Archive for the ‘World Languages’ Category
Filed Under Photos, Spanish
In the lab, Señora Lopez’s 8th grade Spanish students practice identifying reflexive verbs through paintings by famous Hispanic artists, such as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Fernando Botero, Diego Velázquez, Salvador Dalí, among others. To play the game, students look at works (and biographical info about artists) displayed in a Power Point presentation and use DILL to ring in with the reflexive verbs they can identify in each of the paintings. First student to ring in, wins a point! Software used: Power Point, DILL, and overhead projector.
Game: Hispanic Artists and Reflexive Verbs
Filed Under French, Photos
Mme. Collet’s students have spent time working together in the lab to make short presentations about French society and culture.
Collecting visual materials from the internet and writing short descriptions about what they found, student groups worked for several classes to create their presentations in Keynote. They finished the process by recording a narration of the contents . Students shared their presentations with each other in class later.
-
-
Students working on Keynote presentations
-
-
Mme Collet consults with students about their presentation
Filed Under French, Photos, Spanish
Welcome the World Language Lab’s 2009-2010 school year! We’ve had plenty of changes to mark the new year, not the least a new lab coordinator (me, Colin Warren)…
As the new lab coordinator, I’m pleased to announce the lab is up to date with the latest version of DiLL and many other software packages and we have new headsets throughout the lab. We will also be available for reservation during all periods of the day, starting this week. Please check the schedule (easily available through the Yuperstar blog page) and sign up when available.
If you have any questions about using the lab or our software, please feel free to sign up for an appointment, or send an email to me (cvwarren@ucls.uchicago.edu).
We’ve already had several classes in the lab, and are looking forward to watching everyone learn!
Mme. Schneider presenting to her French class
Sra. Hundley working on reflexive verbs
- Colin
Filed Under World Languages
I invoke upon all of you seniors a wonderful life. Be good. Be true. Do right. Love.
Filed Under World Languages, YuperStars
As you may or may not know, Mme Jackson has been the “Lab Liaison” since I started working here in the summer of 2007. First of all, you should know what a joy and privilege it is to work with this woman. She is upbeat, kind, thoughtful, and really sharp. It’s just been awesome working with her. I know that the department really appreciates her help and enthusiasm. Not only has she reached out to faculty and given them one-on-one help, but she’s also helped to troubleshoot potential conflicts and made sure that the lab was being used in the best way possible.
Here’s a picture of Mme Jackson, looking smart…
Mme Jackson will be taking some time off next year to have a beautiful baby boy and we’ll miss her terribly while she’s gone, but Sra López will be stepping in and I know that she will be a great asset to the lab as well. Sra López has an abiding interest in project-based learning and technology implementation. I’m sure that her enthusiasm will rub off and that the department will continue to try new and improved ways of using technology and the Lab.
Here’s a picture of Sra López, looking busy…
So basically, stay tuned because next year is gonna rock!
Filed Under Best Bytes, World Languages
Come to Judd 126 to see amazing May Projects by our graduating seniors. Andrew Zich and Peter Zich have created a proof-of-concept rubric tool that is way cool. They will be demonstrating the tool regularly between 7 and 9 pm in the World Language Lab (UH207).
Check out example uses of the tool on our wiki!
Filed Under Chinese, French, German, Latin, Spanish, World Languages
Here is the result of our Flip camera footage taken at last week’s Faculty Development meeting.
Thanks to all of the teachers who were able to participate and share their thoughts. And double thanks to everyone in the department for their valiant efforts to consistently innovate and renovate how they use technology in the language classroom.
Enjoy!
Filed Under Chinese, YuperStars
Mr. Sun and his High School Chinese 1 class made several movie posters last week. They will be up on display in the lab with English translations in the Welcome Area. View a pdf version of the posters here.
Filed Under World Languages
The department has created a new blog that will serve as a centralized repository for language immersion opportunities, including those offered by the department. Check it out!
Filed Under German, YuperStars
Frau Zemil and her 4th graders have been working on MediaBlender projects to design the layout of a room. This simple program allows students to quickly draw and link images together. The projects can also be easily published online, like we’ve done here:
Arbeitzimmer
Arbeitzimmer 2
Garten
Garten 2
Keller
Kueche
Schlafzimmer
Schlafzimmer 2
Wohnzimmer
Wohnzimmer 2
Filed Under Spanish, YuperStars
Sra. Ramos has started a new wave of interest in the department in blabberize.com as a fun and simple way for students to demonstrate proficiency in first person narrative and presentational styles of speaking. She was able to create one login and password that all of the students could use for this project. Students had no problem logging in and uploading their photos simultaneously.
Here are a few examples by Sra. Ramos’ 5th grade students (works in progress):
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Filed Under Spanish, YuperStars
Becky López and and Katie Hundley have been accepted to present at the upcoming ACTFL conference in San Diego this November.
The title of their presentation, “Talking back: popular technologies in motivating conversation in Spanish” will feature methods for using popular technologies for motivating conversation practice in young students of Spanish.
Ms. Hundley writes, “The dynamic symbiosis between new technologies and the evolving digital cultures of our learners is revolutionizing our profession, and we are happy to be blazing trails here. Needless to say we are very excited to represent the Laboratory Schools at ACTFL in November.”
Congratulations to Katie and Becky!
Filed Under World Languages
Yesterday, the department met to discuss various departmental things and we decided to take video of teachers answering three questions:
1. What motivates me to learn technology?
2. How does technology motivate students to learn language?
3. What is one positive experience I’ve had with technology in the classroom?
So now I have probably 40 minutes of footage to sift through and will hopefully have some kind of cool video to share in the next week.
Filed Under Best Bytes, World Languages, YuperStars
Lab owes a big thank you to Wayne Brasler and the myriad students who have helped him write and publish the Midway through the years. The maroon-bound volumes of Midways gone by, currently stored in Judd 014, are probably our single best source of Lab’s history. I found a photograph of the original Language Lab built in 1967 when I was looking for ArtsFest history. I went hunting again today to see if I could scan that photo. Couldn’t find it, but I found another article about “Electric Classrooms” that made me smile.
Apparently, we are on a thirty year cycle, since it was in 2006-07 that our current lab was installed. If the pattern continues, I expect that we’ll renovate again and get some kind of a huge video conferencing language lab (for easily talking to and recording conversations with students from other countries) by 2036.
Retroactive kudos and a “YuperStar” to Ms. Susan Joseph for her exemplary “differentiated instruction”, made possible by the small class size she describes in the first column of this article.
Filed Under Quotes, World Languages
Don’t be too worthwhile. Always keep a few character defects handy. People love to talk about your frailties. If you must be noble, keep it to yourself.
—Edward D. Stone
Filed Under Spanish, World Languages, YuperStars
Today, 5th graders are celebrating the languages and cultures they study with games, song, dance, and good food! I had the pleasure of accompanying a group of about 60 5th grade students to Little Village (26th street), where we practiced reading, writing, and speaking Spanish. We read signs, bought bread, candy, groceries, and asked people questions to fill out the treasure hunt activity that Ms. Guerrero and Ms. Ramos had prepared. Number one most used phrase of the day: “¿Cuanto cuesta?”
Ms. Guerrero prepared an online Jeopardy game the day before to review Spanish phrases and Mexican history. Great web app for Jeopardy, by the way! Much easier to set up and use than PowerPoint!
Filed Under French, YuperStars
Mr. Farver is the first teacher in our department to use EtherPad in the classroom. He checked out the iCarts and had students tell stories about an alien in the imperfect and perfect paste tenses. You can see the end result here, warts ‘n all:
The students started out by goofing around with the tool for about 10 minutes. Teachers should probably expect that there will be some playing around with a new tool. I know that with DiLL, classes have to come into the lab and use it three or four times before the novelty of hearing their voices in the microphone wears off and they are ready to get to work.
Other suggestions that came out of this morning’s experiment:
1) Start with individuals, partners, or small groups working on their own pads in a highly structured way (i.e. correcting each other’s work, or an error-ridden article provided by the teacher) BEFORE giving them a “free-for-all” impromptu writing exercise as a whole class. Too much freedom with too many users on a new tool may approach chaos.
2) Teach students that if they have questions about how to spell or express themselves, that they should use the chat window on the right hand side.
3) Once you have structured your EtherPad “handout” with questions or sections separated with asterisks and lots of line breaks (white space) to make it easy on the eyes, be sure to click the “Save Now” button to create a version that you can restore if you ever need to. Then regularly save versions while students are working in case a student accidentally deletes all of the text. Newer versions of EtherPad will have a “rewind” feature that should help with this.
4) A suggestion for the developers. After students have left the page, there is no way to tell who wrote what. Color coding isn’t reliable because there will never be enough colors for everyone. Once I have identified myself, however, it would be nice if the letters I type are associated somehow with the last name I entered on the top right. Then I can mouse over any character and see who the editor was. This will also improve individual accountability.
Mr. Farver did report, however, that once students got used to the tool, the room got very quiet and everyone was very focused on the task at hand. So the potential is definitely there; it will just take some getting used to!
Bravo, Mr. Farver for trying out this brand new technology!
Filed Under Spanish, YuperStars
Mr. Craig Reubelt used these scenarios in his HS Spanish class to practice chapter vocab, informal commands, the present perfect, and other tenses. His scenarios included conversations between a mechanic and the owner of a car, dialing 911, a police officer and the driver of a car, and two elderly persons close to death discussing their “Bucket Lists”.
Click here to download his handout.
Filed Under French, World Languages, YuperStars
Watch excerpts from the Skype video conference call between Mme. Romanelli’s 8th grade French class and their sister classroom in France. You will see the technical and practical difficulties of 13 students here connecting with 27 students there, but you will also see what an eye-opening experience it is for students to practice their language skills with native speakers. A lot of laughter too, which is always good.
Filed Under Spanish, World Languages, YuperStars
Maestra Guerrero and her two 6th grade classes have been working on recording PowerPoint presentations to practice comparisons this week and are doing a great job! I should have some samples to post next week.
