[ola] Re: curriculum maps?
- From: JoAnna Coleman <joannac@xxxxxxx>
- To: "ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2013 16:23:17 +0000
In my second year classes, starting in January, I am focusing on circumlocution
(ie. describing), asking questions, keeping the conversation going, speaking in
sentences with extension and more detail and using conversation fillers.
JoAnna Coleman
Spanish Teacher
Wilson High School
503-916-5280 ext. 75231
joannac@xxxxxxx
http://profecoleman.wordpress.com/
________________________________
From: ola-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <ola-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Thomas
Hinkle <thinkle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2013 4:15 AM
To: ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ola] Re: curriculum maps?
I think mapping out a sequence of skills makes a ton of sense and is probably
more useful in many ways than mapping out a series of content goals. For each
of those, you might also lay out how you would assess it.
For example, for NH speakers, you might imagine a map that built clearly toward
intermediate skills...
- Building community and vocabulary (listing, chanting, routine q/a pairs)
- Building sentences (focus on moving from list to full utterance)
- Asking questions (focus on how to ask good questions)
- Describing with detail (focus on stringing together sentences into
descriptions)
- Telling stories with gestures
The question is, do things ever lay out that linearly? I'm not sure they can or
do. That said, it certainly does seem reasonable to me that you would plan to
begin with student's in their comfort zone (listing, say) and wait until you'd
built community to start stretching a lot, and it makes sense to think you
would want to focus your energy as a teacher on stretching the language
abilities of kids (sentences, describing, mini-narration) rather than on
hitting little atoms of language (preterit, house words), etc.
Of course, as I mentioned in the other thread, I'm also thinking about ways to
make a curriculum map that covers vocabulary areas as well, but doing that ends
up putting you a bit in conflict with the goal of keeping language
student-generated/student-centered.
Tom
Tom
On Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 3:12 AM, Cathy Bird
<cathy.bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:cathy.bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Calysta - I was just thinking of this same question as I tossed and turned
tonight. My train of thought followed yours: I plan to highlight the topics of
skill development in my second year classes. We have been mostly focused on
describing up until recently, so that will be the topic of November. It still
needs lots of revisiting and I am formulating an activity for circumlocution
that is akin to a life-size game board (more on that as the idea grows into
reality). December has been a boom of comparison (especially hot is Gale vs.
Peeta) that I plan to take into January for sure, just so I can use the Senor
Wooly activity someone sent in a post! One of my classes is begging to talk
about future and past (imagine all sorts of arm motions signing 'yesterday'),
so that will also factor in but more as a framework for comparing and narrating.
I am not sure that this follows the suggestions Darcy/OWL have made, however,
but it is so late that I can barely remember my name. I know that a focus on
the curriculum triangle (students/teacher/everything else) will allow you to
declare a topic and still have room to grow it organically. I believe that
declaring a skill topic will do much the same thing, and I found that it really
helps me to bring my thoughts back to that skill when I hit that 'what next'
moment in a class.
Cathy Bird
Middle School French
Colorado Academy
303-986-1501, x.2622<tel:303-986-1501%2C%20x.2622>
________________________________
From: "Calysta Phillips"
<cphillips@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:cphillips@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
To: ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2013 9:24:01 PM
Subject: [ola] curriculum maps?
Hi all,
A quick question before we head out on break and I mull over January plans. I
forget how Darcy addressed this at our conference... how would I write a
curriculum map of the next term if I don't really know where I'm going?
Could I do it by skills? Technically, we're working on all the skills all the
time: questioning, describing, analyzing, comparing, etc...
Someone give me a clue. If it doesn't say specifically the TOPIC we are
covering, how can I lay out a direction (both for myself and the
administration)?
Mil gracias!
Here's my favorite typo of all: Feliz Ano Nuevo
Teehee!
Calysta
--
Thomas Hinkle
English & Spanish Department Coordinator
Innovation Academy Charter School
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