Creating a Virtual Community

      When we heard that we would be on temporary online learning, my biggest worry was how to protect and preserve the community that we had built in my classes over the 8 months that we were together.   As a language teacher, my #1 priority was to continue to build that community while teaching content.  So I spent the entire first weekend and probably next week reviewing best practices as described by other language teachers who were also moving to online/remote learning or had been teaching blended/online learning all along.  

     I also reached out to my own students to get a better understanding of what they would miss most about being in class, what they would not miss, what challenges they had at home that could prevent them from being able to have a synchronous class each day (connectivity, caring for younger siblings, lack of a quiet space,  crowded living conditions, psychological effects of learning at home).  From that research, I developed my own "online classroom" that would work best for me.  So here is what I came up with.

1.  Person to person interaction is fundamental.  This applies to introverts and extroverts.

     -When teaching, screen share with your camera on.  

     -There is a lot of non-verbal communication that happens during teaching; facial expressions, hand gestures, other body language, if your camera is on, they see some of it. 

     -Set up smaller groups in which students can collaborate.  And check on those small groups frequently.

     -Use a variety of grouping strategies so that the students can work with their friends from time to time.

2.  Be yourself and give students the same opportunity.   Don't be afraid to unleash your creativity.

     -Do what you are comfortable with doing and in your own way.  Trying to re-invent yourself 3/4 of the way into the year does no one any favors.  This would apply to the beginning of the school year as well.

     -Create lessons/activities that give students choices or a variety of ways to express themselves.

    -I have learned how to make videos for my students, using language in an authentic way. 

   -And in this way I have in some ways become a better teacher. 

3.  Not everything needs to be graded.

     -Learning and mastery still happen when you simply give students feedback on how they are performing.

     -Students will perform best if the activity is meaningful, even if it is not graded.

4.  Reach out to the greater teaching community for ideas and help.  Also share your ideas.

     -There are close to 1 million language teachers in the US, and all of them are doing some pretty cool things in their classes right now.  

     -Sharing your ideas may help someone who is struggling and you can also get feedback on how to improve or even better confirmation that you are awesome.

5.  Online teaching/learning whether synchronous or asynchronous takes more time.

     -Planning lessons or recording videos take on average twice the amount of time as delivering a lesson in person.

     -For some students it is difficult to process what they see in a video without it being in written format and for others they need to be able to hear the message several times.

     -You will have to repeat yourself.  It is not necessarily because they were not paying attention.  It could be processing style but it could also be connectivity and home environment factors as well.

     -Most students learn best by being able to see, hear, write and speak about content.  Doing all 4 of those takes more time both in and out of class.

6.  Be gentle with yourself.  You are doing the best you can and they appreciate it.

Here are some of the apps and activities that I am doing in my classes to promote community and mastery of the standards in my classes.

1.  WebEx -  I have students grouped in small groups of 3-4.  I change the groups regularly and sometimes allow them the choice of who they will work with. 

We also recently did our Global Simulations on WebEx.  I grouped students ahead of time and they circulate through the various "services and merchants" to "buy" food in a variety of stores, to "open" a bank account, to "mail" a letter and a package to a friend, to "recommend" a book, to "order" food in a restaurant and to reserve a room in a hotel.  These were student to student conversations where one student was the customer and the other was service and then they switched roles.  

2.  Flipgrid-  This allows students to record their voice in response to a prompt.  

3.  Goose Chase.  In my French 1 and AP class we have done a virtual Scavenger Hunt where they have to make videos, take photos or write text in response to a prompt.  

4.  Cooking videos -  There is a tremendous amount of content that can be taught simply by teaching students how to cook.  I have a worksheet that I have them complete as they are watching the video and then we go over it in class.  Here are 4 cooking videos that I have made for my students.  It is really important that videos are no longer than 3-4 minutes and that students have an opportunity to listen to them several times.   Ideally they should be as short as 2 minutes and be engaging.  Longer videos are hard to focus on for long periods of time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuLQZooYI3g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jKrqaWyxt4&t=55s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqFyuCyxX_k&t=71s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1AfHgKZxwg&t=47s

Whatever you do, just keep doing it.  You are amazing!

On Points: Part 2 Becoming an Integrated Performance Assessment Teacher

In November 2018, I attended the ACTFL conference in New Orleans.  It is there that I had a transformational experience and where I started looking into how I could go from being a good teacher to a great teacher.  I am always looking for opportunities to improve

I learned about Comprehensible Input from many professionals throughout the country.  The one that sticks out is La Maestra Loca.  I love, love, love her energy, enthusiasm, and positivity.  She is so very creative and passionate about teaching languages.  Check out her blog for interesting activities #lamaestraloca https://lamaestralocablog.com/

At ACTFL, I also attended many workshops on how to teach culture with CI, how to move away from the textbook, how to teach for proficiency and much much more. If you are a language teacher, you simply should go to the ACTFL conference each year to keep up with the best practices in language teaching.

Let me get On Point 2

https://www.maxpixel.net/Ballet-Ballet-Shoes-Body-Dance-Dancer-Shoes-Woman-3575887

It was in NoLA that I became more interested in Integrated Performance Assessment and I have spent many hours this summer researching how to implement it in my classes.  IPA goes hand in hand with Standards Based Grading and Assessment.  It is about assessing what students can do with the language in the 3 communication modes: interpretive, interpersonal and presentational.

The key to a good IPA is backwards design.  Decide what students will be assessed on at the end of a chapter or unit, then design and scaffold a lesson so that they will perform well on the assessment.  For the IPA to be successful, teachers must offer students activities that are similar to the IPA during the unit and give them feedback on how to improve.  Notice I said feedback, not necessarily grading them on formative assignments.  Students should not be working towards getting points for doing an assignment.  They should be trying to improve their performance so that they can "level up" in their proficiency.

Another component of IPA is that it should be real world task oriented.  This means that students should not be simply memorizing a list of vocabulary or verb conjugations.  Vocab and grammar should be integrated in the real world tasks.  Asking students to memorize -er verb conjugations and regurgitate them on a test or quiz in a fill in the blank or multiple choice situation, is not a real world task and is not proficiency based.  In this kind of assessment, students are assigned points based on a proportion of right answers vs wrong answers and not on showing what they can do with the language.  However, negotiating their way through a shopping list at the grocery store or small merchants is something they might need to be able to do in the real world.  And it uses that vocab and grammar as well.  I already do a great deal or real world tasks with my students, so with a little revision of those activities I will be on my way.  Real world tasks are meaningful AND motivate students to learn the content needed to perform well.

Feedback is extremely important throughout the unit.  Notice I said feedback and not grades.  Feedback could be given in writing or orally and should use the terminology in the rubric for IPA.  It can come from the teacher, peers or from self-assessment.  It is critical that the student is aware of where they are in the rubric and what they need to be able to do to level up.  By leveling up, I mean increasing proficiency.

My research on IPA has given me the structure and guidance to go full on SBG and IPA in my classes this year.  I am a little nervous about it, but also very excited.  Nervous because it will require a good bit of time to completely make the switch in 4 completely different classes.  Preparation is key and is usually what takes the most time in my day.  Access to authentic documents and where to find this is essential.  I enjoy researching and learning.  It also gives me an opportunity to keep my proficiency en pointe too!  I am excited to see what my students can do with the language and how I can be a better teacher.

Of course, this is the simplified version of what researchers and experts have been suggesting for years. I am finally in a mental and professional space where I can act on that knowledge and research for the benefit of my students.

Now, I need to work on what that is going to look like in my classes and get it down in writing.  With 2 weeks left of summer, there is so little time.

If you are interested in IPA and SBG, here are some resources that I have found.  I will be adding to this list!  Maybe a different blog post.  I invite your comments and questions.  They will help me sort through how to implement IPA and SBG this year!

https://www.grahnforlang.com/assessment-in-world-languages.html
https://sites.google.com/a/weldre4.k12.co.us/mrsgilmore/home/french-1/unit-4---l-ecole/ipa---lcole
http://madameshepard.com/?p=316

On Points part 1

Photo Credit: Gary https://www.flickr.com/people/g_b/

I have spent the past couple of years reassessing my grading policy, specifically do I give points or weight grades? I do not really understand how points can be worked out without doing a ton of math and advanced planning, so I weight my grades.  The question that then arises is this: if I weight my grades, what percentage should be given to these grades? and what categories should I use?  

When I first started teaching I used categories like homework, writing, listening/speaking and tests.  These were the categories used by my predecessor and at the time they seemed to make sense.  With more experience and knowledge, I have decided that those categories are too vague and do not indicate what students are able to do with the language.  I have attended workshop after workshop on Standards Based Grading and have changed my grading policy to more accurately reflect what students are doing with the language.  It is not perfect and I suspect that I will change it again this year.  But here it is today, before I start working on changes for the 2019-2020 school year.  The red indicates possible changes, if I am to use current policy.  I am thinking about using the upper level grading policy for all of my classes, but I still feel like it needs revision.

For French 1-3

• 5%  Grammar and Vocab practice (fill in the blanks from the workbook) I may do away with this category all together. This is a topic for another discussion on another day
• 5%  10% Cultural Competency- Cultural comprehension questions and activities
• 25%  Written communication (essays, projects, reading comprehension, blog entries, letters)
• 30%  25% Oral Communication (group participation, small group work, dialogues, listening comprehension activities, oral presentations, flipgrid)
• 20 % Unit tests and quizzes This category will be discussed in future blog posts.
• 15%  Final exam

For French IV/V and AP

10% Interpretive Communication

15% Interpersonal Writing

15% Interpersonal Speaking

15% Presentational Writing

15% Presentational Speaking

15% Tests and quizzes

15% Final Exam

Grading policies are, in many ways, so personal.  They reflect the priorities of the individual teachers. They need to make sense to the students.  Grading policies telegraph to students what they need to do in order to be successful in a given class.They also need to be fair so that each student is able to achieve their potential.  And in the modern language classroom, they need to reflect the ACTFL Proficiency guidelines, which is why I prefer the French IV and AP grading policy.

In addition to revamping my overall grading policy, I am working on revamping how I grade summative assessments and not including formative assessments in student grades at all.  All of the categories above would be summative assessments given at intervals throughout a unit and the semester.  How I will be grading will be included in On Points part 2.  

In summary, grades and grade categories should indicate how well a student performs on various tasks.  In other words, what they are able to do with the language in real-world situations.  They should not be about students reciting grammar rules or memorizing verb conjugations; these will be evident when looking at free-response activities.  Grades and grading need to be fair so that the lowest and highest performing students feels like their grade reflects what they are able to do (and what they need to improve on) and not just about points.

Here Puppy, puppy, puppy!

So, we decided to get a dog....not just any dog, but a Newfoundland.  At 3 months, he is 33.4 lbs big. And he is beautiful.  And I love him.  His name is Jasper Grimm. The interesting thing about teachers' pets is that they can teach you a thing or two.

1.  Play is only fun when both participants are into it.
2.  What 1 participant thinks is fun, is not always fun for the other.
3.  Treats get results, but can be overused.
4.  Unconditional love and praise go further than treats.
5.  Be precise in your language and expectations.  There is a difference between "Go Potty" and "Go Poop"
6.  Be patient.
7.  Everybody needs a break.
8.  Socialization is key and important.

Why all students should volunteer to wrap gifts at the holidays

     This weekend, I spent a total of 7 hours with a handful of students wrapping presents at a local Barnes and Noble and I will spend 3 more with them next weekend.  When we were contacted by Barnes and Noble with this opportunity to do this as a fundraiser, I imagined money, lots of it, being given to my students for a service they would provide.  Our club needs money, so I thought it would be an excellent opportunity.  In seven hours, we earned a whopping $15 between 6 people.  That's right! Way less than minimum wage and about the same amount that I was paid per hour before tips for waiting tables in when I was in college back when dinosaurs still roamed Earth.

      Though this activity was not financially lucrative, my students are richer for having had this experience.  Here are four reasons why....

1. Customer service and business communication skills -  I would venture to say that the majority of my students do not have an after school job.  Their parents believe that school and getting good grades is their job.  Most of them only interact with 3 groups of people; family, friends, their teachers.  And I think that it has created a world where teens do not know how to talk to people outside their bubble, although this is a skill that they are going to have to develop when they become adults.  Better to learn now than later.

During the seven hours of our volunteer service, I stepped back and let them do the work. I was there to supervise after all.  When a customer approached the table, they greeted the customer, asked to see their receipt, and then asked questions of the customer to clarify how they would like their gift wrapped.  They made sure that the customer was satisfied with the job that they did and explained who we were and why were there.  It was interesting to watch them develop this skill over the three or four hours we were there.  By the end of the shift, they had it down and even the most timid student became more assertive.


2.  Dealing with disappointment  I think we all had dreams of making some bank this weekend.  I know that I was disappointed.  I'm pretty sure the girls who gave up their time this week were disappointed as well.  There were also customers who came to the table and didn't like the gift wrap that was provided by the store and left without getting their items wrapped.  There were others that did not donate to us even though we provided a service.

I could be very wrong, but I think this is good for students to learn to deal with.  All of the students who were with me are very strong academically.  They may bomb a test or quiz twice in their lives, but it is highly unlikely.  It is important for them to realize that things do not always go as planned or hoped for, but life still goes on.  It should be about the experience and not just getting what we wanted.


3.  Teamwork and learning something new  Gift wrapping for me has always been a craft that I take great pride in.  I learned how to do it at a very young age and improve over the years. I even make my bows by hand.  I like to crease the edges of the paper and make them sharp.  I like the way the paper bends and crackles under my fingers.  I like putting the care and love into wrapping the gift.  It somehow has more meaning than when I toss it into a gift bag.

As Bailey said today, "Thank goodness that my mom taught me how to wrap gifts."  She was really good at it too!  She was the only one that I did not have to teach how to wrap gifts.  Everyone else simply throws a gift into a gift bag and throws some tissue paper in with it.  The art of gift wrapping was lost on them.  Until today.

Bailey and I taught 5 girls how to wrap gifts today and Friday. They helped each other problem solve difficult package wrapping.  They handed each other tape, held edges and inspected each others' work.  This might be an excellent team building activity!  And more importantly, they took pride in their work, the final product and the appreciation in their customers' eyes.

4.  Conversation 

We had a lot of down time.  A LOT.  We had about 2 customers an hour.  Because we were in a "business" situation, I did not allow them to be using their devices; their phones, their iPads, their anything.  It is not very inviting to customers when your service provider is "involved" with their device.  They respected this and really did not argue or push back.  And they talked to each other and me (though I was grading papers in the corner) for the 3-4 hours we were there.  They laughed and teased each other.  They talked about silly stuff, stressed about school, and giggled.  And it was good.  They entertained each other for hours.  Our kids need to learn how to talk to each other.

And we are richer today because of this experience.

Your French teacher says, "Show your work!!!!"

    I don't want to jinx myself, but I really must say that my AP French class this year is top notch.
They are hard-working and constantly work toward improving their French in everything that they do.  They are energetic and fun.  I have made some changes to how I teach the class this year (and how I taught them last year) and I think that it has made a world of difference. Or maybe I am disillusioning myself and they are the difference that I see this year.  They were, after all, a pretty great class last year.

     Many years ago, I started integrating technology into my language classes.  This was an important move because it brings the French speaking world to them.  I cannot take every one of my students to France each summer, even though I would really like to, so I needed to bring it to them.  Their textbook is electronic, they complete open-ended speaking exercises on lingtlanguage.com, they write presentations and business letters in Google docs, and they watch videos and read articles written by and for French speakers on various websites from the Francophone world.  The use of technology in my classes allows me to give students personal feedback on their progress and allows me to give them a variety of activities to show their progress.

     Their practice workbook comes with access to the activities online so they know immediately which questions they missed and why.  In years past, I have trusted that they are spending the necessary time to do the activities and have not done more than check off the work in the gradebook after reviewing their answers to see where they are having trouble.  This year, I am requiring them to show their work in their paper workbook.  They must underline and define words that they do not know.  They must show where they got the answer in the readings and take notes on the listening section.  Doing so encourages them to interact directly with the document.  It intensifies concentration and encourages good habits of the mind.  They are performing better on these activities than students in years past.  I believe this for 2 reasons.  I am holding them accountable for their own learning by showing their work and they are focusing on getting the answers correct instead of simply getting them done.

     I require the same amount of interaction in their business letter responses.  They must identify the reason the sender has written to them.  They must identify any questions or requests in the letter.  They must underline and define words that they did not know.  This helps me when grading because I can grade their response and then look at their workbook to see where they went wrong with their response.  Did they not understand vocabulary?  Did they misunderstand the sender's request?  I can then give them feedback on how to improve their second draft.  On free response sections, I allow them to turn in a second, third or even fourth draft.  It rewards effort to improve.

    Similarly, on the presentational sections, 2 minute spoken presentation or 5 paragraph essay, I require them to outline the main points they are going to make.  This encourages organization and discourages stream of consciousness responses that do not seem to make a clear point.  For both sections, I also require them to tell me where they found their information.  In the oral, they must cite it in their response.  In the written presentational, they must cite the source and show where they found the point in the sources with underlining, asterisks or note taking.  They must also cite any words they looked up in a dictionary for use in their presentation with the word they searched in English and the dictionary they used, which discourages plagiarism.

    Finally,  I ask them to code their presentational written essays so that I can easily see that they have included a variety of sentence structures and vocabulary in their essay;  Green for subjunctive, purple for si clauses, blue for vocabulary, red for places where they had difficulty and want me to concentrate.  As we move on through the year, I introduce more colors for more elements.  This encourages them to be more mindful of what they are expected to include in their writings.  It holds them accountable for their learning.  One girl drew a sad face on her paper and said that hers was not very colorful, then asked how she could make it more colorful.  Coding their writing facilitates my ability to give them feedback in a timely manner.  I can see what they know and what they need to work on more.

    I have seen a great deal of improvement in this class in just the first marking period.  Their writing and speaking is superior to where it was at the beginning of the year and classes in years past.  Their grades are better than in other classes I have had in years past.  They have worked hard and it shows.