Welcome to the February 2005 electronic newsletter of the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center!

Teaching is a dynamic, complex, and demanding endeavor—one that, at times, is extremely difficult for even the most experienced of teachers. The unreasonable demands that it often imposes on time, attention, and internal resources provoke regular attempts to mitigate its unrelenting intensity. We expend a lot of energy trying to make it settle down and hold still—doing our best to control (and sometimes even change) its dynamic nature by encasing it in new policies and reforms with as little wiggle room as possible. We poke and prod it with educational research—hoping it will reveal its secrets to us—but sometimes that just takes too long!

So, in the meantime, we examine its parts, arguing over which one is really the cause of all of the problems, and then subject them to a wide array of treatments such as new funding formulas, different kinds of schools (charter schools, magnet schools, parochial schools, private schools), different ways to structure the school day (block scheduling, extended day, extended year, or year round schooling), different methods for deciding which kids attend which schools (bussing, districts, vouchers), different means of holding teachers accountable (merit pay, standardized testing, school report cards), and different kinds of curriculum (among other things). In other words, we do everything in our power to try to simplify its complexity. Politicians legislate it to insulate it from the influence of community, school boards wrap it in policies to protect it from the influence of parents, publishers teacher-proof it, community members standardize it to protect it from everyone else, students resist it, and then we constantly measure it, one another, and the students to see how well we're doing! No wonder teaching is sometimes exhausting and overwhelming!

Maybe we should consider what it would take to achieve a more skillful balance between the science and the art of teaching? Perhaps teaching, like other artistic endeavors, only reveals its creative possibilities to those who know how to see—to those who, through concentrated attention, committed emotional engagement, and cognitive flexibility, develop and cultivate the skill of perceiving the common in the educational world around them in uncommon ways? Critically examining the canvas of teaching and learning from multiple angles through the lens of other disciplines can help us to reframe our perspective on what it means to teach, to learn, and to understand—ultimately, transforming our practice. In this issue, we encourage you experiment with the mixed media of culturally authentic, standards-based, content-based thematic units in order to artfully compose a more cognitively challenging, emotionally engaging, student-centered curriculum.

How can I use culturally authentic, standards-based, content-based units to provide my students with opportunities to engage in more meaningful learning?

Have you ever noticed how different the learning that takes place in an art, music, or science classroom looks from the learning that takes place in a business, math, social studies, industrial arts, or P.E. classroom? Have you ever thought about how your world language class might look, feel, or sound different if you were to incorporate some of what counts as learning from those other disciplines into it? Chances are that teachers who are adept at using standards-based units have!

To see some good models, elementary teachers will want to explore this unit written by Katia Parviz-Condon, Donna Kleinman, Joseph Brown, and Angela Roa (Culture & Children's Literature, 1996) that is based on the children's book, Cuadros de familia, by Carmen Lomas Garza. The entire unit can be downloaded for free as a .pdf file!

Middle school teachers will enjoy Chez moi, a standards-based unit by Paris Granville (Mentoring, Leadership, and Change, 2003) that teaches students about French homes and families and can also be downloaded for free as a .pdf file. Be sure to spend some time exploring the purple buttons at the top of the page!

High school teachers will have fun with Deutschland nach der Mauer, a useful site that contains six standards-based units for both beginning and advanced German classes that revolve around topics such as diversity in German, German identity, music, and the unification of Germany. The units near the bottom of the page serve as particularly good examples. After you select a unit, the list of drop-down menu choices at the bottom of the page will allow you to navigate your way through its various components.

How does instruction organized around themes differ from instruction that is organized around topics?

Carefully composed standards-based, thematic units are a purposeful, content-based way to organize, contextualize, and focus meaningful learning experiences for foreign language students at all levels (PreK-16). They are particularly effective at acknowledging the complex nature of learning and seek to address it by engaging students in creative exploration, critical thinking, and collaboration that helps them to develop enduring understandings. Unlike topic-based units that emphasize isolated grammatical elements and revolve around the surface-level exploration of products and practices, thematic units tend to encourage students to use their communicative skills to participate in meaningful experiences that examine the significance of cultural perspectives for themselves and for their communities. This exquisitely crafted interdisciplinary unit on Latin America: Our Neighbors at Home and to the South is an exceptional model that could be used at any level. The Arab Culture in Review: A Global Perspective is a good example of a unit that encourages students to apply multiple perspectives (an American businessman, an Arab woman, and a migrant worker) to the study of other cultures, and then to synthesize those ideas in a collaborative PowerPoint presentation. Speaking of perspectives, German teachers will appreciate this Thematic Unit on Xenophobia in Postwar Germany that consists of a description of the readings, lessons, and communicative activities that one teacher used to help students gain new understandings about xenophobia in Germany.

How do I plan a thematic unit?

Creating interdisciplinary thematic units requires the development of both content-area expertise and artistic skill. This stellar site on Interdisciplinary Learning in Your Classroom offers free, online modules to help you do just that. The Demonstration tab will take you to several online video examples of interdisciplinary units for elementary, middle, and high school classes. The Exploration tab will take you to answers to questions that teachers frequently have about interdisciplinary instruction, and the Implementation tab will connection you with templates and resources to help you through the process of designing an interdisciplinary unit with a thematic center. Would you prefer to work with a tool that takes a little more practical approach? Then you'll like Backward Design: Beginning with the End in Mind to Design Multi-genre Thematic Units. Be sure to visit the Themes and Essential Questions page as it offers some excellent examples of themes that could serve as the basis for your own thematic units. If you would like to know more about the principles of the backward design process, you'll appreciate the brief overview this PowerPoint presentation based on the work of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (downloadable as a .pdf) offers, and may even enjoy reading the first two chapters of Understanding by Design.

If you find yourself wishing for help that is more specific to world languages, Helena Curtain's Integrating Foreign Language and Content Instruction in Grades K-8 , explains how to plan a content-based, thematic unit. Support Materials for Teaching Foreign Language K-12 Workshop: Rooted in Culture contains some worksheets (see pages 9 and 16-22) that will be extremely helpful as you consider how to anchor your thematic unit more deeply in the cultural perspectives of your target culture. This unit for Advanced Placement Spanish classes centered around the theme of Hispanic identity is a nice model of how you might use authentic art, film, and literature to contextualize a unit. If you struggle most with connecting students to other disciplines and to the community, be sure to spend some time learning more about the initiatives that 2005 Year of Languages launched in February to help students become more engaged with countries from around the world.

It can be quite a challenge to conceptualize a thematic unit for novice language learners because their language skills are frequently so limited. This thoughtful, well-designed reference guide from the New Jersey Supervisors of World Languages Novice Curriculum Project contains numerous templates, tools, and examples to guide world language teachers in developing thematic units specifically for novice language learners using Wiggins and McTighe's backward design process.

How can the National Standards help me to design better thematic units?

When teachers begin to approach their work artistically, amazing things can happen! Teaching Foreign Languages K-12 is a phenomenal library of the kinds of standards-based, content-based lessons that typically comprise a thematic unit. Once you have selected a lesson to explore, be sure to click on the buttons on the left-hand side of the screen. These will allow you to view online video clips of lessons on a wide variety of topics for K-12 learners in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Russian, and Spanish, will explain more about the lesson and the class, will allow you to download worksheets and other materials used in the lesson, and will take you to links containing relevant resources. If you find yourself wondering how they did it, and wishing you could too, the outstanding article, Designing a Standards-based, Thematic Unit Using the Learning Scenario as an Organizing Framework, explains how you can use a standards-based learning scenario as the springboard to your own thematic unit. If you do not feel quite ready to tackle an entire thematic unit, you might want to consider experimenting with the development of your own learning scenario. Scroll to the bottom of the Mich-i-lifts project to see some learning scenarios in French, Spanish, and German, or spend some time at the Languages Other Than English Center for Educational Development: Learning Scenarios, where you'll find links to learning scenarios in Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Latin, Russian, and Spanish.

What are some other resources that I could use to help me create a thematic unit?

Thematic units are grounded in culturally authentic contexts and materials, are organized around themes that are culturally-rich and age-appropriate, and tap into ideas that are personally relevant and meaningful to students. Finding materials that are rich enough to support such complexity while remaining simple enough for language learners to comprehend them can be tricky! Developing our ability to perceive the potential of the materials we encounter requires that we refine our professional expertise and perception. One great way to cultivate the skill of perceiving the common in uncommon ways is by networking with participants from previous NFLRC institutes ! Here are some resource recommendations from some of our resident maestros:

Julie Kline (Latin America in the Classroom Institute, 2002) heartily recommends Outreach World —a growing online community of 120 federally-funded National Resource Centers (NRCs), 42 Language Resource Centers (LRCs) and Centers for International Business and Education Research (CIBERs), and educators dedicated to foreign language study, international business, and teaching and learning about important global regions (including Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, and International Studies) by strengthening vital links between the United States and the world. Click on the resources tab at the top of the page to see exemplary materials produced by teachers and scholars that would serve as a great place to begin the development of a thematic unit. You'll also want to check out the calendar of outstanding professional development activities for K-12 educators and the contest opportunities for students.

For teachers interested in compiling a unit on the Holocaust, Mandel Fellowship Teaching Resources is a beautiful site filled with extensive resources. While you are there, be sure to check out the Holocaust Education and World Languages lesson plan by Mary Mills (Interactive Multimedia Institute, 1994) that demonstrates a way to use poetry to teach about the Holocaust in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish.

This link will take you to a page from an interesting lesson on Andalucía by Eva Echenberg (Language, Content, and Culture Connections: Mexico and the Zapotec Culture Institute, 2004), and the multimedia lesson materials that accompany the standards-based, thematic unit Fiestas de Yucatán based on an action research project conducted by Jeanette Borich (Teacher Partnership, 1994; Culture & Children's Literature, 1996; Performance Assessment, 1997 & 1998) will give you lots of ideas. You also won't want to miss next month's issue of the Alumni Connection, which will be devoted to exploring Resources for Student Learning: Finding, Evaluating, and Using Culturally Authentic Materials.

How can I plan thematic units if my district requires me to use a textbook?

Thematic units and topically-organized textbook units are not mutually exclusive This brief article from the Understanding by Design Exchange Website offers some unique perspectives on how we might reframe the relationship between textbooks and the curriculum so that it is more beneficial to students. For a more practical example, check out this Integrated Thematic Unit for English Language Learners that uses Madeline Hunter's framework as the basis for its design, and is intended to support 3rd grade English Language Learners in learning science (about ocean movements) while simultaneously developing their language skills in English.

How do I evaluate the effectiveness of a culturally authentic, standards-based, content-based thematic unit?

If you aren't quite sure what message your audience is sending you, use this checklist of questions about unit design, teachers, students, and the classroom environment to assess how well the units you have designed actually teach for enduring understanding, or scan this interview to learn more about the dos and don'ts of designing an effective, project-based learning scenario.

How do I assess student learning that is grounded in a thematic unit?

Authentic performance-based assessments are a key element of the artful composition of most thematic units, and lessons from the field of fine arts can teach us how to design them so that they better reveal the depth and breadth of students' understanding. These ideas and sample rubrics from CARLA's Virtual Assessment Center illustrate what such assessments might look like in world language classes.

How can I use technology to support me as I design thematic units?

The incredibly interesting article, Cognitive Flexibility, Constructivism, and Hypertext: Random Access Instruction for Advanced Knowledge Acquisition in Ill-Structured Domains, shows just what can happen when a researcher decides to get creative and mix media from a variety of different disciplines (including psychology, education, and technology) to produce ground-breaking insights on teaching, learning, and understanding. If the topic interests you, but the abstract title scares you, then a quick tour of the article in this friendly little gallery might be more your style. George Marsh's thought-provoking article, Instructional Design, also draws on a wide array of fields such as movie-making, psychology, information technologies, research on engaged learning, and thematic teaching as the basis for principles of sound curricular design.

Does your artistic taste tend more toward multimedia? If so, you'll like the free, technology-based tools and templates that you can download from Digital Literacy: Curriculum to support your efforts in designing thematic units. Mind-mapping software like Kidspiration is also useful for drafting and organizing plans for a thematic unit. It can even support thematic instruction as a tool for student learning. An "Inspirational" Look at Japan: Using Inspiration Software to Organize Observations About Japan describes a lesson plan that asks elementary students to make observations about Japanese culture (based on children's books) and to organize them using Inspiration software.

Anyone who has ever read Gödel, Escher, Bach knows that mathematics can be every bit as elegant as art, and, like art, can tell a fascinating story to those who understand the language used to tell it.  This site contains many statistical stories about Hispanics living in Iowa!  While you are there, be sure to investigate how the demographic information and other resources about Hispanics in the U.S. might dispel some of your students' stereotypes about Spanish-speaking immigrants, and don't forget to explore the culture tab, which will take you to lots of resources that are likely to be helpful to you in creating thematic units!

Adams, Douglas in Anyara.  (2003).  Anyara Aphorisms:  Computers.  Retrieved December 18, 2004, from http://koti.mbnet.fi/neptunia/science/comput1.htm

Adams, George Matthew.  (2004).  Learning to give:  An action of the heart, a project of the mind.  Retrieved December 18, 2004, from http://www.learningtogive.com/search/quotes/

Blinder, Alan in Kuhlenschmidt, Sally. (2002). Quotes for college educators. Retrieved February 28, 2005, from [RTF] http://www.lhup.edu/TLC/Quotes%20on%20College%20Education.rtf

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Constable, John in Kuhlenschmidt, Sally (2002). Quotes for college educators. Retrieved February 28, 2005, from [RTF] http://www.lhup.edu/TLC/Quotes%20on%20College%20Education.rtf

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Lucas, George in Kelly, Kevin, & Parisi, Paula. (1997, Feb.). Beyond Star Wars. Wired Magazine. Retrieved February 24, 2005, from http://hotwired.wired.com/collections/film_special_effects/5.02_lucas_pr.html

Palmer, Parker J. (1998). The courage to teach. NY: Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-7879-1058-9.

Postman, Neil in Kuhlenschmidt, Sally. (2002). Quotes for college educators. Retrieved February 28, 2005, from [RTF] http://www.lhup.edu/TLC/Quotes%20on%20College%20Education.rtf

Stone, Peter in Kuchwara, Michael. (1997). AP interview with Peter Stone. Titanic. Retrieved February 28, 2005, from http://www.dodger.com/titanic/titanic-press-pr-ap-stone.htm

Tolkien, J.R.R. (1993). The lost road and other writings. Australia: HarperCollins. ISBN 0261102257. Retrieved December 18, 2004, from http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/27752.html

von Goethe, Johann in Kuhlenschmidt, Sally. (2002). Quotes for college educators. Retrieved February 28, 2005, from [RTF] http://www.lhup.edu/TLC/Quotes%20on%20College%20Education.rtf

Wheatley, Margaret. (n.d.). Quotes on community involvement, service, and volunteerism. Retrieved December 18, 2004, from [ PDF] http://www.studentlife.uoguelph.ca/service/documents/CommunityInvolvementQuotations.pdf

Next Issue

In March, we will explore Resources for Student Learning: Finding, Evaluating, and Using Culturally Authentic Materials. If you have suggestions for information on this topic to share with fellow alumni, send your ideas to Cherice Montgomery at chericem@msu.edu.

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This Newsletter was prepared with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education under Title VI grant #P229A020023. The publication of products and website URLs in this newsletter is provided for informational purposes only and does not imply an endorsement by the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center, Iowa State University, or the positions or policies of the U. S. Department of Education.