All Things Languages

It's the season for assessment and reporting, which in the context of remote learning, is especially challenging. I share the CECV reporting guidelines for Languages, and how I have used "I can" statements interpreted from the Victorian Curriculum Achievement Standards as a classroom visible learning tool, a student self-assessment tool, and (combined with evidence I have collected) as a teacher-judgement that feeds directly into the report comments. This way I feel that I am more explicitly connecting the learning content with the VC, and more clearly answering the questions; Where am I? Where am I going? How am I getting there?
Please let me know how you are going about assessing and reporting this semester.
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I'm feeling optimistic and grateful in ways I hadn't considered before. As for many Language teachers, the ins and outs of lockdown has impacted our students' Language learning. There has been a 'pause' in the value and the activity around Language across the school community. Now there is a chance to find our feet again. To take a small step. And to be so happy for the privilege of bringing Language into our students' world.
Please let me know your thoughts.
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Re-thinking and reinvigorating the podcasts, my aim now is to just chat. Hopefully that makes the podcasts more relatable and easy to listen to.
My plan this term is to do one podcast each Monday morning. It won't be edited, as that saves A LOT of time, and keeps the feeling of me actually talking with you.
This one is about my thinking behind beginning to make books for Language learning.
Chatting about literacy and language connection and some of the reasons why it is so hard to actually run a Language class similar to a Literacy block. 
PLEASE email me with any thoughts you have. Questions. Feedback on what you liked / didn't like? That way this can be more like a dialogue than a monologue.
Cheers
Susan
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What does the VCAA (Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority) reporting guidelines say? And how can that help us to provide parents and carers with reports that really communicate their child's Language skills? In this podcast I step through the musts, the myths and the even better ifs, as well as sharing my experience with progression points. I wonder what your experience might have been like?

Susan is learning Mandarin! The idea is to feel what it is like to be a learner. How do the tools, like speak up, language mats and spaced repetition feel like as a learner? I also noticed another technique that I use, silent alone practice. I thought I’d call it ‘silo’ practice. Thinking about what I could say using Mandarin 10 or more times in a day. It’s just a choice to make that what I think about while I am doing something else. I might look like I’m digging in the garden, but actually I’m counting in Mandarin, or commenting on the pretty flower in Mandarin.

What happens when Susan becomes a learner??? I talk about my first experiences learning Mandarin. Why is it that it is NOT feeling difficult? Is it because I am going at my own pace? Is it the frequency - every day several times a day? Is it building my own sentences from the beginning? Or choosing vocab related to what interests me? Is it that I am ok with not understanding everything? Or I have learnt to be flexible in my thinking? Or that I am good at seeking out patterns, forming hypotheses and being ready for them to be wrong too?
PLEASE let me know your thoughts. How can we leverage this experience to better Language learning for our students? Post on Sale Language Space or email me [email protected]

How does SpeakUp, gestures, picture prompts, Victorian Curriculum, ican statements, student to student use while doing activities, spontaneous use, reports, etc ACTUALLY connect with each other? So I made a flow chart on a miro board, and set of slides. This is my thinking behind it all.  

In part 2 there is great detail about the types of phrases teachers have been using, accountability and motivation. Again, huge thanks to Trish Mulqueen and Taryn Maxwell-Garratt for staying back late (for the quiet) and sharing their experiences.

Always listening to your feedback, I have had requests for an ep on teachers as co-learners. (In all honesty, I would have done one soon anyway haha.) I am super proud of how St Joseph Traf has put in place structures and support to develop the whole school to be habitual Japanese users. We are not saying at all that this is the pinnacle, just that we've done well so far and are continuing to plan for our next steps. Huge thanks to Trish Mulqueen and Taryn Maxwell-Garratt for staying back late (for the quiet) and sharing their experiences.

How does SpeakUp, gestures, picture prompts, Victorian Curriculum, ican statements, student to student use while doing activities, spontaneous use, reports, etc ACTUALLY connect with each other? So I made a flow chart on a miro board, and set of slides. This is my thinking behind it all.  

Is this helpful?
How might you use them?
What are your thoughts on grammar being taught AFTER students try making sentences for themselves?