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Students engage more passionately when trying to answer a question that interests them. Here are ten opening questions that have inspired this kind of learning

Ten Burning Questions Language teaching is as much an art as it is a science. Effective educators excel at the art of language teaching, and we at CASLS understand the science behind second language acquisition research. With help from practicing teachers, we have identified the top ten burning questions of those who matter the most: language teachers themselves. CASLS is leading a team of researchers to investigate these questions and then publish the results in a variety of formats.

Great ideas for questioning strategies.

In my Learning Through Projects series, I wrote about crafting questions that drive projects. Developing interesting, relevant, and meaningful driving questions is challenging. To help teachers with project based learning, Global Digital Citizenship Foundation has free publications with ideas and resource links. The publications are PDFs and are licensed under Creative Commons, so you may distribute or print them as long as you do not modify them in any way.

At any given moment, the disciplines represent the most well-honed efforts of human beings to approach questions and concerns of importance in a systematic and reliable way. (Howard Gardner, The Disciplined Mind, p. 144)

What they never tell you is that when you're eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four and three, and two, and one. (Sandra Cisneros, "Eleven," from The House on Mango Street)

Driving Question: How can student voice and choice enrich language learning? Recent articles in publications like The Atlantic and The Hill highlight what many describe as a dismal state of language learning in the United States. Both pieces speak to the largely ineffective outcomes of language study, since so few language learners achieve a meaningful level of proficiency, even after years of study. Contributing to the state of language discussion, a recent ACTFL study shows that fewer students are pursuing language study. What seems like a lack of serious commitment to improve outcomes in the U.S. also reflects a long-standing cultural attitude that language learning isn't a worthwhile endeavor.

"Ce Blog s'adresse à tous les gens intéressés par le Français Langue Étrangère: apprenants, chercheurs, profs débutants ou expérimentés, professionnels, amateurs. Vous êtes tous les bienvenus! Le but de ce blog n'est pas de présenter ce que je fais en cours, les productions de mes apprenants, mes idées d'activité ou mon matériel de cours. D'autres collègues font cela très bien avec bien plus de talent que je n'en aurai jamais. Non le but de ce blog est surtout de proposer un podcast, mes questions, mes réflexions pédagogiques et mes problèmes. L'autre objectif de ce blog est de décontracter la didactique. Etre prof c'est faire des choix et les défendre bien sûr mais surtout c'est connaitre les autres options possibles sans les enterrer systématiquement. Oui être prof c'est faire des choix mais c'est surtout s'adapter. S'adapter à ses apprenants, sa structure de travail, ses collègues, son environnement. Ici pas de compétition mais un échange en toute simplicité sans être complexé par ses lacunes et sans les reprocher aux autres. J'espère donc que vous prendrez du plaisir à lire, écouter et échanger dans la bonne humeur car quand même on fait un métier génial. "

Frameworks are intended to be models for articulating desired results, assessment processes, and teaching-learning activities that can maximize student achievement relative to the Georgia Performance Standards. They may provide Enduring Understandings, Essential Questions, tasks/activities, culminating tasks, rubrics, and resources for the units.

In 1968, two researchers conducted a fascinating study that proved the extent to which teacher expectations influence student performance. Positive expectations influence performance positively, and negative expectations influence performance negatively. In educational circles, this has been termed the Pygmalion Effect, or more colloquially, a self-fulfilling prophecy. What has always intrigued me about this study is specifically what the teachers did to communicate that they believed a certain set of students had "unusual potential for academic growth." The research isn't overly explicit about this, but it indicates that the teachers "may have paid closer attention to the students, and treated them differently in times of difficulty." This begs the following questions: Why can't teachers treat all of their students like this? How do we communicate to students whether we believe in them or not?

t's no secret that curiosity makes learning more effective and enjoyable. Curious students not only ask questions, but also actively seek out the answers. Without curiosity, Sir Isaac Newton would have never formulated the laws of physics, Alexander Fleming probably wouldn't have discovered penicillin, and Marie Curie's pioneering research on radioactivity may not exist.

French Canadian TV show Le Mégallô aimed at teenagers. Jokey opening sequence about winter sports. Segment on the Arctic Winter Games starts at 11:11. Callers leaving voicemail (transcribed on screen) about winter sports they enjoy start at 14:06. Results of audience survey about winter sports start at 14:51, followed at 15:16 by live interviews with callers about winter sports they enjoy ("Quel sport d'hiver pratiques-tu?"). Live quiz with a caller at 19:35 (instructions) with questions starting at 20:12.

Cette capsule animée présente la vie et la réalité des Québécois. Elle est tirée du jeu Ta parole est en jeu, qui explore de façon ludique la richesse et les variétés de la langue française au Canada.

A 3 minute video in French - overview of history of Québec. Make a graphic organizer to accompany the video to support comprehension, including, for example, vocab, questions, expressions, names of people and places, dates, and other pertinent data.