Q. Do you observe what the students can do in terms of the Can Do statements of ACTFL? How do they fit into your schema?
A. Can Do statements do not fit into what I do. Most teachers teach them using skill building, which involves memorization and conscious monitoring of output. That is a far cry from what I am looking for in my classroom — kids focused on meaning and understanding while it all goes into the unconscious faculty to incubate until such time as the output can emerge unscathed, and not because somebody made them prove they could “do” it.