ACTFL Convention Plenary

Empowering Language Educators Through Collaboration

Barbara Mondloch, ACTFL President, ModeratorKelly Aramaki, Principal, Beacon Hill International School, Seattle Public SchoolsGregg Roberts, World Language and Dual Immersion Specialist, Utah State Office of EducationErwin Tschirner, University of Leipzig, Germany

Seattle’s International Schools

Ingraham International High School (2012)

McDonald International School (2012)

Concord International School

Denny International Middle School

Chief Sealth International High School

Hamilton International Middle School

John Stanford International School

Beacon Hill International School

Seattle’s International Education Framework

Academic Excellence

•Reading/Writing•Speaking/ Listening•Int’l Business•Math

•Science•Social Studies•Health/PE•Arts

Global Perspective

World Languages

•Communications•Culture•Connections•Comparisons•Communities

•Global Challenges•Cultural and World Areas•Global Connections

Cultural Competency

Partnerships

Innovative Teaching

Technology

COLLABORATION WITHIN A SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

• Wednesday Staff Meeting Structure– 1st: All Staff– 2nd: Grade band teams– 3rd: All Staff– 4th: Job-alike teams

• Weekly Professional Learning Community (PLC) Meetings• Meetings are planned out at the beginning of the year

and address the various needs within an international school with immersion program– Academics and student achievement– Language immersion– Bilingual support– Global competence– Grade band, cross-content coordination– School-wide work around global mission– School-wide work around instruction and other school

improvement goals

COLLABORATION ACROSS SEATTLE’S INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS

• International School Principal Meetings (monthly)

• Cross-School Professional Development and Collaboration on Non-student Days and Early Release Days– Language immersion teacher meetings hosted at

different schools (same language & cross language)

– Language immersion professional development for new teachers led by current teachers

– International School teacher leadership meetings– Global competence trainings within feeder

patterns– District-wide global competence training

UtahThe world is welcome here

Why Collaborate?

Benefits vs. Ego–Lessons to learn–Lessons to share –Lessons to explore

Informal Collaboration

Dual Immersion Example– Program Model– School Visits– PD Opportunities– Sharing Curriculum– Sharing Assessment

Formal CollaborationK-12 Chinese Flagship – Collaboration Grant

• 4 Flagships, 4 SEAs & 5 LEAs– Three Pathways

• Dual Immersion• Middle School• High School

International CollaborationErwin TschirnerUniversity of Leipzig

Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR)

ACTFL CEFR Conferences

Areas of Collaboration

CEFR Foundations

Pragmalinguistics (Speech Act Theory)◦Threshold Level (1975)

Communicative Competence◦Canale & Swain (1981)

Reading ListeningSpeakingWriting

A1 BreakthroughA2 Waystage

B1 Threshold

B2 Vantage

C1 Effective Operational Proficiency

C2 Mastery

from Saville, N. (2010)

CEFR AccomplishmentsCommon European Framework of

Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (2001)

European Language Portfolio (2001)

Reference Level Descriptions (since 2004)

Illustrations of the European levels of language proficiency (2008)

Manual for Language Test Development and Examining (2011)

Conference GoalsEstablish correspondencesEasier crosswalk between both

systemsAvoid double certificationEnhance validity of assessmentsContinued development of test

systemsDetermine research needsInitiate research projects

ACTFL CEFR Conference 2011Provo, Utah, August 3-6, 2011The Elements of Proficiency: An

Emerging Consensus for Language Assessment and Instruction

Help practitioners better understand the elements of proficiency and how it

may be assessed the ACTFL and CEFR systems and how

they relate to proficiency and its assessment

their implications for teaching and learning, curriculum and materials development

ACTFL CEFR Conference 2012Strasbourg or Graz (June/July

2012)Hosted by the Council of EuropeCo-Organizers: ACTFL, AATG,

Council of Europe, University of Leipzig

Priorities of the 2012 conferenceContinue to explore the ACTFL CEFR crosswalk

for assessment, teaching, learning, and policy purposes

Intersections of the ACTFL K-12 Performance Guidelines and the CEFR

Joint studies to investigate realistic student outcomes from different program models

Formative assessment initiativesDiagnostic information about language

learnersStudy of can-do statementsTesting the receptive skills

Collaboration

Quality, transparency, and portability of language teaching, learning, and assessment (Elvira Swender)

Implications for assessment, instruction, curriculum development, and teacher preparation (Eileen Glisan)

Areas 1Educational standardsInternational proficiency

benchmarksCurriculum developmentMaterials developmentReference Level DescriptionsCommon ground between

classroom-based (taught) and immersion (self-taught) learning

Areas 2Assessment and certificationCorrespondences (portability)Validity issues (speaking, sample

size)Comparability across languagesFormative assessment

(performance)Language portfoliosCan-do statements