District Administration - February 2009 - (Page 29)

PHoto CREDit bY FliCkR USER SHiV The Rosetta Stone line of software (above) is used to boost language skills among foreign language students and English language learners. A student (left) in the Herricks Union Free School District in New York takes part in a Skype videoconference with students in Caracas, Venezuela. of lecturing them,” Salazar-Linden says. Northside College Preparatory High School in the Chicago Public Schools uses another high-tech language lab called reLANpro, purchased from ASC Direct, that has similar capabilities. Using reLANpro, students can review their own recordings as well as practice areas of weakness, says Janet Torres, department chair of world languages at the district. “By having the kids record their answers, they are able to [review them later and] say, this is exactly the one part that was mentioned to me by my teacher that I need to reinforce,” Torres says. For Abbott, the ability to digitally record student performances represents a “radical change” in foreign language instruction, offering more opportunities for assessment and feedback for teachers than just calling on students. “That’s really difficult to do in the confines of the traditional classroom, but the new technologies are really aiding the teacher and making it much more doable for teachers,” she says. Videoconferencing At Herricks Union Free School District in New Hyde Park, N.Y., Lori Langer de www.DistrictAdministration.com Ramirez, the district’s chair of ESL and world languages, is using video technology to connect students to classes abroad. Using Skype, a computer program that allows telephone calls over the Internet, and a Web camera, de Ramirez has arranged videoconferences with a class of students in Venezuela, allowing her students to experience cultural exchanges. Students were excited and asked a plethora of questions that exercised their vocabulary—for example, inquiring how many siblings a particular Venezuelan student had or asking for another student’s birthdate, de Ramirez recalls. Videoconferences are exciting and motivating for students, Abbott says. “We often say that a very high motivation for students is when you have an audience for their language production that isn’t just the teacher,” especially an audience of sameage peers in other countries, she adds. Blogging Many schools are experimenting with communication tools available on the Web to facilitate student discussions and project-based work. Some Spanish teachers in the Herricks Union district use blogs to foster student discussions of Spanish soap operas, for example, they are assigned to watch, says de Ramirez. For homework, students post comments in Spanish about the soap operas or respond to prompts the teacher posts. When delivered as homework assignments, the blog tasks foster more indepth responses from students than simple classroom discussions, because students have more time to formulate responses and think through issues, de Ramirez says. Some students post images from the soap opera or YouTube videos of the show on the blog page to demonstrate their responses to questions, such as explaining a character’s role in a particular scene. Multimedia Project-based learning in the Spanish language is also incorporated into the Herricks Union curriculum by having students create a narrated slideshow presentation of photos they took or found from other sources, de Ramirez says. Students use the free Microsoft software program Photo Story 3, which allows users to February 2009 29 http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of District Administration - February 2009

District Administration - February 2009 Contents Advertiser Index Editor's Letter News Update Security Curriculum Crisis Response Supervisor's Opinion The Rise of the Virtual Teacher Speaking Their Language Alternate Transportation Routes Opinion The Aftermath of the New 403(b) Regulations How Well Does This Web Site Work? Problem Solution New Products Product Focus Professional Opinion

District Administration - February 2009

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