Foreign Language Methods

Great question on Twitter, yesterday, from a high school french teacher named Martha Behlow: ( Link for tweet here) 90% target language in upper levels is realistic, but what about levels 1 & 2? How do you keep them from freaking out?

ODE's RESA, OTES and mentor teacher website.

by Terry Heick Recently, I've been thinking of the universal truths in teaching. Students should be first. Don't always start planning with a standard. Questions matter more than answers. Trust is a currency of a human classroom. So I thought I'd gather twelve of them to start with.

After a week immersed in the spectacular theater of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, I found myself thinking about what it would be like if the classroom was perceived of as a theater and teaching as a theater production.

What is the point of teaching culture, anyway? Is it to get kids to realize that people are different? (They already do.) Is it to get them to try a new food? ( Lengua, eww, gross. Does that have peanuts in it?) No, cultural awareness is more about perspective-taking.

Forgive me while I brainstorm in public a moment. Almost four years ago I created this rubric, based on the ACTFL guidelines and the Jefferson County (KY) Public Schools' world language rubric. I loved it. It's one of my most requested resources. I used it for years.

Last week I posed a question on twitter trying to find out what teachers thought was the biggest challenge facing world language educators today. I got some interesting responses and some expected responses.

Recent History of Our Struggle to Make Foreign Languages Core Foreign language study is in the national education Goals 2000, which states: "By the year 2000 all American students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency in challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science, foreign language, civics and government, arts, history, and geography..."

TedX Talk

STARTALK is a Presidential Initiative to Fund Summer Programs in Critical Languages including Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Persian, Turkish, Swahili and Urdu.

Implementing a Standards-Based and Thematically Organized Curriculum Every lesson derives from a standards-based unit that culminates in students developing the ability to engage in spontaneous, unrehearsed communication for real-world purposes. Each lesson has clearly stated cultural objectives that indicate what students will be able to do and what they need to know by lesson's end.

The foundational centerpiece of the TELL Project is the Teacher Effectiveness for Language Learning Framework, which establishes those characteristics and behaviors that model teachers exhibit. The Framework consists of 7 domains designed to address a teacher's need to Prepare for Student Learning, Advance Student Learning, and Support Student Learning.

The first few days of school are a vital time to set the right tone for the rest of the year. Many teachers focus on important things like getting to know their students, building relationships and making sure students know what the classroom procedures will be.

Credit: William Duke Have you ever plunked yourself down in a staff meeting where some of your colleagues were, for lack of a better phrase, not paying attention? Grading homework? Having private conversations? Texting? As we know all too well, kids aren't a whole lot different than adults: If they aren't absorbed by what's going on, they'll find something else that interests them.

Joshua Block Humanities teacher at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia Over the summer, I offered to help some friends convert their dining room light fixture into a ceiling fan. Once the electricity was off, the old fixture was down, and I'd opened the large cardboard box, my goal was clear and pressing.

The New Jersey Department of Education's official Web site is the gateway to NJ information and services for parents, educators, students, and other residents.

Last Thursday, #langchat was in full swing, Q&A style! @KrisClimer started off the hour, "Let's get the #langchat rocking!" anticipating "a flurry of ideas!" As always, Langchatters did not disappoint. They rapidly tweeted their thoughts on ways to incorporate more comprehensible input (CI) and authentic resources (#authres) in a "traditional" language program.

What strategy doubles student learning? According to 250 empirical studies, the answer is formative assessment, defined by Bill Younglove as "the frequent, interactive checking of student progress and understanding in order to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately."

In recent years, research has confirmed what most teachers already knew: providing students with meaningful feedback can greatly enhance learning and improve student achievement. Professor James Pennebaker from the University of Texas at Austin has been researching the benefits of frequent testing and the feedback it leads to.