Some Core “Best Practices” that LCTL Teachers Need to Know: Lessons from STARTALK

2. Some Core “Best Practices” that LCTL Teachers Need to Know: Lessons from STARTALK Dr. Catherine W. Ingold Dr. Frederick H. Jackson Dr. Mouna Mana University of Maryland

3. Program • Overview of STARTALK Teacher Education • Teacher responses • STARTALK “Best Practices” • What Teachers Need • What the experts say • What the teachers say • A Waystages Model of teacher development • Importance of teacher certification • Discussion

4. STARTALK Languages 2007 – Arabic & Chinese 2008 – Hindi, Persian, & Urdu 2009 – Swahili & Turkish 2010 – Dari & Russian 2011 – Portuguese

5. STARTALK Focus Policy Managing for Quality Knowledge Practice Collaboration Among Experts

6. Continuous Improvement Model Rigorous Review Networksand Teams Clearer Process Select Programs Mentoring Orientand Train DesignRFP Revise Process ResearchBest Practices Observe Programs Collect Data Evaluate Outcomes Enhanced Surveys and Data

7. STARTALK “Best Practices” • Align Standards-based, thematically organized curriculum, instruction, and assessment • Facilitate student-centered learning • Use the target language for instruction and interactions with students; ensure input is comprehensible • Stimulate meaningful interaction in the target language • Integrate language, culture, and content • Differentiate instruction based on learner needs • Use age-appropriate authentic materials • Assess learners’ progress and performance

8. Who Are the STARTALK Teachers? • Typically native speakers • Not always (but almost always very proficient) • Some programs select NNSs • Typically well-educated (M.A. or better) • Typically have taught before • Open to “transformation”

9. Who are the Teacher Trainees? • 89% native speakers of the target language • 86% female • 47% earned a master’s degree • 77% will teach the target language in the fall • Excited about what they are doing • Many have returned every year • Want to teach Americans about their language and culture

10. STARTALK Teacher Programs Numbers of Teacher Trainees 2007-11

11. Affective Impact on Teachers and Teacher Trainees • Increased confidence in teaching • Increased willingness to implement effective strategies • Increased collaboration together Topics

12. STARTALK TEACHERS ARE TYPICAL OF LCTL and many CTL Teachers in the US

13. What these teachers bring • Native fluency in the language, understanding of the culture • Ability to manage language demands of a wider range of program types and levels, including ability to ad lib, innovate • Often, tremendous enthusiasm and commitment

14. What these teachers need: • Orientation to culture and norms of US schools and universities • Communicative language teaching methods, Backward Design, assessment methods, effective use of authentic materials, etc. • Staying in target language while making their language/culture comprehensible to learners • Opportunities to observe expert teaching, practice with guidance, and reflect on their teaching; access to communities of practice

15. What the teachers saytheir top priority needs are: • Sample of STARTALK teachers surveyed (from programs for teachers of Arabic) • Main goal for professional development: • Increasing knowledge & gaining skills for their classrooms • Not for certification • Top 3 areas of need expressed (aligned with top 3 challenges): • Differentiated Instruction • Teaching using a standards-based approach • Maintaining Target Language/ Comprehensible Input

16. What the teachers report as being lower immediate priority • Language-specific issues • Orientation to US educational system, its culture and norms • Opportunities for practical implementation

17. Language of professional development & training • More respondents indicated preference for their professional development to be conducted in both their native language and English • Why? • Linguistic support (Present content in English, explain and support and clarify in Arabic) • Desire to be part of broader profession

18. Top 3 challenges • Differentiating instruction • To Diverse learners (Native, Non-Native, & Heritage) • Comprehensible input • Maintaining target language within context of diverse classrooms • Using a standards-based model in everyday lessons • Translating the conceptual into daily activity *****

19. Why examine what teachers say they need and find challenging? • Identifying areas for professional growth that teachers are aware of • Need for unpacking reasons for experiencing challenge • Understanding processes of learning and applying STARTALK Best Practices • Stages of professional growth in implementing Best Practices • Responses about challenges and needs help guide PD and training

20. Waystages of Teacher Development • Apprentice • Novice • Journeyman • Master

21. Possible Examples of Teacher “Can-do” Statements I: Novice waystage • Can teach communicative lessons from a standards-based curriculum. • Can introduce and facilitate small-group task activities. • Can facilitate student-centered learning. • Can stay in the language in routine interactions and teaching at least 90% of time. • Can notice when students do not understand and adjust to make speech more comprehensible. • Can state learning goals and assess students’ ability to perform them successfully. • Can select appropriate authentic materials and realia. • Can reflect productively on own teaching and class response.

22. Possible Examples of Teacher “Can-do” Statements II: Journeyman Waystage • Can design original communicative lessons for a standards-based curriculum. • Can plan and deliver lessons based on student needs and the goals of the course. • Can introduce and facilitate many communicative activities. • Can differentiate instruction so that each student learns as much as possible. • Can attend to every student’s learning and make principled adjustments to maximize learning. • Can assess students’ abilities to perform course goals in new contexts and can provide constructive feedback. • Can integrate language, culture and meaningful content in instruction

23. Possible Examples of Teacher “Can-do” Statements III: Master Waystage • Can plan and develop a theme-oriented standards-based curriculum for groups of students. • Can effectively mentor and coach apprentice and novice teachers. • Can counsel and advise individual students to help them learn effectively. • Can lead a course-development team. • Can design and interpret the results of assessments of communicative effectiveness

24. Building Alternate Routes to Teacher Licensure (Certification)

25. STARTALK Teacher Development Materials Collection • Teacher Training Videos • Multimedia Teacher Workshops • Collection of Curriculum Plans and Resources • Online Curriculum Guide

26. STARTALK Resources for Teachers STARTALK RESOURCES ARE FOR ANY TEACHER OF ANY LANGUAGE. http://startalk.umd.edu Teacher Development Materials: • Classroom Video Collection ( in ST languages) • On-line Curriculum Development Guide (any language) • On-line lesson planning guide (any language)

27. Questions? Reactions? Comments?