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How people live in Europe and the Middle East

Moderator: Peter Freedman

TOPIC/PROJECT:

Comparison of how people live in Europe and the Middle East: a Geography/English Project idea from ISRAEL for Grade 8, through KIDLINK/KIDPROJ

Moderator :Peter Freedman pete15@inter.net.il

Neve Eitan High School, for kibbutz and moshav 7th to 12th grade children, is situated close to the Jordan border in the North of Israel. (The kibbutz and moshav are co-operative farming communities ). The English, Geography and Computer teachers from the School are promoting a new project for 8th graders learning European Geography; to encourage our kids to ask their contemporaries (by e-mail) questions about the European countries that they will be studying.

One way we want to try is to find out about the lives of IMAGINARY PEOPLE - to make the studies more vivid:

1. A French farmer from the North of France
2. A Norwegian farmer in the south
3. A farmer from Sardinia or Sicily, Italy
4. A Norwegian fisherman, possibly from the Lofoten Islands
5. A Parisian fashion designer
6. A Swiss banker or maybe a chocolate manufacturer!
7. An industrial worker in the Rhine Valley, Germany
8. A flower grower from Holland

This list is flexible and we shall be prepared to amend it within the framework of the project. Any relevant ideas will be most welcome! Needless to say, on your side, your kids would have an "entry" to our exotic part of the world; Israel, the Middle East, kibbutz, the Peace Process, etc.; but within the Project's framework.

At first, our kids will learn how they can apply e-mail to write a letter in English to someone they don't know, (learning a bit about "Netiquette" on the way). At the same time, we'll get the kids to exchange ideas that are universally common to that age group (Pop, Sport, Fashion etc.) All this will be the responsibility of the English teachers. By November, we'd like to guide them towards learning about the "persons" listed above. Ideally, your school will be in a town, or even a village, in the appropriate area of the country, but that may be a bit of wishful thinking ! Even though your school could be in the centre of a large city, the subject matter may be attractive enough for you.

As a suggested outline, your kids should indicate:

1. where their country is situated in Europe; its principal features
2. whether they enjoy living in a city, town or in the countryside
3. what they like to eat, something about their national culture, industries etc. and how it compares with what our kids know of their country
4. what they want to do when they grow up - where they think they will live and work, what countries they would like to visit
5. how they would like to change the environment where they live

We have three classes learning English in our 8th Grade; about half of the kids are more or less fluent in English, another 25% have certain difficulties, and the remaining dozen or so are very weak indeed. We want to take special care to include these weaker pupils, and would be interested to know if there are any Hebrew speakers at your school who would write to them, if necessary, by "snail mail" !

Our timeline is approximately as follows:

From early October to 13th October - announcement and registration of the Project
From 14th October to 27th October - initial introductions
From 28th October to 10th November - participants compare their likes and dislikes about where they live
From 11th November to 24th November - participants enquire about the lives of the IMAGINARY PEOPLE
From 25th November to 6th December (the beginning of our Hanukah - Christmas - Holidays) - how would the participants like to change the environment in which they live?
6th December - Project Wrap-up

I hope this is enough information for the time being and we look forward to hearing from you

Peter Freedman - English Dept.
Beit She'an Regional High School
Kibbutz Neve Eitan
ISRAEL 10840

Registration: pete15@inter.net.il

Please ensure that all students/kids who will be taking part in our project have answered the four KIDLINK questions.

Please give short details of your group/class including full name and sex. We should like as many as possible of our 50 kids to participate, according to their proficiency in English.

I will send you an initial batch of kids' letters within a short time, together with a list of their names (stating whether male or female).

Information Contact: Patti Weeg, Title 1 Computer Teacher, Delmar El. School, Delmar, Maryland, USA. Home Page: http://www.intercom.net/local/weeg

KIDPROJ WWW Contact: Grant Dougall, Educational Consultant: Technologies, Saskatoon Board of Education, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CANADA. Web Site: http://198.169.140.21/

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Created October 12, 1996