This Kenan externship has occurred at  the perfect time to support instructional changes in the classroom.

When every student that walks through the classroom door has internet access, it is time to shift teaching methods. When every world language student can listen to the target language on their own computer, they need something to listen to. The teacher needs resources of comprehensible language samples. When every world language student can now record their thoughts, ideas, stories, experiences, etc. in audio rather than with paper and pencil, the teacher needs to know how to let students record themselves speaking. When every student can now access language practice and receive immediate feedback on the grammatical and lexical correctness, the teacher needs to throw away the worksheets and find online interactive activities. As a curriculum coordinator, it is my role to support teachers in this transition. It is my role to create a community where they can share with each other.

This year, our district is beginning a one-to-one initiative for all students in grades 6 – 12. It will be a major shift for the high school teachers who haven’t yet faced a classroom full of students ‘armed with laptops’. Teachers will need to engage students in online activities that are meaningful, relevant and valuable. I don’t think it will be hard to keep students ‘busy’ online but using time wisely will be a learning process. Surely five years from now we will have learned a lot. Currently, we don’t yet know how many minutes online is optimal, how much face-to-face interactions students need or crave, which online activities are best, etc. My challenge as a curriculum coordinator is to support the teachers with sound instructional tools, methods and resources to transition into this new classroom.

The opportunity to spend so much time online exploring resources for world language students and teachers has been very valuable. Given the vastness of the internet, it is impossible to get one’s arms around all that is available. Nonetheless, time dedicated to pinpointing SOME of those valuable resources is very helpful. I have certainly enjoyed the time to explore and find useful resources that I did not know existed. My hopes are that they prove valuable.

World language students need to be able to access comprehensible chunks of language that they can understand, that are relevant to their units of study, that are authentic and that are useful for communicating with others. They will find the audio recordings, like those at LangMedia and COERLL useful chunks to grapple with and understand. These real life videoclips will be useful.

1. LangMedia http://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu/
2. Spanish Proficiency Exercises from COERLL (The Center for Open Educational Resources for Language Learning at the University of Texas)  http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/
3. COERLL (The Center for Open Educational Resources for Language Learning at the University of Texas) http://coerll.utexas.edu/coerll/

There are current event news items from Spain to read with comprehension questions, synonym practice and grammar points from Practice Español. http://www.practicaespanol.com/

Some resources will first impact teachers in providing frameworks for units and activities that are focused on language competency. These models of what integrated performance activities are will showcase quality activities that teachers could implement on the specific topic they are teaching.  As a profession that has focused on grammatical and lexical correctness it is helpful to have models of how one can teach with communicative competency as a goal. For example:

1. CARLA (Center for Applied Research on Language Acquisition at the University of Minnesota) resources at http://www.carla.umn.edu/articulation/polia_tasks.html
2. The World Languages Assessment Tasks from Central Jersey World Languages Professional Development Institute 2000 http://www.globalteachinglearning.com/cjwlpdi/assessment/assess.shtml

There are some sites for pure interactive practice. Such sites give immediate feedback and are a digital replacement for worksheets that  a teacher may have used in the past but that only the teacher knew the answers for.

1. Crossword puzzles that are self-correcting and interactive and include audio hints. http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/news/crossword/flash/
2. Conjuguemos might be a site that students could practice with for quick feedback
3. Quizlet links are few because so many are textbook specific but there are some broad, useful Quizlets like http://quizlet.com/5739095/flashcards

There are few YouTube links given their public nature and the potentially offensive comments that can be added.

For teachers who want to learn how to shift to focus on proficiency-based instruction, it was wonderful to encounter the free step-by-step Foreign Language Teaching Methods course http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/

In closing, this has been a wonderful opportunity to search the web. The timing has been perfect for our district, our students and hopefully, many NC world language students. Let’s see what the impact will be for ‘the times they are a changin”.