Critical Language Project Awardees, Round One in 2011

The Critical Language Projects support Teachers of Critical Languages Program (TCLP) alumni and institutions with funding for projects that designed to complement TCLP goals by providing funding for alumni activities that increase capacity building and collaborative ideas for teaching and classroom projects. During Round One of the CLP awards for 2011, almost $1500 went to support projects in Minnesota, Utah, Massachusetts, and Montana.

TCLP mentor teacher Christina Cannon in Utah has been chosen to present at Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and her CLP award will help her cover the cost to attend the conference. Her presentation will discuss best practices for teaching songs in the target language to improve the learning experience of K-12 Arabic students. Materials from the presentation, including songs, will be available to all Arabic teachers at arabicteachers.wikispaces.com.

Pratt Community School in Minnesota was awarded funding for a grant titled “Arabic Language in the World Today”. This proposal included the creation of an Arabic Language Café at Pratt Community School, an Arabic club for students in upper grades at Pratt, and will provide Arabic Language Instruction to adults living in the community.

Mentor teacher alumnus Todd Lynum will lead a group of Willmar High School students from Minnesota on a trip to China in the spring of 2012. He was awarded a CLP that will help to fund the student visas as well as on-the-ground transportation to and from the airport. Their trip to China will be the culmination of three years of studying Chinese and it will provide students with the opportunity to see China and its famous sites and to interact with local Chinese citizens, applying the Chinese they have learned so far.

Mentor teacher alumnus Steven Berbeco from Massachusetts was awarded a CLP for his grant proposal to organize a meeting of The Teachers of Arabic Language K-12 network at the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. At this meeting, he will host a best practices workshop and professional networking meeting with 20 teachers of Arabic from all over the U.S. The aim of this meeting will be to provide an opportunity for these 20 teachers to participate in a three hour hands-on workshop that provides support for Arabic classroom teachers to exchange curriculum ideas, develop teaching skills and share best practices.

Exchange teacher Mohamed Abdelsamad in Montana was awarded a CLP grant to attend and present at the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages Conference. His presentation is titled “Incorporating Egyptian Culture and Current Events into the Teaching of a Critical Language with TCLP.” His goal is to share best practices for teaching culture in education, and to increase networking with other educators in order to develop a more sustainable exchange. After the conference, he will disseminate information that he gained at the conference with TCLP colleagues.