For the past few years, my life has been all about following paths. For three weeks each summer I hike on the Chemin de St. Jacques de Compostelle/Camino de Santiago and during the rest of the year I plan how to lead my students on their own path to proficiency. Just as I find myself […]
In order to implement the curriculum in my new school, I developed a short unit on clothing for my French 2 students. Because time did not allow me to address this topic as globally as I would have liked, (See this post by Rebecca Blouwolff for some great ideas!) I thought I’d share the lessons […]
As promised a few days ago, I’m sharing the IPA for my environment unit in today’s post. One of my goals this year has been to create more integrated contexts for my IPAs. As a Novice IPA creator, many of my early attempts could best be described as performance-based assessments organized around a common theme. Thanks […]
In a couple of weeks my French 4/5/AP class will conclude our unit on immigration with a series of lessons on the role of secularism in French culture. My goal in creating the activities to accompany the resources I chose was to ensure that I was inclusive of my diverse learners while at the same […]
One of the great things about being in the second year of the process of becoming more proficiency-based in my teaching is that I am able to rely on some of the materials I created last year. While I’ve found myself modifying many of these units, I’m also trying to reuse those lessons that I […]
The first grading period ended in my school this week so there was lots of talk in my department about how time-consuming it is to grade IPA’s. While I am enough of a teacher nerd to actual enjoy creating IPA’s, I cannot say the same for grading them! Here are a few suggestions that have […]
Having spent the first few weeks of the school year addressing the NCSSFL-ACTFL Novice Low Can-Do Statements, I know that my students are ready to take their first big step on the proficiency path toward Novice Mid. I’ve chosen to focus on the theme of expressing personal preferences in this unit, as this topic is […]
In conversations about Integrated Performance Assessments, my fellow teachers often share their concerns about using authentic texts with beginners. There seems to be a widespread belief that true beginners cannot derive meaning from texts created by native speakers for native speakers. I hope that these assessments, which will be implemented during the unit I shared […]
Based on social media posts from my virtual colleagues, it seems that many of us are ending the year with a unit on Paris for our French 1 students. In my case, I found that this unit was a great way to bring in some vocabulary for places in a city and transportation. In […]
This week my students will be completing their IPA on Les Loisirs. I’ve been really pleased with their work throughout this unit, and I’m looking forward to seeing their results on this IPA. While I began my journey into proficiency-based/non-textbook/non-explicit grammar lesson teaching with a significant trepidation, I am thrilled with the results of my […]