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Some teachers rely on them for easy prep. Others use them as guidelines. Others avoid them all together. I use a mix. In my 6th and 7th grade classes we do not have a textbook, but in my 8th grade class we follow it pretty strictly. I relied on the textbook mainly because I was given an extra level to teach the day before classes started, so I had not time to develop an curriculum. I see myself moving away from the textbook this year, as I am more comfortable with the content covered and developing more projects to show mastery.

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World of Better Learning | Cambridge University Press

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Gregory Hadley is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Cultural Studies at Niigata University, Japan. A Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, he has written a number of books and articles on English Language Education. He is also a contributor to upcoming title, The Cambridge Guide to Learning English as a Second Language.

With the exception of students and teachers, textbooks are perhaps one of the most pervasive objects to be found in the second language classroom. And yet despite their ubiquity, few items are as divisive among educators.

I learned this lesson firsthand some years ago, when I took a post as the coordinator of an intensive English language program at a small Japanese college. The department that hired me felt that most English language textbooks represented a form of Anglo-American propaganda, in that they presented idealized forms of 'The West'. They feared that such textbooks implicitly colonized the minds of young learners by making them more amenable to Western concerns, while implicitly downplaying their Japanese cultural values. The department wanted English language textbooks, but not those made in Anglophone countries. Instead, they wanted textbooks depicting Japanese carrying out routine social activities, but which were communicated in the English language.

It was then that I started to become aware of how the political could appropriate the pedagogical. This experience was the beginning of a professional journey where I have sought, on one hand, to raise awareness about the sociopolitical underpinnings of textbooks, while also seeking to find out what, if anything, can be learned through language textbooks. By 'language textbooks', I am referring to published materials designed to stimulate language learning and support language instruction. They can range from Global Textbooks of the type marketed by major academic publishers, to Local Textbooks created by smaller publishers, and designed for groups of learners in specific sociocultural contexts (i.e. Japanese High School students).

Views on language textbooks

During the course of my journey, I have found teachers and scholars working from three basic positions with regard to language textbooks. Some see language textbooks as indispensible for language study, others use them begrudgingly as necessary evils, and there are those who think that language textbooks actually keep students from learning the language. Among these educators, many would be happy if all language textbooks were forever banished from the classroom.

Certainly, there are ineffective textbooks out there. These are those turgid little books that many of us have had the misfortune to encounter as a set text, where there are shortcomings in productive and receptive language tasks, where there is a lack of logical sequencing in communicative activities, inconsistent organization, a dearth of goals and strategies, and which are lacking in meaningful interaction as well as instructive feedback. Most teachers know a bad language textbook when they see one. But there are equally many that are effective in accomplishing these goals. In addition, there is a growing body of empirical evidence to suggest that, when used in a conscientious, informed manner, language textbooks do in fact support the process of learning a second language.

How do textbooks help in the language classroom?

So, for those who are not immediately biased against the presence of an effective textbook in the language classroom, the above question remains. I believe that a strong case can be made for language textbooks, both for students, teachers, and for the institution.

For students, simply having a language textbook (especially an effective one) is reassuring, because it gives the fuzzy notion of learning a language a physical representation. They get a better idea about what should be learned and how to get there. The textbook provides a springboard for meaningful output and reformulation, as well as graded tasks to help in building towards new levels of acquisition. Textbooks can be taken out of the classroom, which give the students a resource for autonomous learning.

Like students, teachers vary. For inexperienced teachers, the language textbook can serve as a 'pedagogic cookbook' for how to 'serve up' language lessons. In this sense, both teachers and students are using the textbook to learn. Even for more experienced teachers, having an organized, portable, and pre-packaged set of learning materials will be an economical set of resources that will help save time in terms of class preparation. There will, of course, be those with decades of classroom experience who will look at language textbooks in the way that a gourmet chef looks at a cookbook designed for young people who have just moved away from home. They have internalized much in their years of instruction, and teach their classes with artistic flair. Denigrating textbooks, however, implicitly can position themselves as superior to those who choose to use them or who need them, and can deny students the opportunity to have a textbook as a resource. This does not seem, to me at least, to be a productive position to take.

Institutions often need language textbooks as much as some students and teachers, though it is often for maintaining accountability with stakeholders, and for also providing a coherent, uniform approach to the language curriculum. This can then allow for standardized assessment aimed at improving future instruction. There will be institutions, such as the one where I had once worked many years ago, who view textbooks with a skeptical gaze, but my experience elsewhere over the past twenty years is that most institutional decision makers find textbooks from reputable publishers comforting, because they have faith that considerable effort has been put into creating and testing the materials before they were published.

Certainly, learning without a textbook is possible, but in most situations around the world, having an effective textbook serves as an important learning resource for students, as a pedagogical support for teachers, and as a provider of coherence for the educational institution. Learning through textbooks happens when teachers do not see them as a hindrance, but instead, find what is useful within the pages, in order to help their learners better acquire the target language.
What is your opinion on language textbooks? Are they a help or a hindrance in your work? Do you have any stories of success or failure with using language textbooks?
Suggested papers to explore:
Guilloteaux, M. (2013). Language Textbook Selection: Using Materials Analysis from the Perspective of SLA Principles. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 22(3), 231-239.
Hadley, G. (2013). Global Textbooks in Local Contexts: An Empirical Investigation of Effectiveness. In N. Harwood (Ed.), English Language Teaching Textbooks: Content, Consumption, Production (pp. 205-238). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave-Macmillian.
Nitta, R., & Gardner, S. (2005). Consciousness-raising and Practice in ELT Coursebooks. ELT Journal, 59(1), 3-13.

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Teacher and learner views on language textbooks | Cambridge English

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Gregory Hadley is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Cultural Studies at Niigata University, Japan. A Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, he has written a number of books and articles on English Language Education. He is also a contributor to upcoming title, The Cambridge Guide to Learning English as a Second Language.

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This article from 1959 argues that it's natural for teacher to resists change, especially if what they are doing is successful. If students are truly finding success in the class, then why do I need to have a pen and paper "do now" and "exit slip" every day. Innovations should benefit education, not just change for change's sake.

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Resistance to Change in Language Teaching on JSTOR

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John C. McGalliard, Resistance to Change in Language Teaching, College English, Vol. 20, No. 7 (Apr., 1959), pp. 347-350

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What the government research found was that innovative projects had an 18% success rate with a 53% null rate. As a teacher using traditional methods, this is not motivating to overhaul my teaching methods.

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As part of the federal recovery effort to boost the economy after the 2008 recession, the U.S. Education Department suddenly had a big pot of money to give away to "innovations" in education. Since then, more than $1.5 billion has been spent on almost 200 ideas because Congress continued to appropriate funds even after the recession ended. Big chunks went to building new KIPP charter schools and training thousands of new Teach for America recruits to become teachers. Other funds made it possible for lesser known programs in reading, writing, math and science instruction to reach classrooms around the country. Many of the grant projects involved technology, sometimes delivering lessons or material over the internet. One "innovation" was to help teachers select good apps for their students. Another was for a novel way to evaluate teachers.

In order to obtain the grants, recipients had to determine if their ideas were effective by tracking test scores. Results are in for the first wave of 67 programs, representing roughly $700 million of the innovation grants and it doesn't look promising.

Only 12 of the 67 innovations, or 18 percent, were found to have any positive impact on student achievement, according to a report published earlier in 2018. Some of these positive impacts were very tiny but as long as the students who received the "innovative treatment" posted larger test score gains than a comparison group of students who were taught as usual, it counted.

"It's only a handful," said Barbara Goodson, a researcher at Abt Associates Inc., a research and consulting firm that was hired to analyze the results of the Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund for the Department of Education. "It's discouraging to everybody. We are desperate to find what works. Here was a program that was supposed to identify promising models. People are disappointed that we didn't come up with 20 new models."

"That's the dirty secret of all of education research," Goodson added. "It is really hard to change student achievement. We have rarely been able to do it. It's harder than anybody thinks." She cited a prior 2013 study that also found when education reforms were put to rigorous scientific tests with control groups and random assignment, 90 percent of them failed to find positive effects.

Why is innovation so hard in education?

To Goodson, who has specialized in early childhood education research for 40 years, the problem is that learning is ultimately about changing human behavior and that is always difficult for adults and children. And so many other things - like nutrition, sleep, safety and relationships at home - affect learning. "We've known for the longest time that economic background characteristics swamp any education intervention," she said. "We're starting out with only being able to make a small difference in how people do. The lever of education is only operating on a small slice of the pie."

In some cases, the current measures of effectiveness, generally standardized assessments, may be too broad to capture the targets of these innovations, Goodson said. For example, a phonics program might help some kids read more fluently. But the ability to read more fluently might only be indirectly captured in a reading test that's focused on comprehension and vocabulary. An intervention aimed at soft skills, such as the ability to persist and try again, can't be measured at all on these conventional tests.

Many interventions target kids who are several grade levels behind. A seventh-grade math test might not pick up on how a student progressed through two year's worth of math from third-grade multiplication of single digits to fifth-grade addition of fractions. Instead the test might suggest a minuscule academic improvement because the student flubbed most of the seventh-grade questions on solving for x and graphing equations.

A more sensitive yardstick for measuring innovation would require creating and administering more tests to students. That's a hard sell to principals, teachers and families who may already feel that there's too much testing in schools.

Saro Mohammed, a partner at the Learning Accelerator, a non-profit organization that supports using technology to tailor instruction to each child, says that it's sometimes hard to prove that an innovation works is because of unintended consequences when schools try something new. For example, if a school increases the amount of time that children read independently to try to boost reading achievement, it might shorten the amount of time that students work together collaboratively or engage in a group discussion.

"Your reading outcomes may turn out to be the same [as the control group], but it's not because independent reading doesn't work," Mohammed said. "It's because you inadvertently changed something else. Education is super complex. There are lots of moving pieces."

Mohammed said the study results are not all bad. Only one of the 67 programs produced negative results, meaning that kids in the intervention ended up worse off than learning as usual. Most studies ended up producing "null" results and she said that means "we're not doing worse than business as usual. In trying these new things, we're not doing harm on the academic side."

Mohammed also pointed out that learning improvements are slow and incremental. It can take longer than even the three-to-five-year time horizon that the innovation grants allowed.

Eighteen of the studies had to be thrown out because of problems with the data or the study design. In some cases, too many students who tried the innovation were ignored in the final figures. When you exclude kids with disabilities, for example, that can skew the results upward. Too many of the early-stage innovations weren't tried on enough students to produce statistically significant results. That means even when the students in the intervention produced larger test score gains than those in a comparison control group, the researchers still had to call it a "null" result if the odds of reproducing such a positive result were no better than flipping a coin. (One of the reasons that many small education studies cannot be replicated is because they were lucky flukes in the first place.) In more recent grant making, Goodson says the small studies have been "powered up" so that the results will be statistically useful. (They're now called Education Innovation and Research grants.)

This grant program was also a first test of using rigorous scientific evidence as a way of issuing grants in education. Proven concepts received the largest $25-50 million grants. Ideas with the least evidence received less than $5 million to help them build an evidence base. Ideas in between might get $15 million. Among the 48 least proven ideas, only 4 were found to increase student achievement. That's a low 8 percent success rate. (Links to all the publicly available evaluations for each program are here. Appendix D of the report lists the academic results for each program.)

But programs in the highest tier were supposed to have a proven track record and only two of the four - the KIPP charter school network and Reading Recovery - generated stronger test scores.

Michael Hansen, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, characterized the results as "discouraging" but cautioned that high failure rates are not a reason to give up on educational innovation. "This is the nature of R&D," he said. "If we stop giving out grants, then we stop innovating."

This story about innovation in education was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

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The 'dirty secret' about educational innovation

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Get important education news and analysis delivered straight to your inbox As part of the federal recovery effort to boost the economy after the 2008 recession, the U.S. Education Department suddenly had a big pot of money to give away to "innovations" in education.

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Vertical alignment is a problem in our district. Every teacher develops their own curriculum as there is nothing provided by the district. It stunts student growth because there are not expectations by the time they finished a program. Many of my students take Spanish throughout elementary school, but are performing at a novice low level when they get to me. This could be resolved if we used our PD time to develop mile stones that for student achievement at each level: elementary, middle, high.

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FLES classes are more immersive. While FLEX classes are taught in English with time devoted to language immersion. I'm more of a FLEX class because I find it difficult to build relationships with students otherwise. I do want to grow the amount of target language time in class to at least 70%. One way I could grow is to give instructions to tasks in Spanish when they are familiar tasks.

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Strategies & Methodology

Materials & Curricula

Student Assessment

Elementary School Foreign Language Programs
By Jane Reeves
CAL Digest, September 1989

A wide range of elementary school foreign language programs have been designed for the English-speaking child. These programs vary in intensity and outcome, depending on the goals and the availability of time and resources. Before starting a new language program, teachers and administrators should consider all possible program models and select the one that corresponds best to their goals and available resources.

At one end of the spectrum are total immersion programs, where virtually all classroom instruction is in the foreign language. At the other end are foreign language experience (FLEX) programs, where classes may meet only once or twice a week and where the goal is not to develop language proficiency, but rather to introduce children to one or more foreign languages and cultures. Elementary school foreign language programs fall into the following broad categories: total immersion, partial immersion, content-based FLES (foreign language in the elementary school), regular (non-content-based) FLES, and FLEX.

In the present "Digest" we will discuss various FLES and FLEX options. (For more information on immersion programs, refer to the November 1993, ERIC Digest Foreign Language Immersion Programs by Myriam Met.)

What is Regular FLES
FLES programs were very popular in the 1960s and enjoyed much public and government support. During the 1970s, however, national priorities changed and support for FLES programs declined, causing many to be discontinued. The 1980s have seen the rebirth of FLES programs due, in part, to a renewed national emphasis on foreign language competency. The new FLES programs have learned from and improved upon the earlier ones.

FLES programs now focus less on the teaching of grammar and more on the development of listening and speaking skills and on cultural awareness. Grammar is not ignored, but is learned indirectly rather than through direct instruction. FLES programs follow the natural sequence of language learning: understanding > speaking > reading > writing. The primary stress is on understanding and speaking. Instructional techniques appropriate for young children have been developed; physical activity and concrete experiences play an important role. Visuals, manipulatives, and realia are a crucial part of the FLES classroom, and the typical lesson plan includes songs, rhymes, games, play-acting with puppets, and other physical activities that appeal to the younger child.

FLES classes usually meet two to five times a week for 20 to 40 minutes at a time. In some schools, classes begin in kindergarten and continue through 6th grade, while in other schools they begin in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th grade. The level of proficiency attained by the students is usually directly related to the amount of time they spend using the foreign language.

What is Content-Based FLES?
Content-based, or content-enriched, FLES differs from regular FLES in that subject content from the regular school curriculum is taught in the foreign language, thus the focus is not on (explicit) language instruction alone. Teachers integrate content learning with language development via activities where the main topics come from the regular curriculum content areas (i.e., social studies, mathematics, science) so that language is acquired in a meaningful context. These content-based activities can provide a framework for developing higher cognitive skills as well as a vehicle for both language learning and content learning. Because they spend more time using the foreign language and are exposed to a wider variety of topics, students in content-based FLES programs generally attain a higher level of proficiency than their counterparts in regular FLES programs.

What is FLEX?
The goals of FLEX programs are to introduce students to a foreign language and culture and to motivate them to pursue further language study. Unlike FLES classes, where all or most of the instruction is in the foreign language, FLEX classes are usually conducted in English, with some basic communication in the foreign language. Obviously, fluency in the foreign language is not an objective. In some cases, students are exposed to one language and culture for the duration of the school year, while in others, a sequence of two or three languages may be offered in the course of the year. Some elementary schools offer three one-year courses, each in a different language, during the last three years of elementary school to help students decide which language to study in secondary school. The level of proficiency achieved is much lower than in FLES classes, but FLEX can serve a useful purpose by creating enthusiasm for language study in general.

When and Where Do Classes Meet?
In some schools, foreign languages are part of the regular school curriculum, and classes meet during the day. In other school districts, foreign language classes are sponsored by the PTA or by an independent group of parents, and while the classes are often held on school premises, they are obliged to meet before or after the regular school day. There are advantages and disadvantages to each situation. Classes that are part of the school day have little or no drop-out problem and are legitimized by being part of the curriculum. Staffing is less of a problem as language teachers usually prefer to work during the regular school hours and be regular faculty members. Sometimes, however, schools find it difficult to fit foreign language classes into the already overflowing elementary curriculum. When classes meet before or after school, encroaching on the regular school day's time is not a problem, but these classes have to compete with other extra-curricular activities. It can be difficult to attract enough students to form a class. Staffing is more of a problem as it is often difficult to attract competent teachers who can work the necessary hours and who are willing to spend time traveling to and from schools to teach 30-minute classes.

Some language teachers have their own classroom, while others travel from one class to another. Most teachers seem to prefer having their own room, as it enables them to create a special environment without invading the space of the regular classroom teachers who usually appreciate having a period of time to work alone in their room.

How are FLES and FLEX Programs Staffed?
The lack of availability of competent language teachers who have experience working with elementary school children is often a major problem. The criteria for good FLES teachers should include native or near-native fluency in the foreign language, an understanding of the culture(s) of or associated with the language, knowledge of second language learning processes and teaching methods, and experience working with young children. It is often difficult to find enough teachers who meet all these requirements, and schools sometimes have to train teachers who meet only some of the above criteria. These teachers include: a) elementary certified teachers who speak the target language but are not trained to teach it, b) teachers certified to teach a foreign language at the secondary level but not to teach in an elementary school, and c) native speakers without teacher certification but with prior teaching experience. In addition, in FLEX classes, where exposure rather than proficiency is the goal, one can sometimes find elementary teachers who do not speak the foreign language learning the language along with the students.

When recruiting teachers for a foreign language program, it is important to remember that the students will not be able to achieve a higher degree of fluency than their teacher (assuming that their exposure to the language is limited to the classroom).

What Materials and Resources are Available?
Publishers of foreign language texts have begun to heed the growing need for FLES materials. Although most programs still rely on teacher-developed materials, some authentic materials can be obtained directly from foreign countries through personal contacts or travel, other materials can be borrowed from the regular classroom, and garage sales often prove to be a good source of toys, puppets, etc. For a comprehensive list of ideas for stocking the FLES classroom, see chapter 12 of "Languages and Children-Making the Match" by Curtain and Pesola.

Conferences and workshops held by language teaching and advocacy organizations provide parents, teachers, and administrators with the means to stay abreast of new developments in the field. "Learning Languages," a journal published three times a year by the National Network for Early Language Learning, encourages the sharing of ideas, experiences, and information among FLES teachers. Many useful documents can be found through the ERIC system (available at most libraries), and the ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics has produced a number of bibliographies and fact sheets on foreign languages in the elementary school.

What are the Hallmarks of a Successful Program?
Successful programs:

have community and administrative support;

are staffed by fully qualified teachers;

have well-planned curricula, designed to meet program goals;

have sufficient resources to carry out the program; and

maintain high student interest and measurable achievement.

References
Anderson, H., & Rhodes, N. (1983). Immersion and other innovations in U.S. elementary schools. In: "Studies in Language Learning, 4" (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 278 237)

Andrade, C., & Ging, D. (1988). "Urban FLES models: Progress and promise." Cincinnati, OH and Columbus, OH: Cincinnati Public Schools and Columbus Public Schools. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 292 337)

Criminale, U. (1985). "Launching foreign language programs in elementary schools: Highpoints, headaches, and how to's." Oklahoma City, OK. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 255 039)

Curtain, H., & Pesola, C.A. (1994). "Languages and children-Making the match. Foreign language instruction in the elementary school." White Plains, NY: Longman Publishing Group.

Thayer, Y. (1988). "Getting started with French or Spanish in the elementary school: The cost in time and money." Radford, VA: Radford City Schools. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 294 450)

The Wingspread Journal. (July 1988). "Foreign language instruction in the elementary schools." Racine, WI: The Johnson Foundation.

For Further Reading
Kennedy, D.F., & De Lorenzo, W. (1985). "Complete guide to exploratory foreign language programs." Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.

Lipton, G. (1988). "Practical handbook to elementary foreign language programs." Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.

Lipton, G. (1988). "So you want to have a FLES program?" Champaign, IL: National FLES Commission AATF Report.

Lipton, G., Rhodes, N., & Curtain, H. (Eds.). (1985). "The many faces of foreign language in the elementary school: FLES, FLEX, and immersion." Champaign, IL: American Association of Teachers of French.

Rhodes, N., & Schreibstein, A. (1983). "Foreign language in the elementary school: A practical guide." Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 225 403)

Schinke-Llano, L. (1985). "Foreign language in the elementary school: State of the art." Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents/Center for Applied Linguistics. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 264 715)

This report was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. RI88062010. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI or ED.

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Strategies & Methodology Materials & Curricula Student Assessment Elementary School Foreign Language Programs By Jane Reeves CAL Digest, September 1989 A wide range of elementary school foreign language programs have been designed for the English-speaking child. These programs vary in intensity and outcome, depending on the goals and the availability of time and resources.

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Standards focused on the 5 C's shows growth in how we conceptualize language education. Previously the focus was on mastering specific grammatical concepts.

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Our school district had a big push for standards based grading during the pandemic, but has since dropped efforts. One problem was that our grade system was not set up for standards based grades, but letter grades. My argument is that if you use backwards design that leads up to a project, then assigning letter grades is more accurate feedback than a yes or no for a standard completion. If you get an A or B then you complete the standard. A C, D, or F in my class means that you did not master the standards. Students are always welcome to resubmit work to improve their score.

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About five years ago I found myself deeply engaged in a school-wide discussion on assessment practices. As the discussion continued, I found myself wondering:

Why couldn't standards-based reporting work at the high school level?

What would happen if I gave students multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery of a standard?

Could this be the key to shifting students' mindset from getting a good grade to focusing on learning the Spanish language?

There were so many questions.

Additionally, I wanted to effect change in the students' mindsets from learning Spanish to fulfill a requirement to enhancing their options in the world after high school, whether that be in the workforce, military, or college/university setting.

Then, as if the stars were in alignment, that summer, an email from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction offered an amazing opportunity: "Teachers, do you want to improve your teaching practice? Improve your students' performance? Do you want to do this while earning CEUs and remaining in your classroom? We invite you to join the NC Action Research Network and conduct 'real-time' research in your classroom."

This was perfect! The journey began!

The steps I followed

Research, research, and more research! I discovered leaders in the field of assessment such as Rick Wormeli, Ken O'Connor, Alfie Kohn, Mark Barnes, and others. Then I found Starr Sackstein's Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School . This book resonated with me because it included step-by-step instructions that I could immediately implement in the classroom.

Parents received a letter outlining the new grading procedures during Open House at the beginning of the school year, and the same letter was posted online in PowerSchool Learning.

Students were introduced to how the new approach to assessment, grading, and reporting would be applied in class during the first weeks of the first quarter.

Students received narrative feedback in place of traditional percentage grades on all formative and summative assessments from the teacher, their peers, and themselves. Students were also given direct instruction on how to give meaningful feedback.

Students organized all work in a portfolio labeled with the standards addressed during the quarter. Students kept a progress tracker within their portfolio to keep up with all of the standards, assignments, feedback, and strategies used throughout the quarter. They could also keep an e-Portfolio within PowerSchool Learning if they chose to.

I tracked student progress toward meeting the standards in my PowerSchool Learning Standards-based Gradebook instead of recording traditional percentage grades in the PowerTeacher GradeBook. Students also brought home standards-based progress reports.

At mid-quarter and at the end of the quarter, the student and I would discuss their progress towards meeting the standards as well as determine the sole traditional percentage grade to be recorded.

Standards and assessment

I started with the focus standards from the North Carolina Standard Course of Study/World Language Essential Standards for each thematic unit. Standards are assessed on the three modes of communication: interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational. Below is an example of the first unit of study in my Level-2 Spanish course. The priority objectives are highlighted and those are the objectives that must be taught within the unit. Presentational and interpersonal assessments were assessed using the PALS Level-2 Analytic Writing and Speaking Rubrics.

As my district required me to give numerical grades, I used the following 4-point scale: A = 4 (Excelling), B = 3 (Meeting), C = 2 (Approaching), D or below = 1 (Beginning). I converted the ratings on the PALS rubrics to fit my 4-point scale in order to transfer numeric grades on assessments into the grade book. EE = Excelling (4), ME = Meeting (3), AME = Approaching (2), and DNME = Beginning (1). Interpretive assessments were scored in this manner as well. The number grades 1-4 were only inserted in the gradebook while narrative feedback (audio or written) was recorded on all assessments.

Below are reflections from students in a Spanish 2 class about their experience with this style of grading. As I read their reflections, I grouped them into categories or themes that kept coming up. Each number represents a student and what they thought about each part of the process.

That was then...this is now!

After my action research, I went on to lead several professional development sessions on my work, and our district has implemented standards-based approach in grades K-2. There are now ongoing conversations at the district level about mastery grading.

Now at a different high school, I'm fortunate to have the support of my administration to maintain my grading practices, although a few things have changed. Due to the pandemic, we were in a hybrid model for the rest of the school year. I have given more feedback verbally, either in real time or recorded in our new LMS, Canvas. Students record my verbal feedback on their progress trackers. I converted the mid- and end-of-quarter conferences to Google Form reflections with the option to also meet face-to-face via Zoom.

Students also receive a traditional percentage grade mid-quarter as well as at the end of the quarter. To be clear these grades are not averaged; the end-of-quarter grade replaces the mid-quarter grade.

During the pandemic, I have really struggled to give timely feedback. Everything has taken such a long time to create, follow through, and facilitate. But just when I felt like this approach to assessment and feedback was just too hard to maintain, one student gave me the inspiration to continue.

Here is what she said:

I think this method of grading is extremely effective in not only seeing my growth as a student but also in encouraging me to improve in areas where I need to. It allows me to see how and where I can improve without worrying about an arbitrary number that the system has calculated, and it considers the fact that I am human, and that I make mistakes. This also allows me to assess myself based on how well I think I have done, and what grade I feel I deserve based on that. For these reasons, I think more teachers should adopt this grading practice with their students.

-11th grader Parkland Magnet High School

You may feel that maybe jumping all into this approach seems overwhelming, but my suggestion is to start small:

Focus on one class

Try taking one assessment and using narrative feedback instead of a percentage

Confer with your students at least once a quarter

Keep evidence of your students' progress over time via portfolios

Start having conversations with your administration to see what you can implement

Most of all, keep an open mind, be flexible, and know that the process of reforming your assessment and grading practices will change over time, and that's okay! The growth you see in your students-as well as yourself-is well worth the journey.

Rhonda Higgins is an IB Spanish teacher at Parkland Magnet High School in Winston Salem, NC. She is also a married mother of three daughters-17 years, 5 years, and 8 months old. When not in the classroom, Rhonda enjoys long-distance running and spending quality time with her family.

Rhonda Higgins is an IB Spanish teacher at Parkland Magnet High School in Winston Salem, NC. Besides this, she is a wife, a mother of three daughters, 17 yrs, 5 yrs, and 8 months old. When she is not in the classroom, she enjoys running long distances and spending quality time with her family.

About five years ago I found myself deeply engaged in a school-wide discussion on assessment practices. As the discussion continued, I found myself wondering:

Why couldn't standards-based reporting work at the high school level?

What would happen if I gave students multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery of a standard?

Could this be the key to shifting students' mindset from getting a good grade to focusing on learning the Spanish language?

There were so many questions.

Additionally, I wanted to effect change in the students' mindsets from learning Spanish to fulfill a requirement to enhancing their options in the world after high school, whether that be in the workforce, military, or college/university setting.

Then, as if the stars were in alignment, that summer, an email from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction offered an amazing opportunity: "Teachers, do you want to improve your teaching practice? Improve your students' performance? Do you want to do this while earning CEUs and remaining in your classroom? We invite you to join the NC Action Research Network and conduct 'real-time' research in your classroom."

This was perfect! The journey began!

The steps I followed

Research, research, and more research! I discovered leaders in the field of assessment such as Rick Wormeli, Ken O'Connor, Alfie Kohn, Mark Barnes, and others. Then I found Starr Sackstein's Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School . This book resonated with me because it included step-by-step instructions that I could immediately implement in the classroom.

Parents received a letter outlining the new grading procedures during Open House at the beginning of the school year, and the same letter was posted online in PowerSchool Learning.

Students were introduced to how the new approach to assessment, grading, and reporting would be applied in class during the first weeks of the first quarter.

Students received narrative feedback in place of traditional percentage grades on all formative and summative assessments from the teacher, their peers, and themselves. Students were also given direct instruction on how to give meaningful feedback.

Students organized all work in a portfolio labeled with the standards addressed during the quarter. Students kept a progress tracker within their portfolio to keep up with all of the standards, assignments, feedback, and strategies used throughout the quarter. They could also keep an e-Portfolio within PowerSchool Learning if they chose to.

I tracked student progress toward meeting the standards in my PowerSchool Learning Standards-based Gradebook instead of recording traditional percentage grades in the PowerTeacher GradeBook. Students also brought home standards-based progress reports.

At mid-quarter and at the end of the quarter, the student and I would discuss their progress towards meeting the standards as well as determine the sole traditional percentage grade to be recorded.

Standards and assessment

I started with the focus standards from the North Carolina Standard Course of Study/World Language Essential Standards for each thematic unit. Standards are assessed on the three modes of communication: interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational. Below is an example of the first unit of study in my Level-2 Spanish course. The priority objectives are highlighted and those are the objectives that must be taught within the unit. Presentational and interpersonal assessments were assessed using the PALS Level-2 Analytic Writing and Speaking Rubrics.

As my district required me to give numerical grades, I used the following 4-point scale: A = 4 (Excelling), B = 3 (Meeting), C = 2 (Approaching), D or below = 1 (Beginning). I converted the ratings on the PALS rubrics to fit my 4-point scale in order to transfer numeric grades on assessments into the grade book. EE = Excelling (4), ME = Meeting (3), AME = Approaching (2), and DNME = Beginning (1). Interpretive assessments were scored in this manner as well. The number grades 1-4 were only inserted in the gradebook while narrative feedback (audio or written) was recorded on all assessments.

Below are reflections from students in a Spanish 2 class about their experience with this style of grading. As I read their reflections, I grouped them into categories or themes that kept coming up. Each number represents a student and what they thought about each part of the process.

That was then...this is now!

After my action research, I went on to lead several professional development sessions on my work, and our district has implemented standards-based approach in grades K-2. There are now ongoing conversations at the district level about mastery grading.

Now at a different high school, I'm fortunate to have the support of my administration to maintain my grading practices, although a few things have changed. Due to the pandemic, we were in a hybrid model for the rest of the school year. I have given more feedback verbally, either in real time or recorded in our new LMS, Canvas. Students record my verbal feedback on their progress trackers. I converted the mid- and end-of-quarter conferences to Google Form reflections with the option to also meet face-to-face via Zoom.

Students also receive a traditional percentage grade mid-quarter as well as at the end of the quarter. To be clear these grades are not averaged; the end-of-quarter grade replaces the mid-quarter grade.

During the pandemic, I have really struggled to give timely feedback. Everything has taken such a long time to create, follow through, and facilitate. But just when I felt like this approach to assessment and feedback was just too hard to maintain, one student gave me the inspiration to continue.

Here is what she said:

I think this method of grading is extremely effective in not only seeing my growth as a student but also in encouraging me to improve in areas where I need to. It allows me to see how and where I can improve without worrying about an arbitrary number that the system has calculated, and it considers the fact that I am human, and that I make mistakes. This also allows me to assess myself based on how well I think I have done, and what grade I feel I deserve based on that. For these reasons, I think more teachers should adopt this grading practice with their students.

-11th grader Parkland Magnet High School

You may feel that maybe jumping all into this approach seems overwhelming, but my suggestion is to start small:

Focus on one class

Try taking one assessment and using narrative feedback instead of a percentage

Confer with your students at least once a quarter

Keep evidence of your students' progress over time via portfolios

Start having conversations with your administration to see what you can implement

Most of all, keep an open mind, be flexible, and know that the process of reforming your assessment and grading practices will change over time, and that's okay! The growth you see in your students-as well as yourself-is well worth the journey.

Rhonda Higgins is an IB Spanish teacher at Parkland Magnet High School in Winston Salem, NC. She is also a married mother of three daughters-17 years, 5 years, and 8 months old. When not in the classroom, Rhonda enjoys long-distance running and spending quality time with her family.

Rhonda Higgins is an IB Spanish teacher at Parkland Magnet High School in Winston Salem, NC. Besides this, she is a wife, a mother of three daughters, 17 yrs, 5 yrs, and 8 months old. When she is not in the classroom, she enjoys running long distances and spending quality time with her family.

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A High School Spanish Teacher's Journey from Traditional Grades - Teachers Going Gradeless

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About five years ago I found myself deeply engaged in a school-wide discussion on assessment practices. As the discussion continued, I found myself wondering: Why couldn't standards-based reporting work at the high school level? What would happen if I gave students multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery of a standard?

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The flipped classroom is an example of change, but not growth. The idea is based on traditional approaches of teacher instruction followed by student practice. The difference is that where the instruction and practice happens is flipped. Student watch the lesson at home and do the practice in class. Because foreign language is not a core class, I try to contain our work to the classroom. We have instruction and practice during class, so that students can relax at home/do their core class work (because that is what their parents prioritize anyway).

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Foreign Language Teaching 101: The Flipped Learning Approach

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The series of Foreign Language Teaching approaches concludes with the Flipped Learning approach.

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These shifts are growth and not change because they are innovating for a student centered classroom. Traditionally foreign language classroom were very teacher focused. The teacher was the expert. They told the students the grammatical patterns to follow. Then students applied what they could for accuracy assessments. Communicative activies, grammar in context, and authentic sources allow students process the language in their own way in order to grow their proficiency.

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French class doesn't look the same as it did when you were in school. These six key shifts have changed world language instruction for the better.

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More and more teachers are switching to a proficiency based classroom as opposed to the more traditional accuracy based classroom. 3/4 of the teachers in my department use proficiency based methods, where students are negotiating meaning to interact in the language. Proficiency classrooms focus on developing listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills as opposed to accuracy in applying grammar structures.

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Where would you say that you are on the path toward teaching for proficiency? In this episode, we look at the Roadmap to Proficiency framework. This is the framework that Devon Gunning (from La Libre Language Learning) uses as she mentors teachers working toward the goal of teaching with a proficiency objective. Devon joins me today to help us all see where we are on the roadmap with guidance on how we can move further along.

Devon's proficiency journey, where she started and what she has learned along the way

a teacher's journey (roadmap) to proficiency broken down into 5 phases/steps of where a teacher might identify on their journey

the identities with a description of each phases/step so that listeners can see where they might be

guidance for teachers to move themselves along the roadmap

suggestions for leveling up: Wanderer to Explorer, Explorer to Navigator, Navigator to Globetrotter, Globetrotter to Local

Connect with Devon Gunning: Work with Joshua either in person or remotely.
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This entry was posted in Classroom Procedures, Podcast Episodes and tagged ACTFL, ACTFL Core Practices, Devon Gunning, french, french teacher, La Libre Language Learning, language, language acquisition, language learning, language teacher, Second Language Acquisition, spanish, spanish teacher, teacher. Bookmark the permalink.

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80: The Teacher's Roadmap to Proficiency with Devon Gunning

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Where would you say that you are on the path toward teaching for proficiency? In this episode, we look at the Roadmap to Proficiency framework. This is the framework that Devon Gunning (from La Libre Language Learning) uses as she mentors teachers working toward the goal of teaching with a proficiency objective.