What does the previous slide mean?

5. What does the previous slide mean? #1. Slide #4 refers to the previous Bureau Chief’s justification of the very high expectations and rigor found in the new World Languages Course Descriptions, approved this year, that appear in the DOE’s CCD (Course Code Directory) of state approved courses. Our WL Course Descriptions: look at the bottom for all languages and levels Click the link to find your course descriptions. #2. Our Course Descriptions cross over our Novice, Intermediate and Advanced “columns”. If you look at Level I in any language, you will see that the benchmarks include Novice Low/Mid and Novice High benchmarks. Look at the Spanish Level I Course Description with combined benchmarks. #3. Our Florida World Languages Standards and benchmarks are more rigorous than the ACTFL Standards and Benchmarks. In order that World Languages teachers are able to get students to these levels, our certification exams will be redone by FY15 to be more rigorous for future teachers. Present teachers should be mindful of their target language skills and seek out opportunities to nourish their fluency in order to immerse students .

6. Links to all these national documents that show integration: ACTFL Linking the Standards for Learning Languages Alignment of the National Standards for Learning Languages ACTFL 21st Century Skills Map for WL Teaching

7. How do we show our administration we are using the Language Arts Common CoreStandards? #1. You can read and then use the previous page documents for your documentation. #2. I have reformatted a document created by Mr. Bill Heller, a national presenter, that allows you to check off the Language Arts Common Core as they relate to your daily, weekly or monthly lesson plans. I saved them in 2 Word formats, Portrait and Landscape, and attached them to this email

8. Where are the references to the Common Core in the Florida World Languages Standards and Benchmarks? Mr. Eplin reaffirmed that the Language Arts Common Core (LACC)are embedded implicitly, not explicitly, within the WL Standards & Benchmarks. In the future, it is possible that the State will have to make their presence (LACC) more explicit.

13. More non-fiction in World Languages classes * Our future workforce will need to be able to read more non-fiction than fiction, hence the new focus in all content areas. *Students are learning the target language to be able to understand and speak with Native Speakers, to be able to comprehend that which is written and produced for Native speakers: ads, publicity in all media, reports, newspapers, magazines, blogs, websites, email, recipes, videos, art work, songs, poems, stories, train schedules, text messages, tweets…… AUTHENTIC TEXTS: that which you see, view, read, listen to in the Target Language Little blurbs, schedules and paragraphs in your textbook are not written for Native Speakers: hence, they are not Authentic Texts/Documents. (See “Authentic Texts” attached document for more clarification)

15. Text Complexity *Think of raising text complexity gradually, like a track runner. Getting over one hurdle and then setting the next one higher. Start with simple print ads and signs: the visuals will help clarify. Move on to movie schedules, infographs, maps… (I have attached a chart from Bob Heller that categorizes texts by language level and increasing complexity. It is not an exhaustive list. ) *Students do not have to understand every word. We must show them how to decode, decipher, guess meaning, look for cognates, main idea, text features etc. Go to Zachary Jones’ website for different texts in Spanish and ideas for other languages. Just Google his name.

17. How can students show evidence that they understood what they read? *To show evidence from the text, to show why students answered the way they did, is to back up what they said, just as they will have to do in their future workplace. *The IB reading comprehension questions have asked for evidence like this all along. Here is a sample IB reading comprehension question: The sentences below are either true or false, according to your reading. Mark [ X ] in the correct answer space. Justify your answer by using words from the text. Both parts are required for one point. Example: Students are well educated at the University of the South Pacific. True X False  Justification:. . . “The University of the South Pacific will give students an excellent education”

19. Scaffolded Steps in Language Acquisition • First, a person listens, watches and tries to understand/negotiate meaning of text/speech • Then uses in speech some of the words they now own because they are used repeatedly and are important/relevant to their lives • Then reads and understands simple text with these very familiar words and some new ones. • Now, they can write using some of these familiar words because they have acquired, not learned about, the language. They are able to use basic patterns and structures of speech to express themselves. • Listen & Comprehend, Speak, Read, Write • It takes longer to acquire language than learn about language. We will not “cover” as much as in the past. “Covering” is meaningless if the student can’t use the language. Look at your Course Descriptions for guidance, and the Scope and Sequence of Levels I and II

20. Conclusion (at last) *The global workplace is becoming more demanding: students must be able to collaborate in groups, express themselves both in speech and written communication, to name a few of the skills needed. *They must be technologically competent and fluent: none of our students will be using pens and paper to communicate in the future. They should be presenting with technology in their classes to get ready for this *Our future workers will need to be able to read more non-fiction than fiction. We know that great literature guides us through life and shows us how others deal with their joys and sorrows, but we are encharged with guiding our students to workplace success as well.