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My mind map shows how I went about finding my articles and videos. I looked at what is language acquisition as a whole and broke it down to comprehensible input. From there, I found ways to incorporate it in the classroom and why it's necessary. Then, I found non-traditional activities and lessons that you can do that are more hands-on and not from the textbook. Lastly, I looked at technology because it is so widely used and such a great resource for any topic or subject you are covering.

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This video shows how a German teacher incorporates culture through seasons and holidays. This video perfectly shows how by adding culture to any lesson creates something new and more interesting in the FL classroom.  It also shows how students are learning IN the target language and communicating with other students, all while learning about a new culture. This video, just like the other artifacts, encompasses everything else that I have mentioned in this Padlet.

I thought this video was a great artifact because it does a great job at showing how the teacher is combining culture, standards, and doing it all in a non-traditional way.

Reference:
Annenberg Foundation (2016).

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Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum

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In the early 80's, linguistic Stephen Krashen created his Input Hypothesis. This was a group of five hypothesizes that were vital to acquiring a second language. Since then, World Language educators at all levels have been referring to this model to help students not just learn a second language, but acquire it.

I added this picture because I thought it was a good visual that displays the difference between learning and acquisition. Some people find it easier to understand once they can see it in a picture and compare the characteristics of each.

Reference:
Schutz, R. (2017, March). Language Acquisition - Language Learning. Retrieved April 14, 2017 from http://www.sk.com.br/sk-laxll.html

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Technology in the World Language classroom

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Technology in the World Language classroom

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This article talks about how the FL classrooms are still "resistant" to adapting to the Web 2.0 world. On the contrary, it gives light to the benefits of technology in the classroom and how the Internet has a plethora of resources for students. It mentions how the use of technology and Web 2.0 tools not only increases language acquisition but it also increases student satisfaction. Nowadays, kids are growing up learning technology like no generation has before, so why not put that innate knowledge to use? In the end, the results found an increase in engagement when technology was used compared to face-to-face communicative exercises.

I chose this article as an artifact because I see technology becoming bigger and bigger each day. I was always told that only face-to-face interaction would create acquisition but it was nice to read this article and see that technology can and does play a role in language acquisition. This is a great tool to still get those students involved and engaged who don't like to interact with other students.

Reference:
Pop, A. (2010). The impact of the new technologies in foreign language instruction our experience. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), 1185-1189.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.169

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Trying to keep students in the target language is tough. They often resort to English or "help" their friends by translating for them. As a way to keep students engaged, this article lists a series of non-traditional, no textbook, verbal activities you can use. These activities are all conversational (what you want!), some are authentic, and most importantly, are fun! With activities like these, students will be having fun and speaking Spanish, without even realizing it.

I thought this article was useful because 1) I have used some activities from this list and saw the positive feedback from my students. 2) It helps those who are less creative find ways to keep the classroom entertaining. FL is suppose to be a fun subject so finding lessons that are enticing and effective are always a win-win.

Reference:
Fisher, C. (2011, February).

Increase Your Students Usage of Target Language in Class. Retrieved April 1, 2017 from https://calicospanish.com/increase-your-students-usage-of-target-language-in-class/

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Thanks to all our dedicated #LangChat twitter participants who shared great ideas and resources to help encourage and increase student use of target language (TL) in class. Thanks especially to the moderator, Elle_Spanish, also known as Elvira Deyamport. While the focus of our conversation was TL use in the classroom, it was noted that it is also important to use the TL with students outside of the classroom for all types of interactions. (dlfulton)

Some teachers set requirements that students only use the TL in their class, others still struggle with students who want to use L1 (usually English) all the time. Students need adequate levels of input before they are ready to create output in the TL. However, it is also clear that all students can respond to TL immediately with physical responses and simple one word answers. In fact, tmsaue1 encourages that we give students a feeling of success USING the TL very early on in their experience to trigger motivation. Asking students lots of yes/no questions to gauge their understanding is important with beginners. Also, be sure you create a non-threatening environment by not taking yourself too seriously; this helps the kids open up (NinaTanti1). The importance of creating tasks that are relevant to students and at their level is critical. Also, equipping students with the language necessary to complete tasks in the TL is essential to their success (mme_henderson). Allow students to make mistakes and ensure they know mistakes are part of the learning proces s. (suarez712002) Several teachers commented that they try to ignore most mistakes and focus on building on what the students have said to engage their students with the language. (fravan, NinaTanti1, tmsaue1, dlfulton)

Some discussion of the ACTFL guidelines highlighted the importance of communication over accuracy for Novice learners. The ACTFL proficiency levels give students and teachers a guide as to realistic expectations for novice, intermediate and advanced students. tmsaue1 encourages students to write the proficiency levels in their own words and keep them in mind when using the TL. Castellano3CAS gives students a chance to hear speakers at the various levels of proficiency as that really opens their eyes to the degree of variation.

You will find below a number of ideas to increase student language production. Please keep in mind that limiting communication to learner interactions is one of the key barriers for students gaining proficiency. This is especially true with novice learners. (SECottrell, tmsaue1)
Tools to increase student usage of the target language within the classroom:

Voicethread: Post a picture and have students describe it and save it. (SraSpanglish) Students can comment on posts. mundaysa's students amazed her with their comments.

Lots of visuals as stimuli including props, gestures, TPRS. (tonitheisen, NinaTanti1, mrsenorhill)

Rephrase, repetition, cognates, high frequency words, synonyms (lesliedavison, usamimi74)

Children's books are great because students have a familiar story and connect with new vocabulary (degroote44) Site with leveled books in English, Spanish and French at http://www.readinga-z.com (Elle_Spanish)

Start class with a question of the day that everyone must answer to build confidence (mme_henderson)

Start class with video or song of the day (tonitheisen)

Use music/lyrics/singing to encourage speaking or as an icebreaker (IslandLanguages)

Start the week with commercials in TL. Find French commercials at : http://www.diigo.com/user/mmehenderson/PUBs (mme_henderson)

Go to the Dollar Store and buy wacky items and have students create commercials and/or magazine ads for the items. (fravan)

Silly/corny jokes (fravan) See cybraryman1's "Humor in the Classroom" page.

Give students a limited amount of fake money each day and make them pay for the privilege of using English (non-TL) during class. If they spend all their money, further use of English hurts their participation grade. (SECottrell)

Sara-Elizabeth (SECottrell) also shared her blog post on 9 ways to increase students' TL use. She includes lots of easy to implement, effective techniques such as questions, pattern sentences and seating arrangements.

Facilitate speaking by making classroom walls speak the TL - Label objects, clotheslines, interesting images, etc. (msfrenchteach)

Surveys: Great interpersonal task/assessment, especially if you go for more than one-word answers. Students love to walk around and ask questions of one another. (SraSpanglish, mme_henderson, NinaTanti1)

Sportscenter: Students read the schedule and scores of favorite teams (mrsenorhill)

Speed-dating (AKA wagonwheel, double donut) Students shift around the room interacting with a new student every 30 seconds or couple of minutes on specific topics. (several participants mentioned these ideas)

Think-aloud protocols: Teacher talks about what he/she is doing (suarez712002)

Information Gap activities: Student 1 describes something. Student 2 draws what is described. (suarez712002)

Rewrite familiar stories such as Three-Bears using vocabulary already known. (fravan)

Retell stories. These make awesome assessments. (lesliedavison)

Puppets and/or stuffed animals to engage students and illustrate points. (several teachers use these methods)

Felt boards: Tell stories and have students act and say key phrases and words throughout the story (Elle_Spanish)

Interview people on a topic of choice (from news, hobbies, interests, etc.) (usamimi74)

Encourage students to use words they know.

Create rhymes and poems from word tiles (mrsenorhill)

Teacher should try to simplify use of TL (caretaker speech) to ensure students have comprehensible input. (NinaTanti1, dlfulton)

Reader's Theater: Students read plays and stories aloud in TL with minimal use of costumes and dramatization. (IslandLanguages)

Storychasing (as opposed to storytelling.)

Create Wordles of poems, songs, stories, conversations and have students guess the main idea, theme, important vocabulary, etc. (lindseybp)

Technology tools to engage students within the classroom and beyond:

Skype with native speakers or other language learners in other classrooms. (see http://projects.twice.cc) (Elle_Spanish)

Also can find other classes to Skype with at Around the World with 80 Schools site. (Elle_Spanish)

Even kindergarten classes are Skyping! (usamimi74)

Edmodo - Use to develop long term relationships with classmates (mrsenorhill)

Todaysmeet Allows a presenter to see everything the audience is saying/thinking about your presentation.(mrsenorhill)

Crowdmap - Use to tag your neighborhood in Spanish.(mrsenorhill)

My Language Exchange - Use to find native speakers (arthaey)

Google Voice: Have students call in to Google voice and leave message in TL, teachers can email feedback. They can also text with the service. (mrsenorhill)

Voxopop for speaking homework. You can create a Talkgroup for your class. (NinaTanti1)

Mailvu: 10 minute video recordings sent via email

Let students record themselves on your smartphone or flip camera during class. Use the cameras to record movies, newscasts, video applications for contests, etc. Great for instant feedback. See samples from first graders by mrsenorhill. (NinaTanti1, mrsenorhill, SECottrell, AlyssaMaske)

Voki: Create avatars and your own voice and avatars will speak using student recorded audio. (Elle_Spanish)

Uses Voki to have students record a message for their parents at open house (dlfulton)

Set up a wiki to emulate #rhinospike where 1st and 2nd level speakers post audio requests and 3 and 4th level speakers provide recorded answers. (usamimi74)

Jing or Screencast-o-matic for individualized feedback for writing or audio.

Use ipadio.com to build students' confidence prior to live Skype broadcasts. Ipadio is a service that turns any phone call into a live webstream so you can create audio blogs. (usamimi74)

Vocaroo: Send voice messages around the web. (usamimi74)

Audioboo: Record and upload audio for friends and family. (usamimi74)

Glogster: Use the built-in recorded and player as a "back-up" for oral presentation to remove fear. (usamimi74)

Audacity: Have students create a game show by forming questions based on a topic covered in class. (fravan)

Have students download recordings to their personal MP3 players. (usamimi74)

Tongue twisters

Wow. I am confident you have gained some fresh ideas from this creative group of educators! Please join our weekly discussions on Twitter by searching for the #LangChat hashtag Thursdays at 8 Eastern time. Visit the Language Teachers Collaborate Wiki to share more ideas and resources with colleagues around the world and find easy access to summaries of all the #LangChat topics.

Follow the #LangChat team on Twitter: @Elle_Spanish, @DiegoOjeda66, @SECottrell, @CalicoTeach.

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Increase Your Students Usage of Target Language in Class | Calico Spanish

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Thanks to all our dedicated #LangChat twitter participants who shared great ideas and resources to help encourage and increase student use of target language (TL) in class. Thanks especially to the moderator, Elle_Spanish, also known as Elvira Deyamport. While the focus of our conversation was TL use in the classroom, it was noted that it ...

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"A teacher can hinder learning by teaching everyone in the same direct style or they can enable learners by creating a learning community" (Reflective Teaching, 2010).

A great strategy that helps both the teacher and the student that is also backed up by research, is reflective teaching. Teachers who regularly reflect on their lessons and assessments. "This process quickly leads to the conclusion that the appropriate language of learning is the target language" (Reflective Teaching, 2010). Throughout this video, FL teachers talk about how students learn best through actions, visuals, hands-on activities, etc, yet they never mention the textbook as a resource. When using the textbook, they are limited to the amount of target language they can use. However, with activities that are more personal and hands-on, they can remain in the target language for most of the time (which is SUPER beneficial to the students). Students are not able to reflect as well on their learning when they are constantly doing book work. This relates to the topic of the importance of speaking in the classroom. Some students can perform interpersonally all day long, but struggle when it comes to physically producing the language.

I chose to use this video because I liked that is used real teachers talking about their classrooms. I always get more out of videos or articles when people talk about their personal experiences because, just like our students, we like when it's personal. We like knowing about other people's lives. I thought this video did a great job at demonstrating when reflective teaching is and how it can be effectively. Before this video, I hadn't really thought about reflective teaching too much and this definitely opened up my eyes to how it can be done and how it can be done correctly.

Reference:
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.  (2010). Reflective Teaching [Video file]. Retrieved April 20, 2017, from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/linguafolio/5570?style=print

Below is a video if you click on the link. Had trouble downloading it to my computer and being able to re-open it :(

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Developing reflective learning skills in students requires that we become reflective teachers. What does reflective teaching look like in the classroom? Reflective teachers regularly reflect on and evaluate their lessons based on frequent formative assessment of student outcomes. This process quickly leads to the conclusion that the appropriate language of learning is the target language.

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Examples of activities that are comprehensible

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Examples of activities that are comprehensible

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- Authentic materials!!! Using materials that are written in the target language for native speakers of that language are the best resources possible.Another great example of an authentic material is playing Spanish music while students are in the classroom.
- Speak the language!
Just talking in the target language allows students to become familiar with it and muster up the courage to try it on their own.
- Total Physical Response
Having students make movements or gestures to demonstrate vocabulary helps students connect the word to an action.
- Recycle, recycle, recycle!
Just because students have been assessed on particular topic does not mean it gets swept under the rug and forgotten about. Incorporate previous material with new material to build a mountain of knowledge.

I chose to use this book because we used it in our methods class and I honestly think I would be lost right about now in student teaching. Just being able to understand comprehensible input, authentic materials, Integrated Performance Assessments, and all of the things I use daily in my class is a huge help. I strongly encourage any FL teachers to buy this book and use it because I refer to it all the time. This book is great because it gives you the perfect foundation for teaching a second language and then some.

Reference:
Shrum, J., & Glisan, E. (2009). Teacher's Handbook: Contextualized Language Instruction (4th ed.). Boston , MA: Cengage Learning.

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Comprehensible input: What is it? Why is it important? 

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Comprehensible input: What is it? Why is it important? 

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Comprehensible input is defined as language that can be understood by a group of listeners despite them not understanding all the words and structures in it. It can often be referred to as i + 1.

Comprehensible input is vital to the classroom because it helps student become autonomous learners. It allows them to recycle previous knowledge, while obtaining new material. It is material that will challenge them and cause them to think critically, without over challenging them. It encourages them to use natural learning strategies and not rely so much on the teacher to give them the answers.

Just like the picture above, I decided to add this picture in because I thought it gave a good visual representation of comprehensible input. It shows where students are comfortable, challenged, and overly challenged. I always think back to this model when I'm creating a lesson or trying to talk to students all in the target language and I ask myself, "is this input + 1 or input +2?" Because input + 2 would mean I'm trying to make them bite off more than they can chew.

Reference:
British Council. (2006, March). Comprehensible Input. Retrieved March 28, 2017, from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/comprehensible-input