DESCRIPTION:

To meet this knowledge standard of understanding the developmental process of second language acquisition at the early childhood/elementary level, I have selected, as my first piece of evidence, a ten week immersion French class called, FRArt - French with Art, Movement, Music & More. I submitted this version to the Burlington School District for elementary aged youth in 2016 to try to further the study of French in the public schools. It echoes many of the programs at Wingspan Studio I lead, either as classes or vacation learning camps. As well, I have offered it in the Burlington School District's after school program since 2009. Here is a lesson from a curriculum plan when I first started the class at C.P Smith Elementary school. As well, here is a recommendation letter from my supervisor while I worked at C.P. Smith Elementary.

I include here as well several instructional resources from a wonderful French book, an antique children's French dictionary and an image of a learner with Le Lotus Bleu, from the famous Tintin comic series.

The class curriculum weaves French language learning with content areas such as geography, culture, architecture, food and the natural world. Cumulative art projects allow learners to show their knowledge creatively. It is geared for grades 4+ because of the writing and content involved, but can be adapted to other age groups. Also, I include here a chart outlining the five stages of second language acquisition to be referenced below in the analysis and reflection section. Movement and comprehensible input are key approaches to engaging learners with this immersion French program I designed and call FRArt! (French + Art). Allons-y!

ANALYSIS/REFLECTION:

Each class has a different theme through which new input is introduced with interactive movement activities and solidified with an art activity. This is in keeping with recent research. Researchers have increasingly asserted that movement and activity enhance a student’s ability to perform better academically, as was the key message in the Carla Hannaford Life of the Child Conference I attended in 2013. Instruction is given in the target language, French, 90% of the time.

To underline the importance of movement in learning, especially in younger youth, I would like to refer to a recent Mind/Shift article highlighting its benefits to help learners succeed. In Why Kids Need to Move, Touch and Experience to Learn (KQED News Mind/Shift, March 26, 2015), the article’s author, Katrina Schwartz discusses several research studies involving learners of various levels. They perform problem solving activities with and without body movement. Consistently, using body movement to examine and resolve the problem enhances the potential for successful results.

In this class, I use a comprehensible input style of language acquisition, limiting vocabulary to for example, 15 new words and phrases the first class and build on that. According to Stephen Krashen, an expert in the field of linguistics, specializing in theories of language acquisition and development, "optimal input is comprehensible. This is clearly the most important input characteristic." (Krashen, S. D. (1982). “Principles and practice in second language acquisition.” Oxford, UK: Pergamon, p. 63).

This makes sense for if the learner does not understand the message, there is no learning. In sum he asserts that quality over quantity matters. Therefore, the concept of limiting input is very important because if the input is incomprehensible it will only be jumbled noise and overwhelming to the learner.

In the learning environment, I display French children's books. A favorite book I use called Le colis rouge, pictured above, has images uniquely. This is a fabulous instructional tool to introduce learners to new vocabulary as I can focus on the rich imagery to support our lesson. I have French children's music playing when students arrive and other cultural items of francophone interest are set up in the "Imagination Station" area. Each class begins with the same welcome song, the ABC's and movements/yoga. We also end with the same "Au revoir" song to create a cohesive rhythm to the class. Towards the end of class, there is free choice time to interact with many French artifacts or continue painting or drawing or exploring whatever activity draws the learner's interest.

During the first class, the theme is greetings and introducing learners to the vast number of places French is used. See below the outline for week one.

I scaffold the class into different chunks of content starting with the opening activities, then the greetings, then the francophone instructional activity and then the art activity, followed by self-directed time. This is for a 60-75 minute class.

In order for the French words for greetings to get into students' heads and bodies, to activate the power of muscle memory as well, I use hand movements and body language that they then repeat and use with a partner. Movement helps to solidify the learning. I start out simple with "bonjour" and "au revoir." When waving my hand and repeating "Bonjour!" and then gesturing for them to repeat that to me, they understand that "bonjour" means hello. We build from there and I write words down on a flip chart or the dry erase board. We also go over "Je m'appelle," and by the end of the first class learners understand and can say "Je m'appelle...." and their name. They are already communicating language they understand.

As Vanessa Durand, a pediatrician at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, says, freedom of movement is necessary for children to meet their developmental milestones: “Children learn by experiencing their world using all of their senses. The restriction of movement, especially at a young age, impedes the experiential learning process.” Paulette, Parker (May 26, 2016.) When classrooms become all work and no play, kids lose valuable learning experiences. BBC New Hour. Retrieved fromhttps://stateofopportunity.michiganradio.org/post/when-classrooms-become-all-work-and-no-play-kids-lose-valuable-learning-experiences

Thus, for learners to understand, with comprehensible input, the input should be in the target language, limited and relevant, somewhat similar to when anyone is beginning to learn new knowledge. There has to be time and activities for the content to digest in the learner's mind. Using movement as a learning tool, “we understand language in a richer, fuller way if we can connect it to the actions we perform,” according to Sian Beilock, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago. Again, the input is in the target language and the learners' output varies depending on their development stage of acquisition.

This brings me to the five stages of second language acquisition. At the earliest stages of language acquisition I will prompt my students by asking them to "Circle a country where French is spoken," for example or "Show me the color blue," when referring to our watercolor sets. I use questions such as Where is... and Who has...? Instructional techniques at this stage, involve asking a lot of questions and providing options to show, circle, respond with a word or two or nod, for example.

For this topic of "Where French is used", maps play a big role. I love maps and use them often to illustrate cultural, ecological, political and social content. I have a huge map hung up and have sticky notes for learners to put up when we identify where French is spoken. While I have a list of words and phrases we may cover, I adapt them to the class and repeat words and use scaffolding.

Moving on to the part of the lesson about geography and francophone speaking regions, I introduce the word "Où " by referring to myself first: " Où est Madame Maggie?" and repeat that with the learners responding, "Voilà .....(fill in their name)." Then I will query each student and the whole class will respond, "Voilà..." I have found it is important to keep learners engaged, participating and interacting so that they pay attention. As well, with comprehensible input repetition plays a big role.

Again, the program here is for grades 4+ so learners have already been introduced to the concepts of continents and countries making the map visiting instructional activity comprehensible. "Pays" will be introduced in reference to the United States and then we will look at other countries from there. If students in the class are from other countries, they will be able to, with support or not, find their country on the map. In the Burlington School District, where I have done much of my teaching, there are students from many different countries that contribute to a rich class dynamic.

The next "chunk" of the class consists of an art project to tie the learning together in a visual expression. I will give a prompt for these elementary French language learners with several choices. One is to create a world map and in your own way, highlight French speaking countries. Another choice to show their learning would be to illustrate two people greeting each other. I also welcome students' who have an idea of their own to show their learning.

Overall there are five stages in the development of second language acquisition that most linguists agree on. They are below, as outlined in a chart from Bilingualkidspot.com :

• 1. The silent or receptive phase
• 2. Early production
• 3. Speech emergence or production
• 4. Intermediate fluency
• 5. Continued language development or fluency

In order to support learners in their French language journey, it is important to let them know that at first they will not be speaking much. So often, when I am teaching, (especially older learners), they expect to be speaking very quickly. I often use the metaphor of "remember how many times a baby has to crawl before they can walk," to explain that language acquisition comes in stages. Of utmost importance is to engage learners and support them in having successful language learning experiences. In my early French classes, I struggled to keep up and had one particularly harsh French teacher at Trinity University. She believed I was not trying, and a number of people dropped her class because of its difficulty. However, I stuck with it and I simply did not understand the input nor have adequate opportunities to "show" my understanding before moving on. I did quite poorly according to her grading scale. I also felt bad it took me so long to speak when moving to Paris, and wish I knew then what I do now. My own French language learning experiences make me an adept and supportive teacher while people often think because I teach French and am fluent, that it came easily to me. The opposite it true, and my own struggles in the past, ironically, make me a stronger teacher because I can understand the challenges and set learners up for success.

In conclusion, this evidence shows competency with this standard because this elementary French immersion class employs developmentally appropriate instructional techniques such as movement, comprehensible input and art. It also reflects my understanding of the stages of second language acquisition. In the future, I would like to attend a professional training to add to my tool box along these lines and am exploring the possibility of attending a training in August called Express Fluency Teacher Training: Summer 2019.

EVIDENCE #2: Visuals & Drawing in Second Language Acquisition - shown with middle level student work

#2a: Language learning cards #2b: A Comme Art book #2c: Student work - middle level FRArt Class, Wingspan Studio

DESCRIPTION: For this piece of evidence, I highlight instructional resources and the work of a 6th grade French student. He attended my after school FRArt class in the fall of 2017 at Wingspan Studio. The class employed drawing, games, multi-media projects and visual instructional materials as a way for learners to gain knowledge. Shown below are several resources used as well as images from this students' sketchbook. This is a class I have designed and offered over the past ten years for learners aged 2-15 years old.

2a: This set of learning cards allow for diverse instructional activities that learners can use with each other, independently and with me.

2b: This wonderful A comme Art book above, pairs images with French words and poems. They are all mixed up and as learners flip through it, they are to align all three panels such as is shown in the image with the "zebres" and the "yeux". The third image is still jumbled. It is a rich language and cultural resource enjoyable for all ages yet especially beneficial for super tactile young learners.

ANALYSIS/REFLECTION: Research and best practices on second language acquisition has shifted much over the past twenty years. Here is a fascinating article on paradigm shifts, specifically in second language learning called, Paradigm Shift: Understanding and Implementing Change in Second Language Education. Authors, George Jacobs and Thomas Farrell write that, "[I]n second language education, the principal paradigm shift over the past 40 years flowed from the positivism to post-positivism shift and involved a move away from the tenets of behaviorist psychology and structural linguistics and toward cognitive, and later, socio-cognitive psychology and more contextualized, meaning-based views of language".

This paper appeared in TESJ-EL (Teaching English as a Second Language, or a Foreign Language) in 2001 and since then many more changes have occurred, as we all know change is a constant. A big one underfoot nationwide in education is personalized learning. With Vermont's recent adoption of the ACTFL World Language Learning Standards, the focus shifts completely to the learner and values diverse ways of showing knowledge as opposed to all learners needing to show their learning on the same assessments.

That said, I am a big fan of using multiple visuals as instructional tools in my French classes such as the ones pictured. I also like students to have sketch books to write and draw their learning. The examples above reflect a series of classes in which different content was introduced each class. Learners are given an envelope to tape inside the sketch book for their "power words." These are words that they like and have special meaning for them. Rather than me dictating what the words are, they are to jot them down on note cards I have available as they come across them in their learning activities. As part of a formative assessment, they will be shared with the class. As evidence, this student wrote down information and illustrated it as well.

I was very excited to find this research touting the benefits of drawing for successful learning, as it has been a strategy I have employed for the past 25 years as an educator: The Science of Drawing and Memory, by Youki Terada, edutopia, March 14, 2019. It is also a method I have used as a passionate learner my entire life. Drawing a concept, representing it visually, helps solidify it in one's mind in a way different from passively listening to a lesson or reading. The researchers in the article state that drawing is a powerful memory tool because it “requires elaboration on the meaning of the term and translating the definition to a new form (a picture).” While listening and reading are important, they are considered passive, while drawing is active. Drawing gives learners an opportunity to reconstruct what they are learning in a way that makes sense to them.

This evidence shows my competency in this standard of understanding the developmental process of second language acquisition because of the authentic, appropriate visual resources used, teaching methodologies employed, including multiple methods for learners to demonstrate their knowledge including the recently proven, long used method of drawing. As I continue to learn about learning, I would like to pursue classes in neuroscience as well as attend workshops on personalized learning.

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