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In This Issue:
• Feature Article:
Multilingual Teaching Teams: A Success Story
• Language Lizard Update:
Multicultural books, lesson plans
• Product Review:
Deepak’s Diwali
• *Subscriber Special Offer*:
Discount on Deepak’s Diwali and Diwali Poster
• Lizard Recommends:
Getting Started with English Language Learners
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Language Lizard Update
Dear Reader:
I hope you are having a wonderful start of the school year.
At Language Lizard, our goal is to support multicultural and language education. For those of you working with language learners and new immigrants, we offer some wonderful resources for you.
In addition to many dual-language books available in over 40 languages, we have a range of lesson plans you can download at no cost from our site. These include lessons that teach students to appreciate diversity as well as to understand new cultures and customs.
Many of the newer lesson plans were developed and then taught in local after-school programs by a group of teacher education students and international students who collaborated to introduce children to other parts of the world. In "Multilingual Teaching Teams: A Success Story" (below), you can read about the benefits of this partnership to both the students and the teachers. We invite you to download the lesson plans at http://www.languagelizard.com/lessonplans.htm.
We continue to add books that will help you teach about international festivals/holidays (e.g., Diwali, Eid/Ramadan, Polish Christmas), and we are offering a beautiful new Festival Calendar in time for the new year (available later in the fall). We also are working on additional interactive resources to support language learners, which we look forward to telling you more about in future issues of this newsletter.
Best wishes for a successful school year!
Anneke Forzani
Founder and President
Language Lizard, LLC |
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 Book Review: Deepak’s Diwali
Written by Divya Karwal
Illustrated by Doreen Lang
Paperback
Ages 3-8
Review by Maureen Pugh
Diwali, also called Deepavali or Divali, is a festival that is significant in Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It is known as the "Festival of Lights," and celebrates the victory of good over evil.
In Deepak’s Diwali, it is the eve of Diwali, and Deepak’s grandmother tells him the story of the demon king Ravana who steals the god Rama’s wife, Sita. Deepak spends the first half of the story worried that Ravana is following him, but soon gets into the spirit of the holiday.
This contemporary story explains how the festival is celebrated with sparklers and lights, prayer, and feasting. It mentions the beautiful Rangoli Patterns, which Deepak and his mother create on their doorstep to welcome their visitors, and describes all kinds of delicious foods and treats. The story portrays this holiday as a wonderful family celebration.
Doreen Lang’s illustrations are vibrant and bold. They show Deepak and his friends and family both in everyday clothes as well as dressed in their lovely saris and traditional costumes. The gods described in the legends are depicted beautifully. The illustrations also show diversity as Deepak’s best friend, who is Caucasian, and Deepak’s disabled cousin, who uses a wheelchair, share in all the festivities.
Deepak’s Diwali is a beautiful introduction of Diwali for children who may not be familiar with the holiday. For those children who do celebrate Diwali, it is a lovely depiction of the celebration. As a bonus, in the back of the book, there are recipes for mango lassi and halwa pudding, as well as some Rangoli patterns.
Deepak’s Diwali is a vailable in English with Arabic, Bengali, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Panjabi, Polish, Tamil and Urdu
If you’re interested in purchasing this book or CD please visit the webpage at: http://www.languagelizard.com/Deepak_s_Diwali_p/diw.htm
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Special Subscriber Offer: 10% Discount on Deepak’s Diwali book and our multilingual Diwali Poster
Order in time for Diwali, which is on October 17 th, 2009!
Through October 17, 2009 we are offering a 10% discount on the following book and poster (sold separately):
Simply apply Coupon Code CCS-DIW upon checkout to receive the discount.
To see the difficulty level of these and other Language Lizard books, please visit our “Book Suggestions” page at http://www.languagelizard.com/images/Childrens_Bilingual_Books.pdf
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Multilingual Teaching Teams: A Success Story
By Heather Leaman, PhD
Last school year, a group of West Chester University students from Palestine, Romania, Japan, and Korea collaborated with U.S.-born, English-speaking teacher education students to teach local elementary school children about world languages and cultures. During a three month period, university students visited the local YWCA after-school program to work with children in kindergarten through grade four.
The university students collaborated to create lesson plans using dual-language books to develop children’s awareness of Ramadan, Romanian customs, Korean holidays and Japanese culture and to introduce children to the Arabic, Romanian, Korean and Japanese languages. The lesson plans, described below, are geared toward children in kindergarten through 4 th grade, and are available for download on the Language Lizard website at http://www.languagelizard.com/lessonplans.htm.
Ramadan—In Lesson One, children use Samira’s Eid and Journey Through Islamic Arts in Arabic/English to learn about Ramadan’s religious and cultural importance in the Muslim world. During Lesson Two, children further explore Ramadan, comparing Ramadan to Thanksgiving and to customs they share with their families.
Romania—Teachers use Fox Fables in Romanian/English to introduce the country of Romania and to teach children several Romanian words. Children construct art projects to explore traditions in Romania. In Lesson Two, children learn about the Romanian flag and taste foods and ingredients that are common in Romania.
Korea—Children are introduced to Korea through the story The Crow King in Korean/English. In Lesson One, children learn to construct Korean letters and draw the South Korean flag. Children create their own flag representing their lives and families. During the second lesson, children compare games and holidays celebrated in their families to Korean games and holidays. To conclude the second lesson, children play a well-known Korean game.
Japan—Children begin by writing their names using Japanese characters. Teachers introduce Japanese writing, language and culture through stories and pictures. In Lesson Two, children learn about the Japanese New Year by comparing customs and celebrations associated with the New Year in Japan and the United States.
The children who participated in the program received two dual-language books for their home library. As the culmination of the teaching and learning project, children constructed their own stories, which were later translated into Romanian, Japanese and Arabic.
The international university students commented about the rewarding experiences of teaching elementary school children about their native languages and countries of origin. As one participant described, “I was happy to see how the students wanted to learn about another language. They were all ears when they heard Japanese, Romanian and Arabic. They all wanted to write their names in those languages. I enjoyed teaching the children about my culture, seeing how amazed they were with the pictures they saw and the questions they raised.”
The U.S.-born teacher education students learned a lot from working with their bilingual peers while teaching children about world languages and cultures. One student explained, “I think it was great that education majors were teamed up with people who knew a lot about a different country or culture. The most valuable aspects of this project included teaching children and making a new friend, my partner from Palestine.”
Clearly, the collaboration between the international university students and the U.S.-born university students was a success. The children were exposed to new languages and cultures, and at the same time, the two groups of university students gained valuable experience from their partnership.
Teaming up teachers with bilingual community members can result in similar successes. Bilingual families and English-speaking teachers can work together to teach children about world languages, countries and cultures while welcoming speakers of many languages as guests in the school setting.
Heather Leaman is an associate professor in the Early and Middle Grades Department at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. She spent eleven years teaching sixth grade social studies where she taught many bilingual children.
© Language Lizard, LLC. 2009.
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A Favorite Quote
“Language embodies the world view of a culture and is unique to the culture that created it. It reflects values and concepts that are deemed to be the most important by a culture. A language describes the culture it comes from."
-Noam Chomsky (1928 - ), Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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About Language Lizard
Language Lizard, LLC aims to enrich children's lives with language and culture. The Company believes that children will be inspired to learn languages and connect with other cultures if they are exposed to fun and creative learning materials early in their lives.
Language Lizard currently offers award-winning dual-language children's products in over 40 languages. To find out more about our company and products, or to sign up for this free e-newsletter, please visit www.LanguageLizard.com.
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Getting Started with English Language Learners: How Educators Can Meet the Challenge by Judie Haynes
Published in 2007, Getting Started with English Language Learners: How Educators Can Meet the Challenge is a valuable resource for educators.
Judie Haynes provides a practical resource to help educators who are new to the field of English as a Second Language understand the needs of English language learners. From learning how students acquire a second language to differentiating instruction to exploring practical strategies for teaching newcomers, this book will help educators learn how to create effective learning environments for English language learners.
Real-life scenarios from actual classrooms are presented throughout the book. The book also includes a brief overview of different types of ESL programs used in the United States and a helpful glossary of common ESL terminology.
New teachers, veteran educators working with English language learners for the first time, and administrators can all use this book to increase their knowledge, improve their practice, and, most importantly, effectively educate and inspire English language learners.
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