Sunday, September 1, 2013

Learning from Different Alphabets

pdsunday

Recently, I posted about how my school is using Facebook and Pinterest as part of our professional development.  (See the whole post HERE.) I’ve decided to pass on some of the best videos and articles I come across to you each Sunday evening.  Here is this week’s professional development post:

  Do you expose your students other alphabets?

When I first moved to Morocco, looking at Arabic letters was like looking at a picture or a pretty design.  I realized then, that I had never really been exposed to any alphabets outside of the modern Latin alphabet.  Now that I see how easily my children can decipher two completely different alphabet systems, I am all about exposure to different types of alphabets.  Here is a TED talk about different alphabets that have been developed in Africa – I sure wish I had seen this while I was teaching my Africa Unit last year.  However, even now, it gives great facts, and would be a cool video to share with students when we are working on handwriting and writing, to give them exposure to how important an alphabet is to communication.  It would also be a great way to talk about how language evolves and changes.

Do you think exposing your students to other alphabets could improve their thinking about their own alphabet and how they use it? 

If you’re interested in more professional development videos – follow my Professional Development Pinterest board.

Heidi Raki of Raki's Rad Resources

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