EVIDENCE #1: Project Based Team Learning (PBTL) Strategy

8th Grade French II Class ~ Edmunds Middle School ~ Spring 2017

Student Team Presentational and Interpersonal Assessment (aligned with ACTFL 3 Modes of Communication.)

DESCRIPTION: This project took place when I was the French teacher at Edmunds Middle School in 2017. Learners worked together in groups of 3-5 that were self selected. The first image above on the left is this team of "designers" at a French Public Relations firm. They are discussing and brain storming ideas for their project. On the right is the team presenting their poster. The next image is the final project output close up.

Learners carried out an interdisciplinary three pronged poster project. Students were given a scenario (echoing an "Inquiry Based Learning," strategy): Imagine you are a team of designers at a French PR firm, put on your creativity berets and work together, to write, illustrate and create a colorful poster.

Performance Criteria included: 1. We can use words to express a phrase. 2. We can use correct grammar with some feedback 3. We can craft a message that is inspirational in nature. 4. We can express that message in written, verbal and visual form.

ANALYSIS/REFLECTION: The students loved this project. Their critical thinking skills shone as they did research to come up with phrases and images that reflected their message. The self-selected groups worked well together. With these 8th grade French students, I found that many of the behavioral challenges I was facing decreased several notches when the students were engaged in team work and hands-on instructional activities involving drawing and writing. I believe when learners actually get involved with content they are learning, rather than passively receiving it and memorizing it, outcomes are much more favorable. On that note, I am thrilled to learn that Vermont has recently adopted the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, also known as the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. I learned more about these while interning with Madame Steele at Middlebury High School and have read and watched several informative pieces on them, in addition to being in written communication with officials from the Vermont Agency of Education. With the goal to prepare students to apply their skills and understandings in order to become global citizens in future life experiences and careers, I believe these language learning standards will shift how we have been teaching foreign language.

In so far as many of us learned French through the lens of correct grammatical structure and being graded on the finer points of verb conjugations and a variety of gender, quantity agreements, this method allows for and actually encourages learners to get comfortable making mistakes, moreover in the novice and intermediate levels.

The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines were created by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in order to provide a means of assessing the proficiency of a foreign language speaker. The guidelines are broken up into different proficiency levels: novice, intermediate, advanced, superior, and distinguished.

Applying these guidelines to a PBTL opportunity works well with any age/language learning level. I have found in various positions as an elementary French After school teacher, as a Middle School French instructor and doing a teaching internship/collaboration at Middlebury High School as well as working in several private high schools, that project based collaborative learning brings out the joy in learning.

This approach aligns with "Inquiry Based Learning," of which I am a big proponent. Inquiry-based learning is a form of active learning that begins by posing questions, problems or scenarios. In this case the students were given the scenario of being a design team that had to come up with a product. It contrasts with traditional education, and how I mostly was taught French, which generally relied on the teacher presenting facts and his or her knowledge as the main instructional method. Here is a pertinent article about active learning and the teacher's still central but shifted role, called From Sage on the Stage, to Guide on the Side, by Allison King.

I look forward to attending professional educational workshops to learn more about the uses of project based learning in relationship to the ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages. This evidence demonstrates my mastery of this standard because this project makes learning accessible to all, as all are more actively engaged with a project based team learning activity.

EVIDENCE #2: Hands-On Learning Opportunities

Image 1 - 7th Grade French I Student holding up a key question word project, Edmunds Middle School

Image 2 - Elementary age students at Wingspan Studio African Art & Music Camp

Image 3 - Poster re intelligence in one of my classrooms at Edmunds Middle School

DESCRIPTION: As many as diverse students exist, there are diverse learning styles. This approach of hands-on learning reaches the broadest swath of learners in engaging them all in their own unique intelligence. To the left is an image of a 7th grade French student at Edmunds Middle School with his "Question Word" project. The students were tasked with choosing one of the main "question words" we had been studying and representing that in a creative visual way. The idea was to put their "output," their work around the room to make the connection of what we were learning as opposed to just looking at something I had put up.

The next image, of two Wingspan Studio students with African masks displays the relevance of using authentic, hands-on activities to bring content to life. Having lived, worked and studied in West and North Africa, I bring myriad artifacts, authentic texts, maps and objects to my classes.

Finally, the 3rd image is a poster that was in one of the classrooms I used for an 8th grade French class at Edmunds Middle School. There was not a designated French classroom, although I shared a work space with the Spanish teacher, my mentor, in her classroom. Therefore, I moved from room to room for instruction. This poster, in the Math teacher's room, struck me as a great message to highlight the importance of valuing differences and offering a variety of ways to access and understand learning objectives.

ANALYSIS/REFLECTION: I have used this approach as a means to reach all learners for 25 years. Different students are adept at different things, as articulated so well in the image of the poster above:

" Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish By Its Ability To Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole LIFE Believing That It Is Stupid."

The wisdom of this statement permeates much of my teaching and is what my personal approach hinges on. Providing hands-on learning opportunities for students to explore, stumble, question, create, describe, question and represent. Hands-on learning allows learners creative and critical thinking freedom. It is one thing to obtain knowledge, and another to understand it. My inclination and natural draw to this approach stems from my own learning strengths and styles. I can recall throughout my education, always relishing the learning opportunities to bring an assignment to life. I am immensely grateful to a number of teachers who had a profound and positive impact on me and my curious mind. I aim to instill that curiosity in my students and believe hands-on learning opportunities is a great pathway to cultivate inquisitiveness.

While French is the common language we are studying, that proficiency arrives into everyone's brains differently. Engaging as many senses as possible in learning, according to Dr. Carla Hannaford, whose "Science of Learning" Workshop I attended, has the greatest attribute performance task outcome for clarifying transferable 20th Century skills. These skills include cross curricular connections, problem solving, critical thinking, technology integration, deciphering and filtering information and more.

I plan to continue to use this approach and look forward to a future teaching position where I can collaborate with other teachers of diverse content areas to bring learning objectives to life. This supports my understanding of this teaching standard because it makes knowledge accessible to all learners and can be tailored to their individual interests and abilities, while providing multiple pathways for them to demonstrate that.

Click here for Teaching Standard #8.2