Task 1 by Giovanna https://padlet.com/giovanna_cascia/nmpvcqistrpx Reflections and thoughts about CLIL en-us 2017-05-17 14:13:00 UTC 2019-11-17 18:53:54 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Dartstarget.png TASK 1 Giovanna Cascia Methodological CLIL course – Foligno Reflections and Thoughts about CLIL The first module is coming to an end, and we are asked to write down our reflections on the most relevant ideas our trainers talked about, shared and discussed with us. There is no question that what each of them told us was and is food for our thought. Indeed, we were provided with a lot of material related to: - theoretical knowledge about CLIL methodology, such as the basic principles of CLIL proposed by Cummins, the 4C’s framework, Bloom’s taxonomy of thinking skills, the Language Triptych of Coyle; - examples of practical applications and experiments already carried out in class; - ideas for lesson plans and suggestions for new digital tools; - CLIL student's learning strategies, specific warnings and advice for CLIL teachers about the crucial problem of evaluation. Going back to the lessons, I have to admit that for the first time I made myself aware of the actual interest that CLIL has raised at a European level. Indeed, Letizia Cinganotto, a Ph.D. researcher in Linguistics at INDIRE, disclosed all the work that she, as a member of a European team, has been doing to help teacher communities to reach the main aims of CLIL, and to let them exploit the benefits that technologies and multimedia can bring to a CLIL environment. She told us of the ECML (European Center of Modern Language of the Council of Europe), and of all those activities that are addressed to foster the subject literacies development and the deep learning, and to increase the transfer of different skills in contexts where learners are operating in more than one language such as CLIL environment. She also presented the ICT-REV project, another project that has been run within the ECML, explaining that it has developed an inventory of freely available online tools and open educational resources (OER) for language teaching and learning. giovanna_cascia https://padlet.com/giovanna_cascia/nmpvcqistrpx/wish/339612377 1/3]]> 2019-03-09 23:16:57 UTC https://padlet.com/giovanna_cascia/nmpvcqistrpx/wish/339612377 Before her talk, I would never have imagined the existence of all that, the existence of all these extraordinary tools and materials. I would never have thought that we have been having a role to such a massive project and that the effort we are making is going to contribute to the change of the European educational scenario. What surprised me, even more, was the fact that, as she reported, in Italy we have been doing a great job with CLIL. The main reason for this success is that we made CLIL mandatory for upper secondary schools, after having introduced it in the Italian school system in 2003 through a Reform Law. Secondly, another point is given to us because, even if no longitudinal studies have been carried out, both teachers and students are apparently enthusiastic about this new way of working together. Without any doubt, these considerations help us to keep going and to be motivated, albeit we still have many problems to sort out and a long way to go before we can appreciate positive and, above all, lasting results. Reading “Lo sviluppo delle competenze linguistiche nel CLIL: percorsi possibili tra oralità e scrittura” by prof. M.L Violini, some sentences in her handouts caught my attention and later drove me towards deeper considerations. “Learners don’t learn what teachers teach” (M.L. Violini). “I am constantly reminding students, audiences and myself that teaching does not cause learning” (Diana Larsen-Freeman). We should engrave these two sentences on our desk and keep them in mind each time we teach a lesson. We can do our best and prepare extraordinary lectures, but only when we are able to touch the secret chord of each of our students, to tickle their curiosity, to let them become the leading actor of their learning, we will see them learn. We need to become a provider of inputs but also a promoter of discoveries. We need to motivate them in the short term, but also to keep a high interest in the long term. We should be able to create the right atmosphere so that students could feel at ease during the learning process. giovanna_cascia https://padlet.com/giovanna_cascia/nmpvcqistrpx/wish/339612424 2/3]]> 2019-03-09 23:17:49 UTC https://padlet.com/giovanna_cascia/nmpvcqistrpx/wish/339612424 “Don’t correct – collect; don’t explain - explore; if in doubt, point them out; make the most of what students already know" (M.L Violini). Those above are indications for CLIL lessons, but, to a certain extent, I find them applicable to every discipline and to every learning context. Instead of English words, idiomatic expressions or irregular verbs, for instance, we could have complex math operations, algebraic expressions or complex formulas. It doesn’t matter. We should collect mistakes or suggestions, poor ideas or great solving strategies and lay them all out on the table to discuss doubts and share already taken in knowledge. By doing this, for example, students will discover that not only mistakes can be tolerated, but that they can empower learning by stimulating those processes of self-correction, cooperative learning, and peer-to-peer help. Last, but not least, I found extremely important what prof. Serragiotto said about the issue of evaluation in CLIL (and not only). According to his vast experience and expertise in this field, he told us that we should re-think the way we evaluate our students. Communicative skills, individual behavior, and group behavior have to be assessed, besides the contents and the language, to prepare our students to face the challenges of a global environment. In addition, I agree that we should operate in such a way that enables us to convey a different meaning of what evaluation is. Evaluation should be perceived as an essential part of the learning process and not as a measure of how good or bad someone is at a particular point in time. The primary purpose of an assessment is to help each student to learn and monitor his learning through progress. And that becomes crucial when it comes to evaluating CLIL activities. We need to be extremely clear about what we are about to asses, about the means we are going to use and about the objective of the assessment in itself. If the collaboration with the language teacher is recommended in many phases of CLIL lesson planning, I think that during the assessment moment it has to be mandatory. giovanna_cascia https://padlet.com/giovanna_cascia/nmpvcqistrpx/wish/339612445 3/3]]> 2019-03-09 23:18:13 UTC https://padlet.com/giovanna_cascia/nmpvcqistrpx/wish/339612445