Director Report DAY 2- DAY 4(June 25-26-27, 2019)

YHS STARTALK 2019-‘My Virtual Trip to India, North-South-East-West’: The first week of the program was focused on what to see, do and eat in the North (2days)and South (2 days) of India. Elementary and Middle school students showed great interest in visiting these places to experience the heritage of India, participate in India’s cultural products and practices appropriately and relish delicacies of various regions. Our day starts with morning Yoga, where ‘Bhujangasana (The Cobra Position)’ has been proved to be the most popular asana among the young learners. It is heartening to see the enthusiasm if the first and second graders when they are engaged in literacy activities. They are not only doing word search quizzes but also describing their favourite activity they would like to perform-swimming at Kempty Waterfall, track along the Camelback Road in Mussoorie, participate in Mysore Dussahara parade, eat Dosa-Idlyin Mysore and visit its palaces. How important it is to protect our heritage for the future generations!!!

Director Report DAY 5(June 28, 2019)

YHS STARTALK HINDI 2019, Day 5: Working hard to impress. Our program is poised to enter its second week.These pictures were taken on Friday, June 28th when Novice High and Intermediate range students got busy producing varieties of evidences of their learning.They not only made impressive presentations of their speaking and writing skills, younger students were keen to showcase their learning in the three modes to the best of their abilities. A healthy environment of competitiveness prevails at the program.

Director Report DAY 6

YHS STARTALK HINDI 2019, Day 6: Using puppets to describe travel plan- Students learned about Odisha and presented their preference of where they wanted to go

Director Report DAY 8

Farewell to our consultant Ying Jin;Day 8, July 9, 2019: YHS STARTALK PROGRAM entered its ninth day to let students explore the culture and endangered animals, such as, Asiatic Lions of Gir Forest, of Gujarat (West). Our consultant, Ying Jin (ACTFL Teacher of 2017), (second from left) observed our classes this week. Today YHS Team said good bye to her.

YHSSTARTALK HINDI PROGRAM 2019; Day 8: varieties of Reading and Writing activities by N3 learners. The program is on its peak-students have virtually travelled to four destinations in four corners of India-North-South-East and West and producing a lots of languages. Based on what parents told us Their speaking, reading and writing proficiency has improved to next sub level of ACTFL Guidelines.

YHS STARTALK HINDI 2019; Week 3

YHS STARTALK HINDI 2019; Week 3: “It is hard to predict the proficiency growth of Heritage learners”, said our Team Leader Prof Gabriela Ilieva of NYU. We experienced this truth when first and second graders demonstrated their expanding learning curve during varieties of literacy activities. These enthusiastic kids not only recognized animals, birds, food and natural surroundings in the four geographical regions of India, they also spoke in full sentences about basic features of places and animals the learned during the day.

Day 11 and 12

YHS STARTALK 2019, Week 3: A variety of theme based projects were completed on Day 11 and 12. Learners were encouraged to paint images of their favorite places to see, things to do and food to eat in a specific region of India.

DAY 14

YHSSTARTALK HINDI 2019 Program concluded on July 12. All students were dressed in colorful traditional dresses that represented the vibrant culture of INDIA. Students performed a 45 minute dance-drama that was scripted and choreographed by themselves and with guidance and supervision of class teachers Sandhya Bhagat, Bina Bengali, Akila Shekhar, Arushi, Sanjyot ji and Kusum ji. Students received Certificates of Completion by YHS President Upendra Chivukula and Dr Dayashankar Vedalankar, representative of the Consul General, Govt of India in New York.

Seventh year of STARTALK program in PA