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Celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day by Donating to These Organizations

Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a national holiday in North America that is celebrated in various cities and states.

Lakota tribe member dancing.

It began in 1977 when the International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas began to discuss replacing Columbus Day in the United States with a celebration to be known as Indigenous Peoples Day. The entire states of South Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii, and Oregon do not celebrate Columbus Day. In order to celebrate the holiday, here are some organizations that readers can learn about and support.

 

Association on American Indian Affairs

The Eastern Association on Indian Affairs was started in New York in 1922 to assist a group of Pueblo people seeking to protect their land rights. The following decades saw it growing and merging with other like-minded organizations and it became the Association on American Indian Affairs (AAIA) in 1946.

Over the years AAIA has played an integral part in drafting a number of important laws, including the Indian Child Welfare Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the Tribal Governmental Tax Status Act. They have established organizations like the Medicine Wheel Coalition for the Protection of Sacred Sites and negotiated landmark agreements to protect sacred lands such as the Bighorn Medicine Wheel/Medicine Mountain in Wyoming. They have awarded scholarships to Native American college and graduate students from both federally recognized and non-federally recognized tribes.

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Native American Rights Fund

Since 1971, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has provided legal assistance to Indian tribes, organizations, and individuals nationwide who might otherwise have gone without adequate representation. NARF has successfully asserted and defended the most important rights of Indians and tribes in hundreds of major cases, and has achieved significant results in such critical areas as tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, natural resource protection, and Indian education. NARF is a non-profit 501c(3) organization that focuses on applying existing laws and treaties to guarantee that national and state governments live up to their legal obligations.
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American Indian College Fund

Founded in 1989, the American Indian College Fund has been the nation’s largest charity supporting Native student access to higher education for more than 25 years, consistently receiving top ratings from independent charity evaluators. The American Indian College Fund invests in Native students and tribal college education to transform lives and communities.
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Redhawk Native American Arts Council

The Redhawk Native American Arts Council is a not for profit organization founded and maintained by Native American artists and educators residing in the New York City area. Since 1994, the Council is dedicated to educating the general public about Native American heritage through song, dance, theater, works of art and other cultural forms of expression. The council represents artists from North, South, Central American, Caribbean and Polynesian Indigenous cultures.

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Native American Journalists Association

The Native American Journalists Association serves and empowers Native journalists through programs and actions designed to enrich journalism and promote Native cultures.
For more than 30 years, NAJA has remained committed to increasing the representation of Native journalists working in media, while encouraging both mainstream and tribal media to attain the highest standards of professionalism, ethics and responsibility.
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Dream Warriors

Dream Warriors is a collective of artists who believe in pursuing passions, dreams, and gifts to better loved ones and communities while also uplifting others. Founded by Tanaya Winder, Dream Warriors Management is an innovative artist management company created to bring together different talented artists, speakers, and educators who embody the values of what it means to be a Dream Warrior. Dream Warriors Management currently consists of Indigenous Artists: Kelly Holmes, Kenn Little, John Little,  Mic Jordan, Tall Paul, Frank Waln, Chris “Def-I” Bidtah, Noah Blue Elk Hotchkiss, and Tanaya Winder. Tanaya also manages the artists and does the administrative work for the Dream Warriors.
Each artist travels to perform concerts, run workshops, teach empowerment and artistic skill sets, showcase his/her performance art & artistry, and speak at various engagements throughout the country. In addition to their artistic endeavors, they hustle hard to work within communities whenever they get the opportunity. Together, they developed the Dream Warriors Scholarship.

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SPAIN WORKSHOP – December 2017

The SPAIN WORKSHOP is a great opportunity for accredited US higher learning institutions to learn more about the educational opportunities that Spain offers, as well as having a first-hand experience for those who are considering Spain as a destination for their study abroad programs.

The event is sponsored and fully funded by ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones and the association EDUESPAÑA, with the collaboration and support of FULBRIGHT ESPAÑA.

Spain Workshop II

  • Dates:           December 11-17, 2017
  • Location:       Madrid and selected cities (tba)
  • Application:   Online form
  • Deadline:      Sun, October 15th

The participant profiles are university-level international education administrators, coordinators and advisors, chairs of academic departments and faculty leading short-term programs, interested in exploring the diverse opportunities currently available in Spain.

Visit STUDY IN SPAIN website www.Spainedu.org for complete information and conditions.

Get In Touch With Spanish Heritage With Flamenco Lessons

Readers in Los Angeles have the opportunity to experience an eye opening cultural experience through dance and storytelling. Attendees can live the Spanish language through the language of Flamenco dance.

 

“Take yourself on a trip to India and Spain and discover UNESCO’s World Heritage Dance at its source of inspiration. Learn its cultural philosophy through ritual movements, attitudes, and sentiments resident in traditional dance stories or choreographies. Move to the rhythms of the Rom-people-in- Spain, called compas. Create, affirm, and heal through the Jondo-Flamenco.”

The class will be held Oct 8, from 6-7:30, at Madilyn Clark Studio D 10852 Burbank Blvd. North Hollywood, CA 91601. To RSVP and save your spot please email info@dancingsoulss.com

Spanish on High

Leanna Robinson climbs to Cusco, Peru to learn Spanish with altitude

After years of official schooling in the U.S. in a foreign language, in my case Spanish, I found myself in the same situation as many students. While I could conjugate verbs in a vacuum, I still could not hold a basic conversation. After some time, I turned to tutors, which, while helpful, still left me unable to express myself without a large amount of anxiety tacked on. Finally, I decided to enroll in an immersion program in a Spanish-speaking country for a month in order to force myself to speak Spanish.

Choosing the Right Place

Everyone’s criteria for an ideal Spanish-immersion destination are different. Still, I have a feeling that mine may be of help trying to narrow down from the wide selection of Spanish-speaking countries in which to study.

For one, I did not want to study Spanish in a place that had a strong accent. While I love listening to accents and feel that they add a flare to speaking that makes it interesting, I knew that for learning purposes it would be easier to learn in a place that had little slang and little accent. This ruled out places like Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Cartagena, Colombia—all places that have beautiful but strong accents that for a beginner are difficult to understand. It also ruled out much of Mexico, where slang is common. I also ruled out Spain and Argentina, which utilize a style of Spanish that was unfortunately ignored by my schoolteachers.

I did not want to stay in a location that was either extremely touristy or extremely remote, which is a balance that is difficult to maintain. I also knew that I would be traveling alone as a woman, so safety was a great concern.

Finally, I decided on Peru—a country with relatively little accent, but full of culture. I chose a small city in the south of the country called Cusco. This city is often a short stopover for travelers making their way to Machu Picchu and is not, from my knowledge, a common place for people to stay for long periods of time to learn Spanish. Still, to me it seemed perfect, so I decided to set my roots.

Thoughts on Immersion

There is no denying the effectiveness of learning through immersion. When everything—the café in the morning, the schooling in the daytime, the taxi in the evening, the restaurant in the nighttime—was in Spanish, I found myself forced out of my nervousness into speaking the language whether I felt like I was ready or not. Even though I was born and raised less than an hour away from Miami and currently live in Los Angeles, I still found a huge difference between living in a city with many Spanish speakers and living in a city where everyone speaks Spanish.

Culture of Cusco

Cusco literally translates to “the belly button of the world” in Quechua, the indigenous language of the Incas that is still widely spoken in the area. Cusco is the type of city that is often overlooked—it reminded me of Sienna, Italy—but has much to offer. Surrounded by nature, this small Peruvian city had much to offer no matter your background. If I wanted to have a three-course meal for lunch for six U.S. dollars, it was readily available and easy to find. At the same time, I could find top-level dining, drinking, and shopping across town. I found myself spending much of my time in cafés; some favorites include Café Puchay, La Valeriana, and La Bondiet.

The overall culture of Cusco was enchanting. It felt like it was half Incan and half Spanish, with Incan ruins all over town and colonial architecture in the main square. Many people in the city, including the majority of taxi drivers, speak the native language of Quechua, which makes for the particularly unique experience of the opportunity to learn two languages.

A Day in the Life

Every language program is different. I chose to enroll at Academia Latinoamericana in Cusco. The school was centrally located and put me in contact with a host family who provided very comfortable accommodations. I took a placement exam to determine my level of knowledge of the language, which is common in many language schools. I was provided with an informative tour of the city and the next day began my daily four-hour classes. Classes were offered in the morning or afternoon. I chose to have classes in the morning, and I was lucky enough to have one-on-one classes for the first week of enrollment. The program has a novel feature of changing teachers each week so that students are able to experience various teachers and teaching techniques. Two of the four hours are dedicated to speaking, while the other two hours concentrate on grammar.

While four hours of instruction was definitely intense, I found that breaking it up into two parts made time pass quickly, especially given that we were allotted a 15-minute break, during which I often ventured off to a local bakery for a pan con chocolate and a café con leche.

While my school offered many add-ons for students to enjoy, the one that I found particularly fun was the weekly salsa dancing class. I was lucky that my first week no other students decided to attend the class, so I got the unique experience of having a private salsa lesson—an experience that I will never forget.

In classes, we went over basic grammatical tenets, such as tenses, verbs, and vocabulary. While I enjoyed my one-on-one classes, I also enjoyed the weeks that I had fellow classmates, since much of the material was interactive and I was able to work with my classmates on in-class assignments.

Outside Excursions 

A great thing about Cusco is that it is close to many other towns, villages, and areas of interest. Most notable is Machu Picchu—a wonder of the world, and for good reason. After taking a train to the city of Aguas Calientes and a bus up to the actual ruins, I was still taken aback by the vision, even after seeing the ruins in so many photos.

Cusco is also merely a one-hour plane ride from the Amazon—the most biodiverse place on the planet. I took a plane to Puerto Maldonado to check out the area and decided to stay at ecolodge Amazon Planet. While there are many facilities to choose from in this area, this particular lodge is unique, as they have a rehabilitation project for animals that were illegally taken from the Amazon and a reforestation program to help combat the illegal deforestation happening in the Amazon, and it is an all-around great lodge for those interested in both the Amazon and ecology. I spent three days at the lodge and was able to see monkeys, macaws, tarantulas, snakes, caiman, and other animals, all in the wild.

I also took a trip to the Sacred Valley for a day to see other ruins and the area in general. It was only $100 USD to rent a taxi for the day and is an experience that I would suggest that anyone staying in the area seek out.

Language-Learning Experience

I must say that taking the four-hour daily course at Academia Latinoamericana coupled with speaking Spanish all day in utilitarian ways advanced my Spanish-speaking skills more than any classes have in my entire language-learning history. Having one-on-one classes helped hone in on specific concerns that I had, and in both the one-on-one and small-group classes, I was able to discuss topics that were relevant to my specific situation. Many of my courses in college and high school had felt one-size-fits-all, which was not the case at this institution.

Conclusion

Immersion schooling made a large difference to my Spanish-speaking learning experience, and I would recommend it to anyone who really wants to learn a language. While many students think of places like Spain or Mexico for the optimal place to learn Spanish, Cusco is something of an underdog and has much to offer. The location, lack of accent, safety, and general culture make it perfect for anyone seeking an overseas program in learning Spanish.

Celebrate World Teachers’ Day

Teaching in Freedom, Empowering Teachers

Held annually on October 5 since 1994, World Teachers’ Day commemorates the anniversary of the signing of the 1966 UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, which celebrated its 50th anniversary during last year’s edition. The 1966 Recommendation constitutes the main reference framework for addressing teachers’ rights and responsibilities on a global scale.

This year, World Teachers’ Day commemorates the 20th anniversary of the 1997 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel. Teaching personnel at institutions of higher education are often overlooked in discussions concerning the status of teachers. Like teachers at pre-primary, primary, and secondary levels, teaching in higher education is a profession requiring expert knowledge, specialized skills, and pedagogical competence.

World Teachers’ Day 2017 will be celebrated under the theme “Teaching in Freedom, Empowering Teachers”, echoing the 2015 theme that followed the adoption of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) (link is external) in September 2015, when teacher empowerment was reaffirmed as a top priority in all education and development strategies.

World Teachers’ Day is celebrated annually worldwide and brings together governments, multi- and bilateral organizations, NGOs, private sectors, teachers and experts in the field of teaching. With the adoption of SDG 4 on education, and the dedicated target 4.c recognizing teachers as key to the achievement of the 2030 Education Agenda, it has become the occasion to mark achievements and reflect on ways to counter the remaining challenges for the promotion of the teaching profession, like the acute shortage of teachers. Indeed, according to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, the world needs 69 Million teachers if we are to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030.

UNESCO global event – 5th October 2017

In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 1997 Recommendation, an international conference will take place at UNESCO’s Headquarters in Paris. It will bring together teachers, trainers, policy-makers, as well as researchers and other education stakeholders to celebrate teaching, academic freedom, and what we need to do to ensure quality higher education and a sustainable future for the teaching profession.

The objectives of the conference are:

  • To celebrate and highlight the contribution of teachers, from pre-primary through to higher education, to the education and development of our future citizens.
  • To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1997 Recommendation concerning Higher-Education Teaching Personnel.
  • To discuss the issue of quality in higher education teaching and what this means for quality teaching at all levels of education in light of achieving SDG 4 on inclusive and quality education for all.
  • To showcase and discuss progress and persistent challenges in higher education such as institutional autonomy, academic freedom, and professional development of higher-education teaching personnel.

Speaking Spanish

Vista Higher Learning’s Norah Lulich Jones explains how their new Senderos program gets students speaking in class

 

 

First, let us take a look at what students are hoping for, what we are hoping for as teachers, and why speaking in class might not happen as spontaneously as we might have hoped.

Students, even those who have not necessarily signed up for a world language class because of their own intrinsic interest (“My friends are all in this class”), usually say what they hope to get is the ability to speak with young people and make friends. That touches on what we want, too. Being sympathetic and knowledgeable, we use our friendly tone to warn them that they will not be able to speak fluently right away, that they should be ready to take risks and not be perfect, and that we are there to help them so they can make new friends all over the world. Why, then, does all that not get and keep students talking?

While we could spend a lot of time on adolescent psychology, goodness knows, we can sum up both students’ needs and students’ blockages with three words: survival, belonging, and competence. In the hierarchy of needs, these three come in order.

The students in our classes are adolescents who already have a native language; they have survived and do not need this new one to stay alive. So we can encourage, set up an immersive environment, and so forth, but the need to communicate is not linked to survival. Next, adolescents’ brains are wired so they really do feel like they will die if their friends reject them in any way. So, if taking a risk and failing loses them the group they belong to now, our promises of a larger group to belong to in the future provide little comfort. Even if students thread their way through these first two visceral needs, the very nature of learning a new language with an adult brain means they notice they sound like babies (lack of competence).

With these three strikes against adolescents, it is a wonder they speak at all. Yet there is hope, for these young-adult learners will respond to a corresponding trio of gifts we can provide them that will, indeed, get them talking. We can immerse them in motivation for the short term (so they can survive), in purposefulness for the long term (so they belong), and within personalization always (so they are competent). These three aspects are key no matter what instructional programs or resources are being used, and Vista Higher Learning’s Senderos program was specifically designed to address these key aspects in its instructional design, in its content, and in the integrated digital environment which was developed specifically for language acquisition.

Motivation short term for speech comes from a safe environment to explore without judgment, while receiving immediate feedback. It is like providing each individual student a flashlight to illuminate a pathway in the darkness. Motivation is the purpose and design around the student-directed learning approach of our program, both in print and online.

The first step we can take to invite motivation for speaking is to break the broader language topic into comprehensible, manageable language chunks. We tap on students’ successful survival in the world, as it were, by activating their prior knowledge, experiences, and opinions and then connecting each aspect to the material they are about to learn. Students go to their password-protected personal course on VHLCentral.com, where they begin in the Explore activity sequence. Through audio, text, photos, and media in storyboard video-clip format, students figure out where they “fit” in their new language, in a safe environment where they get immediate and private feedback without judgment. Their participation, not their performance level, is key. Just like using the flashlight on the pathway, each student can walk at the pace he or she wants. Comprehensible input is paired with self-pacing. Students feel like they are still in control of their lives: they can relax; they can survive.

Motivation for that short-term, daily support next comes through our shifting and leading students from purely receptive to interactive learning. The powerful Learn activity sequence of the online environment, for example, provides embedded quick checks which give students immediate, personalized feedback as they begin to speak, without grading (and thus demotivating) them. In the important area of vocabulary development, Learn is a cyclical learning sequence that moves from listening and repeating (“How does the word look and sound?”) to matching (“Which photo represents the word?”) to saying it (“Do I know how to recognize the photo and say the word?”). Students develop a sense of hope and confidence as they proceed in (literal) baby steps in learning how to speak, without peer judgment, and spending as much or as little time as needed for personal success.

Next, we lead students toward the deep end of the pool, as it were: actually saying something, but—here is our motivational goal—receiving immediate, appropriate feedback. Notice here that the feedback does not always have to be positive. In fact, students understand that real feedback in small doses, with pathways to improving personal performance quickly, respects them as adult learners. Such feedback is more “real” and more motivating than our well-meaning “Well done!” in any language. In Senderos, such instant and specific feedback is provided by the unique speech-recognition feature embedded in the presentation of vocabulary, pronunciation, and media sections. Developed for Vista Higher Learning by speech-recognition experts in the app world, this feature identifies student utterances, compares them against those of hundreds of native speakers, and provides instant thumbs up/thumbs down feedback. For digitally responsive adolescents, this is a captivating challenge and a game they utterly buy into.

And even though they may not know this, students intuit the reality of their experience with this software: they do not have to sound exactly like the native speaker in order to be judged understood (thumbs up); small things they may not have noticed as they first started learning can make the difference between being understood and not (thumbs down); and small efforts on small tweaks make all the difference (thumbs up). In other words, yet again students learn that they can stay in control and that mistakes can be overcome—and quickly and at low levels of effort.

Let us now combine the frequent motivation sequence we have explored (and which allows students to feel they will survive if they talk) with the longer-term purposefulness aspect (which will ensure students know that they will belong in the world). Purposefulness is more than a periodic bow to “relevance.” It is, as it were, the pathway all lit up, leading a student forward with confidence. Purposefulness comes, in a classroom setting, from instructional design that replicates natural human language development and use in the world. The stages are: (1) life context (personal experience); (2) vocabulary as a tool (target-language building blocks in that familiar context); (3) shared experience (in instructional settings, through media which bridges the language and culture of the student to the target in the same context); (4) target experience in the life context (linguistic and cultural target perspectives and practices in the context); (5) grammar as a tool (gaining communication complexity and accuracy in the context); and (6) synthesis (gaining linguistic and cultural fluency in the context). These inherent human steps focus students’ attention on meaning and community, versus personal performance, and help them feel they belong.

We have gotten students to know they can speak. How do we keep them speaking? How do we ensure they keep on talking? We make sure that, throughout all the contexts in the instructional design where they are talking about contexts in which they have experiences, being asked about their reactions to things they see and hear, are comparing their lives (products, practices, and perspectives) to those of their target peers and doing activities that use vocabulary and grammar as tools to talk about their own situations. That is, as much as possible, every activity is personalized. Students know themselves best and apply their daily practice and longer view to their own real interests. Confidence building is a feedback loop of its own. Again, in this matter, Senderos focuses on this truth of human psychology and learning, carefully constructing scaffolded activities that personalize each context and experience.

We are almost done in our consideration of how to get students to speak. But there is one more element: you, the teacher. You are motivated as you see students engaged daily. You see purposefulness as you achieve your course objectives. And, using good tools and good approaches, you are able to integrate your objectives into your style and your personal dreams, making your work easier and more effective. That is also a key goal and purpose of Senderos, both in its student content and in the teacher resources, course setup templates, and digital planning, teaching, and assessing tools.

That is how you get and keep students talking—for life.

 

Norah Lulich Jones, MEd, is professional development liaison for Vista Higher Learning (VHL). She has been a teacher for multiple decades of Spanish, French, and Russian in public and private schools, a member of and trainer for NADSFL, a keynoter and workshop presenter for conferences and school districts, and a writer of student and teacher materials for VHL and (historically) several other publishing companies.

UN: Multilingual Education Is ‘Absolutely Essential’

Learning languages is a promise of peace, innovation, and creativity and will contribute to the achievement of global development goals, the head of the United Nations agency for culture and education said last month to mark International Mother Language Day.

“There can be no authentic dialogue or effective international cooperation without respect for linguistic diversity, which opens up true understanding of every culture,” said UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural

Organization (UNESCO) director-general Irina Bokova in her message on the day.

“Access to the diversity of languages can awaken the curiosity and mutual understanding of peoples. That is why learning languages is at one and the same time a promise of peace, of innovation, and of creativity,” she stated. This year, the international day, observed annually on February 21, was devoted to multilingual education.

Ms. Bokova said the day is an opportunity to mobilize for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in particular Goal Four, to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning. “Education and information in the mother language is absolutely essential to improving learning and developing confidence and self-esteem, which are among the most powerful engines of development,” she said.

As such, she appealed for the potential of multilingual education to be acknowledged everywhere, in education and administrative systems, cultural expressions and the media, cyberspace, and trade. Ms. Bokova concluded with a passionate appeal: “We are beings of language. Cultures, ideas, feelings, and even aspirations for a better world come to us first and foremost in a specific language, with specific words. These languages convey values and visions of the world that enrich humanity. Giving value to these languages opens up the range of possible futures and strengthens the energy needed to achieve them. On the occasion of this day, I launch an appeal for the potential of multilingual education to be acknowledged everywhere, in education and administrative systems, in cultural expressions and the media, cyberspace, and trade. The better we understand how to value languages, the more tools we will have to build a future of dignity for all.” International Mother Language Day was proclaimed by UNESCO’s General Conference in November 1999, and it has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

www.un.org/en/events/motherlanguageday/background.shtml

Transferring Language

 

Ana Albir describes the development of a digital tool to help English learners in both mainstream and ESL classes

 

One of the most common arrangements for English language learners (ELLs) at schools in the U.S. is for them to take subject classes (e.g., math or science) in English, together with non-ELLs at grade level. ELLs are then pulled out of class for separate English language development (ELD) instruction. Existing software-based solutions are specific to ELD or ELA instruction and focus on targeting either foundational or linguistic requirements via computer-adaptive curricula.

Foundational and linguistic skills are essential for students. However, these challenges remain:
1/ Existing ELL tools are taught solely in a separate ELL class and receive support in a small portion of the day.
2/ Existing tools are curriculum dependent, leaving the majority of ELLs in core subject classes unsupported, to sink or swim.
3/ Existing tools do not incorporate the most recent best practices highlighted by the U.S. Department of Education, such as leveraging native-language proficiency (L1) to acquire English proficiency (L2).

These challenges directly contribute to the achievement gap affecting ELLs. In 2016, Moondrop received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) as an awardee of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to address these challenges. With this grant, it partnered with the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) and Val Verde Unified School District to research and develop the first digital language transfer tool.

The goals of the research project were:
Development: To develop a tool that would provide meaningful input in any content area by using both English and Spanish sentence frames calibrated for different cognitive and proficiency levels and by providing audio and text versions of each frame.
Research: To test the product in three schools with a mix of newcomer students, English learners level one (EL1s) and English learners level two (EL2s), representative of the most common setup, to determine whether the tool improves the speed of L2 language development. The test subjects included 65 students from kindergarten to fourth grade in the Val Verde school district.

Development
Moondrop researched and developed a web-based solution for ELL instruction for nonnative speakers using LACOE’s scaffolding tool and Drawp’s digital platform as building blocks. The solution is not tied to any set curriculum, allowing its universal use in any classroom, not just ELD. It is innovative because it is the first tool to leverage native-language literacy and the first to be curriculum independent. It is integrated into the Drawp for School platform.

Drawp for School Platform
Drawp for School is a software product that allows teachers to distribute work to students. Students can access the work from their own cloud-based accounts, add text, voice recordings, or images, and then swipe to share the work back to teachers or collaborate with other classmates. Its powerful digital work tool serves to support and enhance activities for any subject and works with any device.

The New Language Transfer Tool
Phase I innovation included digitizing the LACOE scaffolding tool and making it available via the existing platform. The resulting language transfer tool leverages not only the English-language scaffolding sentence frames that the paper tool currently includes but also native-language scaffolding that no tool currently possesses. Frames are calibrated for different cognitive and English proficiency levels (emerging, bridging, and expanding). The tool also has audio scaffolds for both English and Spanish sentence frames.

With the tool, a teacher can ask questions at the same level of cognitive difficulty for all students in a class. For example, to explain the water cycle in a science class, a teacher might target students’ memory with a cognitive level-one sentence frame.

The tool would present the emerging English version of a frame to EL1s and the bridging English version to EL2s. The sentence frame and original assignment are available in one seamless view panel. Even if teachers do not speak Spanish, they can choose to add the Spanish version of the English frame, which can be set at the same as, or higher or lower than, the English proficiency level.

The tool is powerful because it includes all the different types of scaffolding students might need in class:
1/ If students understand Spanish better than English, they can leverage the L1 scaffolds.
2/ If they have lower proficiency levels in either language, they can see versions of the sentence frame calibrated by proficiency level.
3/ If students have better listening than reading skills, they can use the audio version of the sentence frame.
4/ If they have better oral than written skills, they can speak their answers via voice recording stickers instead of writing them.
The tool meets students where they are, empowering them to 1) understand content and 2) express themselves. The tool provides the most robust set of scaffolds available today.
Research on Efficacy
The total timeline for this project was six months. We conducted entry/exit interviews for both teachers and students. Monthly observations were conducted by ELL specialists and, most importantly, by Magdalena Ruz Gonzalez, the creator of the LACOE tool and a professional dedicated to bilingual education and ELL students for more than 30 years. Qualitative data was gathered from the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey—revised (WMLS-R) in English for L2 and Spanish for L1. The WMLS-R measures both absolute ability changes (W score differences) and relative ability changes (RPI differences) and offers detailed subtests and clusters for different language areas.

Qualitative Results
Teachers used Chromebooks to access the language transfer tool. The curriculum used by the teachers was in English and was mostly drawn from Wonders, iStation, or reading/spelling passages that they sourced themselves. In other words, teachers used the language transfer tool with the curriculum that they were already successfully using in class. Most of the teachers encouraged individual work, though some had students working in groups.

The results show that the language transfer tool was successful both among teachers and among students. Among students, the tool was popular because:
1/ It was fun.
2/ It gave them confidence to speak up because they could use the voice recording stickers to express themselves.
3/ It was empowering for them to feel that they were understood.

Sample responses from students:
“It helps me talk” (second grade).
“After the sentence, you speak and the word is in your head” (second grade).
“It’s fun and cool” (third grade).
“It’s awesome” (second grade).
Teachers expressed positive comments about improvement in academic English, fluency, increase in confidence, and increase in parental engagement. After initial training, teachers were able to easily incorporate this novel tool into their existing curriculum, without the need to significantly alter or disrupt the children’s routine activities.
Teachers’ impressions of the language transfer tool after using the tool for six months:

Quantitative Results
Overall, there were increases in the W score and the RPI, which means that students improved not only in absolute terms but also relative to their peers nationwide. There were greater improvements in the easier tests (picture recognition and letter-word identification) than in the harder ones (story recall and passage comprehension). This is not surprising, as students are expected to improve basic skills before assimilating more complicated ones. Notably, students increased six points in absolute reading ability (as measured by the W difference), meaning that tasks that could be performed with a 50% chance of success can now be performed with a 65% chance of success. They also moved three percentile points above their peers (as measured by the RPI difference).

We conducted linear regression analysis for each of the seven Woodcock-Muñoz improvement areas, with the W score increase as the dependent variable and demographic variables, teacher data, tool engagement, and student preferences as independent variables.

We found that teachers were the most relevant factor, explaining from 21.5% to 32.9% of variance for the different tests. The second most relevant factor was engagement while using the language transfer tool, as measured by the number of taps. Tool engagement was most significant for three of the tests: reading, language, and passages. Importantly, we found that survey questions (e.g., Do you like the tool? Did you feel you learned with the tool?) were noisy/irrelevant, as were variables such as gender, grade, and school.
Since the language transfer tool is curriculum independent, different teachers focused on different types of assignments. The fact that tool engagement was relevant for the reading cluster, the language comprehension cluster, and passage comprehension might be explained by the fact that those are the types of assignments most teachers (notably, the most effective teachers) focused on. The tool effectively increased the impact that teachers had in the areas of language they chose to focus on.

Conclusion of Phase I Findings
The most important findings of the study were:
1/ Although students used our platform for only four months (twice a week), the language transfer tool improved students’ absolute proficiency in language comprehension, reading, and oral expression as measured by the W scale. More importantly, students improved their proficiency at a faster rate than their peers nationwide (as measured by the RPI).
2/ We found that engagement with the tool (as measured by the number of taps) was correlated with improvement in reading, language, and passages (as defined by the WMLS-R tests) in particular.
3/ The study underscored the importance of teachers in the classroom; as expected, the tool can only enhance good teaching, not replace it.

 

 

Ana Albir is the CEO and founder of Moondrop, developers of the Drawp for School collaborative education software platform.

Literacy Starts in the Library

Literacy is the foundation of everything we do for our learners. Reading is a required skill for every subject, whether it is science, English, math, or social studies. If this foundation is shaky, it can cause a student’s academic world to get much smaller very quickly.

At one point in our history, a person was considered literate if he or she could read and write. Now a literate person must read, write, speak, listen, view, access, evaluate, and ethically use information. It is a much broader spectrum that must be addressed in order for students to leave our K–12 environments ready to be fully functioning members of society. This goes beyond college and career. This is about the quality of one’s life in today’s world.

When students are starting to read, they tap into one of the very things that makes us human: stories. We tell stories, we read stories, and we learn through stories. Our minds are strategically wired for stories. For most of human history, we learned how to be successful in life by listening to stories, learning them, and retelling them to the next generation. The evolution of the oral tradition to the written tradition allowed readers a broader perspective by providing a window into people and places outside the realm of personal experiences.

Interest-Directed Learning

Young children are naturally curious, so the role of the elementary teacher is to create an environment in which they gradually release students to take ownership of their own learning. This does not mean throwing them in the deep end of the pool to see if they can swim, but it does mean educators are designing instruction that is developmentally appropriate and offers opportunities for self-directed learning.

If Johnny is fascinated by muscle cars, then let Johnny read about muscle cars, write about muscle cars, and demonstrate mastery of learning targets through that specific interest. I am not advocating for educators to stand back and let children’s learning become limited in scope—there are subjects and facts that need to be learned—but that we allow students’ individual interests to drive their learning whenever possible.

K–2 students are not reluctant readers as long as they are given the opportunity to find books that speak to them personally. Allowing even the very youngest students some autonomy in book selection leads to a much more pleasant relationship with reading and books. If you have reluctant readers, my first question is going to be if they have complete and open access to a wide variety of materials from which to select and the freedom of independent self-selection. That is the key.

 

Libraries and Personalized Learning

The school library, when professionally staffed, is the original personalized learning classroom. That is where students first discover who they are as readers. Libraries are one of the last places in the school building where a student has complete free choice over the content he or she chooses to read for pleasure. Highly qualified librarians understand that there is no such thing as “boy” books or “girl” books. They have a deep knowledge of literature for the age group they teach and can recommend books based on students’ individual interests.

The library allows students to pursue their interests without judgment. Knowing what a child likes to read is an intimate relationship. A good librarian guards that privacy and finds no greater joy than to watch a student light up with the discovery of a story that resonates in the heart.

This is also true when it comes to research. Many times, elementary teachers give their students a laundry list of possible topics, and these younger students often find it hard to decide which topic to research. The librarian can ask clarifying questions to help the student narrow down the research topic in which they are interested.

This way, not only can we help that student locate appropriate sources, but often it results in a student developing interest in a completely new topic. If he or she is engrossed in the topic, the research is not quite so painful, and may even be enjoyable.

Librarians also manage digital learning tools for research, which can help students discover their interests. The PebbleGo database, for example, provides our youngest learners with their first exposure to vetted, expertly curated articles on a variety of topics.

It is a beautiful thing when students in K–2 find articles they can read and understand. It is so much easier to teach the research process to students if they have opportunities to use that process from the very early grades. Those connections are cemented in their minds, and the journey to higher levels of research becomes that much easier.

Elementary teachers have a responsibility to create a literacy-rich environment in their classrooms in which reading is encouraged and can be engaged in freely. It is less important what students are reading at this age and more important that they are understanding and thinking critically about what they are reading.

We all know that there are books and great pieces of literature that students should probably read and know, but when we spend so much time worrying about raising test scores rather than building the love and joy of reading, we are completely defeating the purpose. Test scores will naturally rise if students enjoy what they are doing—because they will do it with joy and do it more often.

 

Susan K. S. Grigsby, EdS, is the district media specialist with Forsyth County Schools in Cumming, Georgia.

World Readiness Standards

 

With the help of a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Humanities, an eleven-member task force, representing a variety of languages, levels of instruction, program models, and geographic regions, undertook the task of defining content standards—what students should know and be able to do—in language learning.

The final document, Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century, first published in 1996, represents an unprecedented consensus among educators, business leaders, government, and the community on the definition and role of language instruction in American education.

This visionary document has been used by teachers, administrators, and curriculum developers at both state and local levels to begin to improve language education in the nation’s schools.

The National Standards for Learning Languages have been revised based on what language educators have learned from more than 15 years of implementing the standards. The guiding principle was to clarify what language learners would do to demonstrate progress on each standard.

The World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages create a roadmap to guide learners to develop competence to communicate effectively and interact with cultural understanding.

“World-readiness” signals that the standards have been revised with important changes to focus on the literacy developed and the real-world applications. Learners who add another language and culture to their preparation are not only college and career ready but are also “world ready”—that is, prepared to add the necessary knowledge, skills, and dispositions to their résumés for entering postsecondary study or a career.

The National Standards for Learning Languages have been revised based on what language educators have learned from more than 15 years of implementing the standards. The guiding principle was to clarify what language learners would do to demonstrate progress on each standard.

These revised standards include language to reflect the current educational landscape, including:

Common Core State Standards

College and career readiness

21st-century skills

These standards are equally applicable to:

  • Learners at all levels, from prekindergarten through postsecondary levels

Native speakers and heritage speakers, including ESL students

American Sign Language

Classical languages (Latin and Greek)

The 2011 report “A Decade of Foreign Language Standards: Impact, Influence, and Future Directions” provided evidence of and support for the following concepts, which influenced these revisions:

The National Standards are influencing language learning from elementary through secondary to postsecondary levels.

The integrated nature of the five “C” goal areas has been accepted by the profession.

Educators asked for more description of what language learners should know and be able to do in the goal areas of connections and communities.

Over 40 states have used the five “C” goal areas to create state standards for learning languages (identifiable even if configured in slightly different ways).

Some state documents are beginning to describe cultural outcomes in terms of processes of observation and experience.

Many local curricula are also aligned with the five “C” goal areas and the details of the eleven standards.

Based on this consensus from all levels of language educators, the five goal areas and the eleven standards have been maintained. The World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages clarify and better illustrate each goal area and standard in order to guide implementation and influence assessment, curriculum, and instruction.

Responses to the online feedback survey gave overwhelming support to the proposed revisions:

93.4% of respondents said the “refreshed” standards describe appropriate (39.1%) or very appropriate (54.3%) expectations for language learners.

94.9% of respondents said the “refreshed” standards provide equally clear (10.9%), somewhat clearer (26.8%), or much clearer (57.2%) direction for language educators and learners.

In response to additional suggestions from the feedback and comments received, specific descriptions of performance at each level (novice, intermediate, advanced, and superior), sample indicators of progress, and sample learning scenarios will be the next areas addressed in this revision process.

For more information, visit https://www.actfl.org/publications/all/world-readiness-standards-learning-languages.

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LanguageMagazine 2023

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