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When a teacher, school, or district tells parents and community members, "We're going to do Project Based Learning!" the response may vary. You're lucky if some say, "Great news! Students need to be taught differently these days!" but a more typical response might be: What's Project Based Learning?  That's not how I was taught. Why do we need PBL, if (a) our school is already doing well, or (b) what we really need is a better literacy/math program to raise test scores?  Isn't that just a trendy new thing that doesn't really work?  How is this going to affect my child (and me)?  Basically, they're asking for the what, why, and how. Here are some successful strategies we've seen to answer these questions.

According to Indiana University Bloomington, Inquiry-based learning is an "instructional model that centers learning on a solving a particular problem or answering a central question. There are several different inquiry-based learning models, but most have several general elements in common: Learning focuses around a meaningful, ill-structured problem that demands consideration of diverse perspectives Academic content-learning occurs as a natural part of the process as students work towards finding solutions Learners, working collaboratively, assume an active role in the learning process Teachers provide learners with learning supports and rich multiple media sources of information to assist students in successfully finding solutions Learners share and defend solutions publicly in some manner"

Activating Communication:Focusing Lenses How can we use focusing lenses to guide thinking when creating instruction? How can an old unit "going to a café" be changed to a thematic unit on food and hunger that focuses on performance tasks integrated to create a meaningful cultural context? How can images, videos and other technology encourage learners to critically think of solutions to real-world global issues on environment in innovative ways? We will explore these questions through the lenses of an UbD designed thematic units and the concepts of the ACTFL 21st Century Skills Map.

How can language educators effectively transition students from language "learning" to language "acquisition"? This is a question to focus on as all language educators try to create classroom experiences that meet the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages' (ACTFL) guidelines. ACTFL is calling for a shift in all language classes. Students and teachers need to use the second language (L2) at least 90% of the time. This amount of target language (TL) use will only create success for students if the teacher uses Comprehensible Input (CI). L2, TL and CI are three must-know acronyms for language educators today. Language "acquisition" is a key concept to our journey towards using research-based methods to update our language teaching practices.

Où et quand est née la bicyclette ? On a découvert des croquis attribués à Léonard de Vinci, datant du XVième siècle, illustrant un véhicule muni de deux roues et ressemblant à une bicyclette. Cette machine, issue de l'imagination du grand homme, n'a jamais franchi le stade de la planche à dessin. L'authenticité des documents en question n'aurait jamais été prouvée.

Florian Rousseau a annoncé lundi qu'il allait quitter son poste d'entraîneur du sprint. «Je me suis posé la question avant les JO. Pendant tout l'hiver, je me suis interrogé sur ce que je peux apporter en tant qu'entraîneur national. (...) J'ai l'impression d'avoir atteint ma limite par rapport à notre organisation, au fonctionnement que propose la Fédération française», a-t-il ainsi déclaré. L'entraîneur de Grégory Baugé a ainsi voulu tirer la sonnette d'alarme pour dénoncer l'inertie qui règne selon lui depuis les JO de Londres.

"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. "

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.

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?