The Keys to Planning for Learning


Book Description

An effective curriculum must bring all required elements together creating an articulated scope and sequence that allows learners to advance to the highest possible levels of proficiency given the type of program. The documents need to be written in a format that is easily understood and accessible to teachers. Enduring understandings offer a starting point for curriculum development. Language educators and experts Donna Clementi and Laura Terrill have created a useful guide to assist teachers, curriculum designers, administrators and professional developers in designing Standards- and performance-based curricula. Starting with an understanding of the 21st century learner, the authors establish a mindset for creating curriculum based on developing learners' proficiency in language and culture. The authors provide easy-to-follow templates to develop units of instruction and daily lessons that incorporate the Standards for Learning Languages, Common Core State Standards, 21st century skills, and technology integration




Building Proficiency for World Language Learners


Book Description

This innovative book offers over 100 engaging and effective activities that busy teachers can use to help students become confident, comfortable, and proficient learners, acquirers, and communicators in new languages. Many activities can be adapted to different languages and levels in secondary-level language courses. Klimas provides readers with ready-to-use templates, editable posters, as well as multimodal communicative activities such as games, storytelling exercises, ideas for centers, and more. There are also pair work and speaking, listening, and reading, as well as drama and video activities to build fluency and encourage risk-taking in the target language. Chock full of low-prep, engaging ideas, Building Proficiency for World Language Learners is an essential tool for world language and ESL teachers.




Introducing Applied Linguistics


Book Description

Introducing Applied Linguistics provides in-depth coverage of key areas in the subject, as well as introducing the essential study skills needed for academic success in the field. Introducing Applied Linguistics: • is organised into two Sections: the first introducing Key Concepts in Applied Linguistics; and the second devoted to the Study Skills students need to succeed. • features specially commissioned chapters from key authorities who address core areas of Applied Linguistics, including both traditional and more cutting edge topics, such as: grammar, vocabulary, language in the media, forensic linguistics, and much more. • contains a study skills section offering guidance on a range of skills, such as: how to structure and organise an essay, the conventions of referencing, how to design research projects, plus many more. • is supported by a lively Companion Website, which includes interactive exercises, information about the contributors and why they’ve written the book, and annotated weblinks to help facilitate further independent learning. Ideal for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Applied Linguistics and TEFL/TESOL, Introducing Applied Linguistics not only presents selected key concepts in depth, but also initiates the student into the discourse of Applied Linguistics. Susan Hunston is Professor of English Language and Head of the School of English, Drama, and American & Canadian Studies, at the University of Birmingham, UK. David Oakey is an Assistant Professor in the Applied Linguistics Program at Iowa State University, USA. Contributing authors: Svenja Adolphs, Aileen Bloomer, Zoltán Dörnyei, Adrian Holliday, Alison Johnson, Chris Kennedy, Almut Koester, Ruby Macksoud, Kirsten Malmkjaer, Kieran O’Halloran, David Oakey. Juup Stelma, Joan Swann, Geoff Thompson, Dave Willis, Jane Willis and David Woolls.




Vocabulary Acquisition


Book Description




Transformative Assessment


Book Description

Testing expert W. James Popham provides the definitive nuts-and-bolts introduction to formative assessment, a process with the power to transform teaching and learning.




How to Grade for Learning


Book Description

Implement standards-based grading practices that help students succeed! Classroom assessment methods should help students develop to their full potential, but meshing traditional grading practices with students’ achievement on standards has been difficult. Making lasting changes to grading practices requires both knowledge and willpower. Discover eight guidelines for good grading, recommendations for practical applications, and suggestions for implementing new grading practices as well as: ? The why’s and the how-to’s of implementing standards-based grading practices ? Tips from 48 nationally and internationally known authors and consultants ? Additional information on utilizing level scores rather than percentages ? Reflective exercises ? Techniques for managing grading more efficiently




The Knowledge Gap


Book Description

The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.




New Trends in Foreign Language Teaching


Book Description

Language teaching approaches, methods and procedures are constantly undergoing reassessment. New ideas keep emerging as the growing complexity of the means of communication and the opportunities created by technology put language skills to new uses. In addition, the political, social and economic impact of globalisation, the new demands of the labour market that result from it, the pursuit of competitiveness, the challenges of intercultural communication and the diversification of culture have opened new perspectives on the central role that foreign languages have come to play in the development of contemporary societies. This book provides an insight into the latest developments in the field and discusses the new trends in foreign language teaching in four major areas, namely methods and approaches, teacher training, innovation in the classroom, and evaluation and assessment.




Fluent Forever


Book Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • For anyone who wants to learn a foreign language, this is the method that will finally make the words stick. “A brilliant and thoroughly modern guide to learning new languages.”—Gary Marcus, cognitive psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Guitar Zero At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school—who does? Rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources—and here he wants to show others what he’s discovered. Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You’ll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you’ll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you’ll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.