OSPI World Languages Update April 27, 2010
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Published on May-03-2010 01:09 PM
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World LanguagesApril-May 2010 Update |
World Languages Program Focus Areas This Year
- Learning Standards – Following the presentation to the Curriculum Advisory and Review Committee (CARC) on February 17, I began drafting a World Languages Learning Standards document and a survey for schools and districts about types of training they would like. I presented the drafts at the April 10 WAFLT Spring Regional at the University of Washington and got very helpful feedback. OSPI is now recommending that I create two smaller documents: one with the standards and one with a brief overview of the background plus a web page with training resources. To get an idea of what that might look like, check out: http://www.k12.wa.us/Mathematics/ProfDev.aspx. Once these are in place, we would remove the word “voluntary” from the title on the World Language Standards web page.
- Assessments – I presented on LinguaFolio and LinguaFolio Online at the National Chinese Language Conference in Washington, DC on April 23.
- Options for Online Learning – I am continuing to research online learning opportunities. I would like to approach the Federal Way Internet Academy about running a workshop for general world language teachers on what it takes to be a successful online language teacher. Let me know if you’re interested.
- Grant Opportunities –The federally funded State Educational Agency Foreign Language Assistance Program (SEA FLAP) grants were announced in late March with a due date of April 22. Writing this grant was a major effort for me over the past month. While the focus of the grant is on the “critical” languages of Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and Russian, much of the work will benefit all language teachers. Here is a brief description of the proposal:
The Washington World Language Learning and Assessment Portal project will support a systemic approach to improving world language learning and teaching in the state of Washington and nationally by recognizing the fundamental shift that technology has brought to the world of learning by putting the learner at the center and supporting a multitude of distributed learning opportunities for developing and assessing language skills. Specifically, theproject will:
· Establish world language programs in schools that do not currently offer languages by providing access to online learning courses and modules taught or facilitated by Washington certificated teachers
· Improve existing world language programs by training current teachers in world language standards and proficiency assessment and giving them access to effective online tools for formative, summative, and student self assessment and documentation of language proficiency via the Portal
· Expand world language study by providing access to online project-based language learning modules designed to meet the academic and linguistic needs of immersion and heritage learners
· Support students earning world language credits through Credit for Proficiency by providing access to nationally available language proficiency assessments |
- Confucius Institute of the State of Washington – After four long years of planning, the Confucius Institute of the State of Washington held its official opening ceremonies on April 27, 2010, and Governor Gregoire signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Hanban of China, Seattle Schools, and the University of Washington. It was an amazing day with activities at three Seattle schools and the University of Washington, as well as the Chinese garden at South Seattle Community College. The West Seattle Herald posted a very nice video clip. For more information, visit: http://confucius.washington.edu. Among the delegations from China, we hosted the Chinese Language and Culture Roadshow group, which is now making its way to presentations in Bellevue School District, Lake Washington SD, North Thurston SD, Griffin SD, the Evergreen State College, and Kalama SD. The Confucius Institute expects to offer many more opportunities to share resources statewide in the future.
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Additional Projects
- Credit for Proficiency Project – The presentation of the model policy and procedure and the work of the Credit for Proficiency Project at the State Board of Education has been postponed until their July meeting. I continue to meet with Kathe Taylor from the State Board of Education and Marilee Scarbrough from the Washington State School Directors Association to resolve the final open issues on the model procedure.
- Mapping and Enhancing Language Learning (MELL) project (survey of schools to learn what languages are taught in our state) – You can download recent reports from the MELL website (http://depts.washington.edu/mellwa/Reports.php).
- World Language Teacher Certification – I continue to get many questions about the new tests and requirements for world language teacher certification. There seems to be some question of whether colleges of education will require the Washington Educator Skills Test – Endorsement (WEST-E) for World Languages before prospective teachers are accepted into a Master’s in Teaching program or allow them to complete it during the program. There is also new legislation around Alternative Route Certification requiring all teacher colleges to offer that pathway in the future. These and other topics will be featured at the Washington World Language Teacher Certification Summit to be held October 7, 2010 (before the WAFLT/COFLT Conference at SeaTac Doubletree). Dr. Shuhan Wang from the National Foreign Language Center is preparing a white paper on world language teacher certification and is planning to come present it at our Summit.
- International Education Projects (coordinated with Kelly Martin, Social Studies and International Education Program Supervisor) – April 27, 2010 OSPI signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Académie de Nantes in France. This is a very exciting development for French. See the OSPI Press Release:http://www.k12.wa.us/Communications/...Agreement.aspx
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Upcoming Dates
| When |
Where |
What |
| May 7-8 |
Yakima |
WABE Conference (WA Association for Bilingual Education) |
| Aug 11 |
Vancouver SD |
Global Competence Institute – for all WA teachers |
| Oct 7 (day) |
SeaTac Doubletree |
World Languages Teacher Certification Summit |
| Oct 7-9 |
SeaTac Doubletree |
WAFLT-COFLT's Bi-state Conference 2010 |
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Old Capitol Building, PO Box 47200, 600 Washington St. S.E., Olympia, WA 98504-7200(360) 725-6000 TTY (360) 664-3631 |
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