All resources in Nebraska K-12 World Language

WL Self Assessment Circles Intermediate Low

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Research shows that engaging students in self-assessment positively impacts language learning, motivation, and learner autonomy. To help World Language Educators accomplish this, the Nebraska Department of Education invited experienced world language teachers across the state to create student-friendly assessments in the form of can-do statements in the summer of 2022.  This document is a student-friendly self-assessment activity for Intermediate Low world language learners created based on the 2019 Nebraska World Language Standards. The language use described in all can-do statements is meant for the target language, except for the second for standard 3.1 and the first for standard 4.2.  It is recommended that word language teachers engage students with this document three times in an academic year: pre-course, mid-course, and post-course. Engaging students with this self-assessment activity will help students see growth over time and hopefully attribute growth to effective learning practices. Please feel free to contact chrystal.liu@nebraska.gov for any questions and concerns.

Material Type: Assessment

Authors: Kelleen Rosebaugh, Chrystal Liu, Nick Ziegler, Janet Eckerson, Chun-Yi Coral Su

WL Self Assessment Checklist - Intermediate Low

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Research shows that engaging students in self-assessment positively impacts language learning, motivation, and learner autonomy. To help World Language Educators accomplish this, the Nebraska Department of Education invited experienced world language teachers across the state to create student-friendly assessments in the form of can-do statements in the summer of 2022. This document is a student-friendly self-assessment activity for Intermediate Low world language learners created based on the 2019 Nebraska World Language Standards. The language use described in all can-do statements is meant for the target language, except for the second for standard 3.1 and the first for standard 4.2. It is recommended that word language teachers engage students with this document three times in an academic year: pre-course, mid-course, and post-course. Engaging students with this self-assessment activity will help students see growth over time and hopefully attribute growth to effective learning practices. Please feel free to contact chrystal.liu@nebraska.gov for any questions and concerns. 

Material Type: Assessment

Authors: Janet Eckerson, Kelleen Rosebaugh, Chrystal Liu, Chun-Yi Coral Su

Strategy Guide: Using Partner Talk to Strengthen Student Collaboration and Understanding

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In this strategy guide, you’ll learn about Partner Talk—a way to provide students with another learning opportunity to make learning their own through collaboration and discussion. Partner Talk can be used for assessing classwork, making connections to prior knowledge, discussing vocabulary, or simplifying concepts. One of the main goals of the English Language Arts Common Core Standards is to build natural collaboration and discussion strategies within students, helping to prepare them for higher levels of education and collaboration in the workforce. In today’s classrooms, students are using complex texts and are being asked to use a variety of strategies and provide evidence-based responses. Partner Talk is a best practice that gives students an active role in their learning and scaffold the experience for students.

Material Type: Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Lunar New Year, Mandarin Chinese, Intermediate-Low

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In this activity, students will plan a menu for a Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner using clues about individual dishes cultural significance. Students will read aloud the descriptions of the dishes, and then choose which ones they would want to include in their banquet to best align with traditional Chinese New Years Eve conventions.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Amber Hoye, Hannah Steiner, Camille Daw, Mimi Fahnstrom

Animals of the Chinese Zodiac

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In this lesson plan, students will learn about the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. In the introductory first lesson, they will see how animals are often used as symbols. In the second lesson, they will hear one of several versions of how the 12 animals were chosen. They will then focus upon a few of the animals in the story and see how they can be used as symbols of certain human characteristics. In the third lesson, they will be introduced to the other animals of the zodiac, and they will be given a chart on which they will assign traits to each animal. Then they will consult a number of websites to find the traits traditionally associated with the animals, which they will add to their list. Then, they will come up with a number of ways to compare and contrast the animals in the list. In the third lesson, they will focus upon the animal associated with the year of their birth, learning about its traits and discussing whether or not these apply to themselves and their peers. Finally, each student will make an acrostic, combining the letters of his or her first name with adjectives that relate to his or her zodiac sign.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment, Lesson Plan

Asking About Nationality, Mandarin Chinese, Novice Low

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In this activity, students will practice asking someone they meet where they are from and their nationality. Students will start by asking each other what country they are from, and then each student will be given a country card at random. Students will then practice asking and answering questions about various nationalities.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Amber Hoye, Derek Cross, Hannah Steiner, Camille Daw, Mimi Fahnstrom

Meeting with Friends, Mandarin Chinese, Novice Low/Novice Mid

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In this activity students will practice creating short narratives in Chinese by creating a mad-libs like story. Students will take turns picking cards from different categories to fit together in a short story. Students will then share their short story out loud. Students will also read invitations for different types of parties and answer comprehension questions.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Amber Hoye, Hannah Steiner, Camille Daw, Mimi Fahnstrom

e·Chinese Tools: Digital Tools for Teaching and Learning Chinese

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Nowadays, the use of technologies is deeply embedded in the teaching and learning of foreign languages. Therefore, students and teachers are compelled to continuously update their digital skills. Moreover, the need for online teaching has been spurred by the COVID pandemics, which has posed new challenges in this regard. When searching for online tools, one of the main difficulties is the vast amount and disparity of resources available to both teachers and students, who often feel overwhelmed due to the lack of time or assessment criteria. In such cases, the potential of existing resources remains largely unexplored. In this context, we developed an online open access database of digital resources for Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language. It includes a collection of metadata to satisfy users with different profiles and needs. In sum, we set up a multilingual (Catalan, Spanish, English and Chinese) and dynamic website, which can be useful for both teachers and learners who, in turn, will be able to enrich it through different types of feedback. Check our website and subscribe to our newsletter to be informed of the latest resources added to the database.

Material Type: Primary Source

Authors: Antonio Paoliello, Helena Casas-Tost, Mireia Vargas-Urpí, Sara Rovira-Esteva

Level 1 World Language Curriculum Map

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This OER curriculum map was created by Nebraska World Language teachers and reviewed by Dr. Chrystal Liu & Dorann Avey as part of the 2023 World Language OER Summer work and training. Educators worked with NDE staff to create OER Learning Plans and materials. The attached curriculum map is designed for 9 - 12 World Language Arts teachers for student learning of Mid Novice Learners of Spanish. Students will analyze and evaluate the elements of literary text, build background knowledge to clarify text and deepen understanding, and use relevant evidence from a variety of sources to assist in analysis and reflection of complex text. This Lesson Plan addresses the following NDE World Language Standard(s): NE WL 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, and 5.2. 

Material Type: Full Course, Lesson Plan

Authors: Danielle Fulcher, Chrystal Liu

Let's Chat! French

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Conversation Activities | The Pathways Project Short Description: Let’s Chat! French features a collection of nearly 100 classroom-ready interpersonal speaking activities for novice and intermediate learners. Touching on a range of thematic topics such as free time activities, food, daily routines, health, the environment, art and so much more, French teachers are sure to find an activity to use in their courses. These activities may be used as is or can easily be revised and remixed to fit the unique needs of individual classrooms. Long Description: Let’s Chat! French features a collection of nearly 100 classroom-ready interpersonal speaking activities for novice and intermediate learners. Touching on a range of thematic topics such as free time activities, food, daily routines, health, the environment, art and so much more, French teachers are sure to find an activity to use in their courses. These activities may be used as is or can easily be revised and remixed to fit the unique needs of individual classrooms. Are you a language instructor using Pathways Project Activities? We would love to hear from you. CLICK HERE to provide your feedback and share back activities you revised with the Pathways Community. The Pathways Project, an initiative from the Department of World Languages at Boise State University, is a collaborative network of open educational resources (OER) including instructional language teaching materials and professional development created by and uniquely for Idaho’s K-16 language teachers and students. Teachers and students participating in the Pathways Project come from different fields of study and schools across Idaho to create open (i.e., free), digital activities that support the teaching and learning of foreign languages and promote intercultural competence. We hope to impact the opportunities learners have to connect to the global world! Visit the Pathways Project Website to learn more. Word Count: 102757 (Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Alexandre Bourque-labb, Cassy Ponga, Jorge Corea, Josepha Sowanou, Justin Snyder, Lily Nelson, Michael Quiblier, Mimi Fahnstrom, Olivier Roy, Rylie Wieseler, Sharon Westbrook

French Grammar Games for Grammar Geeks

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This is an an online, mobile-friendly, digital language-learning grammar game collection for students of French created by Sonja Burrows and Brigitte Humbert at Middlebury College. It is a playful learning space, free and open to the public, where one can drop by anytime and from anywhere. The games on the site are divided into three sections: •Sentence Whiz, where users can practice questions, negations, relative pronouns, active and passive voice, and more structures. •Word Nerd, where users can use nouns, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, possessives, prepositions as well as additional parts of speech. •Verb Challenge, where users can master past, present, and future verb tenses as well as tackle conditional, subjunctive, imperatives, and infinitives. In addition, a guide for the learning space supports users who do not know where to begin or who would like to complete games in an established or recommended path. A resources area allows users to access explanations of grammar and, in some sections, traditional grammar exercises which support the games. Relevant sections of the resources area are linked to games which treat the same grammar points, so that users who complete a game and seek more practice or grammar explanations can easily find that needed support. A navigation and filtering system also allows users to select games which only treat a certain grammar point.

Material Type: Game, Interactive, Lesson

Authors: Brigitte Humbert, Sonja Burrows

Sons & Lettres: A pronunciation method for intermediate-level French

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Sons et lettres provides a set of classroom materials to train students to hear and produce the sounds of French and to recognize the regular spellings used to represent those sounds in print. The materials are inspired by a desire to help students feel more confident about their French pronunciation and more at home saying the many French words, familiar and unfamiliar, which they encounter in their studies, in French media and in their travels. In our experience, students are not given sufficient preparation to successfully decipher and pronounce French words. These materials are intended to fill that gap and to clear away the confusion that English speakers often feel when they see French words with seemingly mysterious combinations of letters.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Stephen Walton