Establishing the First Classroom Partnership:
S.E.V. Elementary School (Turkey) and
Southwest Charter School (U.S.A.)

People to People International revitalized its School and Classroom Program in conjunction with the initiation of the Friendship Through Education Consortium announced by U.S. President George W. Bush on October 25, 2001. PTPI is a founding member of the Consortium, which provides opportunities for the world's youth to interact, and thus, build a culture of peace in which the dignity and rights of human beings are respected.

The PTPI School and Classroom Program's first classroom partnership was established between grade six students at Southwest Charter School in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A. and grade five students at S.E.V. Elementary School in Izmir, Turkey. During one year these inquisitive students regularly exchanged letters and email messages in which they inquired about culture, everyday activities, and events. Letters included currency, school photographs, postcards featuring landmarks and influential citizens, recipes, a music disc, and a toy. These items were accompanied by explanations of purpose, use, or location.

Mr. Bob Lockler, the Southwest Charter School classroom teacher, stated, "My students are extremely excited about making new friends around the world. They are eager to learn about people who are culturally different from them. Hopefully we can come to understand each other's differences and, in the end, learn we also have a lot in common. If we are going to survive, prosper, and live in peace, then we need to realize we are all part of one race, the human race. We need to cooperate, listen, and understand."

Mr. Lockler's students communicated weekly via email with the Turkish students, whom they regard as friends. To further supplement the students' experience, the School and Classroom Program arranged for a university student from Turkey to visit the classroom to speak about Turkish life and customs. The speaker was coordinated through the International Relations Council's International Classroom Program which trains university students from many countries to speak to local classrooms.

Ms. Joanna Miller, the S.E.V. Elementary School classroom teacher, said her students were thrilled with their partner classroom. "I think my students are realizing they have a lot in common. They have taken the comments by the American students, regarding controversial topics such as the events of September 11 and their various religious beliefs, very seriously. I think they are gaining more than they may realize."

Additional classrooms from S.E.V. Elementary School and Southwest Charter School began participating in the School and Classroom Program due to the positive experience of this classroom partnership.

Literature Comparison Project

Students on three different continents compared their readings of the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley. Sally Olive of Macintyre High School in Australia, Jessica Jacobson of Aginsk Gymnasium in Russia, and Candee Manwaring of Sun Coast School in Florida began a three-way partnership concentrating on this literature project in August 2002. This particular novel was chosen because the Russian students were reading an abridged edition of it to improve their English-language skills.

Since the partnership began, not only did the teachers and students benefit from the cultural differences and similarities between their evaluations of the story, friendships and genuine care for one another developed. Candee Manwaring said, "We are all enjoying it [the partnership]. I think the teachers are having as much fun as the students. The horrible coincidence that each country participating has been touched by terrorism recently, has provided much discussion material in my classes and I'm sure in the Russian and Australian classes as well. One of my eighth grade girls immediately became concerned about our Russian partners when she heard about the Moscow attack, because her pen pal has a sister studying at the university there. It has definitely made my kids see the world in another way!"

From Jessica Jacobson: "Our three-way partnership with schools in Florida and Australia has been a very positive experience for our students. For almost all of them, it is their first contact with a foreigner of their age. Until just over a decade ago, this entire region was off-limits to foreigners. The partnership has been an important link in connecting Aginsk with the outside world, providing the students with opportunities to both share their own unique culture and to learn about life on two different continents.

'They are very wealthy compared to us,' one student said, 'but we learn about who they are and how they live. We know their hobbies, how they study, and how they write about themselves.' All of the students said that the partnership has made them hopeful that they will have the chance to travel and to someday see the things their friends write about. Their excitement for the project was evident in the way they crowded around to see pictures of their pen pals or eagerly gathered to read newly arrived batches of letters.

As a teacher, it's been rewarding to take them out of the old textbooks they usually study. I'm also very impressed that the students and teachers in America and Australia are interested in learning about Siberia. I think our students' exchanges are dismantling stereotypes from all sides and taking an important step towards global understanding."

Foreign Language Classes

Foreign language classes where students learn Spanish, French, German, English or other languages have become common to the School and Classroom Program. These classes are paired with native speakers. Often the result is a partnership where two languages are employed. For example, students in Mexico are working with classes in the United States to practice English. Most of their U.S. counterparts are Spanish-language classes. By using English and Spanish to communicate, students are benefiting from reading and writing a second language, while retaining the comfort of using their native language as well.

The following text was contributed by Guillermo Lara Góngora, English General Coordinator at the Instituto Latino de Morelia in central Mexico. He describes the experience of using two languages in classroom partnerships.

At the Instituto Latino de Morelia, English is taught as a foreign language and is a mandatory subject. We foster both language acquisition, as well as, learning, and we aim to develop linguistic skills and acquire knowledge on grammar, vocabulary, functional language and Anglo-Saxon cultural awareness.

Since the 2002-2003 school year, we have been participating in the School and Classroom Program. We began with some of our Senior High School groups, and the next year several Junior High School groups joined this fabulous experience. Currently, we have 13 classrooms participating in different, collaborative projects with seven partner classes from five states of the United States. Some of the projects have been students' self-introductions, bios and personal descriptions, school and school life, and Our Hometown.

How do we work it out?
We do not have a single formula. Our teachers and U.S. partner teachers agree on possible topics, ways of sending the information and other materials, and ways of having students participate. Then they collect letters, pictures and other materials, review them and send them out by parcel mail or email. Our students usually write in Spanish, with occasional words or small sections in English. Many American students write in English and use more occasionally Spanish, or they prepare their letters in Spanish and ask for information about Mexican students in English. The idea is to allow both sets of students to practice their foreign language skills. At the end of the school year, we have a presentation at the conference hall where letters, pictures and other materials are shown to students, teachers and some parents, and personal experiences are given by selected students.

We see PTPI's School and Classroom Program as an extraordinary learning opportunity for students to know and make friends with people from other cultures; a chance to use their language skills in more realistic situations; and a complementary way to develop linguistic proficiency in a fun manner.

"Real English"

This story was contributed by Brendan Canavan, a teacher at Seiryo High School in Tokyo, Japan, whose students are linked with students of Jon Zeljo at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C.

"Now, this is real English!" stated Yuiichi Ozaki as he began to reply to the first letter he received from his U.S. pen pal.

In Japan, one of the greatest challenges to teaching English is making it relevant to a student's daily life. The need for mathematics, science, and Japanese studies is readily apparent to students as this knowledge is required to function in Japanese society, but the same is not exactly true for English. Although English words and expressions have found their way into Japanese popular culture, students have no need to express themselves or understand English outside the classroom, often making it more a subject to pass rather than a language to learn. Students of homeroom class 404 in Japan were given the opportunity to use and demonstrate their English skills through PTPI's School and Classroom Program.

First, we sent profiles of the Japanese students to the United States, so they could be matched with one or more individual pen pals in their partner class. This was not difficult because they had long practiced questions such as "tell us about your family." The real challenge came when they received letters from the American students, who had replied to their questions and added their own. Responding to a person of similar age in another country motivated my students in a manner no textbook, teaching aids, or teacher could provide.

While our letter exchange continued, my students began to produce videos. The first video described the school's history, class schedule and annual events; one student, Ryouta Sano, made a presentation on the basics of Japanese language. When the students watched their 25-minute creation, they were amazed to realize their abilities were stronger than they had thought. They could speak English.

For my students, contact with international peers made English more relevant to their lives. It is our hope that correspondence between us and our U.S. friends will grow to a time they may one day meet.