April 22, 2016
Your contributions to
this e-newsletter are very welcome.
Polyglot Press
·
Welcome
Tania Monsalve, Spanish teacher at
Sun Valley High School. Tania brings years of Spanish-teaching experience to
her classroom. She has taught middle school through AP Spanish.
·
Congratulations
to Ron Crider, French teacher at
Porter Ridge High School, who
chaperoned students to France over the spring break.
·
Congratulations
to John (aka Mateo) Tiller, Spanish teacher at Piedmont
High School, whose FLANC proposal has been accepted for the Fall 2016
conference Friday, October 7th at 10:30am. You will have a
chance for a sneak preview of his presentation next fall.
·
Best
wishes to Christine Bachiller, Spanish
teacher at Weddington High School, who is traveling to Cuba this summer.
#Can’twaitforphotos #dreamtrip #FallPD?
·
Best
wishes to Amanda Mancilla, Spanish
teacher at CATA, who is expecting baby # 3 the end of April. Welcome to her sub
Ms. Wandy Santiago.
·
Best
wishes to Danilo Loor who is
relocating to Washington DC next year. Recommend your dual licensed German /
Spanish teaching friends to apply for the opening he leaves at Central Academy.
·
MRHS
French students and teacher Dawn Jones,
attended the World Affairs of Charlotte luncheon with the French ambassador http://bit.ly/1rc8Ywh
Professional Development
·
Tuesday,
April 26, 2016 Teacher
Effectiveness for Language Learning PDC Room 205. Lead by
Donna Podgorny, attendees will analyze the components of the TELL project, the
checklists and surveys offered. While TELL documents are the focus of the
workshop, teachers will experience stations and hopefully be able to apply what
they learn to their classrooms. Pizza will be served. 2 Academic Content CEU
hours are available. Please sign up at http://bit.ly/UCPSWLPD15-16
·
Tuesday,
May 3, 2016 (Rescheduled) Second
Language Teaching and Language Learning Disabilities. PDC Room 205
There is a long continuum between learning disabled and gifted students. What
do the individual difference look like in the second language classroom? What
can we do to support learners with weak language learning skills? This workshop
by Donna Podgorny is based on research by Dr. S Watts (UNC-C), Dr. A Milstead
(Samford U) and the book Foreign Languages for Everyone (Konyndyk). Bring your classroom stories and an interest in improving our craft.
Pizza will be served. 2 Academic Content CEU hours are available. If you
did not sign up before, please sign up at http://bit.ly/UCPSWLPD15-16
·
Tuesday,
May 10, 2016 4:00 – 6:00 Rating
with (WL) Rubrics PDC 205.Teachers will have hands-on experience in applying rubrics
(UCPS and others) to UCPS student benchmark samples. Guided by Donna Podgorny,
teachers will grade samples from various writing and speaking assessments then
discuss the various criteria. Canvas WL rubrics will be shared. Please bring
sample student work, especially from UCPS benchmarks if you use them. Pizza
will be served. 2 Academic Content CEU hours are available. Please
sign up at http://bit.ly/UCPSWLPD15-16
·
June 13, 2016 to June
17, 2016 Catching up with Your Students: Digital
Learning – Cullowhee, NCCAT 14165 http://www.nccat.org/events/14165-catching-your-students-digital-learning-cullowhee
·
June 13, 2016
to June 17, 2016 Relevant Literacy Instruction: It’s More than Just
Books – Ocracoke, NCCAt 14166 http://www.nccat.org/events/14166-relevant-literacy-instruction-it%E2%80%99s-more-just-books-ocracoke
·
July
11 – 29 Summer Graduate Institute for Foreign Language Teachers:
one, two and three week courses for CEUs or Graduate Credit. Spanish:
Indigenous Languages and Literature and Culture in Latin America and Curriculum
and Materials Design. French: History of Comedy in French and Curriculum and
Materials Design. All classes in French or Spanish. App State. Apply by June 15
but courses may fill sooner. http://dllc.appstate.edu/graduate/summer-institute
·
June
24-25, 2016 The TELL
Collab 2.0 Facilitators: Thomas Sauer (AdvanceLearning) and Alyssa Villarreal
(Advance Learning and Shelby County Schools, Memphis, TN) This year’s TELL
Collab will again bring together WL educators to explore, model, and share
effective language learning practices identified by the TELL framework. The
two-day professional learning experience will include collaborative sessions
and opportunities to share ideas and resources for both teachers and
administrators. Teachers will receive help identifying their own professional
learning goals and find out strategies for meeting those goals. http://www.tellcollab.org/registration/
Quotes for Teachers
·
“If they don’t think you care, you’ve
lost them already,”
said Jodi Robinson, a third-grade teacher at Unionville Elementary who is the
new UCPS Teacher of the Year. Having that relationship with them allows you to
do so much more; whether it’s teaching or discipline or having conversations
with them. If you have that relationship with them, they understand you, they
respect you and they listen to you.” http://bit.ly/1WhOVrC
DPI Professional Events
·
Tuesday,
April 26, 4-6 p.m. NC DPI ESSA Public Input Sessions – Mallard Creed High School, Charlotte.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is the new federal education law approved
in December 2015 to replace No Child Left Behind. States are required to
develop their own ESSA plan to comply with the federal law. The NC state plan
will address issues of school accountability, student assessments, support for
struggling schools and other elements. The state’s accountability plan must
include goals for academic indicators (improved academic achievement on the
state assessments, a measure of student growth or other statewide academic
indicator for elementary and middle schools, graduation rates for high schools,
and progress in achieving proficiency for English Learners) and a measure of
school quality and student success (examples include student and educator
engagement, access and completion of advanced coursework, postsecondary readiness,
school climate and safety).
Cultural Events
·
May
14, 2016 Charlotte Asian Festival and Dragon
Boat Races. Come
watch the UCPS team Inspiration Nation from MRHS and WHS.
Oral Presentation Practice
·
Lightning Talks - Short presentations usually capped
at five minutes. Talks are arranged one after the other during the sessions.
Lightning talks are brief which requires the speaker to make his or her point
clearly. A single computer running one continuous presentation program is used
by all speakers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_talk
·
Ignite (Ignite Talks) is a series of events
where speakers have no more than five minutes to talk on a subject accompanied
by 20 slides, for 15 seconds each, automatically advanced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignite_(event)
·
Pecha Kucha –a presentation style in which 20
slides are shown for 20 seconds each (6 minutes and 40 seconds in total). The
format, which keeps presentations concise and fast-paced, powers
multiple-speaker events called PechaKucha Nights. Thanks to Alice Shrader for
sharing this concept. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PechaKucha
·
Speed Geeking - The facilitator rings a bell to start
proceedings. Once proceedings start, the audience splits up into groups and
each group goes to one of the presenters. Presenters have a short duration,
usually 5 minutes, to give their presentation and answer questions. At the end
of the five minutes, the facilitator rings a bell. At this point, each group
moves over to the presenter to their right and the timer starts once more. The
session ends when every group has attended all the presentations. Students hear
from multiple presenters in a short time and presenters get practice presenting
over and over. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_geeking
Tech Tools
·
Quizlet Live – Ann Haddon, French teacher at MRHS, is raving about Quizlet Live. Have
you tried it? Students enter a game pin to play. Quizlet Live creates random
teams. Students can review missed items. You need at least six students to
play. Quizlet Live encourages accuracy over speed. If a team matches
incorrectly, they have to start over from the beginning. “Students learn the
content skills as well as the group life soft skills of gaming and team
building.” Watch demos at https://quizlet.com/features/live and https://quizlet.com/130560117/live
·
ClassDojo – If you are not familiar with Class
Dojo, it is a free app for monitoring class participation, target language use,
etc. by giving points to students using your laptop, android or iphone. You can also use ClassDojo to randomly
choose who to call on. You can use ClassDojo for grades. SpanishPlans.org has
some ideas on how to vary your points in order to reward responses for their
quality: +2 for answering a question in the target langauge; +1 for asking a
question in the target language; +3 for using circumlocution, describing
something without having the specific vocabulary for it; a skill we are
starting to work on; +1 for a teacher Comprehension Check, such as when telling
a story or going over an activity/homework; +1 for students using the target language
to react (Oh no! Don’t tell me. That’s
great. That’s awful., etc.); +4 for risk taking, when a student is taking a
risk with difficult language; -1 for using English https://spanishplans.org/2016/04/06/class-dojo-in-spanish/#more-6136
·
Text-to-Speech Audio Tool There is a site for creating digital
audio files that can be linked to a webpage or emailed. This could be useful
like vocaroo or the like for your students to listen to and practice. If
students are working on a spoken presentation, they can type or copy/paste
their text into this site and hear it spoken by a surprisingly accurate native voice.
Students can modify the gender and speed of the voice, allowing them to work on
their pronunciation; includes an online dictionary. http://text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/
·
Text-to-Speech Translator - The same site above has translation
tools where you can type in English and create audio files in another language.
This could be used by students for learning or to escape learning. Beware. http://text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/speech.asp
Global Resources
1.
Kelsey
Timmerman, author of Where Am I Wearing?
and past presenter in UCPS high schools has produced another book, Where Am I Eating? An Adventure
Through the Global Food Economy . There are numerous topics to ponder
and perhaps use in some of your topics on food, menus, ordering, etc.
b.
Chocolate
– West Africa http://www.jrjamison.com/curriculum/where-am-i-eating-section-ii-curriculum/
c. Bananas – Costa Rica http://www.jrjamison.com/curriculum/where-am-i-eating-section-iii-curriculum/
Pedagogy
·
Graffiti Walls – Hang sheets of colored butcher
paper in your classroom. Have students complete assignments in groups on the
hanging paper using color markers. Assignments could be commands, recipes,
shopping accomplishments, advice on eating well, birthday wishes, etc. Have
students do a gallery walk…looking for new information, new phrases, new uses
of the language, similar phrases, duplicates, singletons, etc. Mary Thomas and
Laura Nicholson are experts at this technique. Their students like standing,
working together, writing in color and having an audience for their work.
·
Ideas
on how to personalize language content
and to make it more meaningful http://calicospanish.com/personalizing-the-world-language-classroom/
·
New Teachers - Get Off to a Great Start! - ACTFL
Radio Talk Show: Keys to the Classroom Paula Patrick address new teachers http://www.blogtalkradio.com/actfl/2008/09/29/keys-to-thge-classroom-helping-new-teachers-get-off-to-a-great-start-rebroadcast
WL Resources
·
Center for Open Educational Resources
and Language Learning Newsletter
- Why Embrace Digital Language Pedagogies p. 8, Digital Language Pedagogy p. 10 https://www.coerll.utexas.edu/coerll/sites/coerll.utexas.edu.coerll/files/coerll-newsletter-spring-2016.pdf
Chinese Resources
·
Gateway to Chinese COERLL has published some Pinyin
exercises in Canvas Commons so that
Chinese teachers using Canvas in their classes, or anyone with a free
Canvas account, can import them into their course materials, and even modify
them if necessary. (When logged in to Canvas, search “Gateway to Chinese:
Pinyin Exercises” in Canvas Commons.) http://sites.la.utexas.edu/chinese/
French Resources
·
Tex’s
French Grammar - La grammaire de l'absurde, is a pedagogical reference
grammar that combines explanations with surreal dialogues and cartoon images. https://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/
·
French Teacher Resources – topics like self, family, school
subjects, weather, describing people, hair and eyes, etc. Downloadable pdfs
like weather word mats, battleship, word searches http://www.frenchteacherresources.com
·
BBC Bitesize French - Great audio files for French 1. Listen to recordings
about family members http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/french/listeningf/f04_list_family_rev1.shtml Listen to Marc talk about his
classes, the school schedule and his opinions of his classes http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/french/listeningf/f05_list_school_rev1.shtml Download lots of French audio files
at the foundation and higher levels http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/audio/french/
German Resources
·
German Teacher Resources – topics like self, family, school
subjects, weather, describing people, hair and eyes, etc. Downloadable pdfs
like weather word mats, battleship, word searches, http://www.germanteacherresources.com/
·
BBC Bitesize German - signs, postcards, holidays,
penpals, weather, relationships, etc. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/german/readingf/
Spanish Resources
·
BBC Bite Size Spanish – multiple topics. Includes listening
/ videos like this one for school subjects http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/spanish/listeningf/1_f_list_school_rev1.shtml Includes listening comprehension
questions. Download lots of audio files at the foundation and higher levels http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/audio/spanish/
·
Español abierto - Open Educational Resources for
Spanish. You can access all of COERLL’s Spanish materials on one site http://espanolabierto.org/
o
Spanish Proficiency Exercises This is a compilation of brief video
clips in which native speakers from throughout Latin America and Spain
demonstrate various language tasks.
There are scripted and non-scripted versions, a Spanish/English glossary
of vocabulary words, sample sentences and some grammar explanations to help
learners talk about the proficiency tasks. http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/index.html
o
SPINTX Video Archive The SpinTX video archive provides a
convenient web interface to search hundreds of short video clips from the
Spanish in Texas Corpus. The collection includes hundreds of video clips culled
from interviews of native and heritage speakers of Spanish living in Texas. Transcript
that has been annotated with thematic, grammatical, functional and
metalinguistic information. http://www.spintx.org
o
Spanish in Texas There are links to videos of Spanish
speakers from Texas with comments about the language you’ll hear and why it
takes the form that it does. www.spanishintexas.org
o
Introduction to Oral Proficiency
Levels (Spanish) Free
practice modules for Spanish language educators. This website is a free open
educational resource that can help Spanish teachers gain a foundational
understanding of how to evaluate Spanish speakers. The17 video-based practice
modules are designed to strengthen understanding of the ACTFL Speaking
Proficiency Guidelines and to help you evaluate the speaking levels of your
language students. http://oralproficiency.coerll.utexas.edu
o
Actividades de práctica con aprendices
del español - online
corpus of videos of second language and heritage language learners of Spanish
during oral interviews covering a variety of topics http://sites.la.utexas.edu/actividades-spt/
o
Heritage Spanish – a site for instructors to find and
share resources for teaching native speakers. http://espanolabierto.org/heritage-spanish/
o
Spanish Grammar in Context – Listen and watch native speakers use
nouns, adjectives, etc. http://grammar.spanishintexas.org/
·
News in Spanish – Find show and interesting news
stories at five reading levels. These are translations of news articles in
English aimed at English language learners but very applicable to Spanish
learners. Change the reading level quickly and easily to a different word count.
Use their four-question reading comprehension quizzes. Writing prompts are
included. Choose from articles aimed at grades 2 – 12. If desired, you can
create classes, assign work to students and save students grades. https://newsela.com/articles/#/rule/spanish
·
Cuba
o
Cuban
Spanish -
·
Mi hermano,
¿cómo tú ‘tas?
·
en to’ la’os
·
¿De dónde tú me llamas?
·
¿Dónde
tú ‘tas?
Beginning
Spanish and Spanish 1
·
BBC Primary Languages – Spanish http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/spanish There are multiple audio clips for
single words and short phrases relevant to many useful topics. Thanks to
Dennise Nelson for sharing. Some topics have authentic photos, matching games
and/ or videoclips, for example:
o
describing
people http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/spanish/families/describing_people/
o
what
do I look like http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/spanish/all_about_me/what_do_i_look_like/
