The Choice is yours!

The Choice is Yours!

Did you know that CFB is one of the few districts that offers
three western and three asian languages?

Watch the video to discover your options! Then listen to former

CFB students whose lives were transformed by learning a new language.

Watch the video to discover your options in CFB!

We asked former CFB language students to talk

about how learning a new language changed their lives.

This is what they said: (includes complete presentations of Lamisa and Albert)

Lamisa: Human Rights advocate at SMU

Mariel: Teach for America English teacher in DISD

Albert: Computer systems analyst in Dallas  

Leslie: Peace Corps veteran and grad student in Global Health at Emory U.  

Fabiola: Yale grad and immigration advocate in New York City  

Davis: Actor in the film program at NYU

Where in the world will languages take you?

Results from the World Language Assessment Corroboration

Reminder: 
We target the next level of proficiency to encourage linguistic growth. 

(From ACTFL 2017: Bringing Proficiency to the classroom)

We want to encourage our learners to produce the language and grow as communicators in the languages we teach. Effective assessments facilitate this growth and promote student interest in improving.

Generally:

The most effective feedback is personalized, immediate, informative, and non-threatening. Our biggest target for beginning learners? Errors that prevent understandability.

These are some of the assessment strategies brainstormed at the October 9th session.

Listening assessments:

 In a proficiency rich environment student participation and listening with the intent to understand is the most important factor in language development and perhaps the most challenging to assess.

Here are some of the strategies suggested by teachers:

Measuring student engagement by observing:

• Eye contact
• Body language
• Thumbs up/down
• Students performing with eyes closed
• Actions: students physically ‘showing’ understanding (TPR)
• Dictations (measures listening and writing)
• Short response answers on white boards

Reading assessments:

Reading is a vital part of the acquisition process, and is essential to acquiring vocabulary and grammatical concepts.

Activities to measure reading comprehension:

Students:

• Listen attentively during read alouds
• Physically act out the reading
• Draw the story or important details in the story
• Re-order details from the story
• Create a dual entry journal for the reading
• Sustain reading for a period of time appropriate for their level
• Respond to questions about the reading (especially “What do you think” questions)

Writing assessments:

Writing shows us what the students are actually able to produce at their level.

Grading should be adapted to the proficiency level of the student. If we are trying to measure the ability of the student to communicate, we should give credit for understandability, the quantity of ideas or details the student is able to produce more than absolute grammatical or orthographic perfection.

Activities to assess writing:

• Timed writings- “what can you write about the story/article/video etc.”
• Asking the student to respond to questions on whiteboards
• Fill in the blanks: open ended sentences
• Asking “why” or “what do you think about” questions (level appropriate)
• Dictations

Speaking assessments:

Speaking a language is generally the last acquired skill and the trickiest to measure effectively  without raising the affective filter. Because of this students often need the most encouragement and praise for producing comprehensible output.

At lower levels we want to know what a sympathetic native speaker would understand. How many details, facts, opinions etc. can they express?

Activities to assess speaking:

(ideally pair/share or small group with teacher listening in and students helping to count)

• What Do You Think About _____
• What Can You Say About _____
• How Many Things/Details Can You Say About _______
• What Do You Know About ______
• Tell All You Can About _____
• Respond To Teacher Cues: Ex. “Tell your partner about your plans for the weekend”

PD August 2018 handout

http://cfbworldlanguages.blogspot.com/

Agenda:

·         Common ground: What we know about how we acquire language.

·         What does CI look like?

·         Where are we as a district? (90% TL)

·         What are the consequences of aspiring for 90%? (Implications for our classrooms and curriculum)

·         What are common proficiency (ACTFL) expectations by level?

District initiatives:

·         Department chair classroom visits 2x a semester

·         By level planning and observations (LOTE ‘rounds’)

·         Adopting common outcomes by level

The mission of CFB World Language:

To create competent and confident

communicators in the languages we offer.

Goals for this PD:

• I can define and discuss the role of CI in a second language acquisition.
•  I can identify the key elements of language acquisition theory and understand how they relate to best practices in the classroom.
• To experience a CI lesson as a student, and to reflect on how I can make my classroom more ‘comprehensible.’
• I can identify expected levels of proficiency (according to ACTFL standards) by level/classroom hours.
• To share and collaborate with colleagues while preparing lessons guided by ACTFL standards and the intent to use the target language.

What we know about language acquisition:

• Comprehensible input is an essential aspect of language acquisition: What is it exactly?

A non-example: what’s wrong with this?

• How do you define it? Share with a partner!

My definition:

A linguist offers an overview. How did your definition differ from his?

CI is an essential part of language acquisition theory. Understanding the implications for our classrooms can have a profound effect on how we work with our learners. (Krashen's theory page)

How many of the hypotheses can you and a partner identify? (Bryce’s acronym can help us remember them.) What are the implications for our classrooms?

M ______________

A ______________

N ______________

I ______________

A ______________

C ______________

+ R ______________

Can you pass a quiz about the hypotheses?

What about native speakers? Which hypotheses have the biggest impact on them?

How do we communicate this to our students?

Tina talks about Second Language Acquisition to students through pictures.  (non Facebook link)

What does CI look like? Demonstration in French!

What did you learn? How did you feel? Was it hard?

Where are we as a district?

(Keeping in the TL requires making sure that procedural and everyday conversational language is embedded early and repeated often)

·       Results of the district study: L2 language use in the classroom in CFB

·       The most important vocabulary for communication: what are the implications when using our resources? (Bryce’s list for Spanish)

·       When are these verbs traditionally taught?

Essential Six Verbs	+Ten High Frequency Verbs
Etre  to be Aimer  to like Aller to go Avoir to have Vouloir  to want Faire to make/to do	Dire to say Voir  to see Regarder to look at Donner to give Pouvoir to be able to	Venir to come Partir to leave Parler to speak Demander to ask Manger to eat

Shared outcomes and expectations as a district:

What are generally accepted proficiency levels by year/hours of study? What are the implications for assessment?

Shared team drive: what is working or succeeding in your classroom?

As we begin the year:

·       Make a conscious effort to embed and use high frequency vocabulary. Being in the target language should be the default setting.

·       Consider implications for assessment:  how can we minimize time grading and maximize the impact of the assessment we use in class?

·       Focus on building relationships with students! (Bryce’s student relationship building activities)

Announcements:

• Department manager classroom visits (2x a semester)
• Mini PDs: small group observations and debriefs
• By level PD pull out for planning
• Development of common expectations and assessment tools by level (across languages)

Explore the resources shared by Hedstrom! Consider using a version of his 'special person' activities the first few weeks of school to get to know your students and create a postive atmosphere in your classroom!

Other resources online:

Web resources for Spanish teachers

For French teachers

For German teachers also here

for Japanese teachers

For Korean teachers

For Chinese teachers (stories!)

Bill Van Patten on Comprehensible Input

(from an informal discussion on Facebook)

CI is an acronym for Comprehensible Input. Input is language that learners hear, read or see (sign languages) in a communicative context. It is language that learners process for meaning (i.e., the learner is trying to understand what someone is saying, what he/she is reading, or what someone is signing). Comprehensible input is that part of the input that learners can actually make sense of, the stuff they can pick up and attach meaning to during comprehension.

CI is not owned by anyone, any theory, any context, or any methodology. CI exists in and out of classrooms. CI exists in both first and second language acquisition. Wherever and whenever language is used to communicate something to a learner and that learner can understand something, there is CI.

In general second language theory, the more that input is comprehensible to learners, the greater the chances are for acquisition. This is because the internal unconscious mechanisms that work on language acquisition have to be able to link meaning with how meaning is expressed in order for language acquisition to occur. That is, learners have to process language during comprehension in order for acquisition to occur.

Recap:

Input = language you hear, read or see in a communicative context

CI = is a subset of input that you can actually understand

The more CI = the better for acquisition

TPRS is one type of methodology that tries to maximize CI in the classroom (among other things that it does)

Hardy adds:

Research shows that the CI also needs to be engaging and repeated for the learner to actually acquire and retain the language. The ultimate goal is to have a critical mass of this input + desire to and opportunity to communicate in the target language.

Using acquired language to create messages that are communicated to and understood by native speakers = one of the most important outcomes of language instruction at CFB.

Sites and suggestions for teachers on PD day:

Spanish video: cool UT site!!!! (native speaker videos with AP themes)

Spanish in Texas: great site (includes grammar in context)

Great Spanish AP syllabus with links

Heritage voice collections

CFB August PD 2018

The mission of CFB LOTE:

To create competent and confident

communicators in the languages we offer.

Goals for this PD:

• I can define and discuss the role of CI in second language acquisition.  
• I can and understand how they relate to practice in the classroom.

• I can identify expected levels of proficiency

(according to ACTFL standards) by level/classroom hours.

• To share and collaborate with colleagues

while preparing lessons guided by ACTFL standards

and the intent to use the target language.

What we know about language acquisition:

• Comprehensible input is an essential aspect of language acquisition: What is it exactly?

A non example: what’s wrong with this?

• How do you define it? Share with a partner!

A linguist offers an overview. How does it differ from your own interpretation?

Understanding the role of CI is central to understanding how we acquire language.

Krashen's Hypotheses:
How many of the hypotheses of language acquisition can you and a partner identify?
(Bryce’s acronym to help us remember them.)

M ______________

A ______________

N ______________

I ______________

A ______________

C ______________

• R ______________

Share with your students!

Tina talks about Second Language Acquisition  to students through pictures.  
(non Facebook link)

Where are we as a district?

• Results of the district study: L2 language use in the classroom in CFB
• The most important vocabulary for to communicate:

what are the implications when using our resources? (Bryce’s list for Spanish)

• When are these verbs traditionally taught?

Essential Six Verbs	+Ten High Frequency Verbs
Etre  to be Aimer  to like Aller to go Avoir to have Vouloir  to want Faire to make/to do	Dire to say Voir  to see Regarder to look at Donner to give Pouvoir to be able to	Venir to come Partir to leave Parler to speak Demander to ask Manger to eat

• What does CI look like? Demonstration in French!

(Keeping in the TL requires making sure that procedural and everyday conversational language is embedded early and repeated often)

Shared outcomes and expectations as a district:

What are generally accepted proficiency levels by year/hours of study?
What are the implications for assessment?

Shared team drive: what is working or succeeding in your classroom?

As we begin the year:

Make a conscious effort to embed and use high frequency vocabulary.
Being in the target language should be the default setting.

Consider implications for assessment:  
how can we minimize time grading and maximize the impact of the assessment we use in class?

Focus on building relationships with students! (Bryce’s student relationship building activities)

Sharing: first week activities that help set the tone and allow you to get to know your students. With a partner take a look at the resources Bryce made available at LMAM!

Announcements:

Department manager classroom visits (2x a semester)

Mini PDs: small group observations and debriefs

By level PD for pull out for planning

Development of common expectations and assessment tools by level (across languages)

Web resources for Spanish teachers
For French teachers