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In This Issue:
• Feature Article: Collaborations for Teaching about Language Diversity and Global Culture
• Language Lizard Update: Language Lizard in the News, Lesson Plans
• Product Review: Augustus and His Smile
• *Subscriber Special Offer*: Discount on Augustus and His Smile
• Lizard Recommends: Great Multicultural Music!
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Language Lizard Update
Dear Reader:
I write to you in the midst of International Education Week, a joint initiative by the US Departments of State and Education as “an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide.”
Your children or students may be too young to study abroad, but they are certainly not too young to appreciate the diverse cultures and languages of the world. To that end, Language Lizard is pleased to announce that we are in the process of adding new multicultural lesson plans to our website. These lesson plans are offered to our customers at no cost and can be found at the following link: http://www.languagelizard.com/lessonplans.htm. We just added new lessons on Korea and Japan, and we will continue to add more over the coming months.
Dr. Heather Leaman from West Chester University in Pennsylvania worked with student teachers and international students from various countries to develop these lesson plans. The University participants taught the lessons in a local after-school program, and received wonderful feedback about the impact of their collaboration on the young children. In this issue’s feature article, Dr. Leaman provides suggestions about successful collaboration between native English-speaking teachers and bilingual adults.
On a separate note, Language Lizard has received a lot of positive feedback about a recent segment on Public Radio International’s “The World”, entitled More U.S. Kids Growing Up Bilingual. For those of you who missed the radio segment, you can hear it at http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/22023.
Patrick Cox, who produced that story, also puts together an informative podcast, “The World in Words”. He interviewed me recently and included parts of our interview in Podcast 22, which you can hear at http://www.theworld.org/pod/language/WIWpodcast22.mp3. (Note: The interview starts about 5 minutes into the podcast after the Hispanic Heritage Month/Football story).
We at Language Lizard wish you all a Happy Holiday season and a successful New Year!
Happy reading!
Anneke Forzani
Founder and President
Language Lizard, LLC |
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 Book Review: Augustus and his Smile
Written and illustrated by Catherine Rayner
Ages 2-6
Format: Paperback
Review by Maureen Pugh
“Augustus the tiger was sad. He had lost his smile.” So begins an epic quest as Augustus searches for his lost smile. His search takes him under bushes, up to the treetops, and to the crests of the highest mountains. He finds a beetle, chirping birds, and swirling snow clouds, but no smile.
As his journey progresses, however, Augustus’ expression gradually begins to change. His pleasure becomes evident as he swims in the oceans and “splishes and splashes with shoals of tiny, shiny fish.” His long tail also begins arching in a smile to match the one on his face. Suddenly he is prancing and parading in a desert, dancing and racing in raindrops, and splashing through puddles. Then he finds it – in the reflection of a “huge silver-blue puddle” – his smile!
Augustus comes to realize that he carries his smile with him, “whenever he (is) happy”. His journey teaches him that he only has to do the things that please him, like swim or dance or look around him at the world “for happiness (is) everywhere around him.”
For Augustus and his Smile, award-winning author and illustrator Catherine Rayner spent hours observing and sketching tigers at the Edinburgh Zoo. Her talent and attention to detail are evident as we watch this boldly-drawn tiger move through his various poses. Children will appreciate both this story’s message as well as the illustrations of Augustus.
The last page of the book lists some “amazing tiger facts” and notes their endangered status.
Augustus and his Smile is available in English with Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Simplified Chinese, Czech, Farsi, French, Haitian-Creole, Hindi, Irish, Lithuanian, Panjabi, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian, Somali, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese and Welsh.
If you’re interested in purchasing this book, please visit the Augustus and His Smile webpage at http://www.languagelizard.com/Augustus_and_His_Smile_p/aug.htm.
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Special Subscriber Offer: 10% Discount on Augustus and His Smile:
Through December 5, 2008 we are offering a 10% discount on the following book:
Simply apply Coupon Code CCS-AUG 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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Collaborations for Teaching about Language Diversity and Global Culture: Partnerships Between Native English Speaking Teachers and Bilingual Adults
By Heather Leaman
In recent years, educators and schools across the United States have begun embracing language diversity by encouraging students who are bilingual or multilingual to maintain their native language while learning English. Still, teachers in American schools cannot be expected to have extensive knowledge of or experience with all of the languages children bring to their classrooms. For classroom teachers whose students may speak numerous languages, this can be quite a challenge. Families and community members can help!
Bilingual guests (community members and family members) who have lived in or traveled to other countries, have the opportunity to share with students and teachers their authentic, first hand experiences with language and cultural diversity. Most teachers and schools welcome such collaboration in teaching about world cultures and world languages.
Below are some suggestions of ways to offer support to classroom teachers and schools:
1. Make a presentation to students about life in your native country. Before you prepare your presentation, ask the teacher for a suggested time limit (15 to 35 minutes is appropriate for elementary-aged children). Consider the age of the students and try to focus on topics that will interest them. Also, bring artifacts of daily life from other countries that are similar to and different from what children may see in the United States.
2. Talk with teachers about life in your native country. Set up a time to discuss your culture and native country with teachers either as a presentation to a group or informally one-on-one. Such conversations can encourage communication between school and home, establish positive relationships, clarify expectations on the part of parents and teachers and help classroom teachers understand cultural differences.
3. Collaborate with teachers to plan lessons about other countries. Offer to meet with teachers in order to provide them with information about your native country that could be integrated into their curriculum and instruction. This can give teachers a way to welcome newcomers while teaching American-born and English-speaking children about world cultures.
4. Serve as a language expert to the school. Volunteer to read and make audio recordings of curriculum materials or children’s books in your native language. Help construct dual language books for a classroom library (translating student-made stories into your native language). These can be wonderful resources for the classroom. Or, simply read to classroom children in your native language.
Collaboration works! This fall, students in the teacher education program at West Chester University of Pennsylvania collaborated with international university students from Korea, Japan, Romania and Palestine to design lessons about their native countries. Teachers and guest collaborators used dual-language books to teach about their native countries and languages to children in a local after-school program. The collaboration, lessons and teaching were a great success. Each pair taught two lessons to children ranging from first through fourth grade. Each partnership included the collaborative models described here.
Lessons created by each partnership will be posted on the Language Lizard website.
Heather Leaman is an assistant professor in the Elementary Education 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. 2008.
Want to use this article in your e-zine or web site? Contact Language Lizard President and Founder, Anneke Forzani, at [email protected].
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A Favorite Quote
"It is, therefore, very important to teach students about the world beyond their own countries. What are the similarities we share and differences without friends around the world? We must understand what motivates those whose cultures and traditions are not our own. To achieve these goals, we must teach our children international education skills which include the learning of other languages, cultures and traditions.”
- Margaret Spellings, U.S. Secretary of Education |
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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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Lizard Recommends
In addition to reading dual-language books, I love to share music from around the world to expose children to other languages and cultures. Below are two CDs that make great stocking stuffers:
Nueva York!
My kids and I have long been fans of the lively music of Dan Zanes and Friends. So we were very excited to find his newest CD on which he collaborated with numerous Latino friends to bring us catchy, danceable Spanish-language music. As Dan himself says, it’s “a wild, 21 st century party of the sort that is sure to be springing up more and more as musicians and their friends build musical bridges with songs that can connect us all.” You can now purchase Nueva York!
at Amazon.com.
World Playground
This has been a favorite CD in our family for some time. It includes music from six continents and twelve countries including Brazil, France, Jamaica, Canada and Senegal. It offers a nice variety of music that both children and adults enjoy. You can purchase World Playground
at Amazon.com.
Creative Bridges for Language Learning Institute
For those teachers who prefer to soak up language, music and culture in person, Creative Bridges for Language Learning Institute has received much praise about its summer immersion program in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The program offers a unique, fun-filled hands-on/theory immersion program for Spanish, Bilingual and ESL educators. To find out more about this program, visit www.SpanishImmersionArgentina.org or contact founder Liliana Attar at [email protected].
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