April 16 , 2007

WHAT WE ARE LEARNING
Tom Huffstetler, WCPSS Instructional Services — For far too long we have heard the familiar phrase, “I took three years of French in high school, but I can’t speak a word of it now.”  Thankfully, a profound shift in how second languages are taught has occurred.  Our focus is no longer on teaching about a language, but rather on how to acquire it.  By this, we mean that the methodology for language learning is centered on the linguistic performances on the part of their students.  Gone are the days of verb drills, tomes of translations, and endless conjugations.  Our success as second language educators can and should be measured by how well equipped our students are to actually use the new language.

So then, what is it that we want students to learn?  To answer that question, the Second Language Assessment Committee, made up of middle and high school teachers, was formed in the fall of 2005 with the express purpose of establishing benchmarks or core skills for each level of second language study.  Once the drafts were completed, all second language teachers in the district were asked to provide input and the final edits were made.  The benchmarks are actual proficiency based tasks in the second language (i.e., Students will describe where they live and household chores.)

How will we know when they have learned it?  The next step for the Second Language Assessment Committee was to design a measurement for the agreed upon benchmarks.  Teams of French, German, and Spanish teachers began developing common formative assessments.  Presently, three high schools and two middle schools are piloting the assessments.  Having data from the common formative assessments for use in Professional Learning Communities is revolutionary in our content area and has the power to inform and shape instruction based on the needs of our students.  We envision improved vertical and horizontal articulation as the fruits of our labor.  This is exciting progress!

Laurie Toreson, Department Chair at Panther Creek High School, has been a member of the Second Language Assessment Committee since its inception.

LAURIE TORESON IS A SPANISH TEACHER AT PANTHER CREEK HIGH SCHOOL
 Toreson was a finalist for Wake County Teacher of the Year last year. She helped open the new Panther Creek High School this year, earned recognition as a Teacher of the Year finalist last year while teaching at Knightdale High and has been teaching for 18 years. She serves as a mentor to first-year teachers. She is a National Board Certified teacher, serves as a National Board coach and has served as a presenter and facilitator for discussions on National Board and World Languages. She has served as a volunteer translator for the police and the Red Cross, assists with the ESL class offered at her church and teaches the WCPSS Conversational Spanish for Educators course.

Toreson says she is constantly impressed by her students’ efforts and achievements. "It never ceases to amaze me when I walk down the halls of school and hear my students speaking to each other in Spanish," said Toreson. "I am equally impressed when they tell me that they were able to use their Spanish outside of school. One of the greatest rewards is that six former students have gone to college and pursued Spanish as a major, five in teaching."

IN MY CLASSROOM
The primary goal of second language teachers is to bring the target language to life in the classroom by promoting interpersonal communication. I find it essential to personalize my lessons as often as possible in order to give students ownership of the classroom.

 For example, we recently studied comparatives of equality, inequality and superlatives in Spanish II. I have a huge stack of laminated pictures of famous Spanish-speaking people in my classroom. Separated into groups of four, my students scavenged through the pictures, choosing up to ten per group. Some groups, based on their personal interests, chose famous singers like Cristina Aguilera or Nelly Furtado. Other groups chose pictures of famous artists such as Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. Allowing the students to choose their pictures piqued their interest in the lesson. I then gave the students the specific tasks of the lesson: 1) Discuss the famous people in Spanish using adjectives already learned; 2) Write four sentences comparing the people using comparisons of inequality; 3) Write four sentences comparing the people equally; and 4) Write four sentences using superlatives. After the students discussed the famous people and wrote sentences about them in groups, they were assigned to come before the class, hold up pictures of their chosen “celebrities” and share them with their peers.

The students love this lesson because it allows them to speak, listen, write and read in the target language in a fun and culturally relevant manner. More importantly, it meets several multiple intelligences of the students such as: kinesthetic, linguistic, visual and interpersonal.

It is evident that one of the most effective principles explained by Rick Dufour for professional learning communities which we have implemented at Panther Creek is to allow curriculum departments time each day to plan and collaborate. Each department shares the same lunch period. After my students had such great success with this lesson, my Spanish teacher colleague and I discussed it during our lunch time and he executed the lesson with his students and found it to be equally successful!

It is such a joy to be a part of shaping the educational environment of a new school! Being able to collaborate regularly with my colleagues each day has helped us to plan and execute more exciting and effective lessons for our students!

-wcpss-

The Classroom Connection is published electronically monthly for everyone interested in the Wake County Public School System. Is what you read in this edition helpful? What information would you like to see in future editions? Contact me by calling 850-1829 or e-mailing bposton@wcpss.net.

Bill Poston
Wake County Public School System
Communications Department
3600 Wake Forest Road
Raleigh, North Carolina 27611

Tell a friend about the School Connection and encourage them to sign up at
http://www.wcpss.net/online_newsletters/the_school_connection/