Garman blog mod5

Teachers’ Q. I will interview 3 very experienced teachers for this task.

01/ 02/ 03/ 04/ 05/

Understanding what are the available tools would let me know what could be missing Purpose : to Investigate ways to create new tools that are not available Explain the most effective tools for teaching Arabic you are using in the classroom?

Ask patents to draw the tools they want to create!

Purpose : to Investigate new tools that teachers think that should have but they don’t.

What are the tools and materials that you would like to have in addition to what you already have?

Teachers use different ways to keep students engaged, knowing what they use to do this is important.

Purpose : to Investigate ways teachers use to motivate their students.

How do you motivate your students? Explain any strategies or tools you are using for doing that.

To understand what the audience really need from a different point of view Purpose : to Investigate what areas I should be focusing on to help the audience improve.

Which areas that Arabic American kids have difficulties with the most?

Digital tools are popular today, but not teacher uses them.

Purpose : to Investigate whether digital tools are used and in what way.

Do you use any digital games in the classroom? What are they and how do you hear about them?

Parents’ Q. I will interview 3 parents, each one should have children with different age groups than the others.

01/ 02/ 03/ 04/ 05/

Parents play a role in what tools children use for learning.

Purpose : to Investigate parent’s attitudes and points of view.

Do you believe that digital tools might help your child learn Arabic? Do you have any concerns?

Knowing what parents think is the good place to get teaching resources for Arabic.

Purpose : to Investigate places where parents go to find educational materials.

Where do you find the best resources for Arabic teaching materials for your child?

Some people care to learn a language through it’s culture.

Purpose : to Investigate parent’s interest in excluding cultural references when Arabic.

Do you care if the educational tools are not directed to teach the Arabic culture?

May be I should ask them to draw this.

Purpose : to Investigate new tools.

What is the best tool that you think could help your child learn Arabic?

It is important to find ways to educate parents about the best digital games that teach Arabic.

Purpose : to Investigate where the parents get their information from.

Where do you hear about any educational digital games for teaching Arabic?

Kids’ Q. I will interview 3-5 kids with different age groups // 6-14.

01/ 02/ 03/ 04/ 05/

I can show kids examples of books and magazines // Purpose : to Investigate the audiences’ preferences.

What do you prefer to read books ore magazines?

I can suggest things like writing, reading books, but I would keep that open to them.

Purpose : to Investigate the audiences’ preferences.

When you have been learning Arabic, what don’t you like to do?

Show kids samples of 3 photographs and 3 illustrations Purpose : to Investigate the audiences’ preferences.

Which ones do you like the best?

I will be showing the kids 3 Apps that teach language and ones that are specifically for Arabic.

Purpose : to Investigate the features that the audience is attracted to the most.

Tell me what you like and don’t like about this App?

I’ll ask them some question to help them complete the drawing.

Purpose : to Investigate new tools that the audience see that they could use.

Draw the best tool you can think of to learn a language.

Teacher’s Interview 1 // Ch.D // Specialized teacher in early childhood education, an Arabic and French instructor in many schools in MA.

01/

Purpose : to Investigate ways to create new tools that are not available Explain the most effective tools for teaching Arabic you are using in the classroom?

Ch.D : Form my personal experience I find that one of the most effective tools for teaching a foreign language is to consistently use the target language in the classroom and to use scaffolding methods, so for an example let’s say that the theme of the curriculum is “Spring”, so do not hesitate to expose the kids to that theme in more than one area, for literacy use spring books in Arabic, do art projects about spring, this is especially a good practice for early childhood education; using one theme and tackling the theme from different angles is always useful, and as well as using fun, like teach through fun!

02/

Purpose : to Investigate new tools that teachers think that should have but they don’t.

What are the tools and materials that you would like to have in addition to what you already have?

Ch.D : Is this with a specific age group? I taught early childhood up to 8 years and I taught college students, so it’s different. So for kids that are young, I would like to have available in the classroom more art projects, more songs that are also thematic, and also more books, it never hurts to have more books!

Me: let’s also talk about books, do you feel that there are enough books available for kids to learn Arabic, like storybooks.

Ch.D : It’s not easy to find a lot of materials, but I use websites and get books when I travel to the middle east (Lebanon) , I order on Amazon, but I also get most of what I need when I travel overseas.. There is also a good website, NourArt.com, but for picture books , there’s not a lot available.

Me: Lets’ say I want to find a book about explaining a scientific concept, is there a source to get that?

Ch.D : No, there’s nothing, and if found, a lot of these are not even original stories, they are just translations of famous authors like Eric Karl and so on.

03/

Purpose : to Investigate ways teachers use to motivate their students.

How do you motivate your students? Explain any strategies or tools you are using for doing that.

Ch.D : I think it makes a world of difference to teach with fun methods, so when the children are having fun, they are more motivated to work, but also with younger kids, they get motivated by getting a sticker at the end of the class if they work hard or if they keep their behavior up to standard or may be a small prize if they ace their test so something like that. But keeping it fun is key, and adding a variety to it.

04/

Purpose : to Investigate what areas I should be focusing on to help the audience improve.

Which areas that Arabic American kids/ or your students have difficulties with the most?

Ch.D : When I’m teaching Arabic, the struggle is to conciliate between the traditional language and the colloquial spoken language, because some areas are completely different, so for an example the other day I was just stating a simple sentence, 3 word sentence, the words that construct the sentence in both versions in spoken Lebanese and the traditional Arabic are not the same, so it’s very different and sometimes it feels like it is another foreign language and this is basically where the struggle begins. It comes with a little bit of confusion especially for the younger kids.

Me: So do you recommend creating tools for teaching Arabic that would focus on both formal and spoken Arabic, or do think it should still be taught in the formal version.

Ch.D : I think personally and I know it is a struggle for parents specially when the kids are at school the whole day and the parents might be at work or studying, but the focus mostly on colloquial Arabic should be done at home and then traditional Arabic at School, I mean during, Saturday or Sunday schools. This way the child would be learning both of them in parallel but I know it s a bit of struggle for all of us.

Me: Do you find that all the books available are in Formal Arabic? Does it make sense to create books in colloquial Arabic for a change.

Ch.D : I think that is great and valid point but I worry that the written and reading are all usually taught in the traditional Arabic, so I don’t know whether or not it is going to be confusing for the kids. However, may be it’s good, who knows.

Me: Do you know if anyone have tried that strategy?

Ch.D : No. But I think for the future this is going to change. But in a setting like Boston, when students are very diverse, my worry would be if I’m teaching something in Lebanese, a kid from Egypt won’t be able to understand it. But if I have students from Syria, Lebanon, Jordon, and Palestine, they would be all good, but when branching out to other countries, I’m afraid that might not work in the classroom.

05/

Purpose : to Investigate whether digital tools are being used and in what way.

Do you use any digital games in the classroom? What are they and how do you hear about them?

Me: If you are given the power to design the best tool to teach Arabic what would it be.

Ch.D : I’m not a big fan of electronics, I like books and I like kids to be exposed to books as much as possible, but the future is all electronics, but I would still want to keep this relationship with physical books. I also like it to be a sort of a combo, may be a book with a CD so kids can read and listen at the same time.

I showed here an example of the interactive book // Ch.D : I would consider something like that in the classroom but it also depends on the age group of the children. Kids nowadays are being exposed more than needed or necessary to technology when they go home, so in the classroom I would like to focus more on personal interaction (something more simple, more hands on, more interaction between small groups and the teacher) is being set for early childhood education, kids in middle school or older I think they understand how to use the technology time more wisely, so may be more technology tools with the kids when they are older.

There are so many digital tools nowadays and they are overwhelming, but I think limiting the use of these would encourage the kids to be more creative! Finding things to do other than just using electronics, would challenge the kid’s creativity to keep himself/ herself entertained. I think pushing kids to read more books is very important thing to do.

Teacher’s Interview 2 // I. R // PhD linguistics. She has taught ASL in many states, currently an ASL instructor at the University of Florida.

01/

Purpose : to Investigate ways to create new tools that are not available Explain the most effective tools for teaching Arabic you are using in the classroom?

I.R : In addition to the text book, I’m using videos to demonstrate grammar and vocabulary. Kids songs, usually short songs, are something very fun and educational, I use these a lot. Also there is this website: quizlet.com it’s very effective, the students love it and use it all the time even on their phones whenever they can, it helps in pronunciation especially.

They also have flash card games, tests, matching the words, and fill up the blanks with the correct words. I use this website everyday to introduce new vocabularies, new grammar rules to the students, and I get a really good feedback from them.

There is a lack of video teaching materials, which I personally love, I find some songs, students can memorize these and learn new words in Arabic through these fun songs. I use songs to teach the days of the week, family members and the students love it. But we don’t have enough songs or videos for teaching Arabic, we really need more and more of these. I can find some but not a whole lot of them.

02/

Purpose : to Investigate new tools that teachers think that should have but they don’t.

What are the tools and materials that you would like to have in addition to what you already have?

I.R : More videos, songs, these are good for kids and also for teens and adults! They would help them a lot to memorize the language.

I suggest to have more books too, for an example, alefbaa.com. has books for beginner levels and also intermediate levels. The students can read and practice pronunciation. We need more books though, even books with no text, just a picture and to let the students translate these pictures into a text or a story, that would help them learn writing and to put the language they know into practice. I used that in the classroom with intermediate level students, I created 4 pictures where the students have to translate these pictures into passages of text to tell a story. This way, they can practice writing and using their vocabulary, grammar, while enjoying the process of learning at the same time. I really encourage the creation of this kind of creative teaching materials.

Now, the other thing I suggest is movies with English subtitles, teaching a language through short movies, you could also teach the culture of the target language through movies. The students hear expressions of everyday life conversations, and there are special expressions that students need to see their uses in a context.

These would be effective as a supporting teaching tool. For an example, if you want to create a website, you can have the movie corner in there.

With my students, I take them to movie nights, I try to find really good movies even in dialect Arabic, I try to find ones in standard Arabic. They enjoy listening and learning the language through these movies.

03/

Purpose : to Investigate ways teachers use to motivate their students.

How do you motivate your students? Explain any strategies or tools you are using for doing that.

I.R : Make them believe in the language they learn. Create a positive attitude towards this language. Explain to them that what they are learning could be functional too. They are not only learning grammar and vocabularies which is a really boring thing! But also make them use the language, for an example, I will make them use it to integrate with the target language community. Field trips! To middle eastern restaurant for an example. I invite native speakers of Arabic to talk to the students on Skype, to make them practice their language, and I do also invite non native speakers but fluent in Arabic to let them see that they could be as good as these people to increase their motivation. Letting students practice the language in real life as much as possible is very important. I set that even in the early stages, students still can do it with the few words they’ve learned. I also do a weekly recording for my students, it includes my thoughts where I tell them new themes, and I use audio recordings for things like how to use Arabic in the airport, Taxi, or a restaurant, this way they will be introduced to the vocabularies they need to use in different situations in real life.

One thing I did lately is going to Al-Jazera.net and made my students try to read the news (after we learned about words used in media) When they were able to read some paragraphs of the news, the students were extremely happy that they could read Arabic news! So my point, make use of the knowledge the students have gained and make them use it in real life.

04/

Purpose : to Investigate what areas I should be focusing on to help the audience improve.

Which areas that Arabic American kids/ or your students have difficulties with the most?

I.R : I noticed that almost all my students who are English native speakers don’t know their grammar well! Teaching Arabic grammar therefore, is becoming a big challenge. They enjoy it when I simplify things for them. I do suggest if you are creating a website, try to simplify grammar, and make them understand it through English grammar.

The other difficulty is writing, it is a big challenge to learn how to write. And they use Google translate which is horrible assisting tool to write comprehensive sentences!

I suggest the website should support all the skills; listening, writing, speaking and reading / comprehension. It will be so helpful. So writing and grammar are the most difficult areas.

Me: For writing, what do you suggest?

For writing, it all depends on the level of the learners. At the beginning, hand outs, they can write the alphabets and words, but for college students, we should teach them the basic of translation, so that will improve their writing skills.

05/

Purpose : to Investigate whether digital tools are being used and in what way.

Do you use any digital games in the classroom? What are they and how do you hear about them?

I.R : To be honest, I don’t use digital games in the classroom, I do tell them use this game or check out another but to be honest, I didn’t find an effective and useful one yet.

No one tells me about anything digital games or any digital teaching materials, I Google these myself. Unfortunately, we don’t have a good website that I could count on as a good recourse that would give me information or instructions to use certain Arabic teaching materials, I have to do that myself. I see a lack of effort in unifying the teaching of ASL.

Teacher’s Interview 3 // H. A // BA in Arabic Literature, Certified Teacher, currently teaching ASL to high-school students in Boston, MA.

01/

Purpose : to Investigate ways to create new tools that are not available Explain the most effective tools for teaching Arabic you are using in the classroom?

H.A : I have many tools, but I prefer authentic materials, like students should see the original things. I have so many websites to use (I have the list) They include movies, videos, or food recipes. All kind of creative materials. Also I use a text book, I teach high-school but that book is so advanced so I take the stuff and simplify them for my students. I have stories, these are important. I use Alphabet blocks, and they have to connect the words with the correct blocks.

02/

Purpose : to Investigate new tools that teachers think that should have but they don’t.

What are the tools and materials that you would like to have in addition to what you already have?

H.A : I will make something for things related to grammar which is very difficult to teach to my students, I can’t find useful teaching materials, the Arabic grammar is so hard to explain the way it is now.

There also a lock of books for intermediate and advanced levels, all the books even lack are boring with not pictures, and the language used in them is very complicated.

We do use digital games in the classroom, but on the computer.

I try to find creative ways of teaching, fun things are very effective. Using Arabic music to teach for an example is very good to use.

03/

Purpose : to Investigate ways teachers use to motivate their students.

How do you motivate your students? Explain any strategies or tools you are using for doing that.

H.A : Creating fun environment by using creative materials is very effective to motivate students. Songs are very effective in my class, my students love it, they can learn up to 13 new vocabularies in one song! It is so amazing. There are songs for short vowels which are hard things to teach because they are very different than the ones in English, so the students say they are boring but I feel that it is stuck in their minds.

My students are very interested in arts and art projects. So for an example, when we are

learning a certain alphabet, they draw it and make it 3D, the dress it up, adding smiley faces, this is very creative.

04/

Purpose : to Investigate what areas I should be focusing on to help the audience improve.

Which areas that Arabic American kids/ or your students have difficulties with the most?

H.A : The pronunciation of some Arabic letters such as “HAA” Khaa” Ayeen”, they put a lot of effort to try to pronounce these correctly. Also they have trouble with feminine and masculine concept that we use in Arabic for things, like a table is feminine and pen is masculine, so when adding the adjective they should pay attention to use the correct form of the F or M. This is different in English. That’s why mainly. I would like to have some ideas to make this easier!

Writing is hard to, at the beginning it takes a long time to learn how to write, and even later with advanced level, it is usually a very slow process. I think it takes time because it is a complete different language with different alphabet and they cannot connect to the letters well.

05/

Purpose : to Investigate whether digital tools are being used and in what way.

Do you use any digital games in the classroom? What are they and how do you hear about them?

H.A : Yes I do use them. I find these through other fellow teachers. There is a website: http:// www.albustanseeds.org, this a great website. It is usually hard to find digital tools all by self sometimes, its overwhelming. Students usually learn from seeing pictures, which could be very useful for the students to understand the meaning of words, so I like digital tools that have strong pictures that my students could use to demonstrate meaning.

Parents’ Interview 1 // I.K // Father of 2 kids ages 9 and 13 years old.

01/ 02/ 03/ 04/ 05/

Do you believe that digital tools might help your child learn Arabic? Do you have any concerns?

Yes, kids nowadays are all about electronics, they love using them as a way of imitating grown ups, but the same time they like to play games on them, so if learning a language is presented to them in a game or some interactive Apps, I’m sure they will love and learn faster. I don’t have concerns specially for learning purposes, there is nothing to worry about as long as this is nicely developed to suit their age and their level of thinking.

Where do you find the best resources for Arabic teaching materials for your child?

I find these mainly Online, I search several websites, I find them offer CDs , DVDs and songs, there are not that many, but I also they are not very well like researched based materials and they are not interactive at all!

Do you care if the educational tools are not directed to teach the Arabic culture?

I think it is hard to completely separate the culture and the language. And in order to create a purpose in the children’s minds of why they need to learn this language, they have to learn certain stuff about the culture, for an example, the historic values, and how people life, I think the culture is part of the language, obviously the people who learn a language hope the they will go to that country to see how people use it.

What is the best tool that you think could help your child learn Arabic?

The best way is to get something interactive, and engaging. So may be a game, kids can play games for hours, and if the right game is used that would be a time well spent in learning a language. Acquiring Arabic through playing will be less boring and more effective.

Where do you hear about any educational digital games for teaching Arabic?

I’m not aware of anything good and useful. I usually look myself, I can’t find anything very well developed for Arabic.

Parents’ Interview 2 // R.KH// Mother of a 6 years old kid.

01/ 02/ 03/ 04/ 05/

Do you believe that digital tools might help your child learn Arabic? Do you have any concerns?

Yes Apps/digital tools are very effective and attractive for my child. I prefer interactive activities rather than just “watching” the App or program. My main concerns are the amount of time spent on the ipad/computer and how it affects social interaction. In addition to the lack of high quality interactive Apps for teaching Arabic based on my preliminary research.

Where do you find the best resources for Arabic teaching materials for your child?

Books, work books, puzzles, activities sent to me from my family.

Do you care if the educational tools are not directed to teach the Arabic culture?

My focus is for my child to learn the actual language (including standard Arabic and every day dialect). The culture is something you learn from family/community. I do not mind if the Arabic culture is incorporated into an Arabic language program but I don’t think it’s absolutely essential.

What is the best tool that you think could help your child learn Arabic?

Still working on this question!

Where do you hear about any educational digital games for teaching Arabic?

From Hanna Garman :) // Friend

Parents’ Interview 3 // Sh.K // Mother of 2 kids ages 3 and 8 years old.

01/ 02/ 03/ 04/ 05/

Do you believe that digital tools might help your child learn Arabic? Do you have any concerns?

It might help but they do more harm than good, i think the damage is actually greater than the benefit.

Where do you find the best resources for Arabic teaching materials for your child?

I order materials from Cairo.

Do you care if the educational tools are not directed to teach the Arabic culture?

Teaching Arabic for my kids is mainly to teach the language of the Quran so what is important for me is to link it to morality, integrity of religion and not the culture.

What is the best tool that you think could help your child learn Arabic?

I don’t know.

Where do you hear about any educational digital games for teaching Arabic?

From my friends.

Kids’ Interview 1 // L.J // a 9 years old girl

The interview was short. I will conduct more interview with kids this week.

I asked her to tell me what does she like about Rosetta Stone App and Albraem kids App which teaches Arabic for kids.

01/ Rosetta Stones

The thing that I dislike the most about it is that if you don’t know what the word is, you will get wrong and it won’t be really fare. The other thing I also dislike is that the pictures are not very clear, I don’t understand what these people are doing to say it.

What I like about this is easy to use and fun to practice talking.

02/ Albraem Kids

The thing that I like is when you have to match the picture or number to the words, because I like matching things.

The thing that I dislike is the sound because in the alphabet, they change voices of people who tells you it. And all I have to do is listen and repeat and I don’t like it because that is boring.

Gamification // Games for a Digital Age: K-12 Market Map and Investment Analysis

By John Richards, Leslie Stebbins and Kurt Moellering January 28, 2013 All games have game mechanics that are the central element of the game and, to some degree, are integrated with the learning content. As James Gee argues in his keynote at the 2012 Games for Change conference, the extent to which the mechanics of creating motivation and directing attention is intrinsic to the content of the game can greatly influence learning outcomes.

Gamification is the use of game-based elements or game mechanics to drive user engagement and actions in non-game contexts. In gamification, the game mechanics are divorced from the content being taught and are instead added in the form of some sort of reward element after completion of an activity.