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Content Type: 1
Title: English in a Minute: Back to Square One
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From http://learningenglish.voanews.com/media/video/2553166.html
“Where and what is 'square one'? And why would you want to return to it? Watch this video to figure out how to use this common American English expression.” This video from VOA Learning English is very short at 1 minute and is a great explanation of the phrase “back to square one.” More than that, it is a good example of a type of video your ESL students could make in your class. Using this video as a model, your students could choose an English phrase that is difficult for L2 speakers and make a 1 minute video explaining what the phrase means and how it’s used.
Access the video to use as a model http://learningenglish.voanews.com/media/video/2553166.html
Source: VOA
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Content Type: 1
Title: Song Lesson: Money and Shopping – Ka-Ching
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From http://anna-edu.com/
Anna’s blog has categories for “English with Songs," “ESL lesson plans," and more. This time she’s sharing a lesson on the topic of money and shopping based on the song Ka-Ching, by Shania Twain.
To access the lesson go to http://anna-edu.com/money-and-shopping-esl-ka-ching-shania-twain-english-with-songs/
Source: Anna Edu
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Content Type: 1
Title: 70 Ways to Keep Students Engaged
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From http://gazette.teachers.net/
This list of 70 different ways to keep students engaged and accountable during class was compiled by Debbie Ann from Teachers.Net chatboard posts.
View all 70 at http://gazette.teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/teachers-net-community/70-ways-engage-students/
Source: Teachers.Net
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Content Type: 1
Title: Anagrams
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From https://readknowlearngo.wordpress.com/
If you like using anagrams in your classes, this article shares 3 links to websites that can create anagrams for you or have a list of already made anagrams, for example using movie titles.
Access the article at https://readknowlearngo.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/anagrams/
Source: Read. Know. Learn. Go
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Content Type: 2
Title: March InterCom Theme Is Speaking
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We hope that you found our February series on corpus-driven instruction as fascinating as we did. Our March InterCom theme is speaking, and we're starting with an article by Paul Sandrock about assessing interpersonal communication. We hope you continue to enjoy your InterCom subscription.
Source: CASLS
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Content Type: 3
Title: Assessing Interpersonal Communication: Make It Authentic
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Paul Sandrock is the Director of Education for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. He is the author of numerous books, including The Keys to Assessing Language Performance, the second in ACTFL's "Keys" series.
Assessment tasks are designed to gather appropriate evidence that will identify progress learners are making toward the learning goals. For Interpersonal Communication, assessment needs to match the characteristics of this mode, as described in the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages:
- Initiating and sustaining the exchange, such as through following up with appropriate questions, reactions, or additional information
- Negotiation of meaning, that is observing, monitoring, and adjusting the message to ensure that meaning and intention are being communicated, plus asking for clarification when there is a lack of communication
- Interaction and collaboration, increasingly aware of cultural patterns for interaction and each other’s perspective
- Spontaneous exchanges (not memorized dialogues)
To translate these characteristics into valid assessments of performance, keep focused on what would be authentic in a real-world interpersonal task. Thinking about the daily types of exchanges of information, reactions, feelings, or opinions, leads educators to create more purposeful assessment tasks. Several times each day in our professional and personal lives, we discuss and argue, make plans or change them, work on projects together, exchange information to help someone out, and come to agreement or consensus. Keeping assessment authentic changes what educators ask learners to do.
Focus on a task that requires sharing or collaboration. The Interpersonal task should consider the verbs used to elicit the performance. Learners do not really need to interact and negotiate meaning if asked to share, report, tell, or describe. Those are verbs more appropriate for Presentational tasks. To generate real collaboration, consider using phrases such as come to agreement, find out how much you have in common (or differences), prepare a plan to present, and add what you each have discovered on the topic in order to create your shared conclusion.
Create an assessment that allows learners to use what they have learned, not one that specifies vocabulary or structures that must be used. The important evidence at the end of a unit, a semester, a program is not another version of evidence covering all the vocabulary and grammar already captured in assignments, learning checks, and quizzes; rather it is asking learners to use what they have learned, now applied in real life tasks based on familiar contexts. Learners may or may not use recently learned vocabulary or grammar; the focus needs to be on using all that the learners have at their disposal (vocabulary, structures, functions) in order to accomplish the Interpersonal task.
Let the learners be who they are, so that the content of the exchange is not something they need to memorize or facts they are trying to remember. As one example, instead of being market sellers and buyers (where the conversation will be a predictable set of questions and responses), set up half of the learners to be market sellers, while the other half circulate in pairs to agree on what they should buy for their favorite teacher. The Interpersonal assessment is in how well the pairs of learner-shoppers interact to accomplish their task (and then the shoppers and sellers switch places so the other half can be assessed).
Support the exchange with authentic materials. In real life, people function in the Interpersonal mode as they gather around a computer screen, look at an article or review, examine several menus to make selections, share photographs, or look at their cell phones at past messages or calendars. Rather than making learners simply stand and talk to each other, provide authentic resources to which they can react and which will provide ideas and vocabulary to keep the conversation going.
See this week's Activity of the Week for ideas for authentic interpersonal assessment for novice, intermediate, and intermediate high/advanced learners.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Content Type: 4
Title: Interpersonal Assessment Ideas for Different Proficiency Levels
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by Paul Sandrock, ACTFL Director of Education
This week's Topic of the Week discusses guidelines for making the assessment of interpersonal communication authentic. Here are suggestions for assessment tasks for different proficiency levels.
Targeting the Proficiency Level: Interpersonal Assessments
|
Novice |
Intermediate |
Intermediate High/Advanced |
|
Collaboration: Students develop a survey to investigate the eating habits of the class, interview students, and discuss the results to create a graph. |
Storytelling: Students collaborate to retell a familiar story and prepare to present it to their classmates. |
Debate: Circulate in the room to find students who have the most similar ideas to your ideas on a debate topic; the resulting small groups work together to create the main points they will make in a debate. |
|
Recipes: Students browse online recipes and work in pairs to change ingredients to healthier alternatives. |
Agreement: Students exchange text messages to determine who has the busiest week. |
Consensus: Students examine a blog about a news event in the target language country; identify what new information they discover and collaborate to post a reply. |
|
Introductions: Practice the first night at your host family’s home: introduce yourself, show your photos, and ask questions of each other’s family and home. |
Presentation: Plan and practice giving a tour of your school for the group of visiting students. What differences do you need to highlight? |
|
|
Making Plans: Organize the plan for a day in a new city, agreeing on what to do first, second and last. |
Analysis: Is it worth it to be famous? With your partner, identify as many advantages and disadvantages as you can. |
Discussion: How do you change stereotypes? With your partner, examine any ideas about the target culture that have changed during your study of their language; try to identify what caused a change. |
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Content Type: 5
Title: Come See us the the COFLT Spring Conference!
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The 2015 Confederation in Oregon For Language Teaching Spring Conference is this coming Saturday, March 7, at Willamette University in Salem. CASLS staff will be making several presentations:
Using a Proficiency-based e-Portfolio Effectively for Learner Self-Assessment and Reflection, presented by Li-Hsien Yang from 2:00 to 2:50
Don’t Be Isolated – Ways to Engage the Online Community, presented by Renee Marshall from 3:10 to 4:00
How to Use Digital Games to Engage Students in Learning Language, presented by Linda Forrest from 3:10 to 4:00
You can see descriptions of these and all other COFLT presentations at http://cofltoregon.org/conferences/2015-spring-conference/presentations/
We'll also have a CASLS table set up, where we'll be sharing information about our programs and signing people up for InterCom. Please stop by and say hello!
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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Content Type: 5
Title: Great To See You at COFLT
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CASLS staff attended the Confederation in Oregon For Language Teaching Spring 2015 Conference last Saturday. We are glad to have made some new acquaintances and seen old friends face-to-face at our booth, where we disseminated information about several of our programs, including LinguaFolio Online, Chinese Flagship, Games 2 Teach, and InterCom. We also gave three presentations:
- Li-Hsien Yang presented on "Using a Proficiency-based e-Portfolio Effectively for Learner Self-Assessment and Reflection."
- Renee Marshall presented on "Don’t Be Isolated – Ways to Engage the Online Community." You can see her slides here.
- Linda Forrest presented on "How to Use Digital Games to Engage Students in Learning Language."
You can see a summary of all of the COFLT presentations here. We look forward to seeing you at a future conference!
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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Content Type: 5
Title: Catching Up with Educational Software Engineer Scott Morison by Deborah Cooke
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Educational Software Engineer Scott Morison began working for CASLS in fall 2009. Scott is responsible for designing CASLS’ online language learning tools, including the popular e-portfolio LinguaFolio Online.
Scott describes his early days. “Working with CASLS in the beginning was like hopping a train without knowing its final destination or knowing precisely what towns I might be passing through on the way. As a traveller on this train, I had to be prepared to accommodate whatever came my way and adapt to fit whatever environment I would find myself in. Soon though, most of the stops along the way became predictable, and my skills at navigating each new station we stopped at become fine-tuned. I have learned a great deal since starting here at CASLS, not only in my designated field of software, but in a variety of areas that I had little or no exposure to prior to joining CASLS.”
The most rewarding project Scott has worked on is Ecopod, the Global Scholars Hall mobile application game, which has opened up new opportunities for programming. Ecopod integrates students’ living experiences with language learning and encourages critical thinking about the role of language and culture in students’ daily lives.
Scott’s favorite part of working at CASLS is the people. He says, “The caliber of my fellow CASLS members reigns well above any other single group of people I have ever worked with.”
Outside of CASLS, Scott enjoys repairing electronics and upgrading and repairing his new home in the country.
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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