Building Grassroots Constituencies to Promote Practice Teacher collaboration across districts to support instruction in world languages classrooms

Why build a network?  Teachers in SJ region need support at the local level, in their classrooms to improve practice  Most administrators evaluate without specific world language pedagogical background  Local networks build support capacity and create sense of immediate connection

But – aren’t there already good support systems in place? we will approach this question in the first activity

Quick overview of the SJWLI  South Jersey World Language Institute  The confluence of three important streams  growing corps of former teacher prep students  county-wide professional day  state language organization work in region

Quick history of SJWLI  2004 pondered idea of networking  2007 proposed model  2008 hosted first full-day professional development for county at own school site  2009 extended network to university site  2010 invited expert speaker  2011 full complement in place  2012 extended to other county

Structure of organization  Anyone may participate  No hierarchy  No dues structure  No funding  Grassroots in the truest sense  Name is misleading

Things that made structure work  My own school district willing to host  My work at university made connection easy  Support from state language organization  Other dedicated teachers stepped up quickly  Small geographic region  Current and significant themes for workshops

Challenges from beginning  No funding  No permanent home, fixed address  All volunteer, busy teachers  Attracting wider circle  Clear rationale among many p.d choices  Gatherings too infrequent  Communication

Achievements  Participants return regularly  Various teachers have shared on wiki  Network recognized as resource by administration  Collegiality among participants  Expert presenters add value to programming

2012 a year of special challenges April- Mead Fellowship: a great chance to strengthen the constituency- focus of year May- short workshop, poorly attended July- Rutgers course canceled November- count-wide day canceled November- NJEA Convention canceled December- FLENJ board votes no to special webinars to replace canceled events

…..but new opportunities emerge  Building network, extending to new county  hosting new group of out-of-county teachers in lieu of county-wide professional development day  Introduced them to the framework of SJWLI  Shared current best practices models- teachers left invigorated  Individual participants sharing new lessons from work done at SLWLI events the previous two years

More opportunities……..  Collaboration with University of Pennsylvania CIBER/Lauder Instiute in cooperation with Penn Language Center and the Wharton School of Business January 26, 2013 Philadelphia Pa  Chance to extend network into wider region  Well-attended, great sessions – a breath of fresh air after challenging year

21 st Century Literacies for the World Language Classroom  Financial Literacy for Teachers: Diana Drake, Managing Editor- Knowledge at Wharton, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania  Common Core and World Languages: Lynn Fulton, Delaware Dept of Education  AP Curriculum: Christina Frei, University of Pennsylvania  Tech workshop: Eleni Miltsakaki, University of Pennsylvania

Tech workshop  Role of inquiry-based activities in teaching world languages  Webquests: structured inquiry-based activities using web resources  Practical guidelines to create webquests  Hands-on training to create and use webquests

……..moving forward  Relaunch the county-wide day  Expand the connection with U Penn  Reach out to language resource centers  Extend SJWLI into more counties  Encourage participation at NJEA  Build more depth in wiki

Ok….let’s get into a discussion A.Argue for a grassroots constituency as viable professional development B.Argue against a grassroots constituency as viable professional development

Arguments for and against  Local connections  Access, easy meeting  Knowledge of issues  Live collaboration  Feeling of collegiality  cannot help with district issues  webinars meet needs  state language professional development opps  Best practices available in media 2.0

How can we build a grassroots constituency?  Let’s brainstorm a list

If YOU were to start a network, with which issues would you start?

SJWLI themes  Update on new standards  Integrated performance assessment  Spiraling curriculum across the levels  Voice thread  Establishing elementary curriculum  Input as key in instruction  Using wikis and blogs

Would it possible to link networks?  Shall we discuss connecting already existing organizations across the wider NECTFL region?  What possibilities can exist?  What role can each of us play? 