Entry Events are the first step in my Alphabet Soup unit model, which combines Project-Based Learning (PBL), Target Language instruction (TL), Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS), Integrated Performance Asessments (IPA), ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL), and Teaching Like a Pirate (TLAP).This process gives my units a Read more…
Switching to proficiency-based evaluation, one of my biggest problems was understanding the breakdown of the different levels and what tasks are actually appropriate for each. Back in the day, I would require paragraphs on Spanish I tests because I thought that’s what rigor meant, not because students had demonstrated readiness Read more…
I assessed my students’ proficiency in interpretive reading, interpersonal speaking, and presentational writing earlier in the semester with their first Integrated Performance Assessment. I think we’re all feeling pretty good about their reading about now (although some need a little work on their portfolio evidence still), so I’m switching out Read more…
My students are trying to inspire eight-year-olds to read in Spanish, and I’m trying to help my students increase their target language proficiency at the same time. So early in the unit, I wanted to set up a sort of IPA pre-test to establish where they are just starting the semester, so Read more…
I think tests are stupid. A test can’t tell you how well I do my job or live my life–or anything you really need to know about me. Now, I’m really good at taking tests, and if you were to look at various test scores I’ve accumulated in my life, Read more…
Last fall, the Civics and Public Speaking teachers popped in my lonely little windowless room with a proposal for a unit for the sophomores–a PBL proposal no less: a proposal to let me in on the action. Public Speaking had done cool things with developing and marketing products in the Read more…
In-depth inquiry is key to Project-Based Learning, according to the Buck Institute for Education, but in-depth inquiry is tricky in a novice language class striving for ACTFL’s recommended 90%. I, for one, have my novices do a lot of research with infographs, which you really can’t beat for novice authentic Read more…
Since my mixed Spanish II/III class decided to write their competition skit about the situation in Venezuela, I have been collecting tweet to update them each day from #SOSVenezuela. I just take a little five-minute cross-section from the day, sort it into major topics for the day, and I walk Read more…
Download the rubric free at TPT! When some of the strongest personalities in the class end up in the same group–by choice or by chance, discussing their contributions to the project can be touchy, or even explosive. But it doesn’t have to be. In fact, I’ve had just such a Read more…
International Skypes go smoother with a plan. They go even smoother with a plan plus a few days of targeted preparation. I’ve put a lot of thought into my interpersonal playbook, a sort of semi-scripted routine I’m working to establish for my Spanish classes so they can feel at ease whenever Read more…