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Opportunities for Teaching Arabic
34 teacher trainings held for Arabic educators
1,287 Arabic teachers trained through QFI programming
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3,966
students of Arabic impacted by QFI school grants
2,276
Summer Institutes
Since 2010, and in collaboration with language experts and partner universities, QFI has organized summer institutes for Arabic language teachers in our school grant programs to enhance pedagogy and support curriculum development. These workshops include best practices in curriculum planning, classroom management, use and sharing of Open Education Resources (OERs), and integrating culture in the language classroom. The institutes bring together new and experienced teachers from QFI-supported programs and partners across the U.S., U.K., Germany, Brazil, and Canada.
Institutes are available for teachers from QFI-supported schools. For any questions regarding the Summer Institutes contact arabic@qfi.org.
Teaching Arabic is even more enjoyable when you have access to a community of practice. To support such communities, QFI has responded by helping to start and sustain Teacher Councils. Each council’s host organization works closely with its members to provide relevant programming and opportunities, such as workshops, seminars, financial support to attend local or regional conferences, and events to engage their students and community. If you join, you get to know other teachers, network, collaborate, build new skills, develop curriculum, and share your most innovative teaching approaches. Membership is open to all teachers of Arabic. Teacher Councils
We currently support Arabic Teacher Councils in New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Greater Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC., with teacher councils in the UK and Germany under development. Each council organizes activities throughout the school year.
Classroom Resource Enrichment Grants
Teachers often lack the ability to purchase materials they need for their classrooms to engage students and improve their learning outcomes. To help, QFI offers Classroom Resource Enrichment Grants (CREGs). CREGs are awarded throughout the academic year to provide educators with supplementary funding to purchase educational tools and resources or further explore the Arabic language and the Arab world.
Teachers use the Classroom Resource Enrichment Grants for age-appropriate, student-centered resources and materials, including: • Special costs associated with an interdisciplinary project or student-related activities (must have a specific focus on Arabic language and/or the Arab world) such as materials for art, music, geography, history, and science projects; • Costs associated with student-driven performances related to Arabic language and/or the Arab world that involve the greater school community, or even other schools nearby; • Books, videos, software, or other materials that can be used to teach about the Arab world or the Arabic language.
CREGs are available for educators in the U.S., U.K., and Germany.
For more information on how to apply in your region, visit www.qfi.org/cregs.
Concordia Language Villages – Professional Development Workshops
QFI partners with Concordia Language Villages to offer intensive cohort-based workshops for Arabic language teachers that take place over several weekends throughout the school year. Participants commit to two in-person workshops and three online webinars. These workshops are open to primary, secondary, and college-level Arabic teachers in the U.S. and Canada. Workshops are led by expert teacher-trainers and cover topics such as curriculum and assessment, learner engagement, staying in the target language, and integrating culture in the classroom.
To make it possible for dedicated teachers to take advantage of this high-impact educational opportunity, all costs of the workshops are covered, including a travel stipend for participants.
Applications for the workshop series open in August. The first in-person workshop takes place in October, followed by three webinars; the second in-person workshop in April. For more information, visit www.concordialanguagevillages. org/adult-programs/educator-programs/workshops-consulting/qatar.
To expand the community of primary and secondary school Arabic teachers across the U.S. who can attend the annual ACTFL convention and increase the presence of Arabic at the conference, we provide $1,500 grants to help cover registration and travel expenses. The Dora Johnson Awards are named in memory of a lifelong advocate for expanding access to Arabic instruction at the primary and secondary level and professionalizing Arabic language instruction. Dora advised and supported QFI from our beginning moments as an organization in 2009 as we established a framework for supporting Arabic in the U.S.. Dora’s perseverance then has made all the difference for teachers and their students ever since. Dora Johnson Awards
To qualify for a Dora Johnson Award, you must be a primary or secondary school Arabic teacher and member of both ACTFL and the ACTFL Arabic Special Interest Group (or commit to joining both). Preference is given according to the following criteria, in descending order:
• First-time attendees
• First-time presenters who have attended before
• Presenters
• Attendees who have not previously received a Dora Johnson Award.
To apply, visit QFI’s grants management portal at qfi.fluidreview.com. For any questions contact djawards@qfi.org.
Goldsmiths, University of London Certificate
QFI partners with Goldsmiths, University of London to provide an Arabic Certificate Course for teachers of Arabic. The course provides a foundation in up-to-date methodology for teaching Arabic as a second/foreign language to primaryand secondary-age learners. To ensure flexibility in meeting individual needs and an ongoing integration of theory and practice, it is based on a blended approach combining face-to-face teaching, supported self-study and classroom observation.
Course participants are expected to be well-organized, open to new ideas, and to develop a reflective stance towards their professional development. The course promotes a reflective, process-based, and collaborative approach to professional development. It is based on a combination of lecture workshops, self-study activities and classroom teaching. Participants submit portfolios for review at the end of the course.
The course is open to teachers working in the U.K. in mainstream, independent and community-based school contexts, teaching classes of primary- and secondary-school aged children. For more information, visit www.gold.ac.uk/ educational-studies/teacherscentre/arabiccertcourse Opportunities for Teaching Arabic
