World Languages Midterm Review Report February 2010

1. World Languages Midterm Review ReportFebruary 2010

2. Overview of Presentation Format for Departments • Department Overview • Discussion of PLC content team organization, work, and focus for the year • Course Analysis • Overview and Analysis of Common Assessments Delivered • Format and Delivery (use of SchoolNet, performance based or objective…) • Student Performance Overview • Action Plans for Struggling Students (including intervention efforts and plans) • Department Summary • Analysis of next steps for PLC’s, W.L. Department (constructive reflection.)

3. Guiding Questions for our PLC work that relate to the Mid Year Review: • What is it we expect students to learn? (Curriculum, the FQL) • How will we know when students have learned it? (Common Assessments, SchoolNet Data) • How do we respond when they have not learned it? (Intervention plans by student) • What are we doing for students who already know what they need to know?

4. Guiding Questions for Mid YearReview and Examples of Student Data Related to Goals • Student data should be compiled and used for reflecting on student progress and making plans for intervention. SchoolNet can be used to generate a variety of reports for analysis of student performance. Not all of the following points are to be addressed by all groups, but they do help us keep our larger goals in mind. • At the end of second quarter, how many students did/did not show proficiency on standards-based quarterly assessments (such as PLC common assessments)? • At the end of second quarter, how many students did/did not show proficiency on literacy benchmarks? • How may students did/not achieve proficiency? • How are individual students doing toward achieving proficiency?

5. Use of Analysis and Data for the Mid Year Review – special focus: • Students not meeting benchmarks on common assessments and classroom assessments. • Students with Ds and Fs. • Students about whom we as professionals have concerns even if scores are acceptable. • Goals and does data that indicate specific progress towards our goals. • Steps necessary, including specific instructional strategies, now and later to meet our goals. • Support and resources necessary to reach our goal(s.)

6. WL forms of communication:speaking, reading, writing, culture WL teaching and learning concentrates on the four keystones of Professional Learning Communities: • WL wants our students to learn how to speak, read, write and appreciate the culture of others. • Performance results of teaching guide and redirect teaching. • Specific FQL tools support WL learning especially to reduce the Achievement Gap • Set objectives as tied to vision of where WL wants to be next year and thereafter.

7. German • For some time, starting German classes have been too small to supply sufficient numbers of students in German 3 and 4, let alone 5. There has not been a separate German 3 class since the early 90’s and, as in the current year, German I, II, and III are combined and taught in the same class. • Prior to 2007/08, guidance informed rising 9th graders that there might not be a German 3 class offered for their grade at Western. Present enrollment shows that there will not be enough students for a combined German 3 and 4 class. • The suggestion would be to tag German as the second chance language for people who run into difficulties with their first choice for three reasons: -It is the easiest language for English speakers to learn because of the close similarity between the 2 languages. - This tagging is already happening: almost half of the current German 1 students are juniors and seniors. - The methodology employed in teaching German 1 and 2 emphasizes right brain language acquisition, allowing students to achieve proficiency levels, that may otherwise not be available to them. Current proficieny rate of all German classes stands at 89%. • Higher classes could be offered as independent study courses.

8. French • Questions about the future of the French program: • Is the online class for the higher level an acceptable alternative to a live class for learning a language?  • How will we know if our students made progress in reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar and culture at that level?  • An exit survey would tell us the pros and cons from a student perspective. • Are there lost opportunities for students who chose not to take the class because it was online rather than a “real” class?    • What are we planning to offer next year?  What are our constraints?  What should we tell the students so they know what to choose when they register?  Registration is starting now…  The students will expect that next year will look like this year. 

9. Spanish Spanish Spanish As a whole, the Spanish department enjoyed a 90.7 proficiency rate. A graph below of the AP Spanish 07-08 Exam Results showcases how our students compared to the national averages--we had a very high percentage earn the mark of 4 compared to the national average - and no one scored in the bottom two levels.

10. How are individual students doing toward achieving proficiency? • Proficiency numbers bear out prior evidence of direct correlation between small class size and students achieving mastery. • CARE continues to be a strong tool to enhance individual study ethics and customize study strategies as well as practice time management issues with the students, and seems especially effective with the younger classes who now have a history of CARE. • While CARE and other support is available, students are slow to realize that they are the most important factor in their success. They seem to rely on extra credit, tutoring, help before and after school as well as during lunch and teachers’ planning periods; they count on dropping their worst grades and count on retakes to save their grade rather than continually apply tried and true studying. The shift of students taking responsibility for their own academic success, even with all these support systems in place, is slow in coming.

11. How can the Division support your work? • - In 2009 we stated that curricular goals should be met. Testing, collecting and analyzing data to be presented is an important facet in reaching these goals. We mentioned that time is a limited commodity. Preparing for improved delivery of common curricular goals and making sure these goals are met, adjusting teaching/help and devising innovative strategies for students who exceed or fall short of said goals, needs more of our time. New time made available in the division calendar should NOT be filled with new mandates or expectations. That just defeats the purpose in the end. • This year, 2010, we are pleased to report that more unencumbered time has been made available for above mentioned goals. • - 2010 saw no change from our viewpoint in how the division recognizes/treats academic performance/practice on the same par as athletic performances/practices. Wall of fame? Trophies? TV? Newspaper? Many people still rely heavily on the printed word and like to see their efforts recognized in the local paper rather than in cyber space. This is especially true for the older generation aka the ones who support us financially. • - As in 2009, also in 2010, SchoolNet needs to incorporate different ways of showing proficiency beyond writing, speaking, listening tests e.g. student portfolio that are better adapted to our subject matter. In addition, writing a test for SchoolNet use is a job of Sisyphean proportions. New textbooks will have these tests ready made for inclusion. Until then, teacher time should be spent teaching, not trying to match taxonomies and SOL strands and bullets to tests. • - In 2009, the number of students not showing proficiency is directly related to class size and ability grouping. Due to time constraints and funding, little time seems to be spent on grouping teachable and manageable classes. The perception is that classes contain as many students as possible that will get them an advanced diploma regardless of student interest or motivation, with a detrimental result for all. In short, division support for smaller and better focused class size and increased planning time will help in increasing student proficiency. In 2010, class sizes for Spanish II were very good. Spanish II however, was bursting at the seams at the beginning of the year. To lose students due to lack of attention which in turn is due to class size is disappointing and frustrating for all parties involved and surely will not help in closing the achievement gap. • - In 2009, the request for one system that can take attendance, track grades and be CARE friendly where perhaps students use their barcode to scan themselves in was still elusive in 2010. It seems that between SchoolNet, SASI and Gradekeepers, we mimick the security offices of the federal administration. Not enough intercommunication to connect the dots for students in need. • - The request in 2009 to find ways to fund technology e.g. a smart board in every room or an i-pod for every teacher esp. in WL that would allow for more listening activities, was thwarted to a grossly understated economic downturn. Still, changes are happening though, albeit piecemeal and painstaking. The Millennial generation though will leave us no choice but to continue on this path of credit card debt lest we should fall behind even more on the world wide scale of student achievements.

12. Care Work done with students • Challenge: Achieving proficiency can still seem out of reach for some students. Some students are not self-motivated enough to do well. They may not come to class, bring materials, study, do homework or make an effort on assessments. CARE time, combined with parent and counselor contact, and progress reports besides regular interim reports, helps these students. • Milestone: Mature, AVID and older students who are college bound tend to be more self-motivated and will work as necessary to achieve proficiency in order to get good grades. • Strategies: Many teachers allow students to make up missed or late work and allow multiple retakes (sometimes with altered versions of assessments to ensure mastery of material) and record the better grade. Outside of CARE students feel comfortable coming during lunch, staying after school and/or coming before school to receive help and show mastery. One-on-one help time with students allows the student to get answers to specific questions about grammar or function of the language to enhance understanding and to continue to build a solid language base. Customized help aids with particular weaknesses and specific needs practice and review. • Students with Fs decided, with teacher’s approval to go to a standard level or to retake second semester of Spanish. • D students and others as needed, have received encouragement and help during CARE. Contracts also are another tool in this array of student assistance. • CARE has been helpful in following up with lower achieving students. Assessments based on essential state benchmarks are given and students are required to have a minimum score (retakes given as necessary). Teachers focus on flagging own students with Ds and Fs in order to bring them in for CARE, analyzing their improvement, and planning for bringing them up to the level of their peers. Additionally, correcting students’ work timely and constantly allows teachers to have current info on who needs extra assistance now.

13. PLC work with students with D’s and F’s • Thanks to PLC time and WL division work, teachers continue to work on minimum benchmarks to be passed by all students by sharing the most successful teaching and testing of these benchmarks to reduce the Achievement Gap. With Standard WL classes no longer an option, a more heterogeneous mix of students demands our full-time attention and differentiated planning. • During PLC time, teachers plan assessment and discuss maximizing the proficiency of students.They exchange and plan best practice strategies aimed at lifting the level of struggling students while at the same time trying to raise the bar for all. • Significant progress has been made on creating two common FQL units: a school unit common to all level 1 languages and a unit on childhood for Spanish 2. • Introducing more literature at lower levels is a continuous conversation with exchange of student appropriate material. This literature infusion also helps keep advanced students motivated to take off on their own.

14. 2nd semester grades - Spanish II and III - Pitts • Spanish students continue to grow stronger in the language per accumulated year of Spanish. • Unlimited mastery performance chances account for 0% failures in both Spanish II and III. • Retakes also encourage students to try harder, resulting in a blue bell curve that has a slight positive peak at the B-C level for Spanish III. For Spanish II, this methodology now shows a declining level of lower grades.

15. Midterm grades - Spanish II and III - Pitts • Conversely, the methodology of second chances adversely affects midterm grades as exams are not eligible for retakes. Students consequently do not take seriously the review packet and spend less time on the exam itself i.e. double-checking answers. • The speaking part was the least stellar of the four part exam (listening, reading, writing, speaking.) For all practical purposes, speaking is usually the hardest score to raise due to our geographical location and make-up of student body. Little to no exposure outside of the classroom is readily available unless the assignments specifically direct students to seek out target language opportunities. • The test itself for Spanish III was mostly scantron and much longer than the Spanish II exam which may account for student test taking fatigue. • This is the third year that the same questions have been used for both levels with minor adaptations each year. • One Spanish III class contains a large number of students with test anxiety issues who are also much less prepared for the rigors of a level III language.