TEACHERS UNITED:

Cultivating Biliterate

Cultures with CBC

CODEBREAKER Gamification in ESL-learning to foster better readers, writers, speakers & thinkers. Teachers teach and students learn difficult, tedious, arid, grammar rules playing cards! Flip your LESSON TOTALLY! Teachers -become the “coolest” teacher in the school because you lesson plan with CBC Codebreaker. Codebreaker gives you on-the-spot evaluations, fosters team work, betters social inter-action, class-room mobility, student participation etc. JOIN our BILITERACY MOVEMENT in Honduras, TODAY!

2014

Telephone: 9982-6053; 2540-1306; Email: cbctutor@grupomaraj.com

Corporate Bilingual Consultancy S de R L

12/06/2014

Dear Roger Enrique Valladares,

First, allow me to apologize for sending our proposal so late after our Codebreaker Demo but as I mentioned before I am

just returning from my maternity and it was a little complicated to find the time to get back to work.

Secondly, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to demo our game at your institution and before your academic

directors. It was our pleasure to see their enthusiasm upon receiving our message and more so in sharing many of the

same concerns.

Here, in the table below, I present our proposal on how to implement CBC Codebreaker in UTH. There are four

possibilities:

PROPOSALS CONCEPTS COST

OPTION 1- Direct purchase

Buy Codebreaker games and implement in classes. With the purchase of 50 games and more Teacher training and Student support is provided at no extra cost.

1 game: $18.00 USD 50+ games: @$14.00USD (CBC provides FREE training for teachers on how to use & evaluate with Codebreaker to promote “Biliterate” proficiency) Training is 8 hrs intensive – 2 four hour sessions.

OPTION 2-

Integrate CBC Codebreaker and the CBC Grammatical Analysis 8 hr Workshop as an introduction to the UTH ESL program for all students.

$300.00 USD- 15 to 30 students in each workshop. Games sold individually to UTH students- 10% profit sharing offer for UTH on games sold.

OPTION 3

A CBC/UTH alliance where UTH provides sponsorship of Codebreaker games in public schools selected by UTH and CBC the teacher training and student support.

50+ games: @$14.00USD (includes training for teachers on how to use & evaluate with Codebreaker to promote “Biliterate” proficiency.

OPTION 4

CBC/UTH: Public School Teacher Intensive Workshop- CBC provides the training, UTH invites Public School teachers to receive training & sponsors games to teachers.

$840.00 USD: 30 teachers in each 8 hr intensive workshop. Cost includes training materials and Codebreaker game for each attendant. (objective: cultivate a Biliterate culture)

OPTION 5

CBC can collaborate with UTH to create a personalized Dual Immersion Program just for UTH designed to foster National Pride, Improved self-esteem & ensures focus on building Speaking skills.

Consultancy fees $30.00 USD x hour.

The CODEBREAKER Story by Suzanne Rajkumar

Igniting the “BILITERACY MOVEMENT” in Honduras

With more than 29,000 hours teaching adult executives along the north-south corridor in Cortés, from as far as Caracol

Knits in the south to Gildan Rio Nance to the north and not counting my eight years has a high-school teacher in Trinidad

and Tobago, more than qualify me according to Gladwell’s “10,000-hour formula” as an expert on teaching languages.

My accumulated experience in the field of trilingual teaching: ESL, SSL & EFL has created a very unique perspective on

bilingual education in Honduras for me. I did not spend the last fourteen years in one college, rather I have taught a

wide cross-section of adult executives in upper management posts, each with his or her own personal learning

experiences having graduated from some of the most prestigious “bilingual” colleges in Honduras. Despite their

different educational backgrounds, it was a curiosity for me that they all shared certain “spanglish” errors!

This curiosity would lead to me doing away with the typically imported ESL textbooks and me custom designing learning

material catering to the skill-specific needs of my Latin American clients (Honduras, Colombia, El Salvador, Chile,

Argentina, Guatemala, Peru). My students are my biography and their success in applying my learning strategies led me

to aim for a more massive application of my ESL material. I am known to be compassionate as a teacher yet strict as an

evaluator…I believe in preparing my students for excellence not mediocrity!

What I’ve learned in 29,000+ hours teaching in Honduras

I started observing that my Honduran students were making mistakes as I did as a native English Speaker! So I

decided to take a closer look and realized that many "bilingual" schools here in reality are monolingual English

speaking ones, where kids are taught to use English principally and Spanish is the extra class!

Insufficient Spanish classes have led to poor Spanish writing skills and a horrible Spanglish epidemic which

threatens the foundation of the national identity of the learner in Honduras. All of my students complain

about VERBS! Their memories of Spanish language classes are horrible. For the majority, they survived classes

copying homework from a friend!

I thought a lot about how to make grammar interesting enough to ensure they kept on practicing even after

they left my classes and that lessons learnt would be fun and unforgettable…and TA..DAH: CBC CODEBREAKER

was born!

What is CBC CODEBREAKER?

With CBC Codebreaker we get inside your head! It is a dynamic card game designed for 1 to 4 players. It is

based on having students learn to make the right grammatical judgments with a 99.9% level of accuracy (we

leave .1% open for the unexpectedness factor) when organizing their ideas in English or Spanish. It is all

about DECIPHERING the Spanish/English Language Code within a millisecond of a minute. It is about making

split-second decisions with immaculate precision…and it is tons of FUN too! Memorability is also remarkable-

once the skill is learnt the brain wants more and more stimulation…kids and adults will want to learn more!

Reading Comprehension velocity also impacted positively with CBC Codebreaker.

Gamification principles applied to “tedious, mundane, complex grammar concepts” using CBC Codebreaker

I come from a card-game playing country called Trinidad and Tobago, playing cards is a KEY SOCIALIZING tool

on our island and every Trini has had lots and lots of fun playing in family, with friends, even with strangers

getting out a pack and playing ALL-fours (traditional TnT game)- there is teamwork, healthy joking, healthy

competition, strategizing, use of memory to keep track of cards played etc. Quick thinking, strategizing, sizing-

up a situation, keeping track of your opponent’s game etc are skills we acquire through continuous play. Sadly

for many of my students they had spent so much time studying and working to put themselves through

college and university they had had very little time to play board-games also known as table-games, much less

play the taboo-associated card-games where people in Honduras usually play for money!

I came to the conclusion that the LACK OF PLAYING “strategy based” BOARD GAMES in family delayed the

development of certain life skills like "sizing up 'a situation or "reading people's faces to anticipate their

intentions etc. My empirical theories on the power of Gaming were CONFIRMED by Gamification exploding

all over the internet. My game is not digital yet because most kids in Honduras don't have access to tablets etc

but my card-game is HIGHLY INTERACTIVE, even teachers were squealing with delight when we played. I have

the chance to make my MISSION of: BRINGING HAPPINESS TO CLASSROOMS AROUND THE WORLD A REALITY

through my ESL games. CBC CODEBREAKER has been tested with my adult students, undergrads, kids in 3rd

grade, 5th grade and they’ve all had a great time playing it.

Our “Biliteracy Movement” with CBC CODEBREAKER

The term- bilingual- has become diluted in Honduras. Now as long as a candidate can demonstrate sufficient

social conversational skills- they are considered bilinguals. Unfortunately that assumption does not cut it in

the real world of work where employers are seeking skilled “bilingual” employees! What we receive are semi-

bilingual graduates with pretty good pronunciation. It is not worth the investment for us to hire someone just

because they studied English, more importantly we need graduates with CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS in BOTH

English and Spanish- we need the same level of proficiency. As employers we cannot waste time editing basic

letters, contracts etc for spelling errors, poor translation errors, lack of syntax etc…it is stressful for us as

employers because we do not feel as if we are being fully compensated for the salary packages a bilingual

graduate may earn.

In 1998, in the United States of America, the state-wide coalition of parents, teachers, education advocates

and civil rights groups committed to securing equal access to quality education for all children called

Californians Together was founded. They were concerned that there were very little promotional

opportunities for bilingual immigrants as a result of the language barrier. Most children of immigrants spoke

both Spanish and English (or their native tongue and English) but with a limited proficiency range, which

alienated them from applying to or advancing to management positions. The concern of Californians Together

resulted in the passing of the Seal of Biliteracy Act in 2011 and currently not only the U.S. state of California is

awarding the Biliteracy Seal but also New York, San Diego, Florida, Chicago and many more states are

following suit too!

The CBC Codebreaker DREAM

I say why wait in Honduras when we can develop and improve our own “Dual Immersion” learning programs

designed for our Honduran citizens together with the aid and support of my company Corporate Bilingual

Consultancy or CBC as a free consultant once CBC Codebreaker is added to the teaching playbook! “Rome was

not built in a day”, in CBC we cannot do this by ourselves and “budget” concerns are always a priority. CBC will

provide teacher training and continuous support to Public & Private Schools staff when our games enter into

practice. We dream of holding CBC Codebreaker Tournaments where both private and public schools can

compete on a level playing field. We dream of better bilinguals graduating with greater skill proficiency

leading them to become better citizens with a greater sense of accomplishment, we may even get a new

breed of writers for a new and improved Honduras.

Social Responsibility, CBC Codebreaker & the Biliteracy Movement

Social Responsibility is not only about building annexes or painting buildings it is also about training, inspiring

leadership, motivating citizens to aim for higher and better achievements. In Honduras many companies in the

past have helped through providing infrastructure, materials etc. Now the necessity for better QUALITY

training is a priority. Educational programs need great incentives to motivate learners to read more, stay

curious, and keep on learning but not only in the private “bilingual” schools but in Public Schools too! In CBC,

we invite you the private sector to be a part of our “Biliteracy Movement”, help us through sponsoring games

to the Public Schools of your choosing and CBC will provide the training necessary in your name to the

teachers. Together we can make a REAL difference in “Bilingual Education” in Honduras.

How do you say “Biliteracy” in Spanish?

The term being used in Spanish studies of bilingualism or Biliteracy in the classroom is : BIALFABETO or

BIALFABETISMO. The principal difference between being “bilingue” or “un Bialfabeto” is the skill proficiency

acquired in both languages. According to US standards a biliterate student has a 4.0 grade point average in

general studies and a 3.0 avg. in their second language. To date 10,000 Seals of Biliteracy have been awarded

in the USA.

What teachers think about CBC Codebreaker

Luis Chavez Rodas: “The question of how to teach such an arid subject like grammar is one that has

boggled the mind of educators for countless of generations. The Codebreaker in my opinion is one of

the answers. I truly believe The Codebreaker can help unlock the difficulties associated with grammar.

At Happy Days-Freedom we have decided to try out The Codebreaker because we believe children and

adults as well, learn better when learning is fun! (Principal at Happy Days –Freedom School & College)

Staff at Genesis & Adonay Bilingual Institutes:

Digna Rios: "It's an excellent tool for students, I think that it would be "more" easier for them to conjugate verbs. I recognize that I used to teach it in a very simple way. That's why students have problems when they speak or write the language."

Juoly Elizabeth Palacios: "…It gives the agility to stop thinking too much in Spanish and Translating. Congrats!"

Dilicia Ramirez: " I think it is a very interesting game and a fun way to learn how to use correctly Spanish & English verb tenses. Also, I think it could help them to write better and read."

Mauricio Orellana: I think the program is awesome and you are a wonderful trainer. I love the game it is engaging, you feel you're playing. .."

Johan Stephanie Reyes Diego: El juego creado es muy bueno. Cumple el objetivo de aprender y reconocer la conjugación de los verbos en los dos idiomas. Yo... en lo personal lo compro. Muchas gracias!!!"

Sr. Rigoberto: "Muy excelente técnica didáctica y fácil de aprender, muy divertida y entretenida.'

Sin nombre 11mo grado: "Algo fuera de lo común ya que son nuevas estrategias de aprender."

Sin nombre 7mo grado: "Recreativo los niños se van a salir de lo rutinario, fácil de aprender.

Profe. A.E.: "Es un juego muy interesante que llama y captura atención del alumno y que permite" aprendizaje de ambos idiomas."

Sin nombre: "Es un gusto compartir esta actividad, la verdad me pareció aparte de interesante una manera divertida para aprender, ya que el alumno de hoy en día exige al docente que la cátedra sea divertida. Sería bueno implementar este tipo de juegos y actividades dentro del salón de clases. En lo personal, considero necesario como docente nos involucremos al cien y desarrollemos juegos para aprender durante las clases. Mrs. Suzanne, excelente maestra, muy dinámica. Felicidades por su compromiso y deseo por mejorar la calidad de educación en nuestro país.