Prospective New Format for Friday Armenian School for 2010-2011 Term
Prepared by Barbara Hovsepian
We are hoping to reach out to a lot of people in our community who are Eastern
speakers and want their children to learn Eastern Armenian. We have enough staff
knowledgeable in both Eastern and Western Armenian to provide classes for both.
Kindergarten classes (Western and Eastern) will be independent of the period
scheduling below. They will be self-contained classes.
The Western and Eastern students will be separated for Speaking class and
Writing/Reading class. Students will be grouped for Speaking and Writing/Reading
according to their needs (student centered grouping). They will be grouped in two to
three year age spans but if an older student needs to be grouped with a younger bunch
of students it will be dependent on the student’s comfort in that group, the parents’
consent, and the teacher’s acceptance. If the older student is disruptive or distracts the
younger students, placement will be re-evaluated.
They will be joined together for arts and crafts, history/culture/religion, music and dance
sessions. These will be taught in English with a smattering of Armenian where
appropriate. These groups will be age based.
In all classes, student engagement shall be the underlying foundation of all instruction.
School will start at 6 PM with opening prayer at 6:10 in the assembly area of Jessourian
Hall.
Kindergarten classes go to their rooms and follow their schedule. They will be selfcontained.
All other students go to their Speaking class.
Speaking class starts at 6:10 and goes to 6:35 – twenty-five minutes.
This class will be strictly Armenian Conversation.
5 minute break in between.
Writing/Reading starts at 6:40 and goes to 7:05 – twenty-five minutes.
This class stresses alphabet/sound connection, simple sentences, grammar and
advanced writing skills.
5 minute break in between.
The next three twenty-five minute segments, the students are in age based groups
(ages 6-7-8, 9-10-11, 12-13-14) and teachers rotate so that they have all three classes.
7:10 – 7:35 7:35 – 8:00 8:00 – 8:25. We will call this rotation “three groups time”.
History, Geography, Religion and Culture with Armenian Arts and Crafts
Music
Dance
School will end with all students reassembling in the Jessourian Hall for closing prayer
and announcements at 8:25 and dismissal at 8:30.
It is imperative that classes begin and end on time. Teachers cannot keep students for
extra few minutes as it will delay other classes.
Students should use the bathrooms before school starts. A quick bathroom break or
water fountain drink may be had during transitions.
No snack will be supplied by AS except for Kindergarten students who will bring their
own snack the kindergarten teachers will set their own snack time.
Speaking and Writing/Reading classes will be named by town/region names.
Western classes will be Van, Sepastia, Kharpert, Bitlis, Kars, Erzerum, Dikranagert,
Adana.
Eastern classes will be Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor, Etchmiadzin, Sevan,
Yeghegnadzor, Artashat, Khor Virab.
The four classes which are age based and rotate will be age appropriate. For example
a Music class for 6-7-8 year old children will be songs for young children while the
Music class for 12-13-14 year old children will be more traditional Armenian songs every
Armenian should know.
History, Geography, Religion and Culture classes will be composed for various age
groupings to be appropriate information for those ages. For example, a geography
lesson for the 6-7-8 year old students may be learning what the outline map of Armenia
looks like, what the flag of Armenia looks like and what the capital city is; for the 9-10-11
year old students may be learning the major cities, rivers and mountains on the map of
Armenia; for 12, 13 and 14 year old students it may be putting resources on the map of
Armenia , learning about more cities, learning about what industries are located in
Armenia, what recreational activities are popular and where they are located, comparing
ancient Armenian regions and reach / maps of Armenia before the Genocide / present
Armenia and Nogorno Karabagh (political geographic history).
Arts and Crafts will be included and related to the lessons.
Arts and Crafts classes may include:
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Cooking typical Armenian foods such as choreg, pilaf, dolma, anoushabour, lahmajoun, bourma, cheese boureg
Armenian regional traditional dress – doll making
Making Armenian crosses
St. Vartan, St. Ghevont project
Genocide commemoration project
Relief map of Armenia and surrounding area
Easter egg dying with onion peels
Growing wheat for the tomb of Christ
Armenian folk tale puppets
Building a typical village home with tufa
Making Mt. Ararat and Masis with paper maché
Celebrating Vartavar
Music will be planned so that younger students will have music more appropriate to
their age while older students will learn some new songs and some traditional classics
that all Armenians should be familiar with.
Dance will be arranged by the dance teacher. Traditional dance steps will be taught as
well as choreographic dances for the Hantes.
The teachers for “three groups time” are Houri for Dance, the Marras for Music, and the
rest of the staff taking turns for History, Geography, Religion and Culture with Barbara
for Arts and Crafts.
During “three groups time” if a Speaking teacher or a Writing/Reading teacher wants to
work one-to-one with a student who needs extra help (tutoring), she can have the
student miss some or all of the “three groups time” to do that, but be careful that the
student isn’t missing all those classes every week.
During “three groups time” teachers of Speaking and Writing/Reading will use that time
to tutor students or to prepare for their next week or two of classes – gather materials
needed, make photo copies, fine tune lesson plans, meet with colleagues to discuss
student progress, teaching ideas, prepare materials, etc. Also, they may have a cup of
coffee or tea.
The scope and plans for all curriculums (mapping) will be laid out over the summer
months so that we can be ready for September.
The Kindergarten classes will have their Music and Dance before 7 PM with the Music
and Dance teachers. While the students are singing and dancing, the Kindergarten
teachers can use that time to prepare materials for their class or work with a student on
a one-to-one basis.
The first few Friday sessions will be used to evaluate new students so they can
be placed in the proper groups.