Presenters: Hadar Buda, Michelle Hanoch, Moran Jacobson, Tamara Klein, Noy Leiser, Mira Leventhal-Abudi, Michal Vilan & Keren Yaniv-Rosen.
Course: Practical Experience – Elementary School level
Instructor: Dr. Orly Haim
Immigration is a very powerful event in a person’s life, especially for children who usually do not have a choice in the decision. Getting used to a new country involves significant upheaval and emotional turmoil. Schools – especially elementary schools - can play an important role in containing these feelings and making the children feel accepted and protected.
Our project, which was carried out as part of the course “Student Teaching Practice: Student Practicum - Elementary School”, aimed to give immigrant pupils at Ziv elementary school, Ra’anana the opportunity to tell their personal immigration story, while enhancing their English knowledge and literary skills. In this project we helped the immigrant pupils write digital books in multiple languages (Hebrew, English and their mother tongue) about themselves and their immigration story. Immigrant pupils in Israel face the overwhelming task of having to learn several languages simultaneously - Hebrew, English, and in some instances Arabic, whilst maintaining their L1 at home. Naturally, they are greatly in need of extra help and guidance. The digital books project aimed to tell the pupils' personal story by enabling them to express their feelings and experiences.
The project was carried out during the second semester of the school year. Each Beit Berl student was assigned a small group of immigrant children according to age and origin. First, we held introductory sessions, in which through different games and activities, the children introduced themselves and shared their immigration story. The next stage focused on writing a draft for their digital books. Within the guidelines directing them to include something about their home countries, their move to Israel, and their life today, the children were given the freedom to include content of their choice. After they finished their draft, they began creating their digital version. Pupils used Power Point, Story Jumper, or other digital book programs, according to their preference and computer skills. They included pictures, photos, and maps to illustrate their stories. In the final stage of the project, the pupils will showcase their work, presenting their final projects to friends and family.
The project incorporated various tools and methodologies that are known to be effective in teaching immigrants, including technological aids, recording of spoken texts, visuals, trans-languaging and multilingual texts. The project empowered the pupils by respecting their culture and their mother tongue, and allowed them to process their immigration experience both in the telling of their stories, and also in their personal reflections. The combination of the different languages used, and the wide range of visual and audio elements, gave place to complicity, variety, and creativity. This project not only highlighted how the English language can be used to bridge the gap between different cultures and languages, but also provided an invaluable chance for us to learn about the complex emotional state of most immigrant children, which was reflected through the different aspects of the stories that the pupils chose to tell.
Course: Practical Experience – Elementary School level
Instructor: Dr. Orly Haim
Immigration is a very powerful event in a person’s life, especially for children who usually do not have a choice in the decision. Getting used to a new country involves significant upheaval and emotional turmoil. Schools – especially elementary schools - can play an important role in containing these feelings and making the children feel accepted and protected.
Our project, which was carried out as part of the course “Student Teaching Practice: Student Practicum - Elementary School”, aimed to give immigrant pupils at Ziv elementary school, Ra’anana the opportunity to tell their personal immigration story, while enhancing their English knowledge and literary skills. In this project we helped the immigrant pupils write digital books in multiple languages (Hebrew, English and their mother tongue) about themselves and their immigration story. Immigrant pupils in Israel face the overwhelming task of having to learn several languages simultaneously - Hebrew, English, and in some instances Arabic, whilst maintaining their L1 at home. Naturally, they are greatly in need of extra help and guidance. The digital books project aimed to tell the pupils' personal story by enabling them to express their feelings and experiences.
The project was carried out during the second semester of the school year. Each Beit Berl student was assigned a small group of immigrant children according to age and origin. First, we held introductory sessions, in which through different games and activities, the children introduced themselves and shared their immigration story. The next stage focused on writing a draft for their digital books. Within the guidelines directing them to include something about their home countries, their move to Israel, and their life today, the children were given the freedom to include content of their choice. After they finished their draft, they began creating their digital version. Pupils used Power Point, Story Jumper, or other digital book programs, according to their preference and computer skills. They included pictures, photos, and maps to illustrate their stories. In the final stage of the project, the pupils will showcase their work, presenting their final projects to friends and family.
The project incorporated various tools and methodologies that are known to be effective in teaching immigrants, including technological aids, recording of spoken texts, visuals, trans-languaging and multilingual texts. The project empowered the pupils by respecting their culture and their mother tongue, and allowed them to process their immigration experience both in the telling of their stories, and also in their personal reflections. The combination of the different languages used, and the wide range of visual and audio elements, gave place to complicity, variety, and creativity. This project not only highlighted how the English language can be used to bridge the gap between different cultures and languages, but also provided an invaluable chance for us to learn about the complex emotional state of most immigrant children, which was reflected through the different aspects of the stories that the pupils chose to tell.