English Access Summer Institute and Day Camp Program

English Access Summer Institute and Day Camp Program - June 2006

Haci Ömer Tarman Anatolian High School, Ankara

The English Access Summer Institute and Day Camp Program in Ankara was an unprecedented program for Turkey, bringing public school teachers and students together to team up with those from various ECA-sponsored programs to emphasize the value of the two-year English Access Microscholarship initiative. Fifty Turkish secondary school English teachers and 100 secondary school students joined together with English Language Specialist from Chicago David Malatesta, visiting ECA Arts Residency Specialist Jennifer Janak, four English Language Fellows based throughout Turkey (Jeela Bentley, Mora Hockstein, Maria Iskenderoglu, and Claire Nice), and the American Voices HaviKoro break dance group during the period of June 19 – 30, 2006.

The Ministry of Education in Turkey also played a leading role in the program by selecting the teachers and students to participate in the program and providing the school at which the program took place at no cost. The principal of the secondary school welcomed the program with open arms and eagerly endorsed the painting of a mural at his institution. The goals of the program were multifold: to demonstrate interactive and engaging activities to the secondary school teachers for use in their English language classroom, to give the teachers an opportunity to teach their newly acquired techniques to the secondary school student participants, to expose students to extended fluency practice in English, to convey a wide range of American culture to all participants and provide contact and interaction with various Americans.