I was just thinking how, last summer, I invited teachers who work in Coalition of Essential Schools buildings to a dialogue on this blog about how, in foreign languages, they in no way align with the set of ten common principles that Ted Sizer originally set out about thirty years ago. Unfortunately, we got nothing going – they didn’t respond. I had a short phone conversation with someone in their main offices on the phone who told me that I could submit an article to their journal, but nothing came of it.
So here, over a year later, I am not going to let this discussion die. It is too potentially vibrant. I therefore formally invite any Coalition foreign language teachers who are aware of what Krashen and Blaine Ray have done to investigate how it is that they in their Coalition foreign language programs are aligning with Sizer’s Common Principles.
It’s a simple question. Having taught in the Coalition flagship school in South Carolina for eleven years in the seventies and eighties, and having had contact with Sizer during those years about best practices in foreign language education, I feel that Ted would want some discussion from his language people about all of this. So my request is reasonable.
Let me rephrase the core question of this discussion: “In what way(s) are Coalition schools aligning with a) the work of Dr. Krashen, and b) the Proficiency Guidelines set forth (about the same time Sizer was setting forth the common principles) by our national parent organization, ACTFL.
Below are the other blogs from this site, from last summer, that address this topic. We can use any one of them as a starting point for our discussion.
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=3164
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=3168
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=3201
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=3280
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=3274
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=3302
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=3323
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=3359
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=3392
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=3424
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=3448