Category: PD

Teacher Proficiency in the Target Language

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Reading up on the second National Board World Language Standard has got me with teacher proficiency on the brain. If you’re a native speaker of the language you teach, obviously this is a non-issue for you. I studied Spanish in school for eight years and then went to teach English in Chile for a semester and realized I barely spoke Spanish. Here are some of the things I’ve done (from the easiest to most difficult) to get and keep my Spanish proficiency level high.

1) Netflix

This is a passive input activity that allows me to tell myself I’m being productive while shamelessly devouring shows online. Honestly Netflix has produced a ton of high-quality content in Spanish in the last couple of years that far surpasses the old Univision/Telemundo novelas (though I still have love for those as well). To get more input bang for my buck, I do usually watch these shows with Spanish subtitles on. As far as what to watch: my all-time fave is Gran Hotel. I’ve also enjoyed Casa de Papeles, Alta Mar, Ingobernable, and Chicas del Cable. I will say, however, that El Ministerio del Tiempo is such a nerdy Spanish teacher’s DREAM. It’s basically a show about time-traveling to hang out with every awesome Spaniard throughout history. Not quite appropriate to show students but so perfect for the former-AP student in each of us.

2) Using an e-reader

Much as I use practicing Spanish as an excuse to watch soaps, I use my Kindle Spanish-English dictionary as an excuse to indulge in beach-read fiction. Download a free Spanish-English dictionary onto your Kindle, and every book in Spanish becomes a perfect vocabulary building partner. Every time you come across a word you don’t know, you can highlight it and get the definition in English. It’s amazing. I usually will have one Dan Brown or Outlander novel in Spanish loaded on my Kindle just so I feel semi-productive killing time.

3) Podcasts

I feel like the quality of podcasts in general goes up every week. My two favorite Spanish-language podcasts are Radio Ambulante and Ted en Español. If you’ve found others you love, please share them in the comments. If I’m headed to a professional situation in which I’m going to be using Spanish with native speakers, I always play one of these in the car on the way there just to switch my brain over. Cult of Pedagogy and We Teach Languages are also great (English-language) podcasts for professional development, especially when there is crossover between the two!

4) Colleagues

The colleagues in my department at school fell into the habit early of only communicating with each other in Spanish. Half of us were native speakers and half of us were not, but it ended up being easier to just use Spanish all of the time for those situations in which you don’t exactly want your students to understand everything you’re saying. The fact that half of us were native speakers also helped us to hold each other accountable and kept our Spanish going at the highest level. There’s nothing to help you learn how to give students encouraging language feedback like being on the receiving end of some on a daily basis.

5) Volunteering

I found a great organization in my community that helps immigrants from Latin America transition to life in our city. I imagine in this day and age most communities in the United States have such an organization. For a couple of years I helped out with their college and career bound program, which helps young teens learn about options for applying to college and steps they need to take to achieve success in college and beyond. Some of these kids spoke very little English. One of my goals for learning Spanish in the first place was being able to help people in my community, and for me, sitting in front of person who really needs your help and is depending on you to communicate helps your trepidation with practicing your Spanish evaporate very quickly.

6) Travel

Of course, if we had all the time and money in the world, we’d do some teacher immersion travel every chance we could. I had a great experience in Central America with Common Ground International (I wrote more about that experience here). I know a few friends who have done phenomenal programs in Spain. Anytime you can link up with a student travel program and watch some of your students have their minds blown abroad is also exciting. If you need to prep for a test like the OPI, indulging in a teacher trip that helps you practice your language is definitely a good investment. I thank my time with Common Ground International for helping me score Advanced on my OPI test for sure.

Of all of these, the methods for sharpening my proficiency that I come back to the most are of course the more passive ones that sub in for activities I already do – turning on Ministerio del Tiempo instead of The Office, listening to Ted en Espanol during my morning commute, speaking Spanish to my co-worker instead of just dropping to English. Every little bit helps.

I’d love to hear more about the things you do to keep your proficiency level high. Any good Netflix shows or podcasts you’d recommend? Please share!

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NBCT Standard 2: Knowledge of Language

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As part of our deep dive into the first National Board World Language Standard (Knowledge of Students), I’ve spent the last few posts focusing on different ways to gather and leverage information about students. Today we’re going to move on to Standard 2: Knowledge of Language (pages 22-24 here). First, the standard statement:

Accomplished teachers of world languages function with a high
degree of proficiency in the languages they teach. They understand
how languages and cultures are intimately linked, understand the
linguistic elements of the languages they teach, and draw on this
knowledge to set attainable and worthwhile learning goals for their
students.

Standard 2 is where the National Board holds us accountable to practice what we preach in terms of our own language learning. This is not easy, and NBCT does not let us off the hook. To become a National Board Certified Teacher, we are required as language teachers to prove that we maintain an Advanced language proficiency level in our target language by submitting ACTFL certificates with ratings of Advanced Low or higher on both the speaking and writing assessments. (More on my tips for passing these tests in a future post).

In addition to requiring that we are Advanced speakers of the languages we teach, this Standard requires that we do, in fact, use the language beyond the walls of our classroom. It asks us for proof of the ways we use the language in authentic contexts, whether in our community or through travel abroad. Accomplished teachers read, write, listen to, and speak their target languages as often as possible, authentically as possible, just as we ask our students to do when we are in class.

In addition to asking for proof of proficiency and language use, this standard devotes an entire section to knowledge of how language works. It briefly mentions a knowledge of linguistics before moving onto knowledge of how the language fits together in different cultural and geographical contexts. For Spanish teachers, this means that we are well-aware of the many different dialects and are able to teach the differences between the slang in Madrid and Mexico City. This is also the first time the modes of language are mentioned: we should understand and be able to teach the importance of the interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational modes.

This standard, for me, is the first time National Board really requires you to hold yourself accountable to a higher level. If you aren’t a native speaker of the language you teach, it demands that you practice what you preach in terms of lifelong language learning, which is something that goes well beyond the usual duties of your classroom. In the upcoming posts, I’m going to share my tips for staying on top of your language learning game, and also my advice for passing the ACTFL speaking and writing assessments.

What are your favorite ways to maintain your Advanced proficiency level? Share your favorite teacher language practice activities below!

Recommended Listening

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This is a quick mini blog post to say that the little language teacher nerd in me was so happy today listening to Cult of Pedagogy’s Jennifer Gonzalez interviewing everyone’s fave French teacher, Rebecca Blouwolff. I strongly recommend you take some time this week to listen to this delightful podcast episode about the modern world language classroom.

Rebecca is such an honest, enthusiastic, articulate ambassador for proficiency-based language teaching, and listening to the real world examples from her classroom is so inspiring. I loved hearing how she makes her communicative goals relevant with e-pals, how she has to get permission from her students to speak in English, how she turned her standard free time unit into a unit about sleep and screentime because that was super relevant to her specific students. She’s also got an outstanding corresponding blog post full of top-notch resources backing up the best practices she outlines in the podcast. Genius!

I could gush all day, but I hope you’ll play the conversation next time you’re in your car or doing dishes or on a run or just sitting on the couch chilling because you deserve it. It brought me a lot of joy and inspiration, and I hope it does for you too!

NBCT Standard 1: Know Your Students

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Today I’m diving into the first National Board World Languages Standard: Knowledge of Students  (pages 18-21 here). (Read my last two posts to play catch up on why I’m talking about National Board Standards and what the heck NBCT even is).

First, the Standard statement:

Accomplished teachers of world languages actively acquire knowledge of their students and draw on their understanding of child and adolescent development to foster their students’ competencies and interests as individual language learners.

In three words: KNOW YOUR KIDS. There are some great reminders sprinkled throughout these pages that focus on why investing time in student relationships is so important. For me, there are three main take-aways.

1. Learn about the kids in every way you can.

Accomplished teachers use every method at their disposal to learn as much about their students as possible. The Standard references three ways to do this. Firstly, engage directly with the kids: informal conversation, personality surveys, informational surveys, attending extracurricular events, and baseline language assessments. Secondly, gather information from the other important adults in kids lives: their families, other teachers, counselors, and administrators.

Thirdly, make sure to stay informed about adolescent development in general. Being aware of how teens communicate and develop socially, and staying informed about the challenges your particular community of students is facing, is critical to developing appropriate learning goals inside and outside the classroom.

2. Leverage what you know about them to engage them.

As you gather as much information as possible about your students, you’re able to leverage it to drive your instruction. The Standard references the enthusiasm and energy that adolescents naturally have about the things they’re passionate about, and their intrinsic desire to talk about themselves and their interests. Luckily, our whole goal as language teachers is to get students to express themselves, so it’s just a matter of tapping into their natural tendencies. I’ve written before about how I love differentiating my instruction by giving kids an opportunity to inject their passions into the thematic units typically required by school curriculum. Our challenge is to find ways to do that day in and day out.

Beyond letting student interests drive instruction, the Standard also reminds us that teaching students skills to help with their social and personal development is key to helping them succeed not only as language students, but also as individuals. Learning a language requires taking risks, setting goals, making mistakes, and developing the confidence and self-efficacy to continue trying and failing over and over again. As language teachers, we give them the tools and opportunity to practice doing so in a supported environment, which engages them on a level that goes far beyond our learning content.

3. Take advantage of your learning community’s network.

For me, the most challenging part of this Standard is the repeated reminder to utilize the learning community connected to your classroom as much as possible. The best way to do this is to increase family involvement. Engaging family members through frequent communication helps you to learn more about the students’ needs and goals, and having support at home can only help you work as a team to get each student where they need to be.

Additionally, family relationships provide you with a wealth of experience that helps you bring language learning to life. Using family members as guest speakers, or even just guest judges in a PBL project, reminds students that what they are learning has real world implications. Students who speak a different language at home can bring to life the importance of being bilingual and the richness that comes with being a part of different cultures. The Standard challenges us to be informed about what resources we have available in the family networks we become a part of each school year, and also to bring those resources into the classroom whenever we can.

Concluding thoughts on Standard One

This first Standard to me affirms the natural tendency we all have to build and leverage our relationships with our students in order to drive instruction. However, there are many things in this Standard listed that are difficult to accomplish on a regular basis. For example, I’d love to say that I had a beautiful monthly e-newsletter and an Instagram account for my parents to follow, but systemic parent communication isn’t something I thought I had the time to prioritize. This Standard reminds me that a little effort in that arena can go a long way.

With this in mind, as you read these Standards, give yourself a high five for the things you know you do on a regular basis, and pick one or two items that you aren’t doing already to help support your teaching. We all have items in each Standard that we are naturally drawn to, and ones that are more difficult for each of us. The goal is to affirm what makes you a good teacher, and help you to become even better, not to get overwhelmed by all of the things you aren’t doing yet. Good luck to those of you on your NBCT journey, and to those who are just getting to know your students to start the year! This Standard is a good reminder that the time you invest in building those relationships is well worth it.

To read about some of the tools I’ve used to get to know my students better, see my posts on Student Survey Questions, Parent Survey Questions, Post-Unit Reflection Forms and Six-Word Memoirs.

Student perspective: is it okay to lie on language tests?

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Raise your hand if you’ve ever said something like this to your world language students: “Remember – I’m not grading you on what you say. I’m grading you on how you say it. It’s okay to lie on your test if you can’t remember the Spanish word you want to use!”

This, of course, is an excellent testing strategy for students. The most recent conversation I had like this in my classroom was during our “giving directions” unit. One of our test questions asked students to write out driving directions from their house to school. “Your directions don’t have to be accurate,” I advised them, “just make sure you include a few different turns so I know you can use the structures we’ve learned.” This gives students the freedom to show off the language they know, avoid the language that gives them trouble, and stress more about finishing their test than writing long paragraphs of accurate directions from their house thirty minutes away from school (not to mention it makes grading easier for me).

Let’s think about this from a student’s perspective…

Fast forward a few months and the roles are reversed. I am sitting in the student’s chair at a language school in Costa Rica, discussing current events in Spanish with my (phenomenal) Spanish teacher for the month, Sandra. I am taking the ACTFL Proficiency exam in a few weeks, and I have to prove that I can speak and write Spanish at an advanced level in order to qualify as a World Language National Board Candidate. Often ACTFL asks opinion questions on controversial topics in order to see how a learner manages the target language when discussing complex issues. As I try to explain how insane the 2016 presidential elections have been in the United States, I get flustered because I’m passionate about what’s going on in my country, and I want to tell my Costa Rican friend about the nuances, but I’m tripping over my Spanish words. Sandra looks at me and says, “Emily. ACTFL is not grading you on your opinion. ACTFL is grading you on how you use the language. It doesn’t matter if you lie on the test as long as you use language at an advanced level. Don’t stress so much about expressing your opinion accurately.”

“But Sandra,” I say back to her, “this is really important to me! There are crazy things going on in the US right now, and I want to talk about them with you!”

You see where this is going, right? This is when I thought of my students, and a lightbulb went off over my head. I almost covered my mouth in horror. “Oh my gosh, Sandra, I have this exact conversation with my students all the time.”

It’s okay to let them lie on assessments because I’m teaching them good testing strategies, isn’t it? 

Yes…but…having to lie about something important to you just to get a good grade is kind of annoying, right?? Have you ever watched a red-headed kid in Spanish 1 and write down “yo soy rubia” on an assessment because spelling “pelirroja” is hard? I have! And yeah, the student could get a perfect score on the test with “rubia,” but when I think of my identity as a teacher, my number one goal is not “all of my students have a perfect grade,” my number one goal is “my students can communicate in a foreign language about things that matter to them.” I love teaching a foreign language because you can give students a chance to get so creative and crazy with it! It gives them another outlet to express themselves, something all adolescents tend to crave. Every time I tell students it’s okay to lie on a test, it carries an undertone of “Expressing yourself accurately isn’t the most important thing. Getting a perfect grade is the most important thing.” And I’m sure as educators, that’s not the type of thing most of us enjoy promoting.

But let’s get real; grades matter to everyone. How do we teach good testing strategies AND emphasize that we care about the things our students really want to say? 

The emphasis on what we want kids to know, understand and do should line up exactly with our assessments. In every unit and every day, I want my students to understand that I care about them and their ability to express themselves in the target language according to their personal interests and passions. However, this doesn’t always line up correctly with what our school district wants them to know and do.

Take, for example, a really common thematic unit for Level 1 – sports. To pass my county’s final exam, my students need to be able to say something like, “I need a helmet, a glove, and a bat to play baseball.” BUT out of my 60 Spanish 1 students, maybe 3 of them actually play baseball. If I have a kid who is on an insanely good bowling team, how am I going to keep him engaged through the baseball vocabulary, which he need for his exam, and also give him time to talk about bowling, his passion? What about the dozen kids who hate sports and don’t play? What about the girls every year who end up in an argument with the football players in class about whether or not dance team is a sport?

Like all meaningful and engaging units, this requires a little more work on my end and a little more work on the students’ end. By the time our sports unit hits, I already know which students are varsity athletes, which ones are involved in non-conventional sports, and which ones would rather sing on a stage in front of 500 people than run a mile in gym class. So, I always include the curriculum-mandated vocabulary and offer up student-driven vocabulary based on their interests and passions (even better if they find this vocab themselves!). The students have access to both mandatory and student-specific vocab, AND they have an opportunity to use both on their summative assessment for that unit. On my test this opportunity looks like an open-ended presentational writing prompt: “Write to a Spanish-speaking friend about your favorite sport or after-school activity. How often do you do it, where do you do it, and what do you need to do it?”

Does this mean that every student is going to jump at the opportunity to learn extra vocab so they can talk about their passions? Absolutely not. Will I still give students credit for lying about their passion for baseball on their test when they really only care about playing piano? Yup. But in giving them the tools they need to express themselves accurately from the start, I indicate to my students that I care about their true thoughts and interests. I show love to the kids whose passions lie outside our official curriculum. I still give them testing strategies and hold them accountable for the knowledge required by the county, but I also give them the tools they need for accurate expression if they want it, which is really what being a language teacher is all about.

My takeaway from listening to my friend/tutor/colleague Sandra tell me to lie on the ACTFL exam is that a) lying actually IS a good testing strategy, but b) I need to make sure I’m emphasizing to my students that I care about their passions from the beginning of each and every unit. Have you ever sat in a student’s chair and had a striking realization about the way you teach? How do you give students opportunities for expression on assessments that go outside the curriculum? Send me a comment and let me know!

photo credit: Common Ground International

What a Nicaraguan slum taught me about PBL

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I just wrapped up a pretty inspirational week in Granada, Nicaragua, as part of my summer professional development abroad. Through a Spanish immersion trip with Common Ground International, I spent the week with some awesome teachers, doctors, physician assistants, and nurses, working in a Granada shanty town in the morning and taking Spanish classes in the afternoon. I learned a lot about Nicaragua, but the biggest takeaways from the week centered around our morning community service projects.

One of my goals for my summer professional development is to seek out opportunities for my students to use their Spanish outside the classroom and give back to the global community (all the more important since our school is officially embracing Project Based Learning next year). Common Ground did a great job of finding us a service project that both met our goals of practicing the language AND helped out a local organization in a direct, meaningful way. Our service in Granada made me think a lot about student service learning, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was the PERFECT service project for us as Spanish students “at that time in that setting,” as our friends at the National Board would appreciate. I saw three reasons for the project’s success that would be applicable to any PBL service learning attempts in my classroom: 

1) There was a genuine need for our help, AND we were able to meet that need.

We were collaborating with a small Christian school run by American missionaries in a very poor shanty town in the outskirts of the city. The neighborhood is extremely impoverished, with high crime and unemployment rates and low health and literacy rates. The school is trying to start classes and lectures for the community to help address some of the health problems there (nutrition education to decrease diabetes, smoking cessation, alcoholism supports, etc). Before giving these talks, the school wanted to conduct a survey of the neighborhood (affectionately named “el Pantanal” or “the swamp”) to determine their needs and figure out which health programs would be most beneficial. Our mission as Spanish students was to walk door to door conducting these surveys. The organization NEEDED these surveys to be completed – if not us, they would have looked for someone else to complete them. It wasn’t a contrived project, which made us feel like our work was worthwhile – a crucial component to guarantee student buy in. 

2) We were stretching a little bit outside our comfort zone – where the learning really happens. 

At this point I would like to be real with you and say that this project COMPLETELY freaked me out. As a tall skinny blonde girl, no part of me wanted to skip around a Nicaraguan slum knocking on doors to ask if anyone in the house had a history of alcoholism, depression, or chronic diarrhea. (“HOLA! Soy de los Estados Unidos and no I am not here to give you anything, I just want to ask you fifty extremely personal questions!!”). Despite my gringa fears, the experience was predictably eye-opening and rewarding. We stayed together in a big group with some help from people in the community, so I always felt safe. The majority of the people we surveyed were super open and helpful, and full of hope. Adriana, the missionary growing and running the school in Pantanal, spoke to us about the difference between poverty and misery, and the people we spoke to all morning were poor, but they weren’t miserable. They all talked about the importance of education for their kids and how they want them in school to advance their future. They spoke about health issues and problems getting food on the table, but never in a way that tried to evoke pity. They just were telling us about their lives, which brings me to my next point.

3) The project met our instructional goals of using and improving our Spanish. 

When we started our surveys, we were all focused on making sure the pronunciation of each question was right and trying really hard to read our script correctly, but quickly the surveys became less about a Spanish reading exercise and more about human connection. We stopped worrying about language accuracy and started doing everything we could to communicate understanding – our affective filter and our fears of making mistakes went out the window as we listened to these people share their fears and their wishes. It was a truly language rich experience, and hit those Cs of culture, community, and connection really hard. It was a perfect way for us to learn, give back, and feel good about doing it. 

Okay, so how am I going to apply these concepts in my classroom?

I went into my service trying to find ways for my students to give back in Nicaragua, and I discovered that the only genuine need my students could realistically meet that would help out the work Americans are doing in el Pantanal is : hit up their parents for money (ughhh! Such a frustrating realization). The folks we were helping in Pantanal told us that even classroom supplies and donations aren’t the best to contribute, since it would be best to give money that the school would then spend in the local community, supporting the local jobs and the local economy even further. Since we have so many fundraisers at our school already, I had already crossed financial donations off the list possible projects. It is possible that we could have a Spanish event that we charge admission to as a fundraiser (like an after school feria/market to go with our shopping unit; a Hispanic food festival to go with our food unit; etc). My mind is already moving through ideas for them that would both help out the neighborhood financially AND help us with our linguistic goals. 

Beyond trying to figure out a way for my students to help out in Nicaragua, however, my biggest takeaway was the need to WORK to find opportunities for my students to help out in our own community. Trying to find a genuine need students can meet in a language-rich way requires research, and networking in the local community to find people who are already working with Hispanic populations in town. Possibilities could include tutoring elementary school kids or partnering with an organization who works with new immigrants to the US. The folks at Common Ground did a lot of investigating before partnering with an organization that had a need that Spanish students could meet in a meaningful way. I came away with a reality check – that finding a meaningful student service opportunity requires research, time, and networking, but I also came away with a renewed sense of social responsibility and a desire to show my students how important and rewarding it can be to give back outside your comfort zone. 

It truly was an amazing week, and I gained a lot of perspective and inspiration as I head into our school’s first PBL year, but that hasn’t turned into concrete service ideas yet. What are your awesome student service activities? Have you found some meaningful service learning projects that also meet your instructional goals? Let me know in the comments below! 

Four reasons I’m doing summer PD abroad

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As I write this, I’m hoping the passenger next to me can’t hear that I’m blasting Adele through my headphones to drown out the conversations on an airplane destined for San Jose, Costa Rica. I’m headed on a Spanish immersion trip for teachers with Common Ground International and so far they’ve done a phenomenal job answering all of my anal questions and preparing us for an unforgettable experience. I’ll be staying with host families for three weeks, one in Granada, Nicaragua, and two in Santo Domingo, a suburb of San Jose. 

Like most teachers, I’m a pretty dedicated list-maker, and all about “keeping the end in mind.” So of course, before I actually embark upon this almost-month-long Central American excursion, I need to outline my goals for this trip. 

1) Improve MY Spanish. This was priority number one for booking this trip in the first place. This upcoming school year, I’ll be going for my National Board Certification, and as a world language teacher I have to achieve an Advanced proficiency level in Spanish on the ACTFL written and oral exams. After a few years of teaching Spanish 1 & 2 and using adequate Spanish with my patient native-speaking colleagues, my Spanish needs a boost. I’ve never been able to achieve ACTFL advanced, so I’m hoping three weeks of one on one Spanish classes and living with a host family will give my language the push it needs. I’m going to commit myself to spending as much time with native speakers as possible, which is different from my times abroad in earlier years, when my priorities swung more towards adventuring with my new interesting ex-pat friends. Now that my boyfriend and I have turned each other into homebodies and teaching has turned me into a person who unapologetically goes to bed a 830pm, I feel like my urge to get in on the backpacker scene has all but evaporated. If I’m going to make friends in-country, it will be through my host family, not through the folks staying at the hostel down the street, which is going to help my Spanish immensely. 

2) Find opportunities for my students. I’m sure the connections I’m building on this trip will help me create more authentic experiences in the classroom for my students, and I’m hoping to build relationships in the countries that my students may be able to benefit from. I work at one of the best public middle-schools in the area that draws from a relatively high-ses community. I would love to find a way on this trip for them to give back to students who are less fortunate than them, though it might be a tricky thing to accomplish. This year our school is also transitioning to PBL-based instruction, so building relationships with other teachers in the country can only help with bringing Spanish to life for my students.

3) Aprovechar. I want to lean in to this experience abroad and really take advantage of it for all its worth. I’ve definitely been guilty of going abroad and spending hours in an Internet cafe talking to my friends at home. I am committing to staying in touch with my loved ones, but I want to try not to spend a ton of time thinking about what I’m missing (which is a lot, sorry family, I love you). I am going to be asking my host family to spend time with them and act on their suggestions for adventures, which I’m sure they will happily provide. 

4) Grow my PLN. I save this goal for last, since part of my goal is going to be to unplug from my phone, but one of my summer projects is to get more involved with other teachers online. I’m going to use this experience to share with them and grow that PLN that my principal keeps bugging us about. There’s not much of a better way to test out the waters online than to shamelessly share travel photos. Maybe I’ll finally download Instagram too (omg!).

I’m excited about this opportunity to grow as a Spanish teacher and will try to post on how I’m coming in achieving my PD goals. Have you ever spent time abroad as part of your summer professional development? What were your goals before you left? Did you accomplish them? Let me know in the comments below 🙂