Unified WL Pacing Guide

Goal: To create a unified WL unit pacing guide using CI theories and common assessment aligned with the ACTFL World readiness standards.

Description: This project will create a pacing guide for all WL languages at a school using CI based units that are aligned to the ACTFL standards. The goal is to have all of the languages at a school focusing on the same ACTFL World Readiness Standard at the same time. This project will create a yearly unit pacing guide, assign priority and supporting standards to each unit, share targeted CI techniques and materials that can be used effectively with the units, create student success criteria based on the standards, and common assessments that can be used regardless of the language. The idea is to create a core that can then be added on to by the teacher to address any language specific/class specific items that the individual teacher can add on. We hope that by having all the WL teachers in the school working together that we can share lesson ideas/materials, challenges, and also look at data that will be relevant because the group will all be focusing on the same sets of standards and student success criteria. This will also allow the entire department to focus on a standard together to improve understanding, create level appropriate success criteria to lead students to higher levels of language acquisition and proficiency

When: SY 18-19

Contact: Will Smith wsmith@waipahuh.k12.hi.us, william.smith@k12.hi.us

Action Plan: Unified Unit Pacing Guide

Unwrapped ACTFL World Readiness Standards w/success criteria: Waipahu HS Standard Study (Work in Progress!!)

Connection with Standards

1. How does the unified World Languages pacing guide with comprehension-based communicative language teaching units address the Hawai‘i Content and Performance Standards III (HCPS III) for World Languages?

The World Languages Unified Pacing Guide (WL UPG) was created with the HCPS III for World Languages in mind, and in that way exactly address the standards, with the added benefit of having an entire WL department focus on the same standard(s) at the same time. This has led to deeper conversations about what the standards mean and are looking for, unified goal of standards-based assessments, a sharing of best practices, ideas, and projects, as well as a way to reflect on how everything went and a place for improvements for the next time we do the units. The WL UPG focuses specifically on the HCPS III communication standards: Interpersonal, Interpretive, and Presentational.

1. How might the unified World Languages pacing guide with comprehension-based communicative language teaching units address the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages?

The WL UPG was developed around the ACTFL World-Readiness Standards. Our goal (still a work in progress) was to also link on the pacing guide a document that lists all of the standards, unwraps them to their component parts to facilitate clarity of meaning, add in ACTFL Proficiency level benchmarks and Can-do statements, and then create a standards-based assessment that would be appropriate to the focus standard and the class level. Throughout the year we were constantly assessing, rebalancing, and refining the meaning of the standards and how we assess them. The final document, while still a work in progress, has been refined and adjusted many times to get to where it is now!

1. What guidelines are used to determine the order of standards to be taught throughout the year?

We did not really look at the standards as a sequence, first this and then that. As a department we came to the conclusion that in reality we are teaching all the standards all the time. There is no unit where we only do culture. The standards are all blended in all the time. Once we came to that conclusion we decided to focus on the 3 parts of the communication standard, Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational. Since I was working on a level 1 class, we used the first 4 out of 6 units and focused on Interpretive. Unit 5 was Interpersonal, and Unit 6 was scheduled to be Presentational, but we ran into some issues and were not able to finish that standard unwrapping. Again, we were using all of the standards in each unit, but we were focusing on 1 standard for purposes of assessment and data team meetings, and for the first year we wanted to make sure that the Communication standards were set and that we had assessments we were comfortable with before moving on. Our plans for year 2 are to tweak what we can with the Communication Standard, and to start taking a deeper look into the Culture & Comparisons standards.

1. What are the impacts of a unified World Languages pacing guide with comprehension-based units on student learning in your classroom? If available, please provide de-identified student work samples with explanation of impact.

There were many positive impacts to using a UPG in our comprehension-based communicative classrooms. From the teacher side it really helped us come together as a department, and since we were all doing generally the same things at the same time, it led to some great conversations and realizations about what we were doing well in classroom, what we needed to re-assess, and also ideas for new ways of teaching that we may not have been comfortable before. We could also learn from each other through conversations and classroom observations. As for the students, the change in my classroom has been amazing. I am able to use a high percentage of Japanese (not quite 90%, but almost there) this year compared to the past, and the students are understanding. They also seem more relaxed and open in class because the cycle has changed from teach, drill, and assess to show me what you can do at this point in your language. The most frequent comment this year for me was “Japanese is easy”, and that is not because the class isn’t rigorous. I am just doing things in a way that helps students become successful early on and build on that success. This year was the first year that we have tried this, and I already know many things I want to change/adjust, but I truly believe that this path will lead us to even stronger language students in the future!

Advice for World Languages Teachers

1. What advice might you offer to other World Languages departments who are interested in creating a unified pacing guide with comprehension-based communicative language teaching units for all World Languages at the school?

I feel that I am lucky to work at Waipahu High School where we have a strong WL department that supports each other and works well together. My first piece of advice is to look into comprehension-based communicative language teaching if you are not familiar with it. Try going slowly at first and pick a few of the many techniques you think might work well with you and your classes. Then look at how those techniques worked and how the students felt about them. I strongly feel that once a teacher uses comprehension-based communicative language teaching they will see firsthand the benefits and will want to keep trying more and getting better. Next, make sure that the goal of your class is communication. Know what communication means and realistically assess what you have been doing in class. Is it really communication for proficiency? If not, how can you adjust? Next, share your successes with your peers. Show them how well things work, and try to get them to get onboard! Finally, be ready to describe what you are doing and why! There are many people who still think learning a language is memorizing words and grammar drills. You will have to be able to teach not only the students, but also parents, admin, and other teachers if you are going to be successful. Once you have people in your department generally on the same path, then start to move to a UPG to strengthen the gains you have made and enhance your PLC!