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Class Competitions 4 – Addressing ACTFL’s “Communities”
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19 thoughts on “Class Competitions 4 – Addressing ACTFL’s “Communities””
I had to look at the Standard to really understand what ACTFL means by “communities” I will paste it here just in case others would like to see it:
Communities
Participate in Multilingual Communities
at Home & Around the World
Standard 5.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting.
Standard 5.2: Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the
language for personal enjoyment and enrichment.
oooops here is more that might prove useful:
Communities:
5.1 Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting.
This standard focuses on language as a tool for communication
with speakers of the language throughout
one’s life: in schools, in the community, and
abroad.
In schools, students share their knowledge
of language and culture with classmates and with
younger students who may be learning the language.
Applying what has been learned in the language
program as defined by the other standards,
students come to realize the advantages inherent in
being able to communicate in more than one language
and develop an understanding of the power
of language.
5.2 Students show evidence of becoming lifelong
learners by using the language for personal
enjoyment and enrichment.
Each day millions of Americans spend leisure time
reading, listening to music, viewing films and television
programs, and interacting with each other. By
developing a certain level of comfort with their new
language, students can use these skills to access information
as they continue to learn throughout their
lives. Students who study a language can use their
skills to further enrich their personal lives by accessing
various entertainment and information sources
available to speakers of the language. Some students
may have the opportunity to travel to communities
and countries where the language is used extensively
and, through this experience, further develop their
language skills and understanding of the culture.
So when I send my video of Sabrina’s story to their class and jen sends hers to each of us we are using language beyond the school setting and so meeting Standard 5.1. More than that, we are getting off the chart buy-in for story creation. Thanks skip!
a question that may reflect my shortcomings on reading everything but….
How do I get in on the story sharing (okay – competitions… but I am so uncompetitive 🙁
What’s the first step for sharing?
We haven’t figured that out. Sabrina just sent me a video of her class and asked me not to share it which I did of course (with permission) and then once the video was up I felt like showing it to my classes and they wanted to challenge Sabrina’s class and then jen jumped in and the two of us will send Sabrina something done by our own classes (same story) in the next few weeks. No big plan. I would say that you could just post the question here – anybody wanna rumble. Maybe start with just one other teacher, decide on a story, follow the rules I made up on whatever post that is, and go in next week and tell the kids that some school in (name of city) has decided to challenge them in story making. Then shove them back in their desks and watch the energy change from the normal behavior. Then do some PQA and film the story, again according to the rules, and go for it. Here are the rules:
– Only one day max on PQA to prepare them.
– Film the first story you get and send it in.
– No stopping the camera.
– Only send in video of one class.
– You have to send the tape in by two months after the first one is sent in.
– We all have to use the same story and script.
– All classes win as per https://benslavic.com/blog/2013/02/14/class-competitions-2/
Skip, I don’t think you have to focus on the “competition” part. You can just focus on the fact that you will get tons of reps on the structures because your class will watch another class story and then do their own version of the same story. The “competition” (at least for me) is mainly to get buy-in / engagement / novelty. Plus you don’t have to worry because Ben wins no matter what 😉 jk…everyone wins!
On Mondays when I am getting set up (I rotate classrooms), I ask students to tell their stories of using Chinese outside the classroom. They are always proud of their accomplishments. My favorite story is of one of my seniors who works at Chucky Cheese where little kids collect prizes for tickets they win in games. My student was working the ticket booth when a pair of non-English speaking Chinese twin boys came up to collect their prizes. The boys tried to get her to give them extra prizes. She had to negotiate the whole thing in Chinese and the whole story was hilarious to hear. To me, this meets the “Communities” standard. It just isn’t an assignment. How to make sure everyone gets these kinds of opportunities is the challenge but the kids’ stories have encouraged others to try.
These sound like great ways to meet this standard.
Something Duke Crawford and I were working on a couple years ago was connecting my school with a school in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We would meet via skype every other week, and sent a couple letters penpal style. But the scheduling conflicts and their poor internet connection really stifled the whole experience. We decided to forego the whole experiment the last couple years. But I think this type of connection and tech connection has serious potential to get kids motivated to learn language, and build “community” abroad. Hell, I think this would even be a cool business venture, connecting schools with other schools, getting the schedules to sync, ensuring web connections, etc.
skip, I might be willing to share. I am new at this but I think giving the kids a chance to come up with a story would motivate them. What do you teach….. I guess that should be the first question. I teach Spanish.
I teach Spanish 1 and 2.
I would be interested Rebekah,
My only hesitation is that I know nothing about taping a class. I watch Ben and Michele and others run these beautifully taped videos but I have not idea how to do it…
Could somebody talk about how to tape a class? What equipment is needed? I noticed that Michele (in her Russian lesson) had a mic on her shirt? What type of mic? Compatible with what type of camera? Or can I use my Mac to record? Where do you get them? Cost?
Am I asking the right questions?
Thanks
skip
skip you can use a cell phone like Sabrina did. Or you can use any old camera. Other thoughts:
The sound is better if you use an external mike. That is one that attaches to your lapel – called a lapel mike – like Michele had. A very good lapel mike is $20-$30 if you can find a camcorder with an external mike connection. That is key for me bc I have never been pleased by the sound quality of the blue tooth connection I used to get the videos I have shot for this site so far. I just want better sound.
You can film in HD if the camcorder allows that. That gives a rectangle shape to the video.
I am fixin’ to buy a new camera for the Beginner Training short vids I am getting ready to film so new people can sort things out better on the site here. So I am looking for a camcorder that:
– shoots in high definition (HD). hd video gives you the rectangle.
– external microphone jack – so you can improve your sound.
– records to those sd cards,which makes it easy to upload your videos into your computer.
Price range for an HD external mike sd card camcorder is in the $300 to $500 range. Panasonic is showing to be the best maker I have seen so far. But schools always have cameras for this purpose.
You’ll need a tripod and a kid to operate the camera. I like to hire kids (another job for the kids) to film who have talent in zooming, bc so much of what we do involves referencing stuff on the board.
That was super helpful Ben. I think I may try to make the investment because National Board Certification requires videos and the quality matters…
One other question though. You and Michele are both wireless, right? How does that work? I would really need to be wireless. How do you connect the mic with the camera?
Thanks
skip
Lapel mikes are wired from the lapel into the camera with a long cord. So what Michele is doing I don’t know. And again, I am just exploring this myself so there could be a problem with the wire and teaching a class. You could trip on it. So I don’t know. The blue tooth wireless I’ve been using has bad sound quality so I am told the wired external mike is the best sound. Michele probably has an internal mike which is common. It picks up the sound it can. Sorry it’s confusing but I’m no expert.
You can purchase reasonably cheaply a wireless microphone unit that attaches to your camcorder. The receiver plugs into the microphone jack of the camcorder, and there is a wireless lapel mic for the speaker. It overrides the internal microphone, so you won’t get as much ambient sound.
I just asked my web guy and he said this:
…wired is the cheapest. You can always start there and then invest in a more expensive setup later. A decent wireless microphone set can be as much as $500-$600. I don’t know how inexpensive they get. The cords for a lavalier mic can be long so you can run it up your pant leg, and up the inside of your shirt and then clip it to your shirt, so no one will see the cord….
But that would not work in a classroom. It will work for the Beginner Training videos I am planning for this site this spring, bc I am shooting that video in my basement office and just talking to the camera.
This is a problem. I think that we just need to accept, in our classroom video competitions and the work we are doing, that we are going to have to use the microphone that is built into the camera we use, even if it is a phone like Sabrina used. Hers is a perfectly acceptable video and we can just go that route.
Some cameras have the blue tooth capacity to increase the sound quality remotely, like the one I have been using, but those are getting outdated. We should just accept the sound we get from the cameras we use, is the way I see it. We’re here to work, not impress each other.
Good. I am relieved to read this, as I plan to focus on the action in class and not on the equipment. I don’t even have a smartphone but I plan to borrow one from a colleague.
Robert,
Any chance you give more detail…. What would I ask for? Would I just ask for “a wireless microphone unit that attaches to your camcorder”? Our Camera is fairly outdated (10 years old maybe) might such a mic work with that?
Thanks so much
Skip
Another glove dropped. I love it. Food fight!
I have recorded classes with my ipad and I think that it has done a good enough job. I don’t have any experience either with this. I also don’t have much money for buying anything. I have a mac also so maybe there is a way to Skype or something. I teach Spanish also so this might be a good fit.