Meeting 11 • 8 May 2012 • Tuesday

Version:
5/10/12

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:

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)

Handout includes:

0011c-6 & -7: Principles / Characteristics of Effective Foreign Language Instruction; 0319, "On the Background and Motivation of Students in a Beginning Spanish Language Program", pp. 535, 541

ACTFL Webinars of interest to us, including May 9, "Integrating 21st Century Skills into Language Assessment"

(5') Warmup with 0011c-6 & 7 (see above): a) How do these principles / characteristics map onto CBI? b) How much easier would our job be if we did the opposite of the "Characteristics"? See also #0181, checklist for daily progress.

(35+') Discussion of projects - hope people have brought something to the table. In any case, we need to look at the calendar and semi-formally set some deadlines.

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

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

+

(30+') Special topic: learner motivations, styles, strategies - see readings suggested in outline of previous meeting (#10); also today's handout from 0319, and the WLL Assessment Committee's upcoming culture survey

Focus topic: What happens when we give them what they say they want? Reflections on student course evaluations.

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(10') The modest proposal for an immodest culminating event of a subversive nature: progress report about possible attendees. If time: What would we want to accomplish with our target audience?

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(5') If time: more about grants - COFLT Mini-grants; little/medium grants that might support the Humboldt Project

If time: 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) (#12 10 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: assessment

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.

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!

grant info: ••PSU grants; ••small-/medium-scale external grants & a sample application; ••large-scale external grants & a sample application; ••conference ideas & sample proposals

••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?

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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