Penobscot World Languages Collaborative

Meeting January 25, 2012
 

The following language instructors met at Brewer High School on January25 to discuss their experiences with standards based education:

Paula reported that Brewer High School will change its schedule for the next school year to move to block scheduling. Bucksport High School has mixed scheduling, with some courses offered as 4x4 blocks (daily 80 minute classes with course curriculum offered in a single semester) and some as daily 40 minute courses. In the World Languages Department, only upper level languages courses are offered as intensive semester courses. Hermon High School also operates on a mixed schedule, with some courses as 80 minute alternate days during the full year and some courses 40 minutes daily. First level language courses are daily and all others are longer alternating blocks.

Some in attendance have experience with Standards Based Education. Some schools in the area have made moves toward this reform. At the state and national levels, decision makers and educational leaders are directing the change toward Standards Based Planning, assessing and reporting.

What is Standards Based Education? It measures the achievement of students by assessing whether they have mastered a stated skill or information (standard). With traditional grading a student “passes” the course by accumulating a certain number of points calculated by including several factors, many of which have nothing to do with subject knowledge. With Standards Based Education experts determine the skills and knowledge inherent in the course content. They define indicators for these content standards. They devise assessments that measure achievement of these standards.

Why is Standards Based Education the focus of state and national education reform? It provides accountability for students and gives the school, teachers, parents and students a realistic and accurate picture of what the child has learned. It allows classroom teachers to focus on student achievement rather than student behavior and work habits. As standardized tests focus on what students know, it will eventually help raise scores of these high stakes tests, as teachers and students see what students have learned to do.

Why is Standards Based Education good for students? It moves responsibility for learning from teachers to a responsibility shared by students and teachers; it removes the “use versus them” nature of teaching and learning and provides a collaborative approach to education; it makes the student a more active learner; it allows students to concentrate on learning the content rather than factoring in a number of variables that have nothing to do with knowledge or skill; it gives a more accurate picture of what students have learned; it provides for differentiation of delivery and learning within the same classroom.

As with any educational reform, there will be a transition period and a need to educate all the stakeholders. So many students and parents have been focused on a discrete number, calculated by including a wide variety of factors and student practices. The schools that have taken steps towards implementing a Standards Based or Standards Referenced system have had to deal with parents and students who complain that, as homework “doesn't count,” it does not need to be done. They can't imagine a checklist of skills and knowledge presented a course without a continuum of numbers that, in past experience, indicated degrees of learning (or cheating, or cajoling, or “extra credit”). They can't imagine a simple “show me what you can do” rather than “here's my average even though I never did learn to use object pronouns, but they're offset because I learned to use verbs so well.”

There are a number of resources for teachers learning to make the change to Standards Bases Education, including A Repair Kit for Grading: 15Fixes for Bad Grades, by Ken O'Connor, and Classroom Instruction that Works, by Robert Marzano et al. At the recen tFLAME Conference, Don Reutershan and Marty Brooks announced that the Department of Education and FLAME will sponsor a summer institute the last week of June to educate the educators on the topic. Expect a mailing in the coming weeks.

The next meeting of the Penobscot World Languages Collaborative will be Wednesday, March 28 at 3:30 at Brewer High School. The topic will be a swap of ideas gathered at the recent FLAME Conference. It may also be a venue to continue with the topic of Standards Based Education. For further information, contact Janice Clain (clainj@hermon.net)or Fred Ravan (fravan@breweredu.org)

Penobscot World Languages Collaborative

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The following language educators met on September 26, 2012, at Brewer High School:

Janessa Trébouet   Brewer High School                            French

Fred Ravan             Brewer High School                           Spanish

Anita Tassel           Bangor Montessori                              French

Carolyn Horth        Centrer Drive School, Orrington           French and Spanish

Jae Hubbard          Orono High School                              French

Leslee Fiveland      Bucksport Middle and High Schools      Spanish

Janice Clain           Hermon High School                           French and Spanish

The group shared their experiences from the previous summer.

Carolyn Horth spoke of a four week French total immersion program she attended at the University Ste. Anne, in Nova Scotia. Part of the program was planned for French teachers, mostly from Canada and the US. There were forty teachers in all, and they earned six university credits. Carolyn said the program cost the same as six credits at the University of Maine, and included expenses for room and board. She highly recommended the program for other teachers of French.

Janessa Trébouet spent time near Nantes, in France, with her husband's family. She had the opportunity to visit the Futuroscope, in Poitiers, which offers different types of cinema, in particular 3D and 4D.

Leslee Fiveland explained that the World Languages program staffing in Bucksport has changed. She is now half-time at both Bucksport Middle School and Bucksport High School. Sarah Vigneault's position at the high school changed from half-time to full-time. The school was able to hire Jan Schremke, a native German speaker who had just moved to Maine from a college position in Oregon, to continue its German program. Leslee, who is now department chair, has set a goal to restore the full-time middle school language program.

The group spoke about the FLAME summer institute, co-sponsored with the Maine Department of Education, and focused on standards based education. Paul Sandrock presented the workshop, with help from Don Reutershan and Marty Brooks. Two teacher leaders within the scope of the Penobscot Collaborative were trained to help colleagues transition to the standards based format, Sarah Vigneault, at Bucksport, and Brooke Dupuy, at Hermon High School. Fred reported that the FLAME Conference Committee plans to concentrate its program on this subject. The FLAME Conference in 2013 will be February 28 and March 1, which is earlier than its usual scheduling. Some attendees at this meeting suggested that FLAME should also include strategies for teaching literacy, which several schools have made a priority in recent years.

Fred Ravan shared a link to a site that lists essential questions that will help World Languages instructors in planning lessons. www.greenwayms.com/uploads/2/0/4/1/.../world_language_eq.pdf  .

The State Department of Education has distributed information about a series of MLTI workshops designed to help World Languages teachers incorporate technology into instruction. There was no listing for a workshop in the central Penobscot region. Fred Ravan said he would check with his school and with the DOE regarding the possibility of Brewer High School hosting a workshop.

Suggestions for topics for consideration for the Penobscot Collaborative included incorporating technology, alternative activities for longer classes, standards based education, and meaningful assessments. Those in attendance felt that sharing ideas for what they've tried and whether those strategies were successful or not, is most beneficial to teachers in different schools.

On the topic of authentic assessments, Fred Ravan passed along a link to the Jefferson County Public Schools, in Kentucky, where World Languages instructors have devised authentic performance based assessments for levels one and two. https://skydrive.live.com/cid=28F7C805D5A3213D&id=28F7C805D5A3213D!167&sc=documents

The next meeting of the Penobscot World Languages Collaborative will take place on Wednesday, October 24, at 3:30 at Brewer High School. The topic will be “Classroom Activities That Work.” Attendees are asked to bring examples of activities they use in class to reinforce communication activities.

For further information or directions, contact Janice Clain (clainj@hermon.net) or Fred Ravan (fravan@breweredu.org).

Penobscot World Languages Collaborative

October 24, 2012

The following world languages educators met on October 24 at Brewer High School:

Anita Tassel           Bangor Montessori School                                   French

Fred Ravan             Brewer High School                                          Spanish

Janessa Trebouet   Brewer High School                                           French

Paula Tarr              Brewer High School                                          French and Spanish

Leslee Fiveland      Bucksport Middle and High Schools                     Spanish

Janice Clain           Hermon High School                                         French and Spanish

Fred Ravan said he e-mailed the state Department of Education regarding hosting an MLTI workshop for World Languages instructors, but has heard nothing. Janice Clain planned to attend the MLTI workshop in Augusta. (The workshop was well organized and very helpful to language instructors.

Brewer High School has instituted a block scheduling format for this year. They are adapting lessons to the longer time frame.

Fred said the FLAME newsletter will come out soon. It will include registration information for the annual FLAME Conference. The deadline for registration for January Feb 9. The registration form is already on web site. The conference is early this year, on February 28 and March 1, because the NECTFL Conference is scheduled for the dates FLAME usually uses. The keynote speaker for the conference is Paul Sandrock, who directed the FLAME Summer Institute. FLAME is selling logo t-shirts, and conference registrants may order one using the same form.

Janice and Fred announced that the FLAME web site may change. Betsy Hudson has agreed to take on the responsibilities of web master. FLAME Executive Committee members are investigating alternatives. Attendees at this collaborative meeting find the information available on the website to be adequate and sufficiently user friendly, though they agree that it needs to be updated.

Fred said he keeps the FLAME Facebook site updated.

Instructors who attended this meeting shared "Activities that Work."

Fred demonstrated an activity that he used to review school supplies vocabulary and as a class opener. He prepared papers with randomly printed vocabulary items. Students had red or blue pens and worked in pairs. As Fred showed visual cues, students raced to circle the correct word with their designated colors.

Paula Tarr said she keeps a large roll of newsprint roll and markers for a variety of group activities. In a recent class, students practiced using the Spanish gustar construction. Each student listed something s/he liked to do. list on paper. Using the list, students then had to find something in common with another student.

Paula also demonstrated how she uses the quizlet.com site to make flash cards, both digital and physical, and to create activities that students can practice in class or on their own. In a class where students were sharing information about French culture, Paula entered facts and had the site create a quiz / activity. Paula said she often makes notes using the site, and then distributes them to students on paper or via e-mail. Some of these quizzes then serve as openers for the following class as a good review. These printed notes serve well for Special Ed students whose IEP stipulates printed teacher notes. The site also has an oral component

Paula recommends making an electronic mailing list for class roster, using students' school account, for quick contact. 

Paula says that, besides the quizlet site, she also uses quia.com and conjuguemos.com. Fred said he has put many of his old paper drill exercises on quia.com, as students are likely to work with an on-line exercise instead of one on paper. He mentioned that the National Spanish Exam also uses the quia.com site.

Janice Clain said she usually has a "sponge activity" to begin class, so she can take care of attendance and hand back homework. She uses several types of puzzles made with puzzlemaker.com, including fallen phrases, anagrams and jumbles. These can include vocabulary and sentence constructions that students need to review. Janice and Paula both commented on crossword puzzles (criss cross) made with Puzzlemaker. These make good review for vocabulary, and can be done completely in the target language.

Janice also presented a student white board activity she used to help students practice answering questions, which for many is problematic. She asks questions, first yes /no and then information, and students write the answer and receive immediate feedback. Students seem to enjoy using the whiteboards. Leslee described a relay using white board to practice vocabulary, verb conjugations and numbers. Paula noted that the same can be done using quizlet.

Anita Tassel recommended the studyspanish.com site, which she has been using to practice verb forms in Spanish. She also occasionally uses the BK Nelson exercises on the Colby website.

Anita also brought an article from the day's Bangor Daily News that quoted statistics to show that the use ipads improves kindergartners' test scores. 

Janessa Trebouet described an oral activity she uses about once a week. All students stand at their desks. In order to be able to sit, they have to ask and answer a question and they can't repeat a question. This is a good opener and takes about 10 minutes. It encourages all students to participate orally, and to volunteer early to use the "easy" questions. It's good practice with making questions and allows the teacher to relax while students do the conversing. If a student makes an error, the teacher repeats the question or answer in correct form.

Leslee Fiveland shared a list of standards for German and Spanish that she and her department colleagues in Bucksport have developed. The list is one page, and is written in language that parents and students can understand. Bucksport has moved to standards based reporting for Freshmen and will phase in the system for all students.

Leslee also shared a handout explanation of a proficiency based assessment. The project, titled "Así soy yo" calls for students to describe themselves, tell what they like to do, use basic verbs correctly, and be prepared to answer questions. Other students take notes as the presenter speaks, which keeps them attentive. The presenter earns a grade according to a grading rubric, and other students earn a grade for their collection of observations.

In a discussion of the terms formative and summative assessments, Leslee said that, in languages, there are really no summative (end) assessments, as each step leads to the next.

When asked how much time was needed to develop this assessment, Leslee said putting the details on paper didn't take much time; the Bucksport school system has established an early release day each Friday afternoon, and staff have to work together to prepare for standards based grading. They did most of the preparation work in the last school year. Leslee admitted that, with an added book study for all staff, it's been a busy year. She added that the biggest problem to date has been trying to determine what the essential learning target is. As departments have moved towards standards based grading, they have had to develop common assessments.

Janice described the make up policy at Hermon High School, which allows students to retake assessments to show mastery of the material. District policy is that any student who earns a grade lower than an 85 can retake an alternate version of the assessment after showing that s/he has completed all the formative assessments. A repeated assessment earned up to an 85. With standards based grading, the objective is to master the material. Most schools in this area that have made grading changes are really using a standards referenced grading, continuing to report progress using a 0-100 scale.

The next meeting of the Penobscot World Languages Collaborative is scheduled for Wednesday, November 28, at 3:30 at Brewer High School. The topic will be "meaningful assessments" (proficiency based assessments). The collaborative welcomes all World Languages instructors. Contact Janice Clain, at Hermon High School, or Fred Ravan, at Brewer High School, for further information.  

Penobscot World Languages Collaborative

November 28, 2012

The following language educators met on November 28, 2012, at Brewer High School:

Fred Ravan             Brewer High School                             Spanish

Janessa Trebouet    Brewer High School                             French

Janice Clain           Hermon High School                           French and Spanish

Announcements:

Fred Ravan reported that he keeps the FLAME Facebook site updated as Foreign Language Association of Maine. He posts something every day and tries to put something about each language.

Brewer High School is adapting to block scheduling this year. Teachers and students are finding the change challenging. School policy requires that students check with teachers when they miss a class. Many teachers have made e-mail lists to contact all students in each course to facilitate communication and to send reminders of assignments and due dates.

Paul Sandrock, who led the FLAME Summer Institute, will be the keynote for the FLAME Conference on February 28 and March 1. He will meet on Thursday with the teacher leaders from the FLAME Summer Institute. (Registration for the Conference is available on the FLAME website. The deadline for registration is February 9, and there is no on-site registration.)

Janice Clain explained the intervention system currently in use at Hermon High School. Once a week, homeroom teachers monitor a structured study hall and all classroom teachers may call students to their rooms for make up work or extra help. This gives teachers an opportunity to reach students who need extra instruction but can't stay after the school day. The school is considering replacing the current study hall schedule with daily intervention periods.

Fred has distributed information about sites that feature games, standards based assessments and classroom activities that can enhance instruction.

Janice spoke of hearing at the ACTFL Conference about the Live Mocha and Busuu social media sites that connect language learners with native speakers. Some features on these sites are free, while others require a registration fee. Fred and Janessa said they used Live Mocha and found the free areas not so great. They found that the native speakers were more "picky" than our own classroom teachers. They thought these sites might be better with college students, who are more motivated students. The presenter Janice heard used  them for on-line college course.

The NECTFL annual conference is the second week of March this year, which accounts for the scheduling of the FLAME Conference at the end of February. FLAME members who have attended this conference offer good reports and highly recommend it.

Fred showed an example from Paul Sandrock's book The Keys to Assessing Language Performance, available from ACTFL. He shared an activity to help students with reading comprehension. It includes a model for word recognition, a section that asks students to list important phrases, and questions to help them organize their thoughts. Fred said the strategy helps students organize their reading. Janice said she has been making graphic organizers to help understand and form their comments on reading assignments. Her graphic organizers include character description and analysis, setting, plot line and other  observations.

The group discussed the kinds of articles to use for level one reading. Fred said he uses El pais, available on line. He has also ordered a set of TPRS novels to use as a source for simple reading activities. Janessa is looking for  readers appropriate for her French classes. The latest trend in literacy is moving from fiction texts to non-fiction, including instruction manuals. Fred said he buys Spanish books at BAM; they, unfortunately, have no corresponding section for other languages, including French. Janice noted that book vendors at the ACTFL conference displayed updated Spanish text series, but do not seem to be devoting resources to corresponding French series.

Fred also shared a text entitled Good Start - Activities for Spanish Class,  by Rebekah Stathakis. The book described good activities for opening classes. He also mentioned Foreign Language Teacher's Guide to Active Learning, by Deborah Blaz, which provides suggestions for differentiated instruction in the language classroom.

On the topic of performance assessments, Janessa said she has been using the Jefferson County site that Fred described at the last meeting of the Penobscot Collaborative. She likes how it matches up to her own level 1 and 2 curriculum. Fred said he will try to get the assessments on a disk. Fred has been in contact with the site creator, Tom Sawyer, whom he met at the ACTFL Conference in Boston.

Janice spoke of performance assessments that she and her department colleagues have been creating for their level 1 French and Spanish courses. The department is creating and piloting common assessments for first level courses this school year. For a unit on regular verbs and school vocabulary, students were asked to create a comic strip to recount a typical school day. For a unit on house and family vocabulary and adjectives, student created and conducted a tour through their dream house, and carried out question and answer sessions about a visual family visual. Janessa described Cribs, a television program in which celebrities present their homes, which could be adapted to a house tour in the target language.

Janice also explained the make-up policy at Hermon High School, which continues to convert to standards based grading but with grade reporting on a 0-100 point scale. By policy of the school department, students who earn a grade lower than 85 may retake a version of the assessment after completing all formative assessments, and completing a form to state steps they have taken to learn the material. The student and his / her parents must sign the form and the student sets an appointment for the retake. The highest grade the student may earn on a retake is 85. This system allows students to take responsibility for their own achievement.

As a result of discussions at this meeting, the group determined that the topic for the next meeting of the Penobscot World Languages Collaborative will be curriculum development with a focus on communicative competencyand standards based assessment. Attendees will be encouraged to create a unit of study using backwards planning; they'll develop a sample assessment and then plan the activities and vocabulary that lead up to that assessment. The group will build a product that each member can "take home." The topic for the lesson will be center on food vocabulary and shopping or dining out.

The next meeting of the Penobscot World Languages Collaborative will be January 16, 2013, at 3:30 pm at Brewer High School. For further information contact Janice Clain, at Hermon High School, or Fred Ravan, at Brewer High School.