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Content Type: 1
Title: Reach the World Offers Free Access for Kentucky Teachers
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Reach the World, which facilitates virtual exchange journeys between K-12 classrooms based in the U.S. and volunteer travelers who are studying, teaching and working around the world, is offering Kentucky schools and teachers the opportunity for free access to its global education programs for the remainder of the 2017-18 school year and at the beginning of the 2018-19 school year.
For more details go to http://www.kentuckyteacher.org/bulletin-board/announcements/2018/04/reach-the-world-offers-free-access-to-virtual-exchange-programs/
Source: Kentucky Teacher
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Content Type: 1
Title: Create Your Own Geography Game with Mission Map Quest
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From http://www.freetech4teachers.com
Richard Byrne writes, "Mission Map Quest is a free tool for creating geography games. The concept is simple, you create a series of clues that your students need to follow to identify places around the world. You can add as few or as many clues to your Map Quest as you like. When you're ready to have students try your Quest just give them the web address of the challenge or have them scan the QR code assigned to your Quest. ...Of course, you don't have to be the only one making the Map Quests. Have your students create Map Quests that they share with each other."
Read his full review of this resource at http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2018/05/create-your-own-geography-game-with.html#.Wuoy_dMvxPU
The tool is available at http://www.classtools.net/mapgame/game.php
Source: Free Technology for Teachers
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Content Type: 1
Title: Explore Endangered or Inaccessible Cultural Sites on Open Heritage
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From https://www.blog.google/topics/arts-culture/preserving-endangered-wonders-world-generations-come/
Google's new Open Heritage site uses three-dimensional laser scanning to build virtual models of some of the most important cultural sites around the world, many of them in danger or destruction or inaccessible due to political circumstances and natural disasters. Explore important sites at https://artsandculture.google.com/project/cyark
For example, experience Tikal in Guatemala here: https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/zwJi3gXEBa-_Lw
Learn more about the project at https://www.blog.google/topics/arts-culture/preserving-endangered-wonders-world-generations-come/
Source: Google
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Content Type: 1
Title: How to Develop a Theme from a Picture Book Step by Step
Body:
From http://elmundodepepita.blogspot.com/
How do you take a children's picture book and turn it into a themed learning sequence or unit? Here's a nice description of a step-by-step process you can follow, based on quality materials and backward design: http://elmundodepepita.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-to-develop-theme-from-picture-book.html
Source: Mundo de Pepita
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Content Type: 3
Title: The Chapter Test and Beyond: Using a Variety of Opportunities to Assess Learners’ Language Abilities
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By Julie Sykes, CASLS Director
Deonte gets up from his desk and walks to the front to turn in his chapter test. He's half happy his studying probably paid off, but also bummed he didn’t get to really show what he had learned in class during the previous two weeks. They practiced lots of great interactions in schools and he really knew how to find a common time to hang out by talking about schedules with a friend. Somehow, his test just didn’t reflect all of that learning, even though he is pretty confident his grade will be high. Deonte is not alone. Chapter tests do not always reflect the complex and comprehensive learning happening in world language classrooms every day. While we don't need to abandon them, when we add other types of assessment into the mix we can add a great deal of value to the evaluation of students' learning. We highlight two possibilities below.
- Live simulations: Give learners a series of tasks to complete at 3-4 assessment stations. Each station should reflect a function taught in class and be assessed using a rubric that examines the relevant language functions being studied. A sample is given in this week’s Activity of the Week. As can be seen, these stations can focus on interpersonal (e.g., negotiate a schedule), presentations (e.g., create a video diary of your week), and interpretive (e.g., listen to the passage and complete the task). As learners move through the simulation they engage in real-world tasks and are able to demonstrate what they know.
- Portfolios: Have learners create a record of their learning throughout the course and then, at the end, select their best work to revise and submit for re-grading and evaluation. This can serve as an assessment of what they can do with external resources such as time, reflection, and feedback, adding to what a teacher can learn from classroom chapter tests, almost always undertaken without additional student support.
Regardless of one’s perspective, adding assessments which augment examination of students' learning is critical to a comprehensive understanding of their language abilities.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Content Type: 5
Title: Call for Submissions: Exploring the Interface of Interlanguage (L2) Pragmatics and Digital Spaces
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Title: Exploring the Interface of Interlanguage (L2) Pragmatics and Digital Spaces
Co-editors: Julie Sykes (University of Oregon) and Marta Gonzalez-Lloret (University of Hawa’ii)
Description: This special issue of the CALICO journal is intended to explore the interface of Interlanguage (L2) Pragmatics and digital technologies. Specifically, it seeks to expand theoretical horizons, report on targeted empirical research, and explore innovative approaches to L2 pragmatics in formal instructional contexts and informal learning in digitally-mediated spaces. The editors encourage authors to take a micro- and/or macro-level approach to L2 pragmatics in their analyses and encourage the expansion of research populations beyond traditional, university-level classrooms. Empirical studies are particularly encouraged and critical review pieces are also welcome.
The editors seek original submissions that represent diverse approaches to interlanguage pragmatics and digital technologies. Approaches may include (but are not limited to):
- New research methodologies in Interlanguage (L2) Pragmatics
- Multilingual pragmatic behavior of digital spaces
- L2 pragmatics in multimodal technological contexts
- Innovative approaches to learning Interlanguage (L2) pragmatics
- The design and empirical investigation of digital tools for the teaching and learning of L2 pragmatics
- Digital networks and Interlanguage (L2) pragmatics
- Pragmatic assessment with digital tools
Each author will be expected to provide a concise description of their theoretical framework, methodological approach (as relevant to the types of the article), critical research findings, implications for the design, implementation, and evaluation of digital tools for the teaching and learning of Interlanguage (L2) Pragmatics.
Please send inquiries and suggestions for contributions to both Julie Sykes (jsykes@uoregon.edu) and Marta Gonzalez-Lloret (marta@hawaii.edu). Please, list CALICO Journal Special Issue in the subject line.
Extended abstracts (200-300 words) are due by July 15, 2018 and should be submitted via email (Word or PDF format only please) to both Julie Sykes (jsykes@uoregon.edu) and Marta Gonzalez-Lloret (marta@hawaii.edu). Full-length manuscripts will be invited by August 15, 2018. Full-length manuscripts are due by December 1, 2018. Special Issue to be published January 2020. Please note that abstract acceptance does not guarantee publication of the submitted manuscript. All manuscripts will be subject to a double blind peer review process.
The CALICO Journal is the journal of the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO) and is devoted to the dissemination of information concerning the application of technology to language teaching and language learning. The CALICO Journal is fully refereed and publishes articles, research studies, reports, software reviews, and professional news and announcements. The CALICO Journal (ISSN 0742-7778) is published three times a year (January, May, and September).
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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Content Type: 4
Title: Pragmatics of Making a Request for Directions in a Polite/Appropriate Manner
Body:
This activity addresses how to make requests for directions politely or appropriately. The target language is Vietnamese. However, the activity can be adapted to other languages.
Learning Objectives: Students will be able to:
- Identify elements and modifiers necessary to construct polite requests.
- Correctly address a variety of interlocutors when making requests.
- Use accurate honorifics when making requests.
Modes: Interpersonal, Interpretive
Materials Needed: Photos of request scenarios in the Observation Handout, Analysis Handout, and Extension Handout
Procedure:
OBSERVATION
- The teacher tapes 7 pictures representing 7 common address terms on the board. These photos are included in the Extension Handout.
- anh (male, 1-10 years older), chị (female, 1-10 years older)
- chú (male, around your father/uncle’s age), cô (female, around your mother/aunt’s age)
- em (male, younger), em (female, younger)
- bạn (the same age)
The teacher tapes 4 pictures representing 4 common public places people will go to. These photos are included on the Extension Handout: ngân hàng (a bank), bưu điện (a post office), chợ (a market), nhà thuốc (a pharmacy)
- Then, the teacher demonstrates requests that go along with each photo. The teacher may act them out individually, with a heritage language learner in the class, or may wish to find an external source (e.g., video clip) that features the types of requests at hand.
While the students observe the teacher (or external source), they are required to complete the Observation Handout.
Seven (7) requests the teacher will demonstrate are:
- Xin lỗi, ngân hàng ở đâu? (Excuse me, where is the bank?)
- Dạ, chị cho em hỏi bưu điện ở đâu ạ? ([honorifics], Could I ask where the post office is?)
- Chú ơi, nhà thuốc ở đâu? ([Address term for male who is middle aged], Where is the pharmacy?)
- Cô ơi, cho con hỏi chợ ở đâu ạ? ([Address term for female who is middle aged], Could I ask where the market is?)
- Em ơi, cho chị hỏi chợ ở đâu? ([Address term for female/male who is younger than you], could I ask where the market is?)
- Em, cho hỏi bưu điện ở đâu? ([Address term for female/male who is younger than you], where is the market?)
- Bạn cho mình/tôi hỏi ngân hàng ở đâu ạ? (Could I ask where the bank is [honorifics]?) (Note: Bạn refers to people at the same age as the speaker.)
- The teacher will repeat the demonstration two or three times according to student needs.
ANALYSIS
- The teacher writes on the board 2 honorifics “dạ” and “ạ” and explain that the honorifics are used when the speaker is talking to a person who is older than the speaker. The teacher will pronounce 2 honorifics twice and let the students repeat 1-2 times.
- The teacher writes the structure of the request on the board:
“(honorifics), [address term for listener] cho [address term for speaker] hỏi [place] ở đâu (honorifics)?"
- The teacher hands out the Analysis Handout for students to analyze within pairs or a small group of three students
- The teacher debriefs, provides answers to questions in the handout, and readdresses the knowledge learned.
EXTENSION
- The teacher asks the students to work in pairs on the Extension Handout, creating questions to ask for direction in a polite or appropriate manner.
- Then, the teacher gives each pair a set of pictures presenting 7 address terms (set 1) and a set of pictures describing 4 common places (set 2). The student in each pair, in turn, picks one picture from set 1 and one from set 2. The other needs to form the request based on the pictures drawn from 2 sets.
- The teacher facilitates around the class to provide assistance when needed.
Notes: This activity is designed for novice learners of Vietnamese. In the situation where the class has heritage learners or mixed-level students, the teacher can strategically group the students so that the students with relatively higher proficiency are helpful to their peers. Also, the teacher can think how to have heritage students help demonstrate the activity in the observation stage.
In order to adapt this activity to other languages, teachers can consult the corpora of the language to see some salient request patterns in daily conversations. For instance, the pattern can be politeness embedded in address terms, or hedges in politeness, or indirectness or directness preferences in requests.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Content Type: 3
Title: But I’ve Been So Busy!: Aligning How We Spend Our Time with Our Values
Body:
By Mandy Gettler, CASLS Associate Director
We’ve all heard the excuse before and maybe even uttered it once or twice ourselves: “I’m sorry I didn’t get to it. I’ve been so busy!” The first time someone told me this, I empathically understood that even our best laid plans go awry. We lose track of time. Something urgent arises and demands our attention. The second time I heard it, I bristled, but couldn’t articulate why. By the third time, I’d had quite enough. I wanted to know: So busy doing what?
It’s easy to let the day get away from us. Balancing our professional lives with our family lives and social obligations can be challenging. There is always more we could do: give a student more feedback on her final paper, start the second load of laundry, say yes to that game of Monopoly our youngest wants to play, finish the thirty-minute YouTube workout video we started an hour ago, reply to the text our friend sent.
The answer to the “so busy doing what?” question lies in how we choose to prioritize the things we do every day. Pausing to recognize how we spend our time shifts us into a potentially uncomfortable reflection related to our priorities.
Do we want to admit to ourselves that, like most Americans, we spend almost 9 hours sleeping, 3 ½ hours on mobile devices, and five hours watching TV every day (Van Dam and Morath 2016; Koblin 2016; Molla 2017)? Do we consider those activities worthwhile endeavors? And if not, why do we spend so much time doing them? Or are we like 60% of teachers who have two jobs or stay after school to tutor (Kamenetz and Lombardo 2018)?
The stakes for aligning how we spend our time with what we care about are high. What we’re really exploring in this topic of priorities and time is our own happiness.
Nearly forty years of research on happiness demonstrates that “happiness is largely cognitive. It’s a state of mind, not an emotion” (Lambert 2007). While 40-50% of our happiness can be attributed to our genetics, another 40% of happiness is attributed to our daily life experiences (Lambert 2007, Brooks 2013, Allan 2015). How are we shaping those experiences? Do we spend time doing things that bring us pleasure, that enrich our communities, that cultivate our relationships with others? Or do we fritter our time away on activities that we couldn't, when asked directly, truly care less about?
This week’s Activity of the Week invites us to explore how we spend our time and articulate our values before diving into how we can shift the ways in which we spend our time to allow ourselves more opportunities to do the things we love. So we can say, with pride and honesty, “I’m sorry I didn’t get to it. I’ve been so busy raising my children. (Or volunteering in my community. Or giving extra feedback on students’ assignments.)" Because those things match our values.
References
Allan, P. (2015, September 14). What Research Says Happiness Really Is. Retrieved from https://lifehacker.com/what-research-says-happiness-really-is-1730503184
Brooks, A. C. (2013, December 14). A Formula for Happiness. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/opinion/sunday/a-formula-for-happiness.html
Kamenetz, A., & Lombardo, C. (2018, May 2). Unionized Or Not, Teachers Struggle To Make Ends Meet, NPR/Ipsos Poll Finds. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/05/02/605757547/unionized-or-not-teachers-struggle-to-make-ends-meet-npr-ipsos-poll-finds
Koblin, J. (2016, June 30). How Much Do We Love TV? Let Us Count the Ways. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/business/media/nielsen-survey-media-viewing.html
Lambert, C. (2007, February). The Science of Happiness. Retrieved from https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2007/01/the-science-of-happiness.html
Molla, R. (2017, October 9). Americans Are Spending More Time on Media Thanks to Multitasking. Retrieved from https://www.recode.net/2017/10/9/16447820/americans-time-spent-media-multitasking-emarketer
Van Dam, A., & Morath, E. (2016, June 24). How Americans spend their time. Retrieved from http://graphics.wsj.com/time-use/
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Content Type: 4
Title: Aligning How We Spend Our Time with Our Values
Body:
This activity serves as an example of the principles discussed in this week’s InterCom Topic of the Week.
Objectives: Teachers will be able to:
- Identify how many hours each day they spend on specific tasks
- Articulate their values
- Determine whether they spend time each day on tasks that match their values
- Set goals for adjusting how they spend time each day
Materials needed:
- Handout 1: My Time and My Values
- Handout 2: My Action Plan
- Handout 3: My Progress
- “Changing Times” (http://graphics.wsj.com/time-use/).
Procedure:
- Read the short article “Changing Times” online at http://graphics.wsj.com/time-use/.
- Then, consider how you spend your time by completing Part 1 of Handout 1: My Time and My Values.
- Either by yourself as a free write or in discussion with a colleague, articulate whether the way you spend your time is typical or atypical compared to other Americans discussed in the article.
- Complete Part 2 of Handout 1: My Time and My Values.
- Articulate whether the ways in which you spend their time matches your values. Brainstorm ways in which you could adjust how you spend your time to allow more opportunities to do activities that align with your values.
- Complete Handout 2: My Action Plan. Display the action plans somewhere prominent in your home or workspace.
- Each Friday afternoon for the next six weeks, review your action plan and complete the weekly progress check.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Content Type: 4
Title: An Alternative to Chapter Tests
Body:
This activity was given as a summative assessment for introductory Spanish courses at the University of New Mexico in lieu of a Chapter Test.
Learning Objective: Students will be able to start and maintain a basic conversation with a classmate using well formulated questions and answers.
Mode(s): Interpersonal, Presentational
Materials Needed: Teacher-created “Experiencia” overview PowerPoint (available in English here and in Spanish here), student instructions, a profile template (available in English here and in Spanish here), a rubric
Procedures:
- Use the teacher-created “Experiencia” PowerPoint to provide an overview of this communicative activity. This overview contains performance expectations and information related to academic dishonesty.
- Next, discuss what communicative competencies that learners should have mastered in order to ask appropriate questions and find out the target information.
- After that, explain that the rubric that will be used for the “Experiencia” to help learners understand the teacher’s expectations.
- Then, learners will engage in the “Experiencia.” The “Experiencia” has two components: 1) a synchronous chat transcript and 2) a profile sheet filled out during synchronous chat.
- Use the rubric to evaluate learners’ performance and provide feedback.
Note: If you and your students don't use Blackboard, you can use any synchronous chat tool that has the capability to save chat transcripts. GChat, available through Gmail, is one such tool.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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