Dealing with District Folk

1 thought on “Dealing with District Folk”

1. Robert Harrell

   July 13, 2015 at 1:56 pm

   Here are a couple other considerations:
   1. College Board (AP) is all about academics, and this rather than ACTFL is probably where the six curricular themes comes from. AP now structures its course outlines around the six global themes of Global Challenges, Science and Technology, Contemporary Life, Personal and Public Identities, Families and Communities, Beauty and Aesthetics. College Board expects AP teachers to address all of these themes during the course of a year. The themes are supplemented with “Recommended Contexts and Essential Questions”.
   N.B.: Among the various languages, the “recommended contexts” are not all the same, nor do they always fall under the same Theme. For example, French alone includes “Health Issues” under Global Issues, while German and Spanish (but not French) put “Healthcare and Medicine” under Science and Technology, and German alone places “Health and Wellbeing” under Contemporary Life. I created a comparison chart of the Global Themes, Recommended Contexts, and Essential Questions for German, French, and Spanish. If anyone wants a copy, send me an e-mail.
   2. Most people assume that because College Board requires that all six themes be addressed, the course must be structured thematically around them. This is false. When I had to submit a new syllabus in 2010 or 2011 for the course audit, I looked at several sample syllabi. While some of theme were structured around “thematic units” using the Global Themes, some were not. The syllabus I created revolved around two major “Thematic Units”: a virtual move to Berlin and the Middle Ages. I simply had to show how what I did addressed the Global Themes – a ridiculously easy thing to do, actually. All along the way everything I did addressed at least one, and usually three or four, of the Global Themes. My syllabus was accepted on the first submission.
   3. College Board/AP also reminds teachers that preparation for AP begins in Year One on Day One, so they place emphasis on Vertical Teaming and Vertical Articulation. What they fail to note is that, while this is true, we cannot start with Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP); we must rather begin with Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS). A TCI/TPRS classroom will lay the far firmer foundation for language acquisition and ability to transition to CALP, if that is what the student wishes to do. Michele’s last two paragraphs are excellent advice in this respect.
   Bottom line is that much of what Beth needs to do is learn the jargon and re-package what she does in a way that allows the administrator to check off his boxes.

   Log in to Reply