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Virtual Visitor Project for the Central Galilee
English program
In
2006 I was asked by the Rashi Foundation to present ideas on what could be
done to improve the level of English in peripheral areas around Israel
where the Rashi Foundation was active in educational initiatives. After
much thought and consultation with others, as well as drawing on
experience I had directing a
pre-reading-to-reading program for grades 1-3 in similar areas , I
presented a model which provided the basis for an extensive English
program in part of the Galilee. One
aspect of the program is to find ways in which teaching could be made
exciting and relevant to pupils who tended to feel threatened and very
inadequate when studying English. The Virtual Visitor Project -
described in detail below is
one of a number of approaches used to increase pupil motivation.
2.
A brief description of the project This
is a very simple project and was decided upon because it is simple to
carry out but has unlimited potential for English
teaching. An
English speaker living outside Israel whom I refer to as the virtual
visitor in most cases an adult but not necessarily so writes a simple
letter of approximately 10-15 sentences addressed to a specific English
class. The letter is sent via email to the English teacher of the class
who then uses the text of the letter in numerous ways to bring the
"outside English world" into the classroom. The
virtual visitor sends a letter approximately every 3-4 weeks (depending on
the teacher) and each time the teacher announces to the class that he/she
has received a letter for them and then after reading the full letter,
works with the text. The focus of the teacher with each letter may differ
vocabulary building, grammar, sentence structure, reading, reading
comprehension, style etc. The personal nature of the text, (unlike a
textbook piece or article), with the guidance of a teacher to provide the
required focus for a specific level of student, can prove to be very
motivating and effective. ·(See
below - Section 5 for detailed ideas of how to work
with the text) In
time, the class gets to know more and more about the life of the virtual
visitor (family, geography, weather conditions in the country, culture,
national/local events etc.) and in certain cases the visitor may even
materialize one day and come for a real visit. ·See link for a description of one such visit: Habad
School Nazareth EliteVirtual visitor Tova visits Tobi Grade 7
class The teacher gives feedback to the virtual visitor
about what is being done in class and gives guidance regarding level or
topic and may even have special requests such as to send a picture
postcard or to mention a pupils birthday etc. The project was conceived of at the end of last year
(2006-2007) and very quickly virtual visitors from all around the world
were found who wrote letters. Unfortunately, the project was not
successful as it was introduced very late in the year and the English
teachers were unable, under the end of the year pressure, to give it their
attention. This
year (2007-8) it was decided to start at the beginning of the year and to
find virtual visitors from among
Partnership
2000 (Michigan - Central Galilee) members who are connected directly to
the schools in the Central Galilee. The program ran in 6 classes with
varying degrees of success. Probably the most successful class was a grade
6 Girls class in Habad School in Nazareth Elite. 3.
What and how to writeInstructions to the Virtual
visitors Here is an example of a letter sent to someone who had
volunteered to be a Virtual Visitor and wanted to get started. Compose a simple text of around 10 15
sentences. You don't have to be a talented writer or an English
teacher. Here
are some subjects that you can include in your
letters: the
weather, pets, shopping, sports, your house, family community and national events, celebrations, food, clothes,
fashion, plans, mishaps, American icons, shopping, very local news, national
news. All you have to do is imagine
an Israeli child (the age will depend on which class you are
given), bright -eyed and full of curiosity and know that whatever you
write will have a freshness of the unfamiliar that the teacher will be
able to exploit. Your
first letter is your initial introduction to you (and your family), to where you live (in the most
general terms as most pupils will be unfamiliar with any detail of
American geography) and to any other subject that might have interest
value. Use simple but
authentic language. ·See
the examples at the end of this letter - Section 4 to get
an idea of style, content, length etc. Your
responsibility is to write a letter to the class and send it to the
teacher via email on average every two to four weeks. The teacher should
give you feedback about how the letter was used, whether the level is too
low or high, what might be a good idea to include etc. the teacher might
request that you write less often or more often. Attach pictures. Send a
real card by snail mail. Ask the teacher to take a picture of the class
and send it to you. Perhaps you might send something cute/tasty for the
kids. The point is that your letter and whatever is developed around it is
going to be a catalyst for meaningful language
learning. - 4. Example letters. Note:
It is difficult to write exactly to level. Simple is better than
complicated and simple texts can be used at all levels. Teachers will let
you know if you have to change the level.
(i)
For grade 5 and 6 Hello, My name is Sara Lee. I live in Chicago, U.S.A. with my
husband Ted and two sons, Ben and Danny. Ben
is fourteen years old. He is playing baseball outside with a friend. Danny
is much younger. He is only six years old. Right now he
is eating pancakes in the kitchen. He loves sweet things. He has
syrup all over his face. What a mess! I'll
write again next week and send some pictures. Have
a nice day. Sara ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi
kids, Wow. Today is very, very cold.
It started snowing yesterday morning and it is still
snowing. Everything outside is white. Does it snow in Migdal
Ha'emek in winter? Skippy, our dog likes running outside in the
snow. She is crazy. She digs her paws in the snow, barks and rolls
over and now she wants me to let her inside. No way! Skippy will
have to stay in the garage until she is dry. Here
is a picture of Skippy and my son Danny. Have
a great day. Sara ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear
children, I'm sorry I didn't write to you last week. I went away
to New York to visit my sister Sharlene. New York is such a busy city.
There are so many people in the streets and the buildings are so
tall. Sharlene lives very near Central Park. It is a very big
green park in the middle of the city. On the weekends, people jog there,
play frisbee, ride their bikes or just sit around and have picnics. It is
fun. Sharlene
is going to be in Israel for a visit next month. She will visit your
school and show you lots of pictures of New York. If you want, you
can write me a letter about yourself and give it to Sharlene and then she
will give it to me. Bye Sara ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Example
of a 3rd letter for a Junior High Class Shalom
my friends Natalia and her students,
5.
Ideas for Israel English
teachers BEFORE
YOU START Tell
the class a few days before that someone is going to write to the class
from abroad. Create
curiosity and expectations.
One way is to play a guessing game: Is it a man/woman/boy/girl? Is the person from
America/England/Australia/ South Africa? Is the person married? etc. Make
a big envelope and let the children look inside the day before and find it
empty once or twice and then, when you intend to read the letter, let it
be inside. GETTING
GOING ·Make
sure you have a good printed copy for each pupil. Hand it out. Stress this
is from a
real person
who will write again and again and wants to help them with English by
sending letters. Try to get a picture of the person and show it to the
class. ·Make
a special corner for the "visitor". Always put up a large copy on the wall
so future letters, pictures objects can be added to
it. ·Make
up some pre/during reading questions. For example: Find all the words that
tell us where she lives. Find all the words about family. Find things she
likes. Find things she did. ·Make
sure you have a map to show the class where the person lives. Teach names
of cities, counties, continents etc. ·Draw
the pictures of the "visitor's" family relations on the board so it is
clear who she is related to. This is very important. Through it teach and
practice the vocabulary. ·Take
any sentence and use it as a model to create others with the same
structure. ·Choose
certain parts of the letter/words/ phrases for reading
practice. ·Let
someone pretend to be your visitor and read the letter dressed up as the
visitor. ·Let
someone choose to read any line from the letter and the others have to
find it. ·Ask
the pupils what they want to ask the visitor. [Ask the visitor to relate
to some of these questions in the next letter.] ·Ask
pupils to find things in the letter that they never knew about or are
different from their lives. ·Ask
pupils to draw things in the letter and copy the sentence they are
drawing ·Ask
pupils to divide the letter into sections: what is at the beginning,
middle, end? ·Find
all the words which have capital letters and then discuss
why. ·Find
five words that are easy to read and five that are hard to read. Choose a
"hard" word from each pupil and work on it. ·Don't
forget to create interest for the following letter by creating
expectations. ·[If
you know it is someone's birthday coming up, ask your virtual visitor to
mention this] |
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