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Content Type: 1
Title: House Resources for Novice Mid Spanish Learners
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From https://marishawkins.wordpress.com
Here are ideas and resources for Novice Mid Spanish learners, having to do with houses: https://marishawkins.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/house-resources-for-novice-mid-students/
Source: Maris Hawkins
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Title: Publication: Mapping the Gaps between Expert and Public Understandings of Dual Language Learners
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A report, "When More Means Less: Mapping the Gaps between Expert and Public Understandings of Dual Language Learners," by Marissa Fond, Michelle Smirnova, Marisa Gerstein Pineau, and Julie Sweetland, is available at http://frameworksinstitute.org/assets/files/DLL/dll_mtg_report_2017.pdf.
Source: FrameWorks Institute
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Title: Oxplore: Engage Adolescents in Debates
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From https://oxplore.org/about
The University of Oxford's Oxplore portal aims to engage 11- to 18-year-olds with debates that involve higher order thinking and critical thinking skills. Users vote on "big questions," and then students start by choosing a question and agreeing or disagreeing. At that point they are exposed to information both in support of and opposed to the proposition, strengthening critical thinking and higher-order thinking skills along the way.
Oxplore is available at https://oxplore.org/
Read a review of this resource at http://evasimkesyan.com/2017/12/11/explore-oxplore/
Source: Oxplore
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Content Type: 1
Title: Resources for Learning about Martin Luther King, Jr.
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From http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/
Here is a collection of curated links to resources for learning about Martin Luther King, Jr.: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/12/21/the-best-websites-about-martin-luther-king/
Source: Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
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Title: More on PUEDOS: Differentiated Communication Tasks
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From https://srahuff.wordpress.com
In November we noted Laura Sexton's blog post about differentiated social warmups (http://caslsintercom.uoregon.edu/content/24182; see the original blog post at http://www.pblinthetl.com/2017/11/differentiated-social-warmups.html). Here is another teacher's adaptation and reflection on its effectiveness: https://srahuff.wordpress.com/2017/12/10/differentiated-communication-tasks/
Source: Meaningful Ed
Inputdate: 2017-12-28 12:48:50
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Content Type: 1
Title: How Brain Research Can Inform Your Use of Classroom Tools
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From https://ditchthattextbook.com
Learn how to use educational websites, digital tools, and apps in brain friendly-ways in this article: https://ditchthattextbook.com/2017/12/13/using-kahoot-and-others-the-way-your-brain-craves/. Among the principles that can inform your use of these tools: practicing retrieval to get better at it, brain dumps AKA free recall, spaced repetition, and providing feedback after retrieval.
Source: Ditch That Textbook
Inputdate: 2017-12-28 12:49:54
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Title: Essay: On the Proficiency Journey
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Karen Fowdy writes, "Consider these two options for a 'road trip.'
"1) Come on! Get on this bus! I’m the driver and you are along for the ride. You don’t know where we are going or how we will get there. You’ll be expected to work hard along the way, but we will have some fun, too. Oh- and there will be a test at the end to see if you got there.
"2) Let’s go on a journey together! It’s a long trip, but worth it! Here’s the destination and the roadmap. I’ll be there to help you along the way. There are landmarks and milestones on this journey that show our progress so we know that we are getting closer to our goal. We will see and do a lot of interesting things along the way."
She goes on to detail some of the requirements to undertake Trip No. 2, in which students document their ongoing growth in proficiency. Read her excellent short article at http://www.waflt.org/advocacy-for-world-languages-on-the-proficiency-journey/
Source: WAFLT
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Title: Pronunciation Instruction: Waste of Time or Worth the Effort?
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From http://www.eltresearchbites.com/
Anthony Schmidt summarizes Kazuya Saito's 2012 research synthesis of studies investigating the effectiveness of pronunciation instruction. His takeaway: "First, this research synthesis demonstrates that pronunciation instruction, given adequate time, can have a positive effect on the comprehensibility of language learners. ... The authors assert that an ideal time for instruction would be about 1 semester (typically 16 weeks in the US). They also recommend that both segmentals and suprasegmentals can be focused on to the degree that they are important and relevant for the students’ L1, proficiency level, and target language context. In addition, the authors suggest a focus on form in communicative context (FonF) because these studies showed the greatest improvement, especially in free response, came with FonF, and this improvement was often maintained after the study. In general, this means that pronunciation instruction must be pre-planned and embedded in communicative tasks."
Read the full summary at http://www.eltresearchbites.com/201712-pronunciation-instruction-waste-of-time-or-worth-the-effort/
Source: ELT Research Bites
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Title: Building Global Schools Toolkit
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Building a global school requires vision, knowledge, and a dedicated team. How can you and your colleagues initiate or progress in this exciting endeavor? Drawing on decades of experience conducting global and multicultural professional development for educators, as well as input from teachers and administrators across the country, Primary Source presents here a synthesis of their thinking about this work.
Access the toolkit documents at https://www.primarysource.org/our-services/building-global-schools?srctid=1&erid=1080959&trid=18ca0a29-c72f-4d53-9bc4-e247a52a0834
Source: Primary Source
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Content Type: 3
Title: Fomenting Learning Actualization: Creating Concept-Based and Function-Based Language Curricula
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By Stephanie Knight, CASLS Assistant Director
The creation of authentic learning experiences for students is widely touted in different contexts. For example, Wiggins (1989, 2011) writes about the importance of offering learners assessment opportunities that are authentic to real-world use, and Barba (2016) evaluates the efficacy of project-based language learning (PBLL). However, as Sykes and Reinhardt (2013) assert, the provision of authentic activities to learners is complicated by the learners themselves; a sensitivity to each learner’s goal orientation (which may not align with the practitioner’s) is necessary for otherwise meaningful tasks to be personally authentic. This goal of orientation is not always easily observable.
A solution for the development of authentic learning experiences in language courses is to create concept-based and function-based curricula. The functional approach is critical for proficiency-oriented classrooms, and the concept-based approach promotes intellectual development and the transfer of learning “through time, across cultures, and across situations” (Erikson 2012, p. 4). In concert, these approaches heighten the likelihood that authentic learning experiences are created. Three steps to follow in the development such curricula are listed below.
1. Ask Learners What They Want to Learn: It is alarmingly rare that language curricula are created with significant learner input. This trend is perhaps most surprising given the flexibility of the national language learning standards and the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements; they can be realized through a variety of contexts and themes. For example, requesting information can be taught in the context of getting lost at an airport or in the context of being caught in a natural disaster. While how to solicit information must be taught, learners can absolutely shape the lens through which that information is imparted.
2. Articulate the ‘So What?’ of Each Unit: After determining the topics that will be explored, educators should time engaging in thinking beyond language-specific content. This thinking should include the articulation of a driving question for each unit and transdisciplinary concepts for the learners to explore. For example, in a unit about immigration, learners might study the concepts of community and change. These concepts are both relevant to a diverse population of learners (e.g., the learner who loves the study of biological ecosystems may find increased relevance in studying immigration if she is able to connect the idea of a community changing overtime to ecosystems impacted by outside forces).
3. Identify Learning Targets: Planning specific to language content begins at this step. Summative unit projects are articulated (if applicable), and specific, day-to-day learning targets are identified within the contexts selected in Step 1. These learning targets should be functional and proficiency-oriented, requiring learners to use language instead of gathering information about language. After the articulation of these targets, practitioners should determine the strategic and pragmatic skills, grammar, and vocabulary that will be taught.
Following the progression identified here (articulating themes, then concepts, then the selection of language functions before determining language-specific content) is critical; the more common approach of using grammar and vocabulary to determine learning targets oftentimes yields curricula with contrived contexts for the acquisition of knowledge and skills and may not accurately reflect how expert speakers use the target language. This potential detriment is compounded upon consideration that learner actualization in contrived contexts is complicated if not impossible.
References:
Barba, J. (2016). EXPRESSART: A Project-Based Language Learning Experience. Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature, 9(4). 59-81.
Erikson, H.L. (2012). Concept-based teaching and learning. IB position paper. Retrieved from http://www.ibmidatlantic.org/Concept_Based_Teaching_Learning.
Sykes, J. M. and Reinhardt, J. (2013). Language at Play: Digital Games in Second and Foreign Language Teaching and Learning. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.
Wiggins, G. (1989). A true test: Toward more authentic and equitable assessment. The Phi Delta Kappan, 70 (9). 703-713.
Wiggins, G. (2011). Moving to modern assessments. The Phi Delta Kappan, 92 (7). 63.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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