Unlock with PatreonThe Problem with CI
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Key Question
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CI and the Research (cont.)
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Research Question
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11 thoughts on “Key Question”
Michael – I am in the process of coming up with a list of websites to send to my Admin. I can send it to you if you need something fast and all pulled together. I found an article by Carol Gaab that is very good. Check this out:
http://languagemagazine.com/?page_id=2014
My email is mbt719@yahoo.com
I will send you what I have compiled so far! (nothing too succinct yet, though – I’m sorry!)
Yes, please send, or post here and share the wealth. mnagel200@hotmail.com
Michael if you haven’t already pls. look here first:
https://benslavic.com/thoughts-on-pacing-guides.html
Also mb sent me these gems recently:
http://busyteacher.org/12157-teach-absolute-beginners-what-you-need-to-know.html
http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/lang-acq.cfm
There is also another article sent to me a few weeks ago that I am desperately looking for. It had a couple of paragraph-long quotes from experts in the body of the article and I can’t find it. I remember it would respond well to your question. It was pure eloquence in support of what we do. If you sent it and this rings a bell – it was sent about two weeks ago – pls. resend or give the link below. It may have been mb or Robert, but I just can’t remember.
One last thing from me on this, Michael, you said that you would like to have information that would help you “make this more than just a meeting where we organize a big thematic vocabulary list that we will need to teach”. If you think about that, and no one at the meeting has any point of reference other than the one they have now, from the 1950’s except with computers being used with books now, I don’t think it would be wise to play your cards in search of getting a dialogue going about what curriculum mapping really is. Know what I mean? Of course, I lack tact, and so that may be influencing my advice that you be really cautious with this group. You do have to work with them and sometmes it is best to lay low. Just sayin’.
I too lack tact and political savvy, so this is precisely why I’m seeking advice! I think that in the past, I’ve been so enthusiastic about CI/TPRS that I’ve come off the wrong way even. I have to be careful trying to “evangelize” other FL teachers with the good news of CI/TPRS. Nobody likes to be awoken by a bright light. I guess we have to use the dimmer switch and present CI/TPRS in little chunks.
Michael
May be you can share with them this ppt from Blaine:
http://www.slideshare.net/Blaineray/tprs-workshop-powerpoint-13269857
Thanks! Thats a nice little intro to CI/TPRS. This may come in handy.
Does the school have Advanced Placement Language? If so, the “Curriculum Mapping” needs to start there and work backwards and downwards to Level 1. You want students to get experience the same assessments, sorts of texts, etc. all the way through. That means, of course, that you must put an emphasis on the following:
-Three Modes of Communication
-Assessment of student ability to Negotiate Meaning (whether interpersonally, interpersonally or presentationally)
-Holistic grading
-Ability to compare and contrast different “texts” both written and oral
I attended a workshop today on the changes to the AP Test. The presenters were teachers from my district who had attended training from the College Board. They told us that the College Board representative emphasized that errors count off only when they interfere with communication; that the important thing is to speak or write to the prompt/stimulus (i.e. complete the task); and that the curriculum should *begin* to demand grammatical accuracy only in levels 3 and 4. The first two years are foundational.
So, I think a key component is where you start curriculum mapping. Most people want to start with level 1 and then do successive levels in successive years. That is exactly the wrong way; it must begin with the end product in mind.
I hope this speaks to your situation.
Thanks Robert. Love the point about designing things from the AP level backwards. So valuable. Now this:
…the curriculum should *begin* to demand grammatical accuracy only in levels 3 and 4. The first two years are foundational….
The AP dudes are saying this. But Michael, I am just going to guess that your colleagues up there in the Rocky Mountains there don’t know that and don’t want to know it. Just sayin’.
Even if the school doesn’t offer AP, the planning should begin with the highest level of language offered, not the lowest. Implementation can begin at the lowest level, but not planning.
The HS that my middle school feeds into wants to start an AP program and that means getting a full year 8th grade program started in my middle school. I don’t know if that will happen, but support from the HS couldn’t hurt. I will definitely suggest the backward planning idea.
On another note, what’s the status on Senate Bill 191, and the LEAP appendix for foreign language teachers? Is this something I ought to present, or should I avoid being the “bearer of bad news” for all the grammar teachers?
We – led by Diana Noonan and Meredith Richmond – actually had to add an appendix to the LEAP document when we realized that, without one, the original document would have forced us into compliance with statements that conflict with how we actually learn languages. So this massive million dollar document got its own little appendix specifying how foreign languages should be taught and assessed differently than other courses in Colorado schools.
That appendix has been accepted for over a year now, and the grammar teachers are going to be none too happy to read its content, which aligns with the new Colorado stated standards and ACTFL and the Three Modes and the 90% use position statement.
In fact, that position statement is now part of the appendix. But Michael it would be too much for them and too much for you to explain. If they are not stupid, they will have read it by now anyway and their job security is not your concern, frankly.
Whether they have read it and understand what it means to them in terms of keeping their jobs is dependent on how much their administrators – dep’t. chairs, principals, district coordinators – have told them.
I say lay low, suggest that THEY check it out maybe, but to go in there and read from the appendix might feel to them too much like an attack on their professional abilities that would alienate them from the document and put their jobs further into the lurch.
As I said before, and it just my opinion based on my own personal experience, I’d avoid that today in you meeting. If we believe that languages are acquired naturally without force, maybe we should believe that change in how languages are taught in the U.S. will also happen naturally without force.