Arabic & Islamic

For successful Arabic language learning, teachers ensure the presence of these elements: 

• Awareness of students’ levels of Arabic to ensure they get to the next level. The Ministry of Education has included levels in the Arabic Frameworks for both Arabic for Arabs and Arabic for non-Arabs curriculum. 
• Interest and Motivation: Activities in class and outside class should encourage students to learn the Arabic language and understand the Arabic culture. 
• Engagement: students are fully engaged in class discussions and activities and produce tasks that display their creativity and understanding. 
• Reinforcement through revision, praise, assessment and feedback.
• Support of the students in terms of learning and well-being. 

Arabic for Arabs and Arabic for non-Arabs. We use the Ministry resources including textbooks, frameworks, assessment outline etc. We also comply to the Ministry requirements in terms of teaching time and interactions. 

Arabic for Arabs

This program is for students who are registered in school with a passport from one of the 22 countries belonging to the Arab league. Arabic classes start in grade 1 with 6 interaction periods in primary school and continues with 4 in secondary school. In these interactions, teachers ensure their students develop the 4 skills of the language: Listening, reading, writing and speaking. They also include the grammatical rules of the language which includes also (Albalara) in the upper classes. Students in early age start enjoying the learning of their mother tongue through literary texts series of books, Arabic fairy tales or scientific texts.

Arabic for non-Arabs

This program is for students whose passport is not belonging to the 22 countries of the Arab league. It is competency based approeach to teaching and learning as students develop the 4 skills of the language in addition to basic grammar. In addition to learning the language, students develop cultural understanding of the Arab culture.

In native Arabic class, most students have Arabic as their mother tongue so with varying levels, they generally have strong receptive, productive and interactive skills and the expectation of the course is to consolidate them further. The students are expected to develop their fluency and proficiency and acquire the language to analyze texts as they grow. We use both the Ministry of Education curriculum standards and the IB standards.

In Arabic as additional language, students have varying experiences with the language as they can start learning Arabic at a later stage of their schooling if they come from another country. Teachers ensure that they differentiate learning to ensure continuity and motivation among students to learn the language. We use both the Ministry of Education Curriculum and the Victorian Curriculum standards. 
 

Our Arabic native speaker students study two curriculums: Ministry and IB. at the time they graduate they have developed:

• Communication and collaboration in a confident and creative way. 
• Engagement with a range of Arabic texts from different periods, styles, and cultures. 
• Extensive and creative writing and speaking in different context and for different audiences and purposes.
• Sensitivity to the formal and aesthetic qualities of texts and an appreciation of how they contribute to Diverse responses and open up multiple meanings
• Skills in analysis and evaluation. 
• Skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, presenting and performing
• Foster a lifelong interest in and enjoyment of Arabic language and literature.

After studying Arabic for a minimum of 10 years, students would have developed: 

• An awareness and appreciation of a variety of perspectives of people from diverse Arab cultures
• Communication in the Arabic language in a range of contexts and for a variety of purposes. 
• curiosity, creativity and a lifelong enjoyment of learning Arabic. 
• Understand and use the Arabic language to express and respond to ideas. 
• Organize and present ideas in Arabic.
• Understand, analyse and reflect upon a range of written, audio, visual and audio-visual texts.

At the start of learning Arabic, teachers ensure they are aware of the language profile of each student including information when students first started learning Arabic and the areas of improvements in the 4 skills through a diagnostic test. 

Learning is differentiated accordingly and the teacher may have groups of ability in the same class. 

The choice of the resources used in class is very important as we use different resources including the Ministry textbooks. Technology helps with differentiation as students extend their learning in an independent way. 

All the skills are taught in every lesson with a focus on a particular skill each term. Students are engaged in class through a variety of activities where they display their understanding and creativity in the subject. 

Teachers give feedback to students on their progress and guide them for better outcomes. 

Collaborative tasks are encouraged so that students support each other and feel more confident learning.

• Use of technology such as online learning softwares that enable student to have independent learning. 
• Collaborative projects where students contribute to the same project or a writing piece. 
• Active learning as students learn through fun activities. 
• Students setting their goals in learning and self-evaluation themselves. 
• Plan activities where students interact with their Arabic native speaker’s peers. That’s the most important motivation to learn Arabic when they are at Middle school. (Socializing)

• Senior students within their CAS program support younger students at lunch time to complete their homework or support with reading. 
• Teachers develop action plans where they include areas of improvement and the support provided to the students. These action plans are communicated to parents who play a big role in supporting their children. (Arab students)
• The head of faculty supports students at lunch through academic catch up sessions.

As a school, parent engagement is a key for our student’s success. We organize every year, information session with parents on Ministry subjects including Arabic. We ensure parents’ questions are answered about learning Arabic. We also support parents in being realistic about what their expectations regarding their children’s Arabic classes. 

Additionally, we offer special guidance to families where one parent is a native speaker of Arabic. Students coming from these families face some challenges regarding their identity and the expected progress in Arabic language. We meet with those families and give guidance case by case. 

We had a very good success with Arabic classes offered to non-Arabic speaker parents. They generally request two types of classes: conversational Arabic and reading Arabic classes. Some of our staff also attend these classes as it helps them integrate better in the UAE society and understand better the mother tongue of their students. Teachers affirm that students feel more appreciated when their teachers speak some Arabic with them.