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Acoma Pueblo Launches Project to Save Language

The Welcome sign of Acoma Pueblo, Sky City in New Mexico
The Welcome sign of Acoma Pueblo, Sky City in New Mexico

Nearly two dozen of the approximately 100 last remaining speakers of the Acoma Keres language have answered the call for a new project designed to restore the language for generations to come.

Last month, they came together to record their voices for the Acoma Dictionary Workshop at the Acoma Learning Center in Sky City, New Mexico. Participants received a daily stipend of $100, plus lunch and transportation.

It was the first phase of a multi-year Acoma Language Recovery Plan, organized by the Pueblo of Acoma Department of Education, in partnership with The Language Conservancy, leaders in the fight to revitalize Native American languages.

“Acoma retains a rich and vibrant culture dating back more than 1200 years,” said Stanley Holder, executive director of the Department of Education. “But the tribal membership realized we were rapidly losing the language. We had to take a more systematic approach to language preservation and revitalization, which The Language Conservancy provides.”

Beyond the dictionary, the Language Recovery Plan aims to develop curriculum, instruction, electronic media, and certification of educators to teach the language in area schools at all grades.

The Pueblo of Acoma Department of Education was established in 2007 by the Acoma Tribal Council to develop quality educational services for the people of Acoma Pueblo.

The Language Conservancy is a nonprofit organization leading the revitalization of Native American languages by developing leading-edge programs and materials (from dictionaries to mobile apps) in partnership with tribes, and by advocating for endangered languages.

Boom Predicted for Cloud-based Language Learning

According to a new report by Transparency Market Solutions the value of the cloud-based language learning market will grow from $146.3m in 2016 to $427.5m by 2025, with much of the demand for virtual learning coming from North America, which accounted for 50% of revenue in 2016.

Languages considered in the scope of study were English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Italian, and Russian.

The report says that the corporate market currently accounts for 50% of demand but the “education segment” of learner is expected to grow at a faster pace to 2025

“The leading position of North America in the market is primarily attributable to the vast spending on English language learning courses by foreign students enrolled in higher education institutions in the region,” it notes.

English will lead future demand, “as the language increasingly becomes the preferred language of communication in the fields of academics and businesses across the globe”, adds the report.

And the Asia-Pacific will see most new growth in business by region, it predicts: “Governments in [India, China, and Japan] and other countries in the region have mandated language learning initiatives in school systems, which is also expected to drive the market.”

 

Kids & Teens, Help Others this Summer & Get $500

Disney is Supporting Hundreds of Youth-Led Service Projects with $500 Grants
Youth Service America (YSA) and The Walt Disney Company are encouraging kids and families to make a positive impact in their communities through the Disney Summer of Service campaign. Youth can use fun summer activities—like reading, sports, arts, and being outdoors—in a movement to make the world healthier, greener, and stronger.  Kids who volunteer—with their friends or family, or on their own—can apply for a $500 Disney Be Inspired Summer of Service grant to create a project or expand an existing project throughout the rest of the year.

Youth, ages 5–18, in the U.S. can visit YSA.org/BeInspired to tell their volunteer story, get inspiration and planning resources, and apply for a Disney Be Inspired Summer of Service grant. 250 youth-led service projects will be selected to receive a $500 grant that will be awarded to each sponsoring organization in support of that project. Applications will be accepted through September 30, 2017 and select grantees may have a chance to be recognized by the Disney|ABC Television Group or their local ABC affiliate.

Additionally, Disney is providing 26 organizations with grants to create or expand volunteer opportunities for youth during the summer months.

“Children and youth possess unique perspectives, creativity, energy, and idealism,” said Steven A. Culbertson, President and CEO of YSA.  “The Disney Summer of Service campaign harnesses these strengths and invests in young people as they change the world, one project at a time.”

Examples of 2016 grant-awarded projects include:

  • Splish Splash, led by a 13-year-old in Clayton, Missouri, engages experienced youth swimmers to teach swimming to and form friendships with kids with autism.
  • Hack Night, created by a 17-year-old in New York, is an initiative to introduce middle and high school students in underprivileged communities to the computer science industry through panels, workshops, and demos of software development projects.
  • Peace, Love, and Chess, organized by a 12-year-old in Sturgis, South Dakota, aims to build a supportive learning community based on love of chess, composed of students who might not normally know each other or socialize together.
  • Make Good Decisions Soccer Game, an effort of a 16-year-old and his teammates from Carmel, Indiana, uses soccer to raise awareness about the dangers of underage drinking.

 

Read to Ace the SAT, New Test Taking Tips

Jeff McQuillan shares evidence to show that reading, not cramming, is the key to improving college entrance exams, including the SAT. 

A recent article in the New York Times (Hernandez, 2017) recommended that students from low-income backgrounds prepare for the SAT (Scholastic Achievement Test) “like a rich kid” by spending hundreds of hours studying test prep books, visiting tutors, and taking online cram courses.

This is very poor advice, whether one is rich or not.

Most studies find that test preparation for the SAT produces very small effects on average—a few dozen points, at best. Claims that one can boost one’s score by hundreds of points have never been confirmed in experimental studies.

Becker (1990), for example, analyzed several dozen studies and found that the average point gain in carefully controlled studies was somewhere between nine and 20 points. These are tiny gains that are of no practical importance in college admission decisions. Other reviews have come to similar conclusions (see a brief summary in Liu (2014)). In addition to being useless, SAT test prep can also be very expensive. The prices for two well-known test prep courses as of April 2017 were $1,599 (Kaplan) and $1,099 (Princeton Review). Private tutoring would easily cost much more.

A much better strategy for students, one that costs $0.00, is the following:

Go to the public or school library.

Check out books on topics you are interested in and enjoy.

Read those books for as many hours a day as you can.

Unlike test prep courses, extensive self-selected (pleasure) reading is associated with higher literacy levels and higher test scores (Acheson, Wells, and MacDonald, 2008). Both correlational and experimental studies have found that reading improves not only vocabulary and reading

comprehension but also writing, spelling, grammar, and knowledge of the world (Krashen, 2004)—all things that will have a significant impact on SAT scores.

What is more, the newly revised SAT is even more reading-dependent than the previous versions, making a strategy of voluminous reading a better option than ever.

Instead of spending four hours a day, five days a week in a ten-week summer test prep program, high school students would be better advised to dedicate that time to reading.* Such a plan would allow students to read about 2.5 million words, which is probably enough to raise even a good high school reader’s vocabulary by 1,000 words or more (Nation, 2014; McQuillan, 2016).

For struggling adolescent readers, including those from low-income families without the benefits typically provided to “rich kids,” the impact would likely be even more dramatic.

Our advice to students should be simple: read more, prep less.

*If you really want to spend $1,000 on test prep for your children, I suggest buying them a hundred $10 paperbacks. After they finish reading them, donate the books to a public or school library in a low-income neighborhood. Now you have helped your children and hundreds of other kids as well.

Note: It is not surprising that states that have the best school and public library systems also tend to have the better SAT scores, controlling for other types of school spending (McQuillan, 1996).

References

Acheson, D., Wells, J., and MacDonald, M. (2008). “New and Updated Tests of Print Exposure and Reading Abilities in College Students.” Behavioral Research Methods 40(1): 278–289.

Becker, B.J. (1990). “Coaching for the Scholastic Aptitude Test: Further Synthesis and Appraisal.” Review of Educational Research 60(3), 373–417.

Hernandez, D. (2017, April 10). “How I Learned to Take the SAT Like a Rich Kid.” New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com.

Krashen, S. (2004). The Power of Reading (2nd ed). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Liu, O. L. (2014). “Investigating the Relationship between Test Preparation and TOEFL iBT®Performance.” ETS Research Report Series, 2014(2), 1–13.

McQuillan, J. (1996). “SAT Verbal Scores and the Library: Predicting High School Reading Achievement in the United States.” Indiana Media Journal 18(3): 66–70.

McQuillan (2016). “What Can Readers Read after Graded Readers?” Reading in a Foreign Language 28(1): 63–78.

Nation, I. S. P. (2014). “How Much Input Do You Need to Learn the Most Frequent 9,000 Words?” Reading in a Foreign Language 26(2): 1–16.

Dr. Jeff McQuillan is a senior researcher at the Center for Educational Development and the producer of ESLPod.com. He is a recognized expert and leading researcher in English language learning and teaching. He received his PhD in applied linguistics and education from the University of Southern California and was a university professor for many years. His work has appeared in media worldwide, including CNN, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Deutschlandfunk Radio, El Pais, China Post, Macworld, Diario Financiero, and Universia.

Chile

Valle de la Muerte with Volcan Licancabur in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile, at sunset.

Covering 4,300 km (2,700 miles) of the western coast of South America, Chile is situated between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. From the Atacama Desert to Cape Horn, Chile has a diverse range of climates and geographies making it the perfect place for the adventurous traveler. With rolling farmland, lush vineyards, world-class ski resorts, sandy white beaches, and a fertile river valley, there is much to explore.

The country was colonized by Spain in the 16th century, so many of Chile’s people are mestizos, or descendants from the marriages between Spanish settlers and indigenous groups, such as the Aymara and the Mapuche. Chile also received many immigrants from other European countries. Spanish has remained the official language while some native languages are still spoken. Although it is only just celebrating 20 years of democracy, it has a thriving economy.

The philosophy of Escuela de Idiomas Violeta Parra – Tandem Santiago is to teach languages by bringing people together instead of using technology. The school implements this philosophy by providing opportunities for Spanish students to meet Chileans in order for the students to practice their Spanish by speaking directly to people who speak the language. In addition to the language courses, the school also offers special eco-tourism weekend trips and daytrips.

As a member of the Tandem International Network, which ensures quality standards, the school uses the Tandem Language Method, where students have a set amount of time for language exchange in groups and on an individual basis.

For further info visit www.tandemsantiago.cl

Chile offers the experience of learning Spanish while enjoying fresh powder skiing one day, wine tasting another, and a golden beach the next.  Santiago de Chile, located in the central valley of the country, is a cultural, commercial, industrial, and political epicenter. Credited as both cultural and modern, Santiago boasts both tourist attractions and adventure sports. COINED Spanish school is located in a beautiful 1925 building recognized as a national monument. The Spanish school has 12 spacious classrooms, a video room, internet, a cafeteria and terrace with a wonderful view of the city center. Students can combine their program with salsa lessons, cultural activities, ski lessons in winter and a number of extra activities organized by the school every week.

For further info, visit www.coined-chile.org

The Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaíso The Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (PUCV) offers more than one hundred undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs to over 14,000 students. The university offers a variety of programs including a full semester/year program with Spanish as a second language courses (focused on conversation, grammar, composition and phonetics), sports and extracurricular activities. Open Spanish programs of four to five weeks are offered three times a year and include 90 classroom hours in three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Typical courses include Spanish, lectures on Chilean/Latin American culture, electives such as literature and history, city tours and handcraft workshops. The school also offers a contemporary Latin American studies certificate for international students interested in studying the diverse aspects of the contemporary (19th and 20th century) Latin American reality from a multidisciplinary perspective. The curriculum includes courses in literature, history, sociology, geography, economics, journalism and communication. The program lasts one semester and is taught in Spanish.

Students of ECELA who study in Santiago — or any of the five ECELA schools spread throughout Argentina, Chile, and Peru — discover the local culture and accent in classes led by credentialed, native Spanish-speaking instructors. A world of opportunities exists outside of the small classroom environment, and ECELA-led excursions take students everywhere: from the mountains to the shores, to the dance floors, the vineyards, and the futbol stadiums to immerse students in the language and the vibrant cultures of Latin America. Students are also encouraged to study at the different ECELA school locations to gain a more complete South American perspective.

ViaSpanish School, located in the Bellavista district of Santiago, has a Spanish-only policy on school grounds. All classes are held in Spanish and only Spanish is spoken during the entire class. This policy encourages all students, even beginners, to start practicing their skills actively from day one.

Students have a choice of group or individual courses. Class sizes are kept to a maximum of six students. For those students who want to make the most out of their time in Santiago, the school offers combined courses, consisting of group classes in the morning and individual classes in the afternoon. In addition, free weekly extracurricular activities are offered to all students.

In Santiago’s Las Condes area, with its architecturally fascinating skyscrapers, is Woodward Chile, which is conveniently located near most of the foreign embassies. The school allows students the flexibility of choosing their own class schedule, which is great for diplomats and businessmen with erratic schedules. Classes are limited to six students.

Enele 2017: International Encounter for Continuing Professional Development for Spanish Teachers

From July 10-14, Enele 2017, the third edition of the International Encounter for Continuing Professional Development of Spanish Teachers, will take place at the Modern Language Center of the University of Cadiz, Spain. Organized by Language and Cultural Encounters (LCE), Enele gives teachers of Spanish (and of other languages) the opportunity to reflect on the teaching and learning of foreign languages, to share teaching experiences and to learn about new tendencies, tools and materials.
Enele is a project created and coordinated by professor Jane Arnold of the University of Seville and academic director of Language and Cultural Encounters. It is designed to provide language teachers with the opportunity to meet and reflect on diverse professional issues with other teachers from around the world, as well as to further develop their skills working with important current proposals for language teaching. In Dr. Arnold’s words, Enele offers “a perfect occasion to unite the useful and the enjoyable”. On the one hand, it presents a program that has been prepared “with great care to contribute to professional development of teachers”. On the other hand, “there is nothing better than sharing experiences with teachers from around the world in such a pleasant setting as that offered by the city of Cadiz with its beautiful coastline”.
This is the third Encounter organized by LCE. Last year 50 teachers came to Cadiz from 15 countries, including Austria, UK, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, U.S., Argentina, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Algeria, Morocco, and Russia. At the two previous events, according to Arnold, there were “real learning communities created, with participants sharing their ideas and greatly enriching the experience of the group”, a group which was formed not only by teachers of Spanish but also of other languages.
Enele 2017 has as its slogan CREAR, JUGAR, EMOCIONAR: Explorando nuevos caminos en la enseñanza de ELE (CREATE, PLAY, EXCITE. Exploring new paths in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language). The speakers, who will give a plenary, three training modules and three workshops, are well-known experts, with extensive experience in teacher training. They want to share new options for educational practice involving active learning and more participation by the students in the construction of their knowledge of the language and the culture which they are studying. They will provide ways to stimulate learners’ curiosity and to create an atmosphere in the classroom where learners want to learn, where they are engaged. Engagement will be stressed in the presentations; it is an important element in teaching since as Fredericks, Blumenfeld and Paris (2004:60) explain, it “draws on the idea of participation; it includes involvement in academic and social or extracurricular activities and is considered crucial for achieving positive academic outcomes ”.

Critical reflection about teaching, exchange of experiences, innovative methodology and many resources and tools for the classroom
Enele 2017 provides an opportunity to learn about new ideas which can enrich our daily work in the classroom and to enjoy “moments for sharing”, where speakers and participants create a learning community and exchange ideas.
The main objectives of this international encounter are to reflect about current teaching resources for our classrooms, including gamification, which can stimulate our students’ curiosity and interest; to learn about the contributions of the neurosciences to teaching; to examine creative ways to present aspects of the language, such as grammar, for more effective learning; to see how to best take advantage of our materials; to deal with the group dynamics in order to bring about more active participation of the students in communicative activities; to develop the ability to create motivating activities which successfully involve students in learning the language ; and to generate a community of learning in the encounter where participants share experiences and good practices.
In Enele 2017 a dynamic methodology based on reflection, participation, and collaboration among the participants will be used, always keeping in mind the realities of the language classroom.
Working together, speakers and participants critically analyze teaching practice and explore
strategies which support continued professional development, defining objectives and steps needed to reach them. In the theoretical/practical classes of the encounter the assimilation of the contents of the modules and workshops will be facilitated in an entertaining and productive manner.
Academic Program
Enele 2017 places emphasis on the importance of attention to affective factors in language learning since as Arnold (2011:11) summarizes, in any language teaching eontext “attention to affect will make our teaching more effective”. The modules and workshops will offer suggestions for stimulating students’ creativity, for creating useful classroom materials and for exploring ways to interest and motivate our students.
The encounter includes a plenary presented by the professor and neuroscientist Dr. Francisco Mora Teruel: ¿Qué nos dice la Neuroeducación sobre el papel del cerebro y la emoción en la enseñanza de ELE? (What does Neuroeducation tell us about the role of the brain and emotion in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language?). Dr. Mora will explore ways to improve what happens in the classroom through the study of the brain, its processes and by taking into account the central role of emotions in the process of learning.
Enele 2017 also has three modules which deal in depth with diverse issues, from effective teaching materials to communicative processes in the classroom, creative writing and many more things. The speakers are Neus Sans: ¿De dónde venimos, dónde estamos y adónde vamos? Criterios para el diseño y la selección de materiales didácticos para la clase de ELE (Where do we come from, where are we and where are we going? Criteria for designing and choosing teaching materials for the Spanish class), Miguel Ángel García Argüez: Hacia una pedagogía de la creatividad. Los “juegos de escritura” en la enseñanza de ELE (Towards a creative pedagogy.”Writing games” in Spanish teaching); and Concha Julián de Vega: Conectando mentes, comunicando en ELE (Connecting minds, communicating in Spanish).

There will also be three very practical workshops. Juan Manuel Real Espinosa: Cuando despertó, la Gramática todavía estaba ahí. Memorias de un dinosaurio vivo (When it woke up, grammar was still there. Memories of a living dinosaur). Antonio Orta: Mejora en los tiempos de habla a través de la curiosidad (Increasing speaking time through curiosity). Clara Cordero: La vuelta al mundo en 8 tesoros, una experiencia gamificada (Around the world in eight treasures: a gamification experience).
Cultural program
Enele 2017 is not only an encounter for continuing professional development of language teachers, it also includes “moments for sharing” where participants and speakers have the opportunity to share teaching experiences at the same time as they get to know Cadiz, a city in the south of Spain with many beautiful places by the sea and with a vibrant culture. It’s one of the oldest cities in Western Europe, with an influential history of more than 3000 years which is reflected in a multitude of lovely sites.
Cadiz is a city in a continual process of creation with its inhabitants always involved in preparing songs and costumes for its famous Carnival celebration where the Spanish language is a tool for social and political criticism through music and humor. Its history, its university, its people, its great weather, and its marvelous beaches make it the perfect setting for Enele 2017. Also, Cadiz is near to other wonderful cities worth visiting, such as, Jerez, Puerto de Santa María, Seville, Cordoba, or Málaga.
At Enele 2017 the culture and the magic of an ancient city will be explored in a unique way via guided visits to its special corners, opportunities to taste the local gastronomy, and a demonstration of its famous Carnival festival. In addition to the cultural program, LCE can help participants with other sociocultural, and recreational matters which interest them.

Enele 2017 is organized by Language and Cultural Encounters and coordinated by Jane Arnold. It takes place in the Modern Language Center of the University of Cadiz and is also supported by the following institutions: Fundación Universidad-Empresa de Cádiz, the Cadiz city council, the Ministry of Education of the Spanish Embassy in the UK and Ireland, Difusión publishing house, CLIC-International House Cádiz, FEDELE (Association of Spanish language schools), ACEIA (Association of language teaching centers in Andalusia), ELE Lovaina, Educación 3.0, Cadiz centro Student Residence.
References
Arnold, J. (2011). “Attention to affect in language learning”. Anglistik. International Journal of
English Studies 22 (1):11-22.
Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., and Paris, A. H. (2004). “School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence”. Review of Educational Research 74 (1): 59-109.

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Canadian MP Honors Indigenous Natives, Gives Speech in Mohawk

Marc Miller, a Quebec member of parliament, addressed the House of Commons in Kanien’kéha, the language of the Mohawk tribe. This marks the first time the indigenous language has been used officially in the House since it was established in 1867. The speech coincides with Canada’s National Aboriginal month, which is being celebrated this June.

Miller, a non-indigenous 44 year old politician from Quebec has been studying Mohawk since January from a language program run by Brian Maracle and Zoe Hopkins of the Six Nations of the Grand River.

“I stand here to honor the Mohawk language and I pay my respects to their people. Hopefully it will help to us to become better friends,” Marc Miller said, and added,

“I also hope that we will hear the Mohawk language a lot more often here and that more Canadians will be proud to use it to speak to one another.”

Miller, who is bilingual in English and French, told The Guardian that he was inspired to learn the language when he saw English speaking colleagues trying to learn French. He was also pushed to set an example due to the state of Canada’s indigenous languages.

While Canada’s government has promised to spend about $90 million Canadian to support indigenous languages and cultures, the country still struggles to keep its 60 or so indigenous languages thriving.

Watch the speech below.

The National Aboriginal History month began in 2009, and aims to highlight the contributions of indigenous peoples to Canada.

Indian Bilinguals Humanizing Virtual Assistants

To improve the functionality of Cortana, its voice-powered virtual assistant, Microsoft is turning to bilinguals. Of specific interest is the practice of code switching—when speakers switch back and forth between multiple languages in a single sentence or conversation.
Project Mélange, run by Microsoft researchers in India, is studying the use of code switching among Indians online. They are trying to figure out how virtual assistants might be taught to respond to a user switching between, for example, English and Hindi in a conversation.
“Compartmentalization of mixed languages (by multilinguals) have gone away with each coming generation,” Kalika Bali, a researcher at Microsoft, said in an interview. “So younger people use mixed languages in more and more phases of their lives.”
“To have a digital assistant, something like Cortana, you have to be able to understand [the user base],” she said, adding current systems were not trained to pick up multiple languages in a single conversation.
Bali said the researchers’ code-switching study was inspired by observations from an anthropologist who was looking at the use of technology among Urdu-speaking youth in the poor areas of Hyderabad in southern India. They were found using the internet to befriend and interact with girls from Brazil, who primarily spoke Portuguese. However, English was the primary language for that communication, which interested Bali.
“When I started seeing this data, I saw that not only were they using this very pidgin English kind of thing, but [they were] effectively communicating with each other,” Bali said.
The team looks at every aspect of code mixing, including text, speech, understanding, and recognition. Bali said they also look at generational variations and why people switch between languages in a single conversation—for example, sometimes it is for humor and at other times it is to change topics.
It will take years before a virtual assistant can eloquently switch back and forth in multiple languages, but the biggest challenge now is getting access to adequate data sets for study.
Currently, the team uses data collected from Twitter to study how users switch between languages. Studies, Bali said, have already shown Indian men who spoke English and Hindi tended to switch to the latter when they had to express negative sentiments or abuse. Women who were having conversations in English, however, tended to stick with that language even when the content took a negative turn.
Teaching machines to interpret code switching could also potentially lead to developments in areas of opinion mining, customization, and a better interpretation of nuances and context, Bali said.

Teaching Tools

To coincide with this month’s annual conference of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), here is a selection of some of the most relevant and innovative tech teaching tools

Achieve3000’s

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Access solutions (for grades 2–12) provide differentiated instruction for ELLs at every stage, from beginner to advanced. Along with a curriculum aligned to each state’s grade-level standards for language arts, science, and social studies, Access incorporates state ELD standards and helps to provide all learners equity of access by bridging the gaps in vocabulary, content, English language development, and reading and writing skills.

Features:

  • The same grade-appropriate lessons are differentiated at twelve levels in English and eight in Spanish
  • Custom state-aligned curriculum improves language and literacy skills and builds content-area vocabulary and knowledge
  • Built-in supports, such as Spanish-language rollover text, a dual-language dictionary, and speech-to-text build critical speaking and listening skills
  • Custom ELA Challenge courses prepare students for high-stakes assessments
  • Custom read-aloud course furthers English language development, foundational skills, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension
  • Sentence and paragraph frames help kick-start the writing process and encourage evidence-based writing
  • Anywhere, anytime, any-device access empowers 24/7 learning online or offline
  • Exclusive skill progression provides targeted instruction based on identified skill gaps
  • Point-of-use resources for educators, including data-rich reports about students and teacher materials, reduce planning time
  • Flexibility to work with any blended learning model extends teachers’ reach and increases students’ time on task

PebbleGo from Capstone introduces K–2 learners to the foundational skills of research, reading informational text, and consulting credible sources. Designed specifically for these young students, PebbleGo offers curriculum-connected articles on a variety of topics including animals, science, social studies, biographies, and dinosaurs. Each article is expertly leveled and includes text highlighting and spoken-word audio support recorded by professional voice-over artists to help prereaders and beginning readers master essential content knowledge.
With more than 100 million article views annually, PebbleGo is helping K–2 students in thousands of schools across the country become engaged and independent researchers.
Texthelp creates smart, user-friendly literacy and learning solutions that provide the support each student needs, through reading, writing, math, and research features.
Their award-winning suite of products is headed by Read&Write—the flagship software that helps students create and access content across all grade levels and subjects. Intuitive and easy to use independently, Read&Write makes documents and web pages accessible with text-to-speech, word prediction, text/picture dictionaries, and voice notes. Read&Write is complemented by other acclaimed learning solutions: Fluency Tutor for Google is the app that makes reading aloud more fun and satisfying for students who need extra support, plus it is perfect for time-stretched teachers. EquatIO is the new Chrome extension that makes math digital. It lets users type, handwrite, or dictate equations, formulas, and more directly onto a computer or Chromebook. WriQ is the new assessment tool that measures students’ writing attainment level. It is a fast-emerging standard to quantify and improve students’ writing progress.

FreshGrade is a K–12 portfolio and assessment platform that makes learning visible and increases engagement between teachers, students, and parents.
Using the FreshGrade suite of apps, stakeholders have secure access to view specific artifacts representative of a student’s learning, comment on them, or upload them to that student’s portfolio. By providing teachers with a deeper understanding of a student’s learning, they keep them better informed to make the appropriate strategic choices on learning instruction as they relate to that child. While parents are given ongoing communication about learning, students are given the opportunity to self-reflect on their growth. FreshGrade for Schools and Districts solution provides leaders with the ability to track progress toward strategic initiatives, ensures the privacy of student data, and offers services and support to help achieve goals.

HearBuilder Online is a research- and evidence-based e-learning software program that provides systematic and multileveled instruction in all general and special education classrooms (Pre-K–8). Designed to supplement elementary language arts skills essential to classroom success, each title features multilevel activities complete with progress monitoring and reporting. Educators and administrators can track student, group, school-, and district-wide progress. Students can access HearBuilder in the classroom, in the computer lab, or from home on any computer, tablet, or device with an internet connection.
HearBuilder Online is appropriate for use as a response to intervention or instructional program for students performing below grade-level, English language learners (ELLs), and Title 1 Schools. The program provides individualized instruction in early learning and foundational literacy skills through four award-winning software titles:
HearBuilder Following Directions (Grades Pre-K–3): This title teaches 40 basic concepts and targets the following types of directions: basic, sequential, conditional, spatial, quantitative, temporal.
HearBuilder Phonological Awareness (Grades Pre-K–5): This title targets nine phonological awareness skills that are important for listening and reading.
HearBuilder Auditory Memory (Grades K–8): This title teaches students strategies to remember numbers, words, details, and WH information.
HearBuilder Sequencing (Grades K–6): Students practice skills such as reading left to right, understanding details, making predictions, putting steps of an event/story into a logical order, and targeting two- to six-step sequences.

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Soundtrap is an easy-to-use and collaborative online recording studio that enables students at all grade levels, regardless of experience, skill level, or special needs, to create polished audio projects. Working with Soundtrap helps students develop true 21st-century skills, including the four cs—critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity—as they work together with peers to safely and securely produce unique podcasts and music creations in a COPPA- and FERPA-compliant environment. It also serves as a personalized aid for students who are uneasy with reading or oral presentations or whose skills in these areas need additional development, as they can start using Soundtrap in the classroom and continue practicing at home. This flexible software currently has 1.4 million users worldwide and is implemented by 300 new schools each week. It works with all major operating systems and devices—Microsoft, Apple, and Android—and integrates across learning management systems—Google Classroom, G Suite for Education, Schoology, Canvas, and more—making it an option for any school. Soundtrap has applications for language and literacy teachers, as the use of recorded audio as an aid in language acquisition, including for English language learners, has shown strong promise. Importantly, it can help schools counter budget- or expertise-related cuts to the arts by providing another avenue for music and art education.

StudySync, a comprehensive blended ELA/ELL program for grades 6–12, recently launched a new podcast feature. The first podcast series, titled School of Thought, explores students’ views on 21st-century learning while helping students improve important listening and critical-thinking skills.
The School of Thought podcast series will feature six episodes, each four to six minutes in length, covering the following topics:

  • How schools should be designed
  • The importance of homework
  • What subjects should be taughtHow to improve school lunch
  • How school schedules should be structured
  • The importance of extracurricular activities

Each episode features interviews with students from across the U.S. and also includes opinions from teachers, experts, and innovators in education. The podcasts will be weekly additions to StudySync’s daily Blasts, which are short reading and writing assignments that allow students to express their opinions on high-interest topics, sparking debate via a mediated online social network. Students will be able to draw upon the additional podcast audio content as they craft written responses to the Blasts, as well as engage in thoughtful discussions on the various topics covered.

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Fusfoo is a no-cost website that allows high schools to get all their media, from the school newspaper to the school television station, onto a single platform. Fusfoo gives high schools safe, bully-free space for students’ videos and articles to be created, curated, and shared, on a fully supported digital network using the latest technology—with 24/7 tech support. Participating high schools will become part of Fusfoo’s national high school network, where they can view and repost aspirational, inspirational, and educational content created by high school students across the country.

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Level Up Village (LUV) delivers pioneering Global STEAM (STEM + arts) enrichment courses that promote design thinking and one-to-one collaboration on real-world problems between students from around the world. The company’s roster of 18+ global STEAM courses includes Global Inventors (CAD, 3D printing and the engineering design process), Global Scientists (water chemistry and the global water crisis), and Global Storybook Engineers (engineering and literacy for younger children).
Students are paired with Global Partner students taking the same courses at one of LUV’s fully vetted and trained Global Partner organizations across Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. They interact with their Global Partners via LUV’s Global Communication Platform by exchanging video messages, collaborating on shared project files, and creating personal profiles. In these ways, students not only work together on projects, but also discuss the real-life application of their learning and learn about each other’s daily lives and cultures.

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Rethink Ed combines the power of technology and research to deliver innovative, scalable, and evidence-based instructional materials and supports for learners with disabilities. The comprehensive suite of tools helps students develop the academic, behavioral, and social/emotional skills they need to succeed in school, at work, and in life. Included are a comprehensive video-based curriculum, on-demand professional development, best practices for behavior intervention, and a customizable data management system.
The program empowers educators to deliver individualized instruction, develop effective learning and behavior intervention plans, make data-based decisions on student programming, and easily track student performance while providing defensible documentation of IEP progress. It also benefits families and caregivers by facilitating greater communication between home and school, delivering resources to extend learning beyond the classroom, and providing data-driven evidence of student programs and progress.

BASE Education is the new spin on social-emotional learning that is changing the face of mental health in schools. Through an online portal, students receive psychoeducation combined with therapeutic guidance. They internalize facts as they apply them to their own behaviors. Adults have insight and up-to-the-minute progress monitoring of all student responses. Through email, adults are notified of harmful language for evaluation purposes. We all have our gifts with our students. We all have our struggles with time and content. BASE is here to help. A tool for prevention and intervention, BASE provides a deeper lens into the student experience. BASE connects teens to adults and is making the changes necessary to meet our kids where they are today.

Brain Hive is a classroom solution for leveled paperbacks and highly engaging e-books for K–12 students. Brain Hive offers over 17,000 e-books from leading educational publishers on a robust and innovative digital platform. All e-books are multiuser simultaneous access, which allows students to work freely from school or home on assignments with no waiting time. Users can download free Brain Hive apps for their Apple or Chrome devices to read offline. Teachers can reinforce digital literacy and online test-taking strategies with digital tools included in Brain Hive’s e-reader and can easily integrate technology into the classroom daily with assignment creation, interactive graphic organizers, and tracking tools.

Image result for quizletQuizlet makes simple tools that help students practice and master what they are learning through fun and engaging activities and games. Originally created by a high school sophomore to help himself study, today the app is used by more than 20 million learners each month, including one in three U.S. high school students. In addition to providing flashcard, spelling, and self-test applications, it also offers Quizlet Live, an in-classroom game that is used by more than 1 million students each week. With Quizlet Live, students collaborate and compete to answer questions for their teams, racing against other classmates and building hard and soft skills at the same time.
With more than 150 million study sets , it is easy for teachers to search for existing content to use with their students or to create their own. Teachers can also create classes to easily share materials with students, track their progress, and see areas that need extra focus. Quizlet is free to use and is available on the web, iOS, and Android.

Mother Language Dictates Reading Strategy

Research Offers Insight to the Way ELLs Learn to Read
The way bilingual people read is conditioned by the languages they speak, according to researchers at Spain’s Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language (BCBL), who found that the languages spoken by bilingual people (when they learned to read in two languages at the same time) affect their reading strategies and even the cognitive foundations that form the basis for the capacity to read.
“Monolingual speakers of transparent [phonetic] languages—where letters are pronounced the same independently of the word they are included in, such as Basque or Spanish—have a greater tendency to use analytical reading strategies, where they read words in parts,” according to Marie Lallier, one of the authors of the article, “Cross-Linguistic Transfer in Bilinguals Reading in Two Alphabetic Orthographies: The grain size accommodation hypothesis,” published in the Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.
On the other hand, speakers of opaque languages, where the sounds of letters differ depending on the word (for example English or French) are more likely to use a global reading strategy. In other words, they tend to read whole words to understand their meaning.
Researchers also observed that bilingual people who learned to read two languages at the same time do not read the same way as monolingual speakers; rather, they follow a different pattern which had not previously been described—a contamination effect takes place between the two reading strategies in speakers of two languages. Therefore, a person learning to read in Spanish and in English will have a greater tendency toward a global strategy, even when reading in Spanish, than a monolingual Spanish speaker.
When reading in English, by contrast, they will tend toward a more analytical strategy (reading by parts) than monolingual English speakers, due to “contagion” from Spanish. “The brains of bilingual people adjust themselves in accordance with what they learn, applying the strategies needed to read in one language to their reading in the other language,” Lallier adds. This discovery could have implications for teachers of Spanish-speaking English language learners.
As well as offering a better understanding of how bilingual populations learn to read and what types of strategies are most advisable to help pupils learn based on the languages they know, the discovery could also help in the diagnosis and assessment of dyslexia and other problems with reading.
The languages a child knows are therefore determinants for identifying potential disorders, as this essential information would explain certain mistakes made when reading. “Our experience with languages modulates our capacity to read. This should be taken into account when teaching bilingual children to read and if any reading problems, such as dyslexia, should appear. We need to establish specific scales for the diagnosis of dyslexia in bilingual people, because their circumstances are different,” the expert concludes.
Lallier, M., Carreiras, M. “Cross-Linguistic Transfer in Bilinguals Reading in Two Alphabetic Orthographies: The grain size accommodation hypothesis.” Psychon Bull Rev 2017 Apr 12. doi: 10.3758/s13423-017-1273-0.

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