Mother Tongue Week 2011
Mother Tongue Week 2011
The United Nations’ International Mother Tongue Day celebrates mother tongue universally on February 21. During the week from February 21st to 25th, the SWA school community showcased the rich cultural diversity of our school community. This was an important event on our calendar as we recognized and celebrated the important role that mother tongue plays in language learning within an international school setting. The week introduced the languages and cultures across the five continents. This allowed the different nationalities within our school community to showcase their creative talents.
To provide some background information, all students created a colorful
Monday showcased Indonesia with dance and art performances. The PTA generously supported a visit by the Didak people, and indigenous group from Kalamantan. The students were fascinated by their unique and decorative costumes. The Indonesian staff provided a gamelan and Angklung performance while the students from Grades 4 and 5 performed the Badindin dance. Throughout the day students from K to Grade 10 participated enthusiastically in a variety of creative workshops including traditional Indonesian letter writing, batik dyeing and making Ketupat. The day was a spectacular start to Mother Tongue week as it illustrated the rich diversity of languages and cultural practices present in Indonesia today.
Tuesday was Asia day and our Korean and Chinese students, teachers, and parents also worked very creatively in the arts of art, dance, and music to showcase their language and culture. Mr. Wen provided calligraphy workshops and Ms Lucy spoke on Chinese classical literature. At lunchtime the staff performed the “Chinese fan dance”. As a contrast, the Korean students under the guidance of Nahyeon and Jessica performed the graceful “Korean fan dance”. Both dances looked spectacular! The students from Grade 5 finished the lunchtime performance with a repertoire of Chinese songs.
Wednesday welcomed in Europe and the Middle East. The elementary students enjoyed participating in storytelling sessions led by the MS/HS students and organized by out librarian Ms Virginia. Readings were in both English and Mother Tongue. At lunchtime, the students were entertained by piano recitals from Chopin, Marc Anthony performed Etude Op 10 No 3 and Jessica performed Fantasy. This music provided a wonderful backdrop as students walked amongst the displays listening to the classical sounds as they filled the air. Ms Susan also provided Carnevale mask making workshops for the Grade 2 students.
Thursday welcomed Oceania and Africa while we do not have many Australian students at SWA we do have several talented Aussie teachers. At lunchtime Mr. Bruce played guitar and led the teachers in a lively rendition of “Home Among the Gum Trees” and “I am Australian”. This was followed by a very lively “Heel and Toe” bush dance workshop. Ms Liz ran workshops showcasing the New Zealand culture Grade 2 students learnt the art of lamington making while Grade 6 students learnt and performed a Maori stick dance with much enthusiasm.
Friday saw the culmination of this great week of celebration as we welcomed in the Americas and went “Global” with our food fair lunch and afternoon assembly. The students, parents and teachers all enjoyed participating in food samplings from the five continents. Many thanks need to given to students, parents and teachers for the enthusiastic support they provided in making this inaugural Mother Tongue Week event the wonderful celebration that it was. We look forward to continually recognizing the importance of and valuing the role of mother tongue in international education and we hope that everyone enjoyed the celebrations and we welcome your participation to get involved in the organizing for Mother Tongue week 2012.
ESL GRADE 7 WRITER’S WORKSHOP REFLECTIONS
As part of our unit titled “The Power of the Spoken Word” we asked the big question “How can the spoken word bring a story to life?” We had to research a traditional story from our home culture and translate the story from our mother tongue into English. We retold it in written form using art to make it more engaging for young children.
We then practiced storytelling techniques using our voice to make the story more interesting as we had to read our stories to the children in Grade 1. We learnt that there are many ways of being a storyteller and the more we practiced and made it interesting for the children the more fun we had sharing our stories.
First, we needed to find a traditional story from our home country. I chose a Korean traditional story from the Internet. My story was called “Dan Goon Shin Hwa”. After we found our story we read through the story and changed it into our own words and summarized the important parts using a word document. When we had finished summarizing our story and Ms. Dianne helped us to edit the grammar and spelling errors. Second, when we had finished summarizing the story we published and printed it in landscape on A3 paper. We pasted the story on pieces of large cardboard and started to draw pictures.
The drawing part was quite hard because I am not really good at drawing, for that reason I tried my best to produce better pictures. When the hard drawing part was done we started to color it. The coloring part was easier than drawing because it was simple. After we had finished the summarizing and drawing part, we started to practice storytelling techniques in the classroom using a loud, clear voice and keeping good eye contact. Finally, we went to Ms. Debra’s Grade 1 classroom and told our traditional story to the children. I think they enjoyed listening to my Korean story because all the children were looking and listening to our story very well.
Ho Jun Kong
I find a traditional story from Taiwan called “A Fox and a Monkey” on the Internet. Next I translated the story from Taiwanese to English, and I retold the story in my own words, and typed it in a word document. Then I edited my story with Ms. Dianne. I printed it and glued it on the cardboard paper. I started to draw pictures about what happened in each part of on each page. At the last step, we told the story to the Grade 1 children and it helped to improve my talking skills.
Yun Chia Chang
First I researched traditional Korean stories on the Internet and there were lots of stories. So I choose one that was titled “The Two Brothers”. After that I read the whole story than I summarized the story in my book. Then Ms. Dianne came to me and checked my work and edited it with me. The words were all perfect so I typed it on my laptop and then I made the font size to 47. Ms. Dianne came to check again then I printed it.
Ho Jun Yun Chia
Secondly, after I printed it off and cut all the papers into strips I pasted the text strips onto the cardboard sheets. I described the story and imagined what the characters and setting would be like as I drew the pictures onto the paper. When I had finished coloring the pictures using oil pastels I practiced reading my story in the classroom. Then I went to the Grade One classroom and told my story to the children. I had fun making my storybook and it was great to share it with the children.
Chang Min Kim
