News

Is This for a Grade? – FLAVA Session Pitches PBL as a Motivator

Educators, don’t tell me you’ve not heard this question. [caption id="attachment_1793" align="alignleft" width="150"] Laur Warren[/caption] And what if the teacher said, “No”? Teachers, what do you think the students’ reactions would be? “Then why should I do it?” some would say. Or the more belligerent, “I’m not doing it.”

FLAVA Sponsors Poster Contest for Language Students

This new contest is open to all language students, K-12 and post-secondary, whose teachers are members of the Foreign Language Association of Virginia. A cash prize of $50 will be given to the k-12 winner(s). A free year’s membership will be awarded to the college/university winner(s). The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2014; however, participants are encouraged to submit their entries before the end of this school year.

Concours de Français Held in Norfolk

[caption id="attachment_1868" align="alignleft" width="300"] Jennifer Carson with student Abigail CENNAME of Warwick High School in Newport News, who played the viola at the closing ceremony[/caption] It was my honor and pleasure to serve as Director of the 22nd annual Concours de Français, sponsored by the Alliance...

Can Students Learn While They are Tuned in to Music?

"Can we listen to our music?" How many times have we all heard this request after giving students a task to complete independently? How many times must I tell them “No” for them to believe me? Apparently they have not heard it enough; my “No” is always followed up with ,“But Mr. ________ lets us or Ms. ___________ always says it is okay.” This request has only increased as BYOD has taken over our school, and students have their devices in hand as they enter and exit the classroom or walk down the hall. How many times have I walked down a high school hallway and noticed multiple students working independently in different classrooms, all with ear buds firmly in place? Is it that all these students are slackers? Are all the teachers allowing them to listen to music too lazy or ineffective to get them to focus? I consider myself a professional with some knowledge about how children learn. Have I been letting my own generational bias affect how I think students learn best? Thinking through some of these questions, I decided to generate some data in my Spanish 3 classes. As we began a new unit on food and cooking, I divided the targeted vocabulary into three lists, seven words each. I expected to prove that student performance decreased when they were allowed to choose the music they heard while studying. Instead, I was surprised to discover that student choice did not impair learning at all, and might have helped their memory later.

Foreign Language in the News

A Chantilly High student who attended the Governor’s German Academy was the subject of an article in the Website The Connection to Your Community. Click here for the full article from October 24, 2014....

Connect with Colleagues on FLAVA’s Social Media Sites

Dear FLAVA members, If you’ve been to a FLAVA conference lately you know us as a terrific place to meet hundreds of creative and friendly colleagues. But where can you have those conversations during the rest of the year? The answer is at one of FLAVA’s...

Descriptive Feedback: A Way to Support Student Learning

[caption id="attachment_2577" align="alignleft" width="150"] Gimara Richards & Inmar Romero[/caption] School is a place to learn, and making mistakes is part of the learning process, because we all learn from mistakes. The way we point out these mistakes to students could either make them or break them. In 2012, we started a teacher research project to improve student achievement by providing descriptive feedback. Descriptive feedback measures students’ progress toward specific, realistic goals – better known to teachers as S.M.A.R.T goals. While teachers in Virginia use S.M.A.R.T goals to capture their own progress, we use the process directly with our students. They are the first step toward helping students make measurable improvement in their language skills. We are passionate about student achievement, so we wanted to make sure our feedback was truly helping students achieve their goals.

Seal of Biliteracy Passes House and Senate

Colleagues, an update on the progress of Seal of Biliteracy legislation in Virginia: Seal of Biliteracy bills passed easily in both the House of Delegates (HB1351) and Senate (SB916). The key difference is what criteria would be considered for awarding the Seal to a student.