 We need to move on to our second talk today. Jumbo, a standard spaced approach to introductory Kiswahili. And I'd like to introduce our speakers, Brenda Walriere from University of Kansas or KU, John Muchira from University of Kansas and also Purie Walriere from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for making time to attend our presentation. So my colleagues and I are going to share about the project that we are working on. As you can see, the name of the project is Hujambo, a standard-based approach to introductory Kiswahili. So today we're just going to share with you chapter one, which we have a complete draft draft of, but the layout of chapter one just highlights the structure that the textbook is going to follow. So I'll just give a brief overview of the project and then we'll look through chapter one here. This is a collaborative project and we're working with my colleagues, John Muchira, Purie Walriere and Peter Hujambo. And the illustrations for the book are being done by Maurice Weggulo. And I would also like to acknowledge Jonathan Parkins and KG Ashley from the University of Kansas, OLRC, who are great supporters of our program, of our projects, given us lots of inputs, feedback and on the overall outlook of the whole project. So we really appreciate the input on the project. So Hujambo is an open, web-based elementary Kiswahili textbook that has a supplementary teacher's book. So it's intended to provide an overview of Kiswahili language and culture using a pedagogical framework that integrates the world against standards of learning languages and proficiency guidelines. And it's presented using communicative language teaching approach. So the goal of this project is just to improve, we have very limited materials for teaching Swahili. Swahili language is growing and many institutions in the U.S. are not only in the U.S. but worldwide that are starting to teach Swahili, but we've not had like very up-to-date research-based textbook. So our goal is trying to, is to address this gap that is in the field. So the Hujambo is built, following the backward curriculum design and it's based on the theme of going to study abroad in East Africa. So it's a story of two American students going to study abroad in Kenya and Tanzania where they stay for an academic year. So that is the theme. So the theme is going on study abroad in East Africa and the whole textbook is structured. It has 10 thematic units. So 10 thematic units around the main topic. So for chapter one, we're just going to look at Grittinson introduction. So the very beginning, but other chapters covered in the book or other themes in the learning modules include where the students live. So they talk about where they live with their host families and things they try to describe. They're living surroundings, the cities that they're living in abroad and compare them with the cities at home. They also talk about their daily activities, their daily routine among people in East Africa and compare them with other cultures that they're familiar with. We're going to address the theme of food and nutrition, shopping, weather, among others. So in terms of the outline, each unit introduces, because it's based on the backward curriculum design, we first introduce the desired learning outcomes that reflect the wilderness standards. And then we indicate the summative performance assessment task for each mode of communication. So I'm going to share with you the outline or the structure in a few minutes. And then step three is the learning experiences. So these are the learning experiences and scenarios that target the five goals and the standards that are presented using the communicative approach. So the chapters are designed utilizing a scaffolded structure that follows the gradual stages of gradual release of responsibility where we present a model and then we have activities to follow that so that students can work in small groups and then they do tasks on their own. So currently we have, so this project is funded through the KU or LRC grants and we have to, we're working on it for a period of four years. So we're just in year two. And at the moment we have completed chapter one, but we have two drafts of chapter two and three, just awaiting illustrations and images, but then we should have a list chapter four by the end of this spring, but beginning of four, we are hoping to have like a whole curriculum that can be used for a full semester. So I'm going to just take you through the structure of our project and like you can see chapter one. So we begin, we are planning it best on the backward curriculum design. So we begin with essential questions around the topic because we're trying to build learners that are lifelong learners. So we want to begin with the broad, what are some of the essential questions that they have about the topic? And then we outline the desired learning outcomes. What is it that we want to just be able to do by to do and to know by the end of the covering, by the time they finish covering a module or a unit. So the learning outcomes are best on the five scenes. So we have communication culture and all of them as you can see listed here. So we try to address all of them. And then stage two is the performance, the summer team performance assessments that are in built into the unit. So these are the acceptance or evidence of what learners will be able to do. So through performing these assessments, they are able to demonstrate their knowledge and ability of the content that they cover. And then stage three, which are the learning activities and scenario, just demonstrate what students will be able to do. So the teacher models and then we have several activities that are presented using the communicative framework for students to be able to attain the desired learning outcomes. So this is the outline. So this is the beginning of chapter one. So students meets, they're going to study abroad in East Africa. So they travel, they're at an airport in the slum, they're being met by their host family. So they greet them, introduce themselves and then travel to go and meet their host family. So the whole unit. So each unit is split into at least 0.5. So we have at least five subsections within a module. So after the model, the model dialogues, we have checks for learning. So these are some of the checks for learning, like because this is a very elementary level, we're using matching questions, for example. And then we have activities where students work in pairs to be able to, so that is the scaffolding, gradual release. They see the teacher's model and then they work in pairs to practice the model and they continue like that. So we have various activities for them just to practice the model and the activities are situated within the different modes of communication. So for example, this is interpersonal, this is presentational, the presentational mode. So it's just a variety of activities towards that. And then, yeah, so these are just sample, example of activities. Then within each unit or each section, we have cultural exploration course. We want to build intercultural competence among the learners. So they have to explore, they have to discover, they have to research this African culture. So they do their own and then they have to do cultural reflections. So we pose questions for them to reflect, to research, discover and try to understand, compare and contrast their own culture or cultures that they're familiar with, today's African culture. So it's the goal is to build students intercultural competence. And then to follow that, we have the key vocabulary for each unit. So students can have a reference immediately after covering a small portion of content to continue to build their own vocabulary. So that is a complete subsection within module one. This is the second, the second subsection. And the structure is the same. So we have the model activities to check for learning and they're going to increase in complexity and difficulty as we move on. The other thing I wanted to note is we also have grammar sessions built within each of the units. Yeah, so for example, in unit one, yeah, so this is a grammar focus. It's coming in one point, but as we continue with other units, we find, because there's so many grammatical elements that we have to address. So we built, we've put a grammar section within, within each subunit. And after at grammar, at grammar explanation, grammar explanation was we have mechanical activities to practice the grammar structure. And then we have communicative activities for students to be able to practice using the various grammar structures. Yes, so in a nutshell, that is the structure of our project. And we also have built in, we also have listening comprehension, listening activities within the unit. So we're targeting all the four language, communicative skills, like I said previously. Yeah, my quality to add anything I may have left out, but in a nutshell, that is the structure of our project. It's still work in progress, but we're hoping by the end of this, by the fall, beginning of fall, we should have at least content, five modules done that can be used to cover our whole semester of instruction. And then by next fall, we hope we have completed the 10 modules that will be used for elementary Swahili instruction. Yeah. So I'm going to stop here unless we have any purity. You can add something before we take some questions. Yeah, so I think my colleague Brenda just covered everything that we are doing in this project and we are just trying to incorporate activities and learning strategies that will help learners to be cognitively engaged throughout the whole, the whole class time and also just trying to align all the materials and all the content that we are putting in the book with the world readiness standards, just to equip the learners with all the learning skills. Like for example, especially we focus so much on the communicative approach so they can gain all the interpersonal skills to practice speaking throughout the classroom lesson and also interpretive reading and listening through the listening activities and also the audio. We also have the audio. So we record separately and we put them in a separate document and also presentation or speaking. We have activities that let the learners write, presentation or writing. So we give them a task then they can write or we give them a task that will allow them to speak and present to the rest of the class. So we just try to equip them with all these language skills throughout the content that we put in the book. So I think Brenda covered everything that we are working on on the project. Unless if anyone has any questions. We have about two minutes for questions. Yeah, we have one question. I think Brenda, you can address this. Do you know any other African languages in OER? Yeah, I think we are familiar with there's an OER project at University of Austin, Texas. They work on a Yoruba OER textbook. Yeah, we haven't reached out to them but we are planning to collaborate and just learn from them what they're doing and to see if we can share and exchange notes with them. The other question I see is are we doing, are you doing all this from scratch or are there any many materials you can draw from or link to? So we don't have any materials. We're doing it from scratch. It is, that's why it's taken a lot of time because we are doing everything from scratch. Yeah, we develop all our activities and everything just from scratch. Asma, you have a question? Yeah, it's not really a question but it's a comment. I would just like to congratulate you guys for what you are doing. I'm also teaching Swahili and it has always been very hard to have a book that we can rely on. So what you guys are doing is really, really interesting and I'm really impressed by this. So good job. Thank you, Asma. We have probably time for one more question if anyone else has questions or comments. Well, I just want to say thanks to Brenda and Purity for their talk and, of course, their hard work at creating their own OER and giving it to other people. It's just, it's a really, it's a tremendous contribution to less commonly taught languages and especially to African languages. So we put the link into the Yoruba course that you were referred to, Yoruba, Yemi. I believe that started out as a largely a Google Doc project and where she kept developing and she developed also YouTube videos and some of those, some of that work she did with her students too. So it's a great example of learning from each other. So our next talk. Thank you. Sorry, I just saw Emily's question about when and where can I access this? So Emily, we're going to share this with you. I will ask John Parkins the best or the easiest way to share our materials. Right. Thank you everybody for taking time to attend our talk. Yeah, thank you so much.