Last year marked the end of my 10-year original National Board Certification, so I was forced to plow ahead with my renewal. It was perfect timing for me as I was in the middle of being rejuvenated by the re-release of ACTFL's proficiency descriptors. I had to choose 4 Professional Growth Experiences. Those areas fell into place very easily for me.
1. Student Output:
My 90% TL began a long, long time ago. Before ACTFL posed their 6 Core Practices, I was committed to speaking 95% of the time in Spanish to my class and making every effort to do so in a way to ensure their affective filters were LOW. I felt it time to work on increasing my students' oral output. I know that you're not supposed to force output, but I teach levels IV and V, juniors and seniors and I feel I can ask them to get on board with the output as long as I frame it as OUR goal.
Some of my fundamental procedures to meet goal:
- Daily "frases": The daily question / prompt is posted on the board and the students can answer during warm-up time or at another lull to earn their cumulative speaking points. They can earn 3 points (I don't really know why I say 3...probably because of the way New York State grades the speaking tasks lower levels.) and I will offer 1 bonus point for a variety of reasons (elaboration, answering more follow-up questions, using sophisticated grammar structures) and I do that based on who my student is (they range from novice high working on intermediate low to intermediate mid working on intermediate high).
- "actividad conversacional": I always plan 2 activities that in which I ask students to be on board with speaking in Spanish and avoiding English. I mark them with a star and announce when they are occurring so students are in the right frame of mind and up their participation.
- "minuto de charlar": This was a game changer. I attended a workshop from Harry Tuttle who presented this idea. Prompt is on the board, students exchange papers, 1 minute timer starts and partner 2 simply tallies as students make sentences. I LOVE listening during these. Students sometimes say they are stressful, but there's no grade so I'm not completely sure why.
2. Feedback
During a book study of Seven
Strategies of Assessment for Learning, I learned of a strategy to provide
effective feedback. The essential idea is to share one area of strength and one
area of focus. During this time, I was watching American Idol and saw the same
strategy. The quality of feedback given to the contestants is significant and
honest. Furthermore, the contestants greatly accept the feedback and use it to
guide their continued practice. After their performance, the judges give a
positive comment that is far from the generic “good job”, but specific in
description. They give advice on exactly what to focus on improving in the
show. Since this occurs immediately following the performance, the examples are
significant to the contestant and they know how to proceed in their practices
before the next competition.
I’ve taken this practice
to the classroom and have used a “stars and stairs” method to give the same
idea of a positive praise to acknowledge an area that is already strong and an
area that can be improved. I’ve applied this to a weekly written evaluation. I
created a form with a star icon and a staircase icon. This task is not a graded
assignment. These written evaluations are formative assessments and are
on-going. It’s a practice opportunity for students to demonstrate their ability
to effectively communicate an idea related to our topic of study. I provide a
prompt and students write a paragraph according to the prompt.
My feedback is
based on the ACTFL proficiency guidelines. By using the ACTFL descriptors and
my “stars and stairs” form, I limit myself in quantity to not overwhelm the
students. The ACTFL descriptors reflect how language learners progress. By
using their verbiage, I can show the key points that identify their current
proficiency and target which area to work on in order to improve. As I review
the writing samples, I can glean areas of strength or weakness in regards to
the topic, vocabulary and grammar so that I can make modifications to the unit
of study. Additionally, I can respond in a variety of ways. For example, I can
use this time to identify errors that create roughness in fluency that students
have the knowledge and ability of correcting, such as spelling, agreement of
subject-verb and noun-adjective, and tenses. By highlighting errors, students make
corrections as a warm-up activity the next class. They may work with their
group members to seek help or ask me if they get stuck but it’s a time for them
to examine their errors and determine the correct form. Other times, I identify
the strength and improvement area. Yet another option is to share their
proficiency level demonstrated in the task. Regardless which feedback I give, I
attempt to return the paper the following class because good feedback is timely
as well as specific.
Using the terms from the ACTFL proficiency guidelines is amazing!
Giving my students free-write time and responding with their level (although it's just a snapshot of their ability and not true proficiency level) is so encouraging. I don't even have to use grades, it's effective. They don't even ask "how many sentences?" any more. The more they write the better they chance they have at receiving a higher label...and believe me they want that label!
In the first picture, you can see my proficiency wall to the left of the agenda and frases. I refer to that when I want to seize an opportunity to give feedback. Maybe a student uses a complex sentence, I can refer to Intermediate mid to say how that's a characteristic. You know what happens next? More kids start using complex sentences! This stuff is gold for feedback!
3. Expanding my PLN
(it's a constant, evolving, work-in-progress)
- I am adjunct with a university so that our students can get college credit.
- I participate with NYSAFLT
- Listen to TeawithBVP podcast (and sometimes call in!)
- Participate in #langchat
- Work with regional committees
4. Using authentic resources
I use #authres regulary. I try to make it daily but I won't commit 100% to that statement.
I think you can get so much mileage out of #authres. And it better after the countless time I spend in the vortex of finding the perfect one...but as Kristy Placido said "let good be good enough". The perfect one may come in the future!
I, myself, have learned so much from using authentic resources. Grammar rules are broken! Why did I take off points on a paper for breaking the rule I taught when they get broken IRL!?!? There's so much more vocabulary than my list!?!? The cultural ah-has! The comparative ah-has! I am often able to make many connections to the ACTFL 5 Cs:
communication
√
(interpretive via receptive and interpersonal or presentational when using the insight as springboard or communicate)
cultures
√
connections
√
(different perspectives, other disciplines)
comparisons
√
(both language and cultural)
communities? this is by far my most challenging standard.
So here's a homework choice board I use for each unit. They must complete one a week for a total of 3 or 4 depending on the length of the unit. My level 5 write 8 sentences in the 1st half of year and 10 in the 2nd half. My level 4s start at 5 and work their way up to 8 by the end of the year. It's actually refreshing for me as I correct homework because each student turns in something different or writes from a different point of view. I'm happy to not read 50 of the same thing as I grade. (simple rubric: sentence structure, content and language control)
Geesh.....super long....just trying to give insight on to the extent of my work and support of SLA and ACTFL. Looking back at where I've come from, it's been a long journey. I'm only half-way there! It's a great path that I'm on right now.
Every unit, I aim to use art and music as authentic resources and cultural insight and I felt that I was getting something in this direction through Juanes. I watched the movie Living on One Dollar with my 9-year daughters one day and knew I had to us
