We are proud to announce that UNIS (United Nations International School) has paired with HEART to collect teaching materials for the school’s new English reading book. UNIS, which was founded in 1947, exhibits the guiding principle of creating “A Better World,” in all they do. Students engage with the local and global community in required service hours each semester, and as upperclassmen, they design and execute service learning projects. A friend of HEART, Dr. Karen Weissman, brought the school’s English book project to UNIS Director of Student Activities, Mr. Zakaria Baha, to see if the students would be interested in collaborating on this worthwhile project.
We were thrilled to discover that approximately 40 UNIS students volunteered to help locate images and record audio clips for all three parts of the book! Students surfed copyright-free picture databases to locate illustrations for words from the reading book. For example, the reading list contained the word “catch,” and one of the students located this picture of a dog catching a Frisbee in his mouth for the illustration. In all of the reading lists, these images will be used to help students to connect the sound and spelling of a word to its meaning. Pictures help the learner to connect a meaning to a word without having to take the intermediate step of translating it into their native language first. This can be especially helpful for very young students who do not yet read—either in their native language or the target language—because they may not yet know the word for an object they see in a textbook. Students also recorded audio files to accompany the book, allowing students to hear the words they would be learning to read.
This project worked well in that it allowed students to complete their community service requirements remotely during the pandemic. The book, which will help students to gain a reading knowledge of English, is a key tool for students to pursue the career of their choice later in life. Since textbooks in most fields are in English, a reading knowledge of the language can help students to pursue a career in any field. HEART’s textbook includes cutting-edge multi-media materials including pictures and voice recordings. These materials are invaluable for language learners because they help students to build vocabulary, improve reading, and perfect pronunciation skills. However, it takes a great deal of time and organization to produce and collect such materials. The UNIS students’ contribution helped us to create the first version of the textbook this year. Unfortunately, because of COVID restrictions, we are unable to obtain pictures of all the students or to receive permission to recognize each of them by name, but we still want to express our gratitude for their invaluable contributions. Together, we can make the world a better place!
From left to right: Mr. Baha, Isabel Luna Annunziata, Chloe Skinner, Sydney Berna, Matias Corona, Advait Sunil, Daria Mehrnia, Theodore Bonneau, Declan O’Sullivan, Valisoa Picard Schantz, Helena Rocha, Ms. Polatbora.
Other UNIS Volunteers Not Pictured Above: Andreas Nicolau, Justa van Gaal, Oluwatemisola Akinwande, Jovana Vasić, Sophie Chen, Joseph Puglisi, Alexi Blackshaw, Mai Tran, David Gustafsson, Jack Lurie, Naomi Brown, Lola Martin-Consuegra, Livmini Jayasinghe
