Languages from a Distance

Hmmm. How to create digital artifacts that would demonstrate all three modes of communication? That is the question! It is clear how to find artifacts for a) presentational writing and b)presentational speaking but for these other three not as obvious: c) interpretive reading d) interpretive listening e) interpersonal speaking.

Now I think I know what would be considered valid examples of c,d, and e. But how do I get evidence of them in a digital format? Any ideas?

I’ll brainstrorm a few but if anyone could help or steer me in the right direction, that would be great. Thanks!

interpersonal speaking
Student submits an audio file of a recorded, unscripted, unrehearsed conversation. Could be on telephone or on skype if not in person.
Student submits a video of such a conversation

interpretive reading
Student copies and pastes a real-world reading segment and his or her interpretive response to it.

interpretive listening
Student submits his or her response to a clip of spoken target language. The audio file is included.

These ideas (some more than others) require significant planning and legwork beforehand of course!

There must be a mistake. I’m a Virgo. Virgos are meticulous, neat, well organized and especially fastidious when it comes to finances. Ahmmm…that is –unfortunately– SO not me!

I’m a teacher. Another mistake somewhere? After all…teachers relish and excel at multitasking. I dread it and am less than stellar at it. I love a morning when I can think about ONE thing.

Why am I writing this? Well, I’m at it again. Doing fourteen things at once and feeling like I’m not quite covering the bases… The new course is coming out soon. And therefore when a little serendipity comes my way, it is most welcome!

I’m still working on a way to incorporate LinguaFolio into the plan. I was so excited about the prospect of being part of the LinguaFolio online pilot. It was the answer to my prayers I was sure. How much more manageable an online option would make incorporating LF in K12 Distance Learning courses! How difficult a paper-and-pencil LinguaFolio would be to monitor over the miles and miles that separate me from my students.

Well, I just learned today that the online LF is not gonna happen this year. And for the whole afternoon I was trying to figure out how I was going to make this work. Then I checked my twitter page and behold the following Tweet from Mandy Lindgren appeared before my eyes.

E-portfolios! That’s it! That’s what I need! I clicked the link and eventually found materials by Helen Barrett. Check out her blog entry on e- Portfolios here. She’s got an AWESOME slide show with step-by-step instructions on how to create an e-Portfolio. To access it, go here.

By referring to Helen’s instructions, I was able to develop a thinking guide (using Exploratree) that is helping me feel quite a bit more at ease with all of the concepts to consider when dealing with LF. The guide is still quite rough and definitely not finished (see below). But I’m beginning to feel like I can do this.

Ok, it is possible that the above title exaggerates a bit…but not by much. Honest!

Like most foreign language teachers I know, for some time now I have heard about Linguafolio and how as a portfolio-based, language-assessment tool that has origins in Europe, it can help students monitor and take control of their own learning. The idea always had an appeal to me but unfortunately I never found the time to delve into it and work it into classroom instruction.

Fast forward a number of years: I am now the teacher of an established K-12 online German program that finds itself in a period of rapid transition as we move away from traditional, lecture-based, one-way instruction. Though I had been taking care to include performance-based assessments in the new courses as a way of providing more context and meaning to the student-learning experience, there still were some sizable pieces missing from the puzzle. And I didn’t even realize it — that is,until I heard Ali Moeller from the University of Nebraska speak this past weekend.

Dr. Moeller was conducting a seminar called: LinguaFolio Review and Classroom Implementation for the Kentucky World Language Teacher Network. She reiterated the underlying ideas behind Linguafolio over the two-day event. In my opinion, the following LF requirements for students are especially ground-breaking and compelling:
• Goal setting
• Self assessment
• Self-reflection and self-regulation

All of these components reveal a focus that is central to the Linguafolio design: that the student become more and more responsible for his own learning.

Of course for any educational scenario, such an objective would be highly desirable. But for K-12 distance learning formats in particular, this is just what the doctor ordered: a way to ‘teach’ and/or instill independence in the learner. Of course the devil is in the details. There is a lot of work ahead – I will be documenting our LF path here- but , following the tenets of backwards design, if we start with where we want to end up (in this case: greater student responsibility and autonomy) then we will be able to build a better road to get there. Right?

My life is saved.

Click here for Linguafolio Kentucky

Click here for Linguafolio Virginia, Carolinas, Kentucky, Georgia.

Click here for Nebraska LF Teacher’s Guide.