Cultural Connection

A fellow colleague of mine, Michael Dissen, has joined the peace corps and is traveling to Africa on November 10, 2008 where he will live and teach underprivileged students for the next two or more years. He has been to Africa and worked with these children three times before and he knows how much help they need with their English. I thought it would be a wonderful idea for my students to work on their writing skills through a pen-pal system while simultaneously learning about another culture, too. The African students will be able to practice reading and writing English by responding to our letters. The three-week turn-around with the postal service will allow us plenty of time to prepare our next set of letters, pictures, videos, and other media created for the African students.

Since most of the "huts" in Africa do not have electric, it would be more logical for my students to take pictures of American places, people, and things for the children to reference while reading about them in our letters. Through use of digital cameras and printing docks, we could take pictures around the school, around town, of students and faculty, animals, and other forms that the African students have never encountered in their lives. Local attractions, such as amusement parks, and school functions, such as football/baseball/basketball/soccer games and dances would serve as great learning experiences for the students in Africa.

In order for students in my class to gain further insight into African culture, we would plan a fundraiser to raise money and collect donations, such as disposable cameras, to send to Africa for the students to take pictures of their lives. Part of the fundraising money would be used to develop the film sent back to us from the African students.

After speaking to Michael, I know that the students in Africa would love this activity, and it would help them to learn English and about another culture faster than they could in any other experience, especially since they do not have books in Africa.

Although I only teach one 7th grade English class, the other English classes in my school would gladly join in on this activity since we work in teams. I would also love to use this same type of activity with my PSSA tutoring students. They are working on reading and writing and they would be able to practice those skills while decoding the African students' letters, using the students' letters as samples for correcting grammar errors, etc., and by responding once per month. The rest of the time would be used collecting the next batch of pictures to be send to the students. These cameras would be used for years and classes to come.