ACTFL 2007 II: Day 1

ACTFL 2007 was huge. Over 6,400 attendees, and 500 presenters, and that many exhibitors too. We needed someplace as big as the Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center... fortunately, they left enough time between presentations to get from one end of the building to the other if you needed to. My friend, who isn't a member of ACTFL and just came along for the trip, said she saw plenty of conference attendees playing hooky in the afternoons. Me? The government picked up the tab, so I felt obliged to be there all day - not that it was hard to find something. No, the difficulty was in picking which presentation to listen to. Here are Day 1's notes:

First, as a first-time conference attendee, I went to the welcome at 7:15, then made my way over to the huge Ballroom C for the Opening. A band called, I think, Rush Hour was playing - they were pretty good, especially the fiddler (though she did have an electric fiddle), but man were they amped. They were so loud I couldn't go inside the ballroom. When we got underway, we had a nice speech by the president, then the Teacher of the Year award, and then the keynote address, which was given by Tony Plana. Yes, the actor. Turns out he's the founder & Executive Artistic Director for East L.A. Classic Theatre, which is involved in literacy and English-language-learning programs (We're focused on kids at the most vulnerable time in their childhoods, working to integrate the arts into cross-curriculum studies and teacher training. Our mission has a unique bicultural/bilingual twist as well). As you might expect of an actor, he's an engaging speaker, and he's obviously deeply invested in education. Teaching is an art - and it's the most important art on the planet, he concluded.

The first presentation I went to was on Literature for Language and Culture: The Perfect Blend, presented by Eileen Angelini (Canisius College) and Myrna Rochester. Since I picked this one from the online catalog (the abstract said "Effective communication toward language proficiency, exposure to cultural and social issues, and practical goals such as preparation for AP examinations, can all be accomplished through work with well-chosen shorter and full-length literary selections. This session offers instructors step-by-step techniques to help students enjoy literary materials, using them to deepen and broaden speaking, reading, writing, and cultural understanding."), I didn't realize that all their examples would be in Spanish. However, I got a lot of good general tips, and can read Spanish well enough to get through the set questions they were proposing for adaptation to most poems or short stories. Their proposed sequence is nailing down the comprehension first and then moving beyond the text. One of their suggestions that makes a lot of sense - so simple it's a why didn't I think of that? moment - is to give the students a gloss, not in English but in the target language. Of course.

Next, I had meant to attend Content for Communication: Exploring Texts to Build Proficiencies, but having learned my lesson I had dug out the mammoth printed program and double-checked all of my choices. So I learned this one was for French, which I am woeful at, so instead I chose The Use of Emerging Technologies in the World Language Classroom, presented by Manuel Rider-Sanchez. His abstract read "In this session the presenter will discuss how emerging technologies can be easily integrated into the curriculum to enhance all the different skills of the target language. Presenter will describe and show samples of several multimedia projects and activities. Participants will receive detailed handouts with projects for immediate use." He had some really good ideas for integrating journals and wikis into language learning, and for using digital cameras and even Power Point for student presentations. Lots of useful, hands-on stuff.

Next was Creating Rubrics for Performance Assessment: A Step-by-Step Guiding Lesson, presented by Tatiana Sildus (Pittsburg State Univ). Her abstract: "Communicative activities are now the focus of instruction. It is important to use appropriate instruments to evaluate language performance. Well-created rubrics help teachers to be fair and students to be accountable. The interactive, hands-on session will provide tips and examples and guide participants through the process of creating their own rubrics." She had good examples and guidelines for creating objective rubrics, and they'll work well with our content-based objectives.

And I finished up the day with a presentation on Heritage Learners in AP Chinese and Russian Programs by Maria Lekic, Shuhan C. Wang (Asia Society), and Irina Dubinina (Brandeis University). Their abstract read "Heritage learners present opportunities and challenges in redesigning programs that take into account current research on identity issues and motivation for study. At the advanced level in secondary and post-secondary courses these learners need an environment that promotes development of their linguistic and cultural competencies while also serving traditional learners." They had a lot of fascinating points to make about heritage learners (for instance, that, for most, structures which are present in listening competence are just not present for production; or that many are orally proficient but not literate). "Heritage learners are like Swiss cheese - but where the holes are is different, and unpredictable, for each one." Also, that just as many native English speakers don't, heritage Russian (and Chinese, but it's Russian I'm interested in) speakers have little if any meta-language; they've never been taught, e.g., concept of case. Most have a hybrid system of languages, and if they are to progress in Russian, they will have to separate it - and understand that it will be harder than they think. Fascinating presentation.