Meeting 09 •1 May 2012 • Tuesday

Version:
5/3/12

People (√ = present; strikeout = absent; e+strikeout = excused absence): √Fischer; √Chapman; √Choate; √Couture; √Hinsinger; √Hunter; √Idrissi; √Looney; √Moore

Today

(X') = anticipated time in minutes (to total 100 minutes + 10-minute break)
(0001) etc.=item in document collection (will be explained in class)
Key to notes added AFTER the class meets:
√ = topic / activity that was adequately dealt with during the class
+ = topic was begun but needs more attention & will be resumed at next / subsequent meeting(s)
- = a topic / activity that was proposed but not carried out - will be taken up later
Struckthrough text like this = a topic / activity that was proposed but is not going to be taken up after all
Italic green text like this = comments after the meeting

Week 5: More about more projects; team-based learning and other CBI-related practices; maybe: grants; assessments

materials:
scoring guide for the course; the "Humboldt Project", the Humboldt SINQ course; my PSU 19th Century Cluster SINQ presentation about the Humboldt Project (October 2008);
examples of other courses and projects elsewhere: the "Big Book" activity for middle-schooler FLES (#0407); new efforts to teach reading better in PPS (#0796); a college course that combines third-year German with hydraulic engineering (0712)
grant info: Community of Scholars (COS soon >Pivot.cos.com) grant info service; ••PSU grants; ••small-scale external grants & a sample application; ••large-scale external grants & a sample application; ••conference ideas & sample proposals

(40+') For the next several weeks, discussion will be about your projects, for one-half or more of the time for each meeting, probably during the first hour. It will help greatly if you bring specific questions and examples from your projects. The rest of the meeting will be devoted to the CBI-related topics about which you expressed your preferences during meeting #8, and (less time) to various topics that come to my mind. As a last resort, I'll do short presentations about this or that. For the CBI-related topics (one or two a week) I'll prepare lists of recommended reading from your disk collection.

I haven't forgotten the request for videos of CBI in action.

(10') Break: Go get your coffee or your snack.

30+'Special topic: Team-Based Instruction and related group-oriented techniques / approaches. At meeting #8 the group expressed preference for these topics for further discussion, perhaps one a week: assessment; thematic units; styles, strategies, & motivation; portfolio development. So that is what we will emphasize. There was some interest in the following areas, which will receive attention as time allows: the various content areas; literature; culture; changing the curriculum; businessa; grants.

So let's talk about TBI and group stuff, as large-scale pedagogies and as things that you can use in conventional programs. For readings from your disk collection, see items 0164, 191, 192, 193, 431, and of course the articles by Levine and Scheutz/Colangelo that you read the first week of the course. General discussion of this topic can continue next meeting; we could also apply these general discussions to your project ideas; or, if the topic runs dry, I'll start a new topic or fill with little presentations.

+

(5') A modest proposal for an immodest culminating event of a subversive nature.

+

(10') If time: about grants (general - see links/ topics above, under "materials"; as illustrated by SpeakEasy and the Humboldt Project or other parts of my life).

(5') comments - sorry about the delay - about the week #1 reflective writing

-

If time: The "Humboldt Project" - could include language modules (as Project 1 or maybe 2, but probably not 3). Note the list of grant possibilities and think what you could do with grants of: $250 (COFLT) or $500-$1000 (PSU CAE).

How a CBI person could take a non-CBI activity (the weekly foreign film showing) and add a truly CBI language dimension.


Upcoming class meeting(s) (#10 03 May 2012)

1) Continue Stryker/Leaver

2) Look at the work samples for projects from earlier years.

3) See "schedule" page for links to sources of lesson plans for various subject areas.

4) Proposed next major topic of general discussion: styles, strategies, motivation (students, mostly, but maybe also teachers)

5) Start reading either 0712,"A Problem-Based Learning Approach to Integrating Foreign Language into Engineering", or 0725, "Landscapes of technology Transfer: Rice Cultivation and African Continuities". These articles will (0712) help you avoid over-estimating your learners and (0725) show you a large-scale possibility for CBI, with special relevance to minority and disadvantaged learners (see also 0082, "Discovering Science and Technology through American History".

Below here are notes for myself; read them at your peril!

••how to assess CBI activities (the projects; in general); SE course SG; Hypothesis: If the CBI activity is designed properly, and you then assess the student's performance according to how well the CONTENT was learned, that will also indicate how much LANGUAGE was learned.

••Portland Public Schools "Recommendations for the Second Language Minimum Performance Standards" (#0010a)

••Drake

I think we need a discussion about what we (ourselves, our learners) want language teaching and learning to accomplish, so that we can examine the pros and cons of CBI (and other teaching methods or tools). Example: Some people prize language courses for what they contribute to the development of students' intellectual rigor (logic, clear thinking, understanding of system, rules, principles); such people may also say: "…especially Latin" or "…but of course they can get the same things from a stiff geometry course". To what extent is that view / goal compatible with CBI? What if the students' goal is to… [name several different goals]?

Teaser: OK, we've talked about turning study of literature into CBI. Now what about that other beloved subject-area of our foreign-language programs, C/culture?

Pep talk: how proficiency-oriented teaching/learning and CBI support each other (0181 checklist for daily progress)

SPeakEasy problem: How to convey to newbies the company's "culture", expectations, and general way of operating. Importance of clear goals (and the right ones), group work, asking questions, creativity, active participation. Suggestions: intake surveys of aptitudes, experiences, personalities. Create an advisory atmosphere. Have newbies apply to departments. Linguistic issues: concept of "agency" - determining who does what (can include many grammatical & lexical features. How to convey comprehensible input (importance of authentic materials - but not sufficient in themselves).

Upcoming assignment(s)

This section offers a PREVIEW, not activated assignments. Assignments are made, with announcement of their deadlines, both in class and on the "schedule" page.

Announcements

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Misc.

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