CMSSHC-2017 took place at Yamunotri Campus of Chinmaya Mission (30877, N. Fairfield Road, Grayslake, IL, 60030), July 10th to July 28th, 2017, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. offering 90 instructional hours per student over the 15 day camp (M-F each week for 3 weeks).
This camp was funded by STARTALK federal grant, which means, NO FEES were charged to participate in this camp.
Indian vegetarian snacks and lunch were served daily during the camp ( NO COST to Participants ).
There were three classrooms of about 12 students per class, with a total of 36 students.
Neena Kathuria, Ashish Kathuria, and Anuja Naik served as main classroom teachers.
Lalitha Gupta, Komal Bhonagiri, and Ruchi Naik served as assistant classroom teachers.
All the teachers were trained by STARTALK and had prior classroom experience of teaching Hindi.
Madhumathi Kumar served as the administrative assistant.
With the theme "MY COOL SCHOOL", this program aimed to introduce thirty six 8-10 year old students to conversational and written Hindi at novice high (proficiency) / intermediate low (performance) levels.
The theme was divided in three sub themes - 1) MY - Me & You (As they met new friends in the Hindi camp, learners exchanged information about themselves, their families, friends, likes, dislikes, daily school routine, extra-curricular interests with classmates.) 2) COOL - Cultural Orientation Offered through Language (Learners compared and contrasted American and Indian cultures as they explored school life, after school activities, and a few customs they encountered in the Hindi camp.) - 3) SCHOOL - STARTALK Chinmaya Hindi - Outstanding Opportunities for Learners (Students made connections with other disciplines through hands on activities, such as math, science, geography, arts, health, and nutrition by participating in art club, cooking club, science club, dance club, video making club, and yoga).
As the outcome of the program, learners were able to communicate in all three modes of communication.
1) Interpersonal - Learners were be able to exchange personal information, follow and give simple directions, state preferences and choose an option from given choices after discussing with others.
2) Interpretive - Learners were able to understand information about families, friends, their likes and dislikes, school activities, and schedule through listening, reading, and watching different media.
3) Presentational - Learners were able to give information about their families, friends, daily routine, simple instructions for a game, a dance, write simple information in Hindi - their name, address, family tree, school routine.
They were immersed in cultural practices (such as folk dances, songs, greetings, showing respect to elders) and products (such as food, clothing, books, music, movies, rangoli, diyaa) of Hindi speaking natives.
They were able to take their learning beyond the classroom by visiting a local senior center, where most seniors spoke Hindi, who were able to share their school experiences with our learners.
Working in teams of three, through discussions and negotiation, learners designed their COOL SCHOOLs and invited others to study at their school.
CMSSHC 2017's aim was to stimulate and enrich learners' imaginations and make learning a new language fun through various hands on activities and use of web 2.0 technology tools. Students learned to interpret instruction in culturally rich contexts (some familiar, some new), interact with the teachers and other learners while engaging in playful activities, and present their learning in the form of a model of their dream school, and by maintaining a personal bulletin board showcasing their daily learning.
Campers learned to speak, read and write Hindi in playful ways through stories, video clips, books, sports, hands on activities such as preparing meals, participating in different clubs (art club, cooking club, science club, video club, and dance club), and games. They were immersed in the language and culture of Hindi through games, like kho-kho, bacaao, sher - bakarii, ruumaal - zapaTTaa, carrom, piThThuu, kabaDDii and movies.
Hindi was used 90% of the time inside and outside the classroom.
Camp objective was to facilitate learning of Hindi through 5 C's (world readiness standards of foreign language learning propounded by ACTFL) - communication (interpersonal, interpretive and presentational), culture (perspectives, practices and products), comparison (of cultures and languages), connections (with other disciplines such as science, health, arts, math and distinctive view-points), and communities (taking learning beyond the classroom and becoming life-long learners).
We thank all the student and adult volunteers for your selfless service in making this camp a successful learning experience for our learners.
Please write to the program director (Vidya Nahar) at vidya@balodyan.com or call her at 847-537-4710 for any questions.