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QFI 2018
Year In Review
Table of Contents
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About Us
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Grants
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International Expansion
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Professional Development
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Open Education Resources
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Connected Communities
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Communications
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About Us We engage a global community of diverse learners and educators, fostering global competency and 21st century skills through the exploration of the Arabic language and the Arab world. Our vision is one that embraces and respects diversity, values lifelong learning, and empowers individuals to take action to shape their futures. QFI works in three main program areas: • Arabic Language • Arab Societies & Cultures • Connected Communities We focus on student–centered learning environments and partner with primary and secondary schools, universities, multilateral entities, and other philanthropic organizations to ensure that our programs advance critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and cross–cultural communication. You can learn more about our work in 2018 here!
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Grants Grants to Schools Since 2009, we have provided direct support to establish or expand Arabic language programs in primary and secondary schools. QFI supports 18 public and public charter schools across the U.S. – directly impacting 3,200 Arabic language students.
New U.S. Partners in 2018 New Haven Public Schools in Connecticut launched new Arabic programs at Wilbur Cross High School and Columbus Family Academy. Anne Chesnutt Middle School in Fayetteville, North Carolina established an Arabic program at the school.
Classroom Resource Enrichment Grants (CREGs) CREGs are supplemental grants that provide teachers with materials and activities for their classrooms. In 2018, we launched the first international version of the grants to teachers in the United Kingdom. In 2018, 25 teachers in 11 U.S. states and Canada received CREGs.
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School Travel Awards Global Exchange (STAGE) To celebrate our 10th Anniversary, we are launching our new STAGE grants which provide up to $30,000 for educators to take students on an educational trip to the Arab world. In order to qualify, educators are required to have a curriculum–based virtual exchange with a partner school in the host country for at least one semester prior to traveling.
Summer Arabic Study Award Program Through grants to leading academic institutions, we support need and merit–based scholarships to primary and secondary students for intensive summer Arabic study.
SALaMA The Study of Adolescent Lives after Migration to America (SALaMA) is a mixed–methods study being conducted by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and Washington University in St. Louis, in partnership with QFI. The study seeks to assess the mental health and psychosocial well–being of Arabic–speaking secondary school students (age 13 years and older) in schools across the world. Data collection is underway in Harrisonburg, VA, and Austin, TX, with more sites to be confirmed, including those located outside of the U.S.
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International Expansion United Kingdom In August, we signed a partnership agreement with the British Council to support Arabic in the U.K., expanding on our existing 6–year relationship. We now support nine schools across the U.K. — four in Northern Ireland, four in England and one in Wales. Almost 400 students each day are able to study Arabic and learn more about the Arab world.
New Partners in the U.K. QFI partnered with Goldsmiths University of London to provide an Arabic Certificate Course for teachers of Arabic. The course began in January 2018 and provided a foundation in up–to–date methods for teaching Arabic as a second/foreign language to primary and secondary age learners. The course was fully enrolled at 20 participants from London, Bristol, Ealing, Chatham, Cardiff and Essex.
Germany We just celebrated one year of QFI in Germany! In Berlin we provided a grant to “House of One” for intercultural programs at their education center. Their partner state–funded school, The Evangelische Schule Berlin Zentrum (ESBZ), has started teaching Arabic. The “German Arabic Friendship Society” (DAFG) organizes cultural programs for secondary school students. In addition to a literature evening and art exhibit, the DAFG held an Arabic music concert in November. QFI provided instruments and the creation of educational resources aligned to the musical program. Our latest partner is “Give Something Back to Berlin.” With our support they started working at Refugio, a community that provides support for locals and refugees. QFI supports programs at Refugio that foster intercultural dialogue through workshops in cooking, language, art and music.
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Professional Development Summer Institutes This year we hosted our Arabic Summer Institute in partnership with Concordia Language Villages in Bemidji, Minnesota. We also organized a separate institute in Brooklyn, New York for Arabic immersion and dual language teachers. These multi–day, on–location institutes provide a forum for teachers to meet, exchange ideas and learn the most up–to–date teaching methods. 43 teachers from across the U.S. and Canada attended our summer institutes.
Concordia Qatar Professional Development Workshops We partner with Concordia Language Villages to offer intensive teacher training workshops on weekends throughout the school year. 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.
Arabic Teacher Councils Arabic Teacher Councils regionally engage Arabic teachers in Los Angeles, Chicago, Michigan, New York and Berlin, where they have the opportunity to network and share resources.
ACTFL Every year, QFI exhibits at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Convention. ACTFL is the largest foreign language convention in the United States and is an outstanding opportunity for teachers to learn new classroom strategies. In 2018, we sponsored 58 teachers from six countries to attend ACTFL in New Orleans.
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Teacher Professional Development Awards We provide grants to educators in the social sciences, humanities and arts to travel to and participate in professional development events about the Arab world in order to further their understanding and increase their capacity to teach about the Arab world in their classrooms. 37 Teacher Professional Development Awards were funded for teachers from 22 states.
Teacher Leadership Program We created a two–year teacher leadership program designed to build a cohort of teachers across the U.S. in the social sciences, humanities, and arts, then provide effective professional development to their peers on topics related to the Arab World. In 2018, the first cohort of 20 teachers from 18 states began the program.
QFI and Duke University’s Annual Educator Summer Institute In partnership with Duke University’s Middle East Studies and Islamic Studies Centers, QFI holds an annual five–day summer institute that explores different themes about the region. These educators come from a variety of backgrounds such as global studies, world history, human geography, religion, world cultures and language arts. This year the institute hosted 40 educators from 23 different states.
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QFI and GEEO Educator Tours In 2018, we formed a new partnership with Global Exploration for Educators Organization (GEEO), which provides cultural immersion experiences for educators. Through GEEO, we offer trips to the Arab world. Twice a year, educators travel to Qatar and Oman for a 12–day experience where they explore historical and cultural sights. Guided evening sessions foster curriculum development and discussion. These fully–funded educator trips are the first of their kind in the U.S.. The first cohort of 16 educators just returned in January 2019.
Middle East Outreach Council (MEOC) Partnered with MEOC, we make award–winning books by Arab authors available to classrooms. This year QFI awarded over 800 books to 22 teachers in 15 states.
The School of Islamic Art and Design Online Course We provided grants for 15 art teachers to enroll in and complete the School of Islamic Art and Design’s online educator course.
Thought Leadership: Salzburg Global Seminar In December, QFI partnered for the second time with Microsoft Education and Princeton–based ETS to bring 50 education experts from around the world to Salzburg, Austria for a five–day intensive discussion. The focus was on “Social and Emotional Learning.” Demand for this particular seminar has been so significant that a second session will be held in March 2019.
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Open Education Resources Al Masdar Al Masdar is the only online resource database featuring high–quality teaching materials and resources dedicated to the teaching of the Arabic language and about the Arab world. The database is comprised of lesson plans, units, supplementary resources and authentic materials in Arabic and English. More resources will be available soon in German. Users can collaborate with other educators and create and upload their own teaching materials to share. Over 30,000 users engaged with Al Masdar this year.
Mosaic Tilemaker App This interdisciplinary, interactive website and mobile application introduces students to the fundamental concepts of Islamic art and architecture through the creation of mosaic tile art. Users are able to make tiles and share them online. In 2018, we redeveloped the website and mobile app for enhanced user experience. The app is available free of charge on iTunes and the Google Play Store. 15,892 people utilized the Mosaic Tilemaker website.
Q–Wheel Tool and App (Madar Al–Huruf ) Our crowd–pleasing Q–Wheel is a tool that introduces users to the Arabic alphabet by matching English letters and sounds to their Arabic phonetic counterparts. Users are able to share their name in Arabic as an online digital sticker. In 2018, we translated the Q–Wheel into a German version. The English–Arabic app is available on iTunes and the Google Play Store, with the German–Arabic version coming in 2019. The Madar Al–Huruf app was used over 1,270 times in 2018.
Arabic Teacher Professional Development Platform We are developing an online platform to offer resources and coursework for Arabic teachers to develop their professional skills. The site is currently in the development stage and is expected to launch this summer. 26
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Connected Communities Virtual Exchange For the past 10 years, we have been a pioneer in advancing both virtual and physical exchange programs between young people in the Americas and the Arab world. Using appropriate technologies and integrated with curricula, connecting classrooms offers all students the opportunity to discuss important global challenges with their peers thousands of miles away. Teachers collaborate to ensure optimal student engagement.
The QFI–Participate Community This year we started our own online professional learning community on the Participate platform, which strives to empower educators to create innovative, open learning environments. Teachers from around the world can enroll for free and learn “How to Create a Virtual Exchange.” Curricular resources are available as well, like “Aber ”, which means “expression” in Arabic. This curriculum provides a powerful exploration of culture and the impacts of stereotyping and discrimination. Students share their cultural backgrounds and work across differences to complete a collaborative project. The exchange takes place between classrooms in North America and the Arab world region, with a focus on Qatar. Using group discussion, journaling, video conferences, and online forum dialogue, it culminates with a collaborative digital project. Currently, there are over 80 teachers enrolled. This community will grow through the creation of five new courses.
Natakallam We partner with NaTakallam to offer teachers and students engaging, immersive language practice and cultural exchange. NaTakallam (“we speak” in Arabic) connects forcibly displaced persons with virtual language and cultural exchange students around the world, providing them with economic opportunity and purpose.
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STE{A}M Exchange: Brooklyn, USA to Doha, Qatar Utilizing our hypdroponics curriculum developed with our partner, Green Bronx Machine, fifth graders in Brooklyn, New York are participating in a science–themed virtual exchange with their peers at Qatar Academy Sidra in Doha, Qatar. In 2020 they will meet in person.
Arabic Honor Society (AHS) The Arabic Honor Society recognizes and advances excellence in language learning in high schools across the U.S. Arabic now joins other languages like Spanish, French and Chinese that already have well established societies. In the past year, 39 chapters have been added and 358 students have joined AHS.
Qatar in America A group of eight accomplished university and post–graduate students from the U.S. and Qatar attended the United Nations Youth Assembly where they represented Qatar as ambassadors of change and advocates for sustainable development goals. We supported and sponsored the group. For the fifth year, QFI collaborated with Virginia Commonwealth University–Qatar (VCU–Q) to bring Arabic–language students from Washington Latin Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. to VCU’s main campus in Richmond, Virginia, where they celebrated Qatar Day.
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Communications QFI 10 th Anniversary We are excited for our 10th Anniversary in 2019–2020! In celebration, we are showcasing our amazing network of students, teachers, partners and alumni — including videos, a digital book, a social media campaign, and more! As a tribute to our legacy of building meaningful cross–cultural connections, in 2019 QFI will launch the School Travel Awards Global Exchange (STAGE) grant. This highly competitive new grant supports U.S. public school teachers in organizing trips to the Arab world. Grantees will each facilitate a year–long virtual exchange with a partner school in the foreign country that they will then visit.
Infographic Poster Series Our infographic poster series continued throughout the year. Publishing the graphics on social media allows our audience to share and discuss topics ranging from Arabic linguistics to flag design. Printing the visuals as large format posters allows teachers to have physical copies. Over the past year, we created and shared ten infographics, with over 250 shares across social media channels and over 700 copies distributed throughout the U.S., U.K. and Germany.
Re–design of qfi.org We launched the new qfi.org in November. The site provides a new visual design and site structure.
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