The Journey Begins....

As my eighth year of teaching Spanish is coming to an end, I find myself rethinking the way that I teach.  Over the past few years, I have begun to delve into proficiency-based teaching.  

• I created standards-based, student-friendly learning targets for each of my classes.  
• I used those targets to guide my teaching and my assessments.  
• I created and used rubrics to assess the targets.  
• I tried to give more descriptive feedback to help my students move towards proficiency.  
• I used terms like developing, proficient, exceeding.  
• I stopped using zeroes in my grade book.  
• I struggled with how to accurately portray my students' proficiency levels with a percentage.  
• I offered retakes and redo's and alternative assessments (BTW: I hate that apostrophe but I can't decide how else to spell the plural of redo).
• I accepted late work without penalty, sometimes even on the last day of school.

Imagine my surprise when an administrator observed my class and commented that it looked very similar to when he studied language in the past.  Here I thought I was being so creative, and I am actually just doing the same old thing.  It made me think about all the things I have not changed over the last eight years:

• My class is still teacher-centered and grammar-based.
• I still have my students make flashcards.
• I use the vocabulary lists from the textbook, full of words they may never use.
• I rarely use authentic reading or listening sources.
• I rarely use the target language.

Next year, with the move to Common Core, my department will be moving from our state standards to the national ACTFL standards.  I also may have the opportunity to have more technology in my classroom.  I plan to use this transition to overhaul my classes and how I teach them.  It's time for a fresh start, and this blog will be a place for me to organize my thoughts and reflect on how my journey is progressing.  I hope you will follow my progress and maybe even join me in overhauling your classroom routines.