest part in their education. Their behaviour
should be a model for the lessons we try to teach our students.
Parents will be
informed of the project in the first meeting of the year. They will get to know
the targets and procedures we will use. Every month parents receive a parent’s
letter with the project process. A weekly program given to students every
Friday tells parents which activities will follow the coming week.
Parents will be
asked to participate in the lessons. They can participate by using ‘show and
tell’ or come and teach a dance, game or song to the children (and teachers)
connected to a different culture.
Parents are
asked to follow the rules of the basic attitude of respect and tolerance.
Parents are expected to ask their children to do the same.
Parents are
expected to be present at the end-of-the-year show to come and see their
children’s performance.
Objectives
– Targets
To reinforce the children’s learning of the English
language and other foreign languages.
During Club Time
and English Lessons we will speak only (or for the clubs – as much as possible)
in the language we are teaching. By hearing the same words and language
structures, children can absorb the newly taught language quicker. We chose to
teach 5 different languages to have a spectrum of sounds and words children can
learn. We hope to achieve this by using both Germanic and Romanic languages. By
learning how to pronounce different sounds at a young age, children will have fewer
difficulties learning foreign languages at a later age.
Children will
learn how to make connections between their native language and the newly
taught languages. (ex. Şato TR – Chateau
FR / Futbol TR – Foot_Ball EN). Through lots of games, handcraft, songs and
dances we will try to come to the end product of an activity to perform on
stage in the end-of-the-year show
To make children alert and active world citizens.
At the end of a
child’s school career we would like them to be standing in life as a strong,
intelligent and true person. So why not
start building on this in kindergarten.
We want to make children alert of the world around them by teaching them
the difference and alikeness in people around us. We want them to think
critical about themselves and other cultures. The class teachers will teach the
children these skills during the World Citizenship lessons. Together they will
discover the world around us.
To promote tolerance and reduce racism in school and
in the local society.
In our city, who
lives partly still in the past, partly already in the future tolerance is a
very important value. Daily life is for a lot of citizens a struggle for survival.
As well Kurdish children as Turkish children in the school, stay the victim of
ongoing violence and racism. Outside the city walls people are still fighting,
and every time someone gets hurt or killed, a child is touched too. Also
amongst our students...
We are growing
the adults of tomorrow, in a not perfect environment. Our belief is that if we
manage to teach children to be more tolerant towards each other, we can make a
difference in the future.
And not only the
children can learn from this project. Parents can see how their children build
bridges between different cultures. Parents can learn from their children, to
try to build a better future starting from today.
To enjoy learning about different cultures and
languages.
A very important
but too often forgotten target of ours is to teach children to enjoy learning.
A child having fun in what it’s doing will learn much faster. The learning
activities are carefully chosen to fit our children in school. A variety of
dance, songs, games, movies, colouring, cutting and pasting, ... and so many
other activities help us to reach as much children as possible.
By letting
children feel learning about other people and their languages is fun, we hope
to establish a basic attitude of respect within the children. Something they
will hopefully carry with them the rest of their lives.
Activities
Kick-Off: European Day of Languages
Preparations:
Decorate
the school special with ribbons and balloons.
Decorate
the big window at the front door with sponge pictures of all sorts of languages
saying ‘Welcome’.
Hang
the big poster of the European Day of Languages at the front gate.
Hang
a banner saying we’re celebrating today as the European Day of Languages above
the front door.
Branch
teachers dress up funny for the morning aerobics.
Morning:
The children enter the school and gather in the classes. At the
beginning of the school day we play through the whole school the European
Anthem. This is everybody’s signal to come out of the class and gather in the
big hall in front of the classes.
The branch teachers greet the children and ask them to come closer.
They tell the children they will go on a trip around the world, and ask if the
children want to join them.
Music will start to play and the teachers start doing aerobics. The
music style will change every other country the teachers are dancing through.
In the end the children will all be tired and it’s time to go and have breakfast.
Before lunch:
All language teachers prepared how to say in a different language
‘Hello’ and ‘How are you’. After breakfast the children go back to their
classroom. Before the time of lunch the language teachers will have visited all
the classrooms. In the classroom they teach the children how to say ‘Hello’ and
‘How are you’. After this the children and teacher do an activity or game to
consolidate the language.
The music teacher prepared a song in a different language and goes
around the classes to teach the children this new song.
There won’t be a branch teacher in every classroom all the time. The
time there is no branch teacher in the classroom, class teachers will make
together with the children a poster to promote the European Language Day. We
will put the posters all over the school for the next few weeks to remind the
children of this day.
Then it’s already time for lunch. The children go with their class
to lunch. At the doors of the restroom the language teachers will greet the
children in the newly taught greetings.
Afternoon:
In the afternoon it’s handcraft time. The language teachers go and
visit all classes again and will explain what they can do. Possible activities
are making little flags of different countries with cardboard and straws; Make
one big string full of party flags about the different countries; Make paper
dolls of different nationalities; help building a handprint rainbow and many
more.
After making the crafts they will be put on display in the school
for parents to come and see. After this, children can choose to enter their individual
crafts into their language portfolio.
And then it’s already time for a snack and to return home. Parents
will be invited to come inside the school and see what their children did
today. Children can guide parents through the posters and crafts. The teachers
encourage the children to test the parents’ knowledge of the newly learnt
greetings.
World Citizenship
In the beginning
of the year, the World Citizenship lessons start again. Throughout the year the
children will learn about all sorts of different cultures. At the end-of-the-year show, children get the
chance to perform some of the things learnt in lesson.
Every month a
new country is visited by the children. All lessons follow the same structure. First
children get the chance to learn about the new country through pictures, films
and stories the teachers tells them. After this the children get the chance to
ask questions about the country and to discuss the things they find remarkable
about the country. In a third phase the children will actively get to know the
country a little better. They will make hand craft, do colouring, make puppets
with dough, ... etc. To consolidate all they learnt the teachers teach the
children in the end phase of the month how to play games or dance in the
country. These dances and games will be performed in the end-of-the-year show. Things
learnt and collected in these lessons can be chosen by the children to add to
their language portfolio.
English Language Lessons
During the year
the children will also have English lessons. Besides working in their course
books, there is lots of extra time to teach them different things. One of the
extra things we teach in our English lessons is culture. We will teach the
children about English speaking countries as Great Britain, USA, Australia,... Next
to teaching about the country, we also teach the children about the children’s
culture in those countries. We let the children meet with Bob the Builder, The
Tweenies, The Wiggles, The Gruffalo... and many more film, music and book
characters. By using children’s characters we hope to bring a different culture
more to live for the children. It might also motivate them to read, listen,
watch or listen to the characters taught when they are older.
Multi Cultural Language Club
The language
club is for students who want to learn more about other languages. It’s not an
obligated school subject. Students can subscribe to the club until the end of
September. This club exist next to other clubs in school about all kind of
different subjects.
The languages
taught in Language Club will be:
- English
- French
- Italian
- Dutch
- German
Every two months
we will cut into another language. We will discover some things about the culture
connected to the languages. We will learn how to play games and sing songs in
another language. We will learn how to act out a short theatre play in a
foreign language.
English
For the English
language we move in our class all around the world to Jamaica. The children get
to meet the people living there through games, short film and songs. As we
learn about different kinds of food, we prepare ourselves on a short
performance. We learn the ‘Day-o’ song by Harry Belafonte and learn about the
banana boat. At the end-of-the-year show children will perform a short display
of what they learnt. In a theatre play children will show the audience which
fruit and vegetables come from the banana boat and which are really not
supposed to be there. The performance will be entirely in English.
French
In the French
language we go back in time to the Dark Ages. The children learn about knights,
princesses, princes, castles,... The children also learn how to express who
they are and how they feel. At the end-of-the-year show the children will be
able to perform a short theatre about the taught vocabulary entirely in French.
Italian
For the Italian
language we take a trip in our head to Italy. There is an old friend already
waiting for us. Pinocchio teaches us about the puppet theatre and how to dance
like a puppet. At the end-of-the-year show the children will perform the dance
on stage.
Dutch
For the Dutch
language we will take a look at Belgium and The Netherlands. We will meet the
people there and meet some real Dutch speaking children’s heroes. In the
presence of the Smurfs and super heroes Mega Mindy and Mega Toby the children
learn how to sing and play typical Belgian/Dutch games. At the end-of-the-year
show the children show their parents how to play a real Belgian/Dutch game.
German
Eins zwei drei –
and we hop on one leg to Germany. There is just a party going on. The children
learn how to dance and sing to a German song. The children also learn about
Schnappi the little crocodile. He doesn’t live in Germany but all on the other
side of the sea, in Egypt. Luckily he speaks German too.
Sports Lessons and Olympic Day
During the
Sports lessons the teachers will shortly take a break of their regular
curriculum to teach something different. The children will get to discover
different kind of games and sports children in other countries play. The
children can dance new and old dances from countries all over the world.
Inclusive their own native folk dances.
On the Olympic
day all teachers will work together. All day the branch teachers will offer all
kinds of sports, games and music. Children in class group will move along a
track in the garden. On every stop point they will have to do some activity,
game or sport. (Football, Baseball, Sing a song, Dance,... ) The class who gets
the most points in the end, receives a price. All students will be rewarded
with medals and a special snack.
We hope to make
this activity into a yearly event.
Music Lessons
In Music lessons
are taught mostly Turkish songs. For special occasions as New Year,
end-of-the-year show and Olympic Games the teacher teaches them also songs in
different languages. This year special on the European Day of Languages we will
teach the children a non English, non Turkish song. Which song it will be is
still a surprise.
A little further
in the year the children will learn another song in a different language. This
song will be performed in the end-of-the-year show.
Media coverage
The local
written press will be notified of our project at the end of May. As our goal towards
the local society is to grow tolerance and respect, we prefer to keep the media
coverage small (= within the area of Diyarbakır). Being able to reach the
citizens of the city would already be something very special.
Of course we
will also be promoting our project through the school website, blog and e-mail
newsletter. Other social media channels like FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube are
considered to be used also. On our school website and blog we’ll keep parents
and other supporters of the project up to date of the different phases the
project consists of.
Parents also
receive every month a parent’s letter. Here we will describe what we have been
doing the past month in class. The weekly program will tell parents at the end
of each week what their children will learn and do the following week.
The promotion
for parents and supporters will start as soon as possible.
Agenda
What
|
Date
|
How
|
Who
|
Start of the School Year
|
17 – 09 – 2012
|
Welcome of the children and parents in school
|
Class teachers
Branch teachers
All school staff
|
Orientation: getting to know each other
|
17 – 09 – 2012
28 – 09 – 2012
|
Teachers visit the classes to let children get used
to them speaking another language.
|
English teachers
|
Kick-off of the project
|
26 – 09 – 2012
|
Learning of different ways of saying ‘hello’ all
over the world.
Learning Games and a song of other countries.
Decorate the school as ready for a party
Write on the front door ‘Welcome’ in as much as
possible languages.
|
Branch teachers
Class teachers
|
English Lessons
|
01 – 10 – 2012
24 – 05 – 2013
|
Book work and Project work
|
English teachers
|
Start of World Citizen Lessons
|
01 – 10 – 2012
24 – 05 – 2013
|
First country of these lessons still needs to be
determined.
|
Class teachers
(Parents)
|
Language Club
|
04 – 10 – 2012
23 – 05 – 2013
|
English will be the first focus language.
Introduce the children to the song and the theme of
the English part of the club
|
English teachers
|
Music
|
25 – 02 – 2013
...
|
A multi cultural
multi lingual song
|
Music teacher
|
Games and sports
|
25 – 02 – 2013
...
|
A game and sports out of different corners of the
world.
|
Sports teachers
|
Olympic Day
|
03 – 05 – 2013
|
Class event – competition
Newly learnt sports and games + other sports
Ceremony with prices and medals.
|
All teachers
|
End- of-the-year show
|
31 – 05 – 2013
|
Performance of all the things learnt this year.
|
All teachers
|
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