ACTFL Day 1 (Friday)

The actual ACTL conference started today with an opening session. The speaker was Tony Plana; a very accomplished star of stage and screen. He is one of the stars of the ABC Series, Ugly Betty. Mr. Plana developed an innovative literacy program “beyond boarders” which uses the performing arts to impact literacy.

Elke Kuegle (German Teacher from Rapid) and I then meet while passing in the halls. This was her first ACTFL conferences as well. She and I toured the Vender Exhibit hall. There was an overwhelming amount of information, curriculum, and discussion on various different topics. They seemed to have the vending areas set up by language content. This was nice as Elke and I walked through the German booths. I also was able to pick up some information on Spanish and French. There were numerous displays for Chinese and many venders from Spain.

I then attended a session entitled: Foreign Languages and Multimedia. This was an excellent session and gave some free programs that can be used by teachers. The programs were created through Michigan State and are free for language teachers to use. I am attending another session tomorrow to learn more about the online tools. http://clear.msu.edu/clear/


I then attended a Plenary session entitled: National Language Legislation inititiaves. This was a panel discussion by many individuals. There seems to be a good beginning for legistation to support world language instruction.


Then I attended a very interesting session called: Assessment as a Strategy for Student Motivation. This session focused provided models of written and oral assessment implementation with a large multi-section program. The session was presented by Robert Davis, Paual Ellister and Laurie De Gonzalez, from the University of Oregon. The level one Spanish classes have a large amount of writing using the learned vocabulary for assessment. For example if they have learned vocabulary about the family, then the student will write about their family. On exam day, the student knows that they are writing about the family, however, they may not know the exact prompt of the assessment, thus they are not able to memorize or rehearse a written piece, but rather create the product from knowledge learned. The papers are scored with a common rubric and the most interesting item is that if all expectations for the unit are met then the student receives a “C” grade. It is through the student adding additional vocabulary and other “additions” that they receive a higher grade. Thus rewarding them for added accomplishement rather than starting at the perfect level and subtracting for errors. The project has demonstrated that students are achieving higher levels in the targeted language through this method.

The most interesting item learned through this session is what the project called NORMING. The program operates with over 800 students in many different sections with various instructors, so to provide a consistent quality in grading the faculty conducts norming sessions called a grading party. They conduct the sessions three times a year. There are 4 instructors in a group. Each instructor in the group chooses example writing from what they believe to be an “A, B, C, D” graded paper. They take the samples with them to the party and then each paper is graded by the other three instructors with out prior knowledge of the original grade. Grading is based on the same rubric. The instructors then discuss and compare why each graded the paper to the level they did. This has helped tremendously to create a standard grading expectation across the program.

At the end of year one students were surveyed in response to the new methods on assessment of their knowledge and all were very satisfied.

NSSFL Day 3

The NSSFL delegation held a joint meeting with ACTL Assembly of delegates and NADSFL today. At the a.m. joint session a federal initiatives update was given on a variety of initiatives. Ray Clifford presented a session on "Putting our Profession’s pieces together: building the assessment framework." It is a general feeling that world language teachers need to have a deeper understanding of assessment as a whole to inform and improve. Small groups were then held to create updates on position statements.

A joint lunch was held with NADSFL to honor some key people. The state supervisor of the year award for world languages went to Ann Tollefson. She will retire from the state supervisor position for Wyoming in 14 days. Congrats to Ann.

In the afternoon, additional time was held to finalize drafts summaries on the critical issues round tables. Additional nssfl business was addressed, items such as dues, and the 2008 meeting times, and who would be submitting proposals to ACTFL next year for presentations.

There is a national project funded by DOE to conduct a National Foreign Language survey. The survey has been sent to random schools across the U.S. Please fill out the survey if your district received it. They so far have had a small return on it. http://www.cal.org/projects/flsurvey.html


Yesterday’s blog introduced a collaborative effort between collegeboard, hanban http://english.hanban.edu.cn/market/HanBanE/412360.htm and now NSSFL to centrally coordinate efforts to place guest Chinese teachers into American Schools to teach the Chinese language. Prior to the start of this collaborative effort, there were a couple of different programs going on to bring this resource to America. Both individual states, Hanban, and Collegeboard were conducting separate programs in the area. Now under the new collaboration Collegeboard would take the lead with the help of NSSFL, and HANBAN to promote recruit schools for the program, Conduct quality interviews and screening processes, provide visa’s and health insurance, compensation to, and orientation of the placed Chinese Teachers. This would help to build a national quality of standard for the program. Details are now starting to be worked out and agreed upon by all involved partners. Currently 31 states participate in the collegeboard program. Next April, Collegeboard is going to hold its first large scale Chinese instruction in the U.S. conference. More details will be forth coming. Interviews for next years Chinese instructors will be held in late February to early March.

Spanish Embassy’s Education program presented.

The French Embassy’s presented on American Assistants in France project. The French ministry of education offers 1500 teaching assistantship positions in French primary and secondary schools for American Citizens between 20 and 30 years of age, graduates and undergraduates with a proficiency in French. They spend 6-9 months in France with a stipend, have a privileged insight into contemporary France and gain valuable teaching experience. Applications will be open by the end of the month and will be due in around Feb 1, 2008. More information contact: assistant.washington-amba@diplomatie.gouv.fr or www.frenchculture.org

Federal Initiatives Update

Information was shared by various presenters on the following initiatives:
STARTALK. http://startalk.umd.edu/ STARTALK ( the newest program in the president’s National Security Language Initiative – an innovative summer program to teach Arabic and Chinese to more than 1,000 high school students at sites around the country.
LINGUAFOlio http://www.ncssfl.org/links/index.php?linguafoliol

CERF/Strasbourg Meeting

AAPPL (Assessment for Performance and Proficiency of Languages project) http://www.cal.org/projects/archive/aappl.html
OPIc oral proficiency interview-computer is now up and running in English. They will also have one in Spanish. The student takes a self assessment first then the computer determines which assessment if given based on data from the self assessment. It currently test three levels: novice low to advanced low They are planning to add 8 new langugages to the project. Languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Cambodia, Korean, etc.

JNCL/ NCLIS shared information regarding Federal legislations updates http://www.languagepolicy.org/
Which included information on HEA Reauthorization, FLAP News, and the America COMPETES & College Cost Reduction and Access Act

Resources:

Resources:

Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages http://www.cal.org/heritage/ is also a new initiative of CALS. The goal is to document heritage programs. They are welcoming profiles and are encouraging program people to join the list serve.


Actfl has a new book out: Keys to the Classroom. It is geared to help new teachers in the field.

RESEARCH CONNECTIONS:

ACTFL has put together a website to share “What the research shows about the benefits of language learning?”
In this age of accountability in education, policymakers and administrators, as well as parents, are increasingly demanding to know what research studies show regarding the benefits of language learning. The site identifies some of the major correlation studies that highlight how language learners benefit from their experiences. http://actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=4524

NSSFL Day 2

Texas welcomed all the state supervisors to the meeting. Carl Johnson gave a bit of history regarding the various meetings NSSFL has held since the first one that was held in San Francisco in 1977. Introductions were extended by every state. Discussion was held regarding the roll of N.S.S.F.L. as a leadership organization on a national level with world languages. Awards and accomplishments were highlighted for various state representatives. Reports were given on collaborative efforts with the ASCD conference to promote world languages. New officers were elected. Information was given regarding NSSFL becoming a non-profit organization.

Did you know that 33% of all advance placement course offerings are world languages? This was a tidbit that was shared with the group.

Key topics of discussion for the day included: NSSFL’s collaboration efforts; states sharing with states; resources; language resource centers; and critical issues. The posts below give more information on each one.

NSSFL collaboration efforts

Information was given regarding efforts to collaborate between collegeboard, hanban http://english.hanban.edu.cn/market/HanBanE/412360.htm and states regarding Chinese world language instruction by Chinese teachers from China. More information will be forth coming.

ASCD http://ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/index.jsp/ NSSFL is trying to branch out to work with other organizations like ASCD to reach a broader audience with the world language message.

States sharing with states:

Pennsylvania and Ohio shared some information on state legislation that will benefit foreign language programs in their states. More information regarding the information can be gathered on their state profile pages through NSSFL’s website.

Resources:

ISTE has published a new book on using technology in the foreign language classroom.

http://chinesepod.com/ is a website to help a person learn Chinese with free daily podcasts, lesson review,
and guidance from experts. There are 698 lessons available.

An update was given on Linguafolio.

States such as Wisconsin and Nebraska shared information regarding their versions of the portfolio and what resources they have used. Virginia shared information regarding the linguafolio junior for elementary. North Carolina is working on developing an esl version of linguafolio.

Linguafolio is a sefl-assessment scale of language development. World wide use is spreading beyond just Europe. It is becoming more international in use.

Additional information can be learned by accessing this website: http://www.ncssfl.org/links/index.php?linguafoliol
Nebraska’s linquafolio website: http://linguafolio.unl.edu/

STARTALK http://startalk.umd.edu/ STARTALK ( the newest program in the president’s National Security Language Initiative – an innovative summer program to teach Arabic and Chinese to more than 1,000 high school students at sites around the country. Called STARTALK, the program is jointly funded by the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Defense) The purpose of this site is to share information on implementing programs as well as to share resources on curriculum design, instructional materials, assessment tools, and useful links. The program is looking for new states to apply for the grants. The turn-around time will be short.
Moodle http://moodle.org/ is an open source online course management software environment much like blackboard or webct (webct is offered free in our state for K-12 teachers to us to support instructions http://doe.sd.gov/octa/ddn4learning/statewide/webCT/index.asp )

LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTERS

4 of the 15 language resource centers presented today regarding their websites and resources they can offer to teachers.

NFLRC http://nflrc.iastate.edu/ They will not be holding summer institutes this summer. There focus is shifting heavily to research. They are working with a couple states to gather research regarding world language instruction.

CARLA http://www.carla.umn.edu/ Carla will be having a number of summer institutes. Visit there website to see what is offered.

NCLRC http://nclrc.org/ Has a number of FREE resources to offer. Check out the website.

CASLS http://casls.uoregon.edu/ They offer the STAMP assessment. STAMP is a Web-based assessment tool built to benchmarks characterizing proficiency levels that are tied to ACTFL Performance Guidelines. Results show student proficiency from Novice-Low through Intermediate-Mid on the ACTFL scale and are based upon a clear rubric of expectations. The direct link to STAMP http://www.avantassessment.com/products/about_stamp.html

Critical Issues:

Small group sessions were held on critical issues related to world language instruction and program. Discussions were held today on the following issues:
Critical Languages
Opportunities and Roadblocks to Licensure/Certification
Research-DOK, STEM, Partnership in 21st Century Skills
Assessment for Learning and of learning
The possibilities of virtual learning aka virtual learning for digital immigrants
middle school black hole dilemma aka articuluation a k-12 pipeline

Some gathered ideas from other states

As I networked today, I gathered some ideas from other states. North Carolina has a flap grant to create conversational coaches. They are using SKYPE to allow Chinese coaches to connect with students for approximately 1 hour a week. The hour can be either during school or after school, depending on the individual coaches and students schedules. The hour can be all at once or broken into individual time increments.

Podcasting-free resources

An Apple distinquished educator: Patsy Lanclos, an instructional technology specialist, provided an informative session on creating podcasts. She shared with us the free apple resources that are open for education from the itunes store. To access go to itunes.com and select podcasts/education and then the free podcasts that you want. There are many free ones.

She used garage band software to create the podcasts we made. There is also freeware that will create the podcasts.

Technology's role in World Language Teaching, Learning and Professional Development

This session was provided by Northside School District personnel. The host was Rosana Perez. The trainer was Lorraine Trawick and Amanda Hefner. http://www.nisd.net/ is the school's home page.

What did this session provide:

information on Social Bookmarking: http://del.icio.us is a place to keep mobile bookmarks.
see example: http://del.icio.us/ww1soldier

Information on Wiki's : http://www.pbwiki.org is a place to create a free wiki.
see example: http://ww1soldier.pbwiki.org

Information on Blogs: www.edublogs.org is a place to create free blogs for your classroom
see example: http://ww1soldier.edublogs.org

NSSFL MEETING Day 1

I have decided to create a blog to help share the information I have learned at the NSSFL Meeting. Using the web to communicate with our students is so vitally important as they are the digital natives of today that expect instant communication and instant information. This blog's purpose is to help instructors see the value in using web 2.0 tools.

If you have questions or concerns regarding the content please feel free to post. This is both a work space and an experiment.

Thanks, Peg