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Click Here for Notes from the 1999 Olympiada Meeting
July 17, 1996 Dear Colleagues: In the summer of 1996, six teachers from various parts of the U.S., participants in the Eighth NEH/CORLAC Summer Russian Institute at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, worked together to develop study materials for the U.S. Olympiada. The Bryn Mawr Olympiada project is a new initiative that needed to be undertaken to give the U.S. Olympiada Contest a standardized format and a common base, conforming as closely as possible to the requirements of the Moscow Olympiada. The result of our efforts is a compilation of materials designed to satisfy the requirements of the Olympiada of Spoken Russian as determined by the Pushkin Institute in Moscow. There are three "commissions" for which the student has to prepare herself/himself: I. Устная Речь II. Страноведение III. Чтение We developed materials for each commission by level (year) of study up to level 5, using Olympiada materials from Alaska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Texas, as well as materials from the Russian Packet of The Friends School in Baltimore. Some sections, mostly in Commission II, were re-written or are entirely new. We did our best to write and select materials from the narrow base of Level 1 to the wide plateau of Level 5. We have arranged our materials by level of study. You will find some details concerning Olympiada procedures in Appendix No. 1. Here are some comments concerning each "commission:" I. Устная Речь - We prepared questions and possible answers for each level of instruction. Some items, which had been in устная речь, e.g. Moscow, were transfered to Commission II. II. Страноведение - We decided not to include areas of the contemporary Russian scene that are undergoing rapid change, such as education, the movie industry, etc. We discussed this during the Institute with Konstantin Dzhur, who heads the General Secretariat of MAPRIAL. He felt this was a good idea. We agreed to move away from the practice of some Olympiadas which required students to memorize lists of names of authors and artists and some of their works. With our new materials, students will learn fewer names, but know more about the biographies and selected masterpieces of a writer, poet, artist or composer. Some sections dealing with history, art and music may be entirely new for some Olympiadas. III. Чтение - For all Olympiadas we selected texts by level of difficulty for reading aloud, discussion and/or retell. We also wrote questions for these selections. Students will receive these texts before the Olympiada. Please note that students selected to participate in the Moscow International Olympiada- the next one will be in the summer of 1998-will have to read and discuss an unfamiliar text after a 15-minute preparation period. We think that within the time and organizational constraints of the larger Olympiadas- some with 100+ students-we cannot administer this part of the contest fairly and satisfactorily. Стихотворение, or poetry recitation from memory, is part of Commission III. We selected poems that we think are appealing to students. You may like other poems, but please keep in mind that for Levels III to V a poem must have at least 16 lines. Also, in U.S. Olympiadas students will not need to answer questions on their poems. At the International Olympiada, however, they may be asked to comment on the poem of their choice, particularly if they want to earn the extra points leading the the title of "superstar." Teachers of these students will have to prepare them individually for this phase of the contest. An audio cassette recording of our selected poems is also available. We hope that you will participate in the next Olympiada. Good luck and best wishes from: Guenther Teschauer, Chair, U.S. Olympiada-Tenafly High School, Tenafly, New Jersey Halina Danchenko-Arlington High School, Lagrangeville, New York Julianna Franklin-Oliver Wendell High School, San Antonio, Texas John Sheehan-Winter Park High School, Winter Park, Florida Marian Walters-Roy C. Start High School, Toledo, Ohio Michele Whaley-East High School, Anchorage, Alaska ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks go to Mara Kashper, Olga Kagan and Galina Sergushenkova for their patience in checking and rechecking our Russian spelling and syntax, to Zita Dabars and Steve Frank for their fine eyes for detail and layout, to our resident artists Mikhail and Yelena Gipsov, again to Mara Kashper for recording our poetry, and finally to Michele Whaley for the many hours she spent in front of the computer putting all these materials together.
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