Wow. I was fortunate to attend bootcamp for 6 days of OWL training. My head is so full of ideas and information! Here's some of what I've learned:
We started the week with community building activities. We need the support of the community to take the risks that learning another language demands. The maze was the most powerful of the activities: there was no way out without asking for help. Even after people heard others getting out of the maze by virtue of asking for help, they were reluctant to ask.What makes our students reluctant to ask for help? How can we encourage them to take even that risk?
We started Monday be reflecting on our essential question for the week. Mine was: How can I make OWL my own and implement it, fully and successfully, in my class? We had a guest presenter, Arnold, who talked about the ACTFL levels. The EQ: How does proficiency and research affect our practice? We watched samples of interviews and tried to rate them, and I got them all wrong. I need to spend more time learning the levels. Memorization occurs naturally through use, so if I use the levels more and practice making evaluations, I will get better at it. Since this will be an important part of my evaluation of students, I need to get on it and soon. Proficiency and research are the basis for all that we do in an OWL classroom. It's all about increasing my students' proficiency and moving them forward in an authentic and engaging way. Proficiency is not performance, but performance is an indicator of proficiency on a certain topic. I am not a trained OPI interviewer, but I can still evaluate my students' performance. Later in the week at a lunch table I listened to Ricardo talk about really listening to what our students can do. I said: "Listen to what they say, not what you hear." Filling in the blanks as a listener distorts my evaluation
Tuesday's EQ: How does our classroom ignite student learning? We did some circles and saw how it works. Afternoon was about literacy. There are different kinds of literacy: regular, authentic, multi. I need to remember to use more authentic resources in my classroom. I have so much bookmarked, I need to organize my bookmarks and be able to find what I need and can use.
Wednesday's EQ was How do we measure student progress and growth?
We used the ATLAS protocol to evaluate student work, and did a gallery walk to view some samples of what each other's students are doing. I am very proud of my students' video promoting MVS, but it was a project that was pretty directed by me, and students probably did not use Spanish while creating them.
We were asked to list the things we bring to the classroom. What am I passionate about? I can't re-create everything I wrote on my 3x5 card, but here is some of it: I'm passionate about teaching and learning. I love Spanish. Dedication to improvement and growth-- both personally and for my students. Commitment to social justice.
We looked at rubrics to evaluate student performance. There are several in my OWL booklet that I need to remember to use.
Thursday's EQ: How do we use student interest to drive learning? We use the students as our curriculum. We pull from their lives, from current events, from their interests. We use concept maps to "organize" ideas. I can put up a concept map during English week that the students can add to. The levels of questioning that we use push the students to the next level.
Ricardo gave us an abbreviated preview of his ACTFL presentation: using pictures to spark conversation, threads, progressions. Start with a question, picture or content that is pulled from your students. Provide a prompt or task. Students share in groups (2,3,4). Use the responses to begin taking the class in a direction. " A progression is a lot like a river, you want to flow with it, wherever it goes." We can ask complex questions, even of our novice learners.
We did the 3x5 card again, this time reflecting on what do our students bring to the table. Hormones! Interest. Curiosity. Eagerness. Enthusiasm. Intelligence. Trust. Energy. Again, I can't remember everything I wrote on my card. It is good to remember that my students have much to contribute to the class! When experienced enough, kids can even run the circle themselves.
English week was introduced to me at this bootcamp. I had heard about it in the forum, but now have an understanding of its purpose. We talk about what we are doing and why; it's that simple. We explain the ACTFL levels, discuss proficiency and set goals.
Friday we put it all together. We had one breakout session on digital portfolios, games, the intermediate circle-- and then we had to leave. When we got to the airport, we found that our flight was delayed! Julia was at the gate, and it was fun to talk with her on our way back to Dayton. She is starting her first year of teaching, and it struck me that she, too, had much to offer, even starting out.
