¡Gracias! Xie Xie! Merci! Danke! Toda!

Reflection: Circle Practice

1. OWL Circle: German 

2. OWL Circle: Hebrew

3. OWL Circle: ASL

Reflection: Circle Demos

1. OWL Circle: Ritmo (Spanish)

2. OWL Circle: Stereotypes P. 1 (English)

3. OWL Circle: Stereotypes P. 2 (English)

4. OWL Circle: Stereotypes P. 3 (English)

5. OWL Circle: Stereotypes P. 4 (English)

6. OWL Circle: Stereotypes P. 5 (English)

Day #6 (slightly belated)

Essential Question: What does student success look like?

We began this week discussing the definition of an essential question. Words and phrases like "objective", "complex", "discovery", "no wrong answer", and "core" were tossed about the circle was we tried to negotiate the meaning of this unexpectedly complicated request. Now, at the end of the week, we returned to it once again with a deeper understand of both the question and the possible answers: 

   "Loving to come to class and hungry to learn a second language."

                    "A sense of entitlement.

"The confidence to communicate even when they don't have the words."

   "Living without limits and constraints."

                                               "Full self-expression

            "Developing a love for the language through meaningful communication."

                                   "Wanting to create something in L2."

            "Happy, confident, inspired." 

                                         "Realizing their own growth and ability." 

I am confident that the teachers who attended the bootcamp this year will experience this and more in their classrooms come September because what I saw on Friday was teacher success. I wish I could go back to elementary, middle, or high school to be a student in their classes! Our schedule on Friday was a rotating block schedule that allowed us to focus our energy on concrete tasks that we could take back to school in a few weeks. Groups practiced leading the circle, created lesson plans, shared more activities, learned about Ashley's amazing portfolios, and helped each other solve common struggles during consultancy protocols. The work I saw was so filled with love, spirit, and a desire to change for the betterment of the students. Each and every attendee brought a passion for teaching that I can only hope to one day emulate. Watching teachers, both new and old to OWL, have the confidence step up and lead circles in Spanish, French, German, Hebrew, and even ASL showed just how much we have all learned this past week. I hope we can continue to stay connected on the OWL Collaborative and on the forums because I can't wait to see what everyone does in their classrooms!  

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Darcy, Annie, Caleb, Ashley, and Ricardo: Thank you for showing us, rather than telling us, how OWL can create a community, spark authenticity in the classroom, and inspire individuals to continue to learn. Even after a week of eight-hour days I think we all flew home hungry for more. 

Teachers: Thank you for letting me tag along and attempt to capture the bootcamp magic with my noisy camera. Thank you for making sure I ate breakfast, packed a sweater, and felt included. Your words of wisdom and support mean more to me than I can say. I am proud to one day follow in your footsteps - just have to graduate college first :)

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Major take-away: "There is so much research on teaching the whole child. OWL allows us to be whole teachers." ~ Participant

Last Day Strands

Day #5

Essential Question: How do we use student interest to drive learning?

Buzzwords 

Concept map 

Curriculum Triangle

Threads 

Progressions

Question Sequences

Today we started to practice the tools we've learned about and observed over the week. After leading our own circles yesterday, many of us are chomping at the bit and ready to dive into the mess that is language learning!

While the first strand practiced developing concept maps and question sequences, the second strand continued to discuss the essential question: How do we instruct for proficiency? Through carefully constructed prompts that address errors and mistakes we can push students through the levels. These prompts often take the form of questions. As Ricardo said in his presentation, questions allow for more questions and such questions permit students to think and use language creatively and organically. 

Caleb's mind-blowing possible formula for progression:

1. Identify the inaccuracy

2. Determine whether it is a non-compensatory leveling issue or not
3. Determine if it is an error or mistake
4. Hypothesize what has resulted in the error - transfer or training?
5. Where does the error/mistake lie? Implicit? Explicit?
6. What do we do about it? (Enriched v. enhanced input)
7. Design instruction around the most appropriate type of intervention...prompts, exposure, experience, literacy, comprehension, production, ect.

One of the highlights of the day was the Intermediate circle that Darcy led to show us how OWL worked at the higher levels. While she led thirteen twelve teachers in an engaging class about regional stereotypes, the rest of us took careful notes about her question sequences, transitions, and how she handled ambiguity and student-initiated deviations. Watching her model a circle gave us a better idea of what we are striving to create in our classrooms. 

We put everything we've learned over the week to the test at the end of the day with some concrete planning work time. Annie, Darcy, Ricardo, Caleb, and Ashely supported us as we broke into groups to begin to plan the first two weeks, design curriculum and scope and sequence, and outline English week. It was so helpful and now we are all leaving with something concrete to bring back to our classrooms in a few weeks!!

Major take-away: Ambiguity is okay!!
Major take-away: Without corrective feedback that negotiates meaning you and your students get stagnant.

"But OWL makes a difference. For me it's a light in the dark." ~ Overheard in the cafeteria 

Utilizing Threads & Progressions