(If you grew up in the 70s & 80s, you may recognize that line from a jingle advertising a sugar-laden, artificially-colored breakfast cereal...)

As promised on the #langchat, I'd like to share my AAPPL implementation plan and experience.

Background: Last year, my principal emailed me and a colleague asking us about the STAMP test for the Seal of Biliteracy. Our district contracts with an ESC to provide Chinese instruction, and they were using the STAMP to test their students, and he was wondering if we should be doing it for French and Spanish. I'm the kind of person who would rather implement changes on my own timeline than be mandated by the district, so I volunteered to test my French 3 class at the end of the year, knowing that it was unlikely any level 3 would reach the level for the Seal.My experience with STAMP and examination of their average scores in French led me to ask to switch to the AAPPL test for this year.  (I'd be happy to discuss that experience individually, I don't think this is the appropriate forum for that).

Plan: With the goal of getting some Level 3 students to the Seal of Biliteracy, my tentative plan is as follows:

• French 1: take the Form A Presentational Writing test. Writing is where many students often lag, and I want the measurements early so I know how much I need to build.
• French 2: take the Interpersonal Listening and Speaking test. This will give me another benchmark and expose the students to that part of the test.
  
• French 3: take all 4 parts, hoping that some of the most proficient students will reach the level for the Seal (Intermediate High).

After my principal approved this plan in theory, I examined my curriculum guides, and added themes where needed to make sure they aligned generally with the AAPPL topics. I did not have much to change or to add, fortunately. Once the year began, I switched from using the ODE-created proficiency rubrics for scoring to the AAPPL level descriptors  in order to align my expectations to those students would see on the test. This required very little shift in practice on my part, as I was already grading based on proficiency-level descriptions. The nice thing about the AAPPL descriptions is that they are easy for students to understand as well. Before my 1st semester French 1 class took the AAPPL, I scored their last writing assessment and explained to them which level they had reached. They were really excited to see how well they had done, and to have an idea of exactly what they would need to be able to do to reach that level on the AAPPL. (I had no such way of preparing students for the STAMP)They also did the demo test, which was identical in format to the test, which lowered the level of affect when they reached the testing session.

Round 1: My first round of AAPPL with this French 1 group went very well. The State of Ohio sets Novice Mid as the target for Year 1; I teach with Novice High in mind for an A grade. This meant N-2 and N-3 (Novice MId) would be at-level scores, and N-4 (Novice High) would be above level (see AAPPL to ACTFL proficiency levels). 80% of the class scored at N-2 or higher, with 40% scoring at N-4 or I-1. I felt like the grading I was doing in class using the descriptors was generally aligned with their AAPPL results, and there were no surprises in the results. (Note: I did request 1 rescore, which I have not yet received. I really liked that I can see the students' responses and scores, it is very helpful for me to calibrate my scoring in the classroom).  With so many students at N-4/I-1 at the end of Level 1, I feel hopeful that I may be able to get a few high-achieving students to I-5 at the end of Level 3. (Note: Level 3 target in Ohio is Intermediate Low  - I1. ) It was also extremely valuable to have a 'standardized' measurement of my students' work, both for shaping my own practices, and for providing data to my administrators.  The high percentage of students who were at or above level is evidence of the effectiveness of my proficiency-based instruction, and provides a validated measurement that those of us in 'untested' areas do not usually have. Honestly, if I could use the AAPPL for testing for evaluation purposes, I would .

Unknowns: I did not have any students who required accommodations in this group. I am not sure how well some of my students who have severe challenges with literacy or  attention (IEP or 504) will do with this test as it is entirely on screen. I do not know if LTI/AAPPL tracks that subgroup and has any relevant, I will look into that to see.

Takeaway: I'm all in for the AAPPL. I found the preparation information (topics, score descriptors, practice tests) to be transparent and aligned with the actual test. I will report back after the spring and further testing at the other levels!

You have one minute to build a solid Lego building. Which stack do you choose?

The answer, obviously, is the stack on the right. While the little pieces provide detail and variety, the larger blocks will allow us to build quickly, and reach our goal within the designated time frame.

Before Ohio transitioned to proficiency-based standards, I was the Queen of Cover It. I was so proud of the fact that we could "get to" recognition of the passé composé at the end of Level 1, and I was excited about all my grammar PowerPoints to teach the formulas for si-clauses. I remember talking about students who were unsuccessful because they "couldn't conjugate verbs" or "form the passé composé correctly."

Being a 'teach what I'm supposed to teach' kind of girl, when the standards changed, so did I. I spent hours reading about IPA assessment, attended training, rewrote my curriculum, and have been reworking my instructional materials. I no longer teach grammar out of context, and instead rely on "chunking" or "lexis" (see Gianfranco Conti) to present lexical units containing the grammatical structures necessary for the communicative goal. The longer I teach this way, and the more I see how others teach to proficiency, the more I have developed instructional tools to help students learn language in meaningful units (phrases, sentences) rather than individual words or verb forms. The results have been amazing!

Grammar-accuracy/Cover It Dawn would have had few students be able to comfortably produce paragraphs by the end of Level 1 (try putting together all those little Legos!). Many could answer matching or fill in questions, but could not spontaneously produce much beyond rote phrases. Now - in September, some students in my semester-long French 1 were able to write paragraphs describing their preferred activities, complete sentences including adverbs! Nearly all could write in sentences (big Legos). This exceeds the state target for Level 1 - Novice Mid - and after only a month of class! Students had NO DIRECT GRAMMAR INSTRUCTION OR VERB CONJUGATION PRACTICE. None. And yet, many could communicate at sentence and paragraph level! Those who were still at word and phrase level are still on track for the standards, but I hope with continued scaffolding, their skills will develop as well.

I wasn't trying to collect data to justify my shift in practices - I do believe that it is my professional responsibility to teach to the standards set by the State of Ohio, and that alone was justification enough. But given what I'm seeing my students are able to do with language now, I would use my lexical Legos  example to explain to any critic why proficiency-based chunking is the way to go!

Allons-y! Let's build!

Over the past week, I have reworked my curriculum maps for French 1-3 in order to support student proficiency in all modes of communication, and with the goal of the French 3 students consistently reaching Intermediate Low. I have requested AAPPL testing for each level next year: writing for French 1; reading/listening for French 2; full 4 part test for French 3. Our hopes are that some of the French 3 students may reach Intermediate High and be awarded the Seal of Biliteracy. While the target level for Year 3 in Ohio is Intermediate Low, there are usually some high achieving students with strong skills who can function at higher levels, and as we do not offer a French 4 or 5, we are hoping that this will give those strong French 3 students the chance for the Seal.

I didn't have to do much to my existing curriculum maps to make sure that they were AAPPL ready - one minor tweak in French 1, trimmed down French 2 to give more time to develop, and shift/trim down French 3.  I'm including the AAPPL topics, my new maps, and brief commentary about changes with the French 1 & 3. (Level 2 earned its own blog post!)

FRENCH 1 MAP (Ohio target: Novice Mid)
Unit numbers correspond with chapter number in Français interactif
1.Personal and Public Identities: Education and Career Connections and Choices
2. Families and Communities
3. Weather, Seasons and Geography; Contemporary Life/Activities
4. Beauty & Aesthetics – Describing the Self and Other – Physical appearance, Characteristics, Clothing**
5. Food and Drink
6. Community

**This was my only tweak. I had previously treated CLOTHING as optional in French 1, because it falls in my French 2 curriculum based on the Français interactif sequence. However, since I see it appears in the Novice topics for AAPPL, I thought it best to make sure we include it in French 1, as well as in French 2. One can never be too well-dressed, n'est-ce pas?

FRENCH 2 MAP (Ohio target: Novice High)

1. Review – Review of key topics and functions from Level 1 (include Unit 6/Ch 6) - Francais Interactif Ch 1-6
2.  Families and Communities – Holidays, Rites and Customs - Francais interactif Ch 7
3. Contemporary Life - Housing - Francais interactif Ch 8
4. Daily Life – Clothing & Health - Francais Interactif Ch 10
5. Contemporary Life – Schooling/Education* (May be mini-unit dependent on time) - Francais interactif Ch 11
6.  Future Plans - Career Connections & Social relationships – Professions, Love & Money -Francais interactif Ch  12 & 13

Having dropped the Media unit (Chapitre 9 of FI), and having shifted much of the time spent on clothing to French 1, this slims down what I had previously tried to do - unsuccessfully. These topics overlap from Novice through Advanced on AAPPL, which may help some more proficient students reach Intermediate on AAPPL in French 2.

FRENCH 3 MAP (Ohio target: Intermediate Low)
1.Personal and Public Identities
2.Communities and Social Relationships
3.Global Issues and Challenges (STEM/Interdisciplinary): Climate, Geography, Nature, Environment
4.STEM/Interdisciplinary: Body & Mind: Health/care, Fitness, Nutrition
5.Contemporary Life: Housing, Daily Life
6. Global Citizenship: Travel

I trimmed down from 8 planned units on the previous map (which I could never possibly have completed!) to these 6, which spiral from French 1, through French 2, and expand into some interdisciplinary work. I will have students in French 3 who will enter very low - students who received Ds in French 2, or haven't had French for several years - so the spiraling should help pull them up and support them as we move towards Intermediate. The themes were ones I already had in place, and should provide a broad preparation for AAPPL testing at the end of the year.

REFLECTION

While I see many of my #langchat colleagues doing more current event based units (or TPRS, but it's a whole different conversation about why I cannot do that), and while I do foresee adding in elements as we move through the year, I need the structure and redundancy that this spiraling curriculum map provides. It works well for me with my health limitations to have a foundation to build on (rather than constantly building brand new units with 5 preps a year, so much work with so little rest), and it works well for my many students who require a great deal of support. It is much less anxiety-producing to shift away from the "we need to COVER so much to be rigorous" and towards the "let's build comfort and proficiency, one level at a time". At the end of the year, I will examine AAPPL and classroom assessment
data to decide if the maps - and the proficiency destinations - need to be changed for the following year. It will be an interesting journey!
 

Background: I teach in Ohio, where our proficiency-level goal for Level 2 is Novice High. This is quite a change from the grammar-intensive, textbook-driven instruction I had been accustomed to delivering that included use of the passé composé and imparfait in Level 2.  Also, I was the solo French teacher for 2 high schools in the district for years, so we only offered Levels 1 and 2 for quite a while. I felt that I owed it to my students to give them as thorough a base as possible in the language in those two years, so I pushed higher. I always offered weighted or differentiated assessment items so that students who were at Novice High were scored as being at level, but students who were able to use different tenses (or other Intermediate Level structures) were rewarded for that. In a nutshell, I was trying to do a whole heck of a lot in Level 2.

I have been using Francais interactif  as the basis for my curriculum since 2012. I had split it into two years, Chapters 0-6 for Level 1, 7-13 for Level 2; the goal was to provide them with close to a year's of university level French in 2 years of HS instruction. Remember: there was no French 3. Also relevant: I began my career teaching university French, and have taught dual enrollment, and I'm particularly sensitive to the fact that quality WL experience in high school means the ability to test out of WL in college (and earn some costly credits for free). So I've always wanted my high school students to get the most bang for their buck.

Problem: It was too much for 90% of my students. Cramming an entire 2nd semester of college French into one year of high school French was too much, even with adapting instruction and assessment to proficiency-based and the goal of Novice High. The amount of themes was daunting. Working around the month and half of testing that goes in April and May in Ohio was a nightmare, and we could only scratch the surface of the last few chapters/themes. Many of my students have low reading levels, or history of low academic engagement (low GPA, credit deficient), and they simply did not have the learning strategies or literacy skills to succeed in a L2 classroom moving at that pace. Additionally, they HATED the media chapter - Chapitre 9 - of Francais interactif. Every year. They would be marginally interested in discussing films and learning how to plan a movie outing in France/Quebec, but had no interest in discussing news or other media use. This past year, I left it out entirely.

Insight: I had a French 3 class for 2017-2018. As the year progressed, I noticed that while most of my students could read at a very high level in French (I use authentic resources from the beginning of French 1 on, they are flooded with textual input, and their reading comprehension generally is very good), their interpersonal and presentational skills were fossilized at Novice Mid - Novice High. In my push for "covering" so many themes in levels 1 and 2, I had not taken the time to help ALL of my students - not just the higher achieving ones - develop their productive language skills.

Solution: Do more with less in Level 2. Level 1 is fine, we comfortably work with the first 6 chapters, leaving aside most of the grammar instruction of Francais interactif (although I will do lessons in context  for some of the points). But with Level 2, we will take our time, reviewing the themes from Level 1 and structures we need to communicate.This will help the students whose proficiency levels are lower as they enter Level 2, giving them support and establishing a more comfortable experience for them . I will spend more time doing interpersonal communication practice with students and less time worrying about "covering" themes, which will lower affect (anxiety about keeping up) and increase student self-confidence.

Here's what the curriculum unit map looks like now:

The Daily Life unit will be divided into 2 mini-units; it isn't ideal, but Francais interactif has these 2 topics in the same chapter, with the common thread being BODY, so I simply divide it into 2 smaller units. Future plans involves thinking about our life 10 years from now, so it is very personalized; we do NOT do anything with the Ch 12 & 13 materials other than use the vocabulary and AV resources for interpretive practice. Students reflect on which professions interest them, and what sort of studies/training they need to enter that profession (links with Education unit). They consider where they will live, and their family status as they imagine it in the future. I introduce the futur simple for them to use at this point, which allows them to climb up into Intermediate Low, communicating in another time frame. They create a final project predicting multiple aspects of their lives 10 years into the future, with both a presentational writing and speaking component. It's very personal, very engaging, and gives them a taste of communicating at  higher level, where more than one theme may occur in a text or conversation.

Reflection: I think this creates an experience for Level 2 learners that will simultaneously provide comfort and support for students who need it, but opportunity to stretch higher for those who are able. It removes the stress of trying to cram in so much vocabulary and introduce structures so quickly that most students are not able to gain more than a superficial familiarity with the relevant language. I hope that this will set more students up for success, and result in fewer students giving up during the second semester because they feel irretrievably lost.

NOTE: If you are interested in which structures/tenses I DO introduce and when, you can examine the Francais interactif chapters to get a general idea, or shoot me an email/Twitter DM, I'd be happy to explain in more detail.

In light of some discussion by the #langchat Twitterati about an article about the effectiveness of Duolingo, here's my argument for its legitimacy as an element in my proficiency-based classroom.

First, there are few things that I am dogmatic about. As far as language instruction goes, these are the few things I will fight you in the octagon about (no,not literally...my OG status is for my gift with words, not for physical prowess).

1. Grades should be based on student performance towards the relevant state/local/national standards.
   
2. In the State of Ohio, discrete grammar points are NOT part of those standards.
   
3. Therefore, student grades should not be based on assessment of discrete grammar points.
   

Now, obviously learners need to learn to use the appropriate language structures - grammar - in order to communicate. While there are many camps who feel adamantly that their method is the best (or only) way to help students effectively learn a language, I am not a dogmatic adherent to any particular camp. My classroom is proficiency-based. We use many, many authentic documents/audiovisual resources for learning, and I rely on resources entirely in the TL (such as CLE's Français progressif series) to flood input. I assess students  using the ACTFL-based  rubrics provided by ODE. I am not teaching or measuring for grammatical accuracy, per se. However, I am constantly searching for ways to model and provide input to help students learn the structures that they need to advance their proficiency in the language.

Enter Duolingo. (Note: If you have never actually used Duolingo, get off my blog, go sign up, do some lessons. You have no business chiming in on the tool if you haven't used it!) It's gamified and fun - my phone-addicted, Fortnite-fool students love that. It's adaptive - I don't have to do a thing to differentiate its use for my IEP/504/behavior plan students. It requires NOTICING of structures without being explicit!!! This is the big thing - students are learning to recognize the difference between indefinite/definite article use, verb conjugation, adjectival agreement, WITHOUT BEING EXPLICITLY TAUGHT.   It works on iOS, Android, and web - all my students can access it either at school or on their phones if they have it.  There's a teacher end where I can track and monitor progress.  It's free. And I don't have to create any activities myself, which is important as a single mother, shared staff with 3-5 preps a  year, and the sufferer of autoimmune disease.

Does Duolingo replace CI in my classroom? NO. Does it replace me? NO. Does it stand alone as curriculum? NO. Is it just a way to occupy my students (busy work)? NO. Does it produce fluent speakers/writers of the TL? NO. Does it help students think about the language, notice patterns, gain exposure to additional vocabulary AND do it in a way that most find engaging? YES. Can I track progress and use it as an additional practice tool without spending hours developing my own stories/forms/PBL/videos/etc? YES.  Does this make my instructional practice any less about about proficiency? I don't think so. 

You do you. If Duolingo doesn't fit for your practices, so be it. But before categorically dismissing a too and those who use it in the classroom (again, if you haven't even used it, you should before you cast judgement...Green Eggs and Ham principle), consider that for some practitioners, this IS a useful and helpful tool. Pragmatic >dogmatic.

I teach in an interesting district with a somewhat unusual high school configuration, and there is no world languages department or French department. I've been the Lone Ranger in French (for 2 high school campuses) for years, although last year another teacher was added at the other campus. In any case, all this to say, I have no clear budget or predictable funding for French materials or technology, so I have been working with free resources or paying out of pocket for years. I know that many of my #langchat colleagues have limited budgets or resources, so I thought I'd share what I plan to use and why, the costs, who will be paying for it (in theory).

DISTRICT/BUILDING PAYS - What I requested for 2018-19

• Flipgrid Teacher  - $65/year - I use Flipgrid for both formative work and summative assessment. As I use it for assessment purposes - including for the state teacher evaluation assessments (SLO) - I thought it was appropriate for the district/building to pay for it.
• InsertLearning - $40/year - If you aren't familiar with InsertLearning, it allows you to insert questions (and videos, and EdPuzzles, and notes...appsmash!) into a web page or Google Doc. This is ideal for using authentic resources for practice and assessment in the WL classroom. I adore using this for reading practice and assessment. It also integrates with Google Classroom, which is my delivery platform for blended instruction. I haven't smashed it up with Google Docs/YouTube/EdPuzzle yet, but I definitely foresee doing so in the future. In any case, given that I use web resources frequently for input and assessment, this was a no-brainer to request.
• AAPPL testing - $20 full test (4 parts), $5 for Writing or Listening/Reading alone - After my experience with STAMP testing this year, based on their national averages in French (see here for that data), and anecdotal evidence from  peers around the country using AAPPL, I determined it would be in our best interest to use AAPPL for standardized assessment purposes. I haven't been approved for this yet, but my tentative plan was to test Writing only for Level 1, Reading/Listening for Level 2, and the full test for Levels 3 (and up, if I ever get French 4 again).  Having the students take parts of the test in lower levels provides both teacher and student with feedback about their progress, and gives the student practice taking the assessment. The purpose of the full assessment in Level 3 is to see if any can reach the Seal of Biliteracy. Yes, I know that's early, but I haven't had the ability/support/schedule to offer any higher levels for years, so at least this way we have given the students the opportunity to try.
• headphones/earbuds - <$2 each - This might seem silly, but when we do EdPuzzles or Duolingo and 15 students are playing it out loud because their stupid iPhone or Bluetooth headphones won't work with district Chromebooks or computers....it's cacophony. And cacophony makes for a very crabby Madame.  My requests for all students to purchase/keep a pair of compliant headphones in the classroom were unheeded by 99% of students, and this was one thing I was absolutely unwilling to fund out of my pocket.

OUT-OF-POCKET
The following things I might/probably will pay for out of pocket. They are for gamified learning and I can't justify asking for money out of the budget when I absolutely want the above items paid for assessment purposes.

• Quizlet Teacher - $34.99/year - The Teacher version of the free Quizlet app/site allows me to track student progress, manipulate Quizlet Live teams (necessary with a diverse group of students who often CANNOT work with just anyone in the classroom), organize Sets, removes ads...I've paid for this for several years now, and likely will continue to. Can be used for out of class study, free apps available for Android/iOS, easy import from .txt/.xls lists, diagrams for visual learning.
• Gimkit - THE new gamified learning tool out there! If you haven't already tried this out, do it! My students love this, even more than Quizlet Live. It can be played live in class, as teams, done as homework. Links with Google Classroom for assignment/tracking purposes. Check out pricing here.
  
• Online French reading of some kind - I haven't decided if I want to bite the bullet and buy a monquotidien subscription, Phosphore, Okapi...something like that...for reading resources for my students. Whatever I decide, I will blog about later this summer!
  

FREE/OER!

• Français Interactif - My entire curriculum is built on this wonderful OER from the University of Texas. I use Ch 0-6 as basis for French 1, 6-11 for French 2, and pull from all chapters as foundation for French 3. There are video resources (native speakers) you can use online or download and turn into EdPuzzles (how I will be spending my summer), self-correcting grammar practice, and links to songs and other cultural activities.  Check it out HERE.
  
• EdPuzzle - https://edpuzzle.com/ - This has completely revolutionized listening comprehension for my students. It is completely free, although they do have a School version and it is possible to get a single teacher account via PO from your school. I opted not to request this, as the School version was more expensive than I knew anyone would approve, and the single teacher version for $85 would have provided me with a gradebook option, but I think I'd rather have my Flipgrid and InsertLearning paid for. In an ideal world, I would have asked for the $85 version for myself, and if we had a real WL department in our district, it would make sense to purchase the School version. Someday...
  
• Quizizz - https://quizizz.com/ - Free.  I use this for practice, gamified learning, and assessment. Integrates with Google Classroom. Import from Quizlet or other text files, use images. Shared resources/bank means you can find resources made in your target language for native speakers to use - I love using thematic quizzes made for native speakers as input! For example, my French 3 was studying the environment, so I used quizzes I found that were made for Quebecois science students as authentic documents/input. The students love Quizizz and will ask to redo their assessments immediately if they are not happy with their results.
  
• Duolingo - free - app or web-based.  - If this choice offends you, just move on. I love Duolingo for encouraging NOTICING and for providing implicit grammar instruction. When I use Duolingo for homework, students enjoy it, and they will use what they learn from Duolingo in the classroom. Last year I only used it sporadically, but I intend to incorporate again as out-of-class practice (homework) next year. 
  
• Screencastify Chrome Extension  - I use the free version to create listening practice and assessment (smash with EdPuzzle), provide blended instruction (grammar/vocabulary lessons), and for students to do presentations (smash with Slides) for speaking practice and assessment.
  
• ClassDojo - I use this for participation tracking, behavior management, parent communication, and I am hoping the Portfolio option will be available to me when I go back in August. I'm a Class Dojo mentor - I love the data it gives me for tracking engagement, and correlating engagement to results.
  

Do you use anything fantastic that isn't on this list? Let me know! I've got 2 months to tweak and add more tools to my tech wallet...

Recently a #langchat colleague (@jaybeekay518) posted an all-call to the network for input on how/if to do grammar lessons. This is not the first time I have seen this question posed or topic discussed in the CI/proficiency-based community. After I responded to her with a few of my thoughts, I started reflecting about my practices in this area, and thought I'd share a few of the ways I have learned to contextualize grammar with my French classes.

If you've ever owned a dog, and had to give him pills, you know it's a nightmare. The dog will gag and spit and run and carry on as if he's never eaten gravel, socks, worms, a tennis ball, mud...and make you feel like the most abusive dog parent ever. One of the most common tricks is to put the pill in some peanut butter, making it appetizing for Doggo and less traumatic for DogMama (or DogDad). We know the dog needs the medicine, we just have to make it palatable and seem like something that he wants.

Contextualized grammar is the pill-in-peanut-butter for the proficiency-based WL classroom. We know the students need language structures and rules in order to be able to communicate. Globs of words aren't communication beyond the Novice Mid level. In my experience, even if I flood them with mountains of input in target language materials, there will still be students who do not learn to produce the structures on our required time-table without more direct modeling or scaffolding.  So I have steadily and intentionally been working contextualized grammar practice/tasks (oh BVP, now I have to think about that word choice!) into communicative instruction.

Here are some of my "peanut butters":

• Daily starter - Question du jour - Bellringer.  I use Google Classroom and use a Question, but this could be done easily with a projected question, answered on paper, turned in and redistributed daily. I ask a question - short answer or multiple choice - about the topic/theme we are working on. For Novices, I often provide multiple choices that model complete sentence answers using the structures I want them use. For Novice High/Intermediate, I will use a short answer.
  • Exemple - Novice: Quelle matière scolaire préfères-tu?  a. Je préfère le français. b. Je préfère les maths.     c. Je préfère l'anglais.
    • I gave them complete sentences for choices, modeling that Je préfère for them. Do this for a few days, then give them a short answer to complete, they have seen this construction repeatedly. Hopefully they can then reproduce "Je prefere..."
      
  • Exemple - Intermediate: Comment serait le living dans ta maison idéale? Quels meubles aurais-tu?  AIDE: Il y aurait....     J'aurais....
    • Notice that I gave them some help to start their sentence. And I have NOT taught them the conditional mood directly. They will do this several days in a row, by which time they will have seen/used the JE, TU, IL/ELLE forms of conditional verbs.
• Interpersonal Writing - Asking personal questions about the topic at hand, using the TU form (which is closest to the JE form in French, rather than the VOUS form), providing several examples as a model. Here's an example about NOEL - how do you celebrate Christmas? from my Novice Mid holiday unit
  • NOEL
    
         
• A contextualized presentation of the structure in question - Yes, a real lesson about the language BUT completely in context of the communicative theme. So the relevance of the structure is clear: we are talking about illness and injury, being able to say "I cut myself" or "I take care of myself" is obviously necessary, so we learn reflexive verbs. (And then I can reuse the lesson by changing the verbs/ vocabulary to match the theme we are working on!)
  • Reflexive verbs with health
  • Adjective Agreement/Placement with Housing & Furnishings
  • Adjective Agreement/Placement with Food
• Presentational Writing in Context with Models/Scaffolding - In Level 1 (Novice Mid), after we had been working with fruits & vegetables vocabulary for a bit, and we did our lesson above, students did a "living fruits & veggies" à la Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs project which gave them opportunity to practice their adjective placement and agreement. They had to personify   4 fruits/veggies (2 feminine, 2 masculine). There was very high engagement, I gave examples for both masculine and feminine forms, but gave no particular rules or instructions about what to include. They were able to creatively use language of their choice AND practice the adjective placement/agreement structures repetitively. But it wasn't grammar drills or worksheets.
  
  • Fruits & legumes vivants
    

I am constantly reworking and creating ways to help my students become comfortable producing comprehensible language, and these are a few of my tricks I've devised so far. Peanut butter is much more delicious than swallowing  a hard, powdery pill, right? These structures-in-context tricks have helped  my doggos...I mean students...improve their communication! Ouaf!

"Tatie, can we play Quizlet Live today?" "Oui! Et il y a un Quizizz aussi!"

I use a blended instruction model in my classroom. I have 4 preps per semester, 5 total for the year, and no plan period. In order to have time to sleep and parent, I must be creative in devising means to progress monitor my students, because it is impossible for me to evaluate writing and speaking daily. Fortunately, I have gathered a few tools that the students enjoy and that give me fast and fantastic data to analyze about their interpretive skills!

Quizlet Live: All levels love this. I like it best for Novice Low/Mids who are working with a new theme or review for the higher kids to get them engaged. The teamwork aspect encourages them to teach each other. And I can get a rapid read on how well they are RECOGNIZING terms. I make my own Quizlet sets, and I try to use phrases or sentences on them when possible as scaffolding for productive use. I also use images whenever possible so learners are associating the French word directly with idea/object, rather than going through English. Students can use a district computer or personal device.

Quizizz: This is my current favorite. Again, I include images or phrases/sentences when possible. Quizizz integrates with Google Classroom, and I can assign a self-paced Quizizz or do one as a group competition. For intermediate learners, I find topical Quizizzes already prepared for native speakers, and it becomes a wonderful reading comprehension activity with built-in stretch from unstudied words. My students know they are trying to get to mastery level (70% in my district) and will redo it until they are satisfied. I also use to do formative assessment. Data reports show me immediately who is struggling and with which items.

Kahoot: I try to use Kahoots with complete sentences or phrases, and images when possible. If I can adapt one that another teacher has prepared with vocabulary new to my students, it both teaches and assesses. Kids enjoy but I prefer the flexibility of Quizizz. Results reports help me identify strengths and weaknesses.

All three tools feel like game play to students, but provide reading practice, "noticing" (aka grammar features recognition) and give me a quick snapshot of student interpretive comfort that I can manage within my time constraints. Kids engaged + progress monitoring for me = a win!

I was married to a Special Forces soldier. SF units are typically deployed more than they are home. When they would return from a deployment, the wives would get reunification readings and messages from support organizations, and the men would have some sort of reintegration screening or discussion before returning to their families. The emotional difficulties that come with relationships when one partner or parent is away (in combat, no less) are acknowledged and addressed, at least in some manner.  Explicit guidance is given on how to handle potential conflict that will come during the reintegration.

When our students return to school from a break, they have been operating by different rules and in different conditions. Depending on how well those align with the expectations and atmosphere at school, they may be uncomfortable, unwilling, and hostile to our demands when they re-enter our classrooms. Or, perhaps - and perhaps even more problematic - they may be disengaged and apathetic. Reintegration can be frustrating and full of conflict.

We returned on Wednesday from winter break, and I knew that starting a new unit immediately would not work well. I decided to do 1st semester interactive tech review activities with French 1 (Quizlet review, Quizizz formative assessment, EDPuzzle practice), which was fairly well-received. For my French 2 and 3, I wrote a 3 day mini-unit on HIVER (Winter), inspired by a free Find Someone Who...Winter Activities worksheet I saw on Teacher Pay Teacher. I had some differentiation designed for the practice and assessment, lovely Quizlet vocabulary with images, and EdPuzzles.  (I will post this on my Materials page) But most of my students had simply not reintegrated yet - they were still fully in vacation mode, and apathetic to any encouragement, redirection, or staring at close range. Those who had struggled to use time effectively 1st semester were completely off-task, and while not rude, simply ignored all direction to participate in learning. Bad habits were amplified. By the end of the day, I was completely discouraged and knew I needed to change something, because they were not inclined to change habits without incentive.

The frustration forced me to examine a long-term problem: what to do with students who waste time in class, but for the sake of compliance or fear of losing "points", will try to catch up on the work the next day in class (or the next week), thus missing another day of work, falling further behind. Endless cycle of work avoidance, procrastination, irresponsibility, and working for compliance only. They do not understand that Monday's work builds the foundation for Tuesday's work, it's not about "points", but about building knowledge. This is crucial in the world language classroom. Giving them a "0" and not taking late work is the simplest solution - practice is only 10% of my grade, so it isn't catastrophic in that way - but it does not help them, and it gives them no reason to do the practice and learn. 

Here is my Reintegration-inspired Reform:
1. Work not done in class during the assigned time is given a 0 or Incomplete in Class Dojo (where I do a more holistic accounting of classroom participation and engagement). Papers are collected or Google Classroom assignments have a deadline time posted. Yes, I realize this is about POINTS but...
2. Students who have not completed work may request to take home that evening to finish (must be turned in the next day), come in during their Advisory (like study hall), or stay after school to complete. It will stay a 0 or incomplete until it is finished. They will receive full credit for it once it is turned in. I WANT THEM TO DO THE PRACTICE, BUT I WANT THEM TO EITHER USE CLASS TIME EFFECTIVELY OR MAKE TIME OUT OF THEIR SCHEDULE TO DO IT! Time management and meeting a deadline are necessary skills. But notice - there is no grade penalty for it being late.
3. Students will NOT be given time the following day to complete work they chose not to do in class. I am hoping they will figure out quickly that it works best for them to engage so they can stay connected and not feel "lost".
4. I will be intentional about explaining "Assignment A (today) will prepare you to do Assignment B (tomorrow) and Assessment C (day 3)" so that students understand the PURPOSE and NECESSITY of the practice.  IT'S NOT ABOUT POINTS.
5. I will communicate this plan with parents so that they understand WHY this is happening, and WHY it is important that French practice be done in French class. It's not a matter of the "points" (can you tell I hate that attitude????), it's a matter of building skills. But most parents respond to seeing 0 points in the gradebook, so hopefully this will lead to discussion at home.
6. Returning from future breaks, I will review essential expectations and practices before I ask students to work. They need reintegration training to have a successful reunion with instruction.

I'm sharing my reflections because too often we see other teachers' lesson plans, units, fantastic PBL or tech activities and we DON'T get to see the struggles that may occur in implementation and student engagement. We also need to recognize when our practices are not meeting student needs, and if we have the leeway to make policy and practice changes in our classroom, we should be responsive and reform.

Now we have a 3 day weekend because of the cold...here's hoping these new strategies get me through ANOTHER reintegration next Monday!

Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was in graduate school, studying Rabelais, Plautus and the Commedia dell'Arte. If none of that means anything to you, let me clarify what it is that  fuels my intellectual engine: subverting the paradigm, often with humor. I adore the parasitic clown from Plautus (Pseudolus), Rabelais' Panurge, Arlecchino. I loved the Clint Eastwood's Western, Unforgiven.  And - don't hate, Star Wars canon fanatics - I found Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi to be a brilliant deconstruction of the dark vs light/hero vs villain duality of the Star Wars tradition.  Like a child with a new Lego set, given an educational mindset or methodology, I might follow the directions once to see what it is intended to be, before I take the pieces apart and add what I choose to the pedagogical and ethical model I have built for myself.

My favorite scavenger. Yeah, I'm a Star Wars fan...image from here 
 
Years of reading, research, studying, classroom experience and a very diverse Twitter PLN provide me with ample pieces and parts to construct my own model - and to rip parts off and rebuild as needed. So what have I built to date? It looks something like this:

• Tenet 1: Children's  emotional and physical well-being trumps all dogma . If the instructional model or method is not ensuring an equitable experience for ALL students in my classroom, it must go.  This is non-negotiable. 
  
• Tenet 2: I have a responsibility to prepare my students in alignment with the world language standards that the Ohio Department of Education has published. Those standards are proficiency-based, and reflect best practices and research in our field. I believe that  a student's success in my course should be measured in alignment with the state standards - proficiency level  - and I do not find it defensible to fail students based on completion of classwork/homework, or mastery of verb conjugation or other remnants of grammar-based instruction. This is also non-negotiable.
  
• Tenet 3:   There is not one sole fixed proficiency destination, and there are many ways to travel. The proficiency levels are places learners pass through on our language-acquisition journey, and I do not feel limited by a particular method or approach as I guide my students.  By reading about research and practices from a variety of second language professionals (see Twitter #langchat, #gilt, #fsl), I can make informed choices about the materials and techniques I use in my classroom.  Of course, whatever I choose is governed by my responsibility to follow state standards and measure students by their proficiency (see Tenet 2).
  
• Tenet 4: If it doesn't work, it is my job to fix it, not to cling to a dysfunctional or deleterious lesson or instructional tool because of ego or dogma. This might mean changing an assignment mid-class, or throwing out a classroom practice mid-semester. Perhaps it will mean reteaching or adjusting a lesson if formative assessment shows that students are simply not ready for it.   No matter how well-researched or highly recommended a practice or resource may be, if it is not fitting my students, I should not use it. Fix the ship - bypass the compressor if you need to (yep, that's another Star Wars reference) - but keep it safely in the air, even if it means doing something unorthodox, subversive, or outside the canon. Pragmatic over dogmatic, every time.
  

 I plan to start sharing more of my classroom practices on this blog,  following the lead of many in the #langchat realm, and I wanted this post to serve as a sort of introduction and disclaimer to anyone who wonders which label to put on me (CI, TPRS, PBL, acronym du jour...)

Just call me a scavenger.