Why student agency matters

How do your students view your course syllabus or curriculum? As a list of what will be done to them? Or something in which they will have a voice? I would argue that the former is the case for the vast majority of students.

Let’s begin by talking about what “student agency” is. On the Renaissance Learning website, “student agency” is defined as:

“…learning through activities that are meaningful and relevant to learners, driven by their interests, and often self-initiated with appropriate guidance from teachers.  To put it simply, student agency gives students voice and often, choice, in how they learn.”
“This gives students a stake in choosing from opportunities provided for them- perhaps you give students a choice between projects, writing assignments, or other activities.  Their ability to make a decision triggers a greater investment of interest and motivation.”

What key ideas stand out to you in the quotes above?

Larry Ferlazzo in his blog post entitled, “The Best Resources On Student Agency & How To Encourage It” offers strategies for teachers who wish to increase the level of student agency in their classrooms. I have created a “Increasing Student Agency checklist based on his ideas:

Pause to reflect on your recent lessons. How many of the strategies on the list can you check off? How might you enhance those lessons to increase student agency?

Student Agency Through Student Voice

Consider the role “student voice” plays in your classroom. In what ways and how often can we incorporate student voice into our classrooms? Soliciting student voice increases students’ engagement and interest in their learning.

Some examples of ways to address student voice include:

  • Student–generated vocabulary– Williamson County Public Schools (TN) World Language Curriculum documents suggest that language educators ask students for additional vocabulary they need in order to achieve the lesson and unit learning targets:

Click to access Williamson-County-Schools-Level-1-World-Language-Curriculum.pdf

  • Have students regularly give feedback on the task types that help them learn best.

The Keys to Strategies for Language Instruction, L. Grahn and D. McAlpine, ACTFL, 2017

  • Collect student feedback on an upcoming unit and how they connect with it

Before introducing a new unit, have students consider:

  • what interests them about the topic and how it is relevant to their lives
  • what they wonder about the target culture relating to the topic
  • words and phrases they already know that they can use in the unit
  • language they will need to communicate about the topic
  • questions about the topic they would like to discuss with others
  • real world situations in which they can imagine themselves using what they learn
  • projects they can create on the topic
  • ways they can take action and use their voice on the topic

How will you be an “agent” of student empowerment and ownership of their learning through student agency?

Strategies for teaching multi-level language classes

Multi-level classes, sometimes called mixed ability or combined classes, refer to groups of students who are enrolled in different courses and are combined into one class or section. For example, both German 3 and German 4 students may be combined into one class.

Multi-level classes tend to occur in scheduling situations where there are too few students signed up for a particular course. The choice on the part of the school scheduler is to either cancel the course altogether or to combine the students into a class of a different level course.

Strategies for teaching multi-level classes

I would argue that every world language class is a group of mixed levels even though it may have a label like “level 2.” In a proficiency-based classroom, the teacher is offering both support and challenge to a wide range of learners with the goal of providing learning experiences to students that allow them to advance along the proficiency continuum. Language teachers are accustomed to differentiating instruction for their classes on a daily basis. Many of the suggested strategies within this post for multi-level classes are applicable to all language classes.

One approach to multi-level classes is where the teacher selects high interest unit themes for a Year A course and other themes for Year B. The students of both levels experience the same content themes and direct instruction (Year A) aimed at the proficiency targets for both levels. Students who continue the following year in the multi-level classroom will have a new set of unit themes (Year B). Through classroom tasks, the expectations for student performance will differ based on their level. Some small group instruction may occur for specific skill building based on the students’ proficiency expectations per level.

Here is an example of Year A and Year B curriculum themes:

Some additional strategies and approaches for multi-level classes are:

1.Open-ended tasks: The teacher designs communicative tasks that allow students to demonstrate their language proficiency in the communicative modes. Using real world prompts, open-ended tasks

  • have multiple valid answers
  • encourage creativity and deeper thinking
  • and allow for personal responses.

Here’s an example of an open-ended task prompt for presentational writing:

You can find resources and guidance for designing performance task prompts here: https://www.grahnforlang.com/designing-performance-tasks.html

2. Flexible grouping: Students are given multiple opportunities to work with a variety of partners and small groups, including those of the same level, different levels, or similar interests. Students learn from and support one another through collaborative work. Processes and protocols for flexible groups include cooperative learning strategies.

3. Student self-assessment and goal setting: Students are given frequent opportunities to self-assess and set goals for their growth in language proficiency using rubrics and checklists. They are also provided specific, meaningful feedback on a regular basis on how they can advance in their proficiency.

Below is a sample list of feedback for students in the interpersonal mode from which teachers might choose:

4. Learning centers/station rotation: Students practice speaking, listening, viewing, reading, and writing skills through a variety of open-ended tasks that allow them to demonstrate their language proficiency. The learning stations may include a teacher-guided center where the teacher does mini lessons with a strategically chosen group of students. For more details on learning centers, here are links to previous blog posts on the topic: Post #1, Post #2, Post #3

5. Tiered texts and tasks: The teacher provides students with authentic texts and tasks of a variety of difficulty levels that allow for differentiation of support and challenge to students. For more details on tiering texts, check out this blog post. For more information on tiering tasks, see this blog post.

Here is an example of three authentic texts in German on the topic of family pets of a variety of difficulty levels. Note that one chart can be used by all students while interpreting the differentiated texts.

6. Student choice and voice: Students are given agency over their learning by having choices in the tasks they complete. The teacher also solicits input from students on the language they want and need to express themselves. Choices may be provided through choice boards, free voluntary reading, and through project-based learning.

This is an example of a This or That choice board on the topic of food waste for French students:

To do a deeper dive into the topic of multi-level classes, here are some resources for you:

Teaching Mixed Level Classes (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4BUSfhZta0: A video from Klett World Languages

Teaching Mixed Proficiency levels: https://ioannanifli.wordpress.com/2021/08/17/teaching-mixed-proficiency-levels/: ESL focus, has helpful visuals

Multilevel World Language Classes: Teacher Perspectives and Practical Solutions: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1390096.pdf: A research article

Supporting Mixed-Ability Classrooms: Research in Language Education Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/902405863258202/posts/3376695779162519/: Helpful strategies visual

Increasing student confidence and comfort with interpersonal speaking

In her TED Talk entitled “Can Gen Z reclaim the art of conversation?,” Dr. Michelle Burke shares her insights from twenty years of classroom experience on the decline of the ability of Gen Z students to converse and build social connections. They lack skills such as making eye contact, reading facial expressions, and interacting authentically.

Language educators are experiencing the same phenomena in their classrooms. Students feel reluctant and unsure about participating in interpersonal interactions in the target language.

How can will help our language learners increase their confidence and comfort to communicate interpersonally?

Design supported, low stress interpersonal tasks that ensure success

In order for our novice learners to confidently interact and negotiate meaning in the target language, they need interpersonal practice every class meeting, in short spurts, and in low stress, low risk, and low stakes situations.

Let’s begin with the following strategies:

  1. One way to build student confidence in participating in interpersonal speaking is to begin every lesson with a “turn and talk” task as part of the opening routine. Provide students with a prompt such as a “question of the day” which they use as a conversation starter with a classmate.

Similarly, students may conduct an interpersonal exchange through a daily Social Emotional Learning (SEL) check-in.

Looking for ideas for SEL check-ins? Check out this Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/social-and-emotional-learning/check-ins-on-a-scale-of-this-or-that-would-you-rat/

2. Another way to build confidence, is to show students lots of models of interpersonal exchanges, through live or recorded interactions. Some examples of sources for such exchanges include:

Audio Lingua (in 14 different languages)Dialogues in Spanish with audio
French Speaking Practice on TikTokItalian Conversations YouTube
ASL Conversations (YouTube)Chinese Conversation Clips (YouTube)

As students listen to interpersonal conversations in the target language, they can use organizers like this one from Kylie’s Corner on TPT which is FREE! (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/EDITABLE-Speech-Bubbles-4860879)

Students record what they hear either by scripting the entire conversation or by listing questions, responses, reaction phrases, etc. Students can also critique the interaction by suggesting ways the interlocutors could have improved the exchange. If the interpersonal models are via video, teachers may lead a class discussion about cultural products, practices, and/or perspectives that are evident.

3. Designing scaffolded interpersonal tasks is an additional confidence-building tactic. Expression lists, sentence starters, charts, and graphic organizers can be added as scaffolds to tasks. Here is an example of a scaffolded interpersonal task from a unit on free time activities and hobbies using the inside-outside circle strategy.

On the front of the card, students have a series of images that relate to categories of their favorite things. As they move from talk partner to talk partner, they ask and answer the question: “What’s your favorite _____?” (ex. music, movie, book, game, food).

On the back of the card, there are sentence starters and communicative fillers to support students in their interactions. In addition, there is a T-chart where students record their classmates’ responses.

4. Finally, implement game-like, informal tasks for students to practice having interpersonal conversations. Strategies like Find Someone Who/Human Bingo, Speed Friending, Conversation Jenga, and Chat Stations can build student comfort in the interpersonal mode.

You can find lots of examples of those and similar strategies on this Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/speaking-and-writing-in-world-languages/speaking-and-writing-games/

Which strategy/strategies work for you? Which strategy will you try?

Welcoming students back from winter break

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As Winter Break is winding down, language teachers are planning learning experiences for their students as they reenter the classroom later this week- renewing relationships they have built with students and being purposeful about continuing to build classroom community.

We know that it is unlikely that most students engaged in language practice during break. Where do we begin?

I. Rethink asking students about what they did during winter break.

I started with this tip because I know it will be the most controversial. Not all students traveled to exotic places and participated in exciting activities during winter break. Breaks from school routine can be stressful and anxiety-producing for some students. We also do not want students to feel marginalized during these discussions. If the purpose of these types of conversations is to reactivate their use of the target language, what are some alternative conversation topics?

One suggestion is to have students reflect on their favorite memories from 2022 and set goals or make new year’s resolutions for 2023. I’ve collected lots of target language resources for you on my Pinterest board for multiple languages that can serve as whole class discussion topics, the basis for pair and small group tasks, and tools for individual reflection. It includes infographics, social media posts, games, videos and more in the target language.

For more information on this topic, check out these online articles:

Don’t Assume That Every Student Had a Fun or Warm Winter Break

Reduce Winter Break Stress for Students

II. Welcome students back with positive, encouraging messages in the target language.

From the very beginning of class on the first day back, reestablish routines such as beginning every lesson with a positive, encouraging message in the target language. It reactivates students’ thinking in the language and reminds them that they are welcome in the language classroom.

III. Restart classroom routines

It can be very reassuring to students that the classroom routines continue. Using the same slide templates and the same opening protocols assist students in reentering the classroom after break. Your opening routine might include: calendar talk, social-emotional check ins, the expression or question of the day, etc. Here is an editable slide deck you can use for your opening routine.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19kk02ZzbDggd6-plHVYFBgBikKTa8xwn8c-gWR0KRMg/copy?usp=sharing

IV. Continue to conduct social-emotional check ins with your students

When you do check ins, make the experience communicative. Give students sentence starters and sentence frames to support them. Here’s the link to my Pinterest board with lots of check in ideas, some of which are winter-themed.

V. Give students lots of opportunities to reactivate their language skills

Here’s the link to my Pinterest board with lots of prompts and games to get students back in the habit of speaking and writing in the target language:

Wishing you a great restart to your school year and I hope some of these ideas are both thought-provoking and practical for you.

Additional resources for you:

6 Things to Do the Week After Winter Break

Language Educators Getting Ready for the New School Year

Happy New School Year!

As we are getting ready for the new school year, here are some steps and lots of resources to help you get ready!

Step #1: Are you refreshing your WL syllabus for the new school year? Here are some examples for inspiration: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnfo…/world-language-syllabi/.

 

Step #2: How will you teach your students about proficiency? Here are some resources for you: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/proficiency-tools/

 

Step #3: Build relationships with your students and create a supportive learning environment. Here are some resources for you: https://www.pinterest.com/…/building-relationships…/

Step #4: What will be your opening routine? How about a question or expression of the day? https://docs.google.com/…/19kk02ZzbDggd6…/edit…. Will you begin each class with a positive, encouraging message in the target language?: https://www.pinterest.com/…/positive-encouraging…/

 

Step #5: How will you gauge your students’ language proficiency at the start of the school year and build classroom community at the same time? Here are some resources for you: https://www.pinterest.com/…/speaking-and-writing-in…/. And here are some visuals you can use as prompts: https://www.pinterest.com/…/visuals-for-speaking-and…/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step #6: Make yourself a warm fuzzy folder (real or digital) for all positive messages, cards, notes, emails, etc. you have received. When you experience a rough day, it’s your go-to place to focus on the positive, remind you how you have made a difference and how appreciated you are! (photo credit: https://www.happyhealthyandprosperous.com/everyone-needs…/)

Step #7: What scaffolds and supports will you provide your students? word wall? chat mat? expressions of the day? Here are some resources for you: https://www.pinterest.com/…/target-language-tools…/. Are you a Spanish teacher in search of a word wall? Here’s a free downloadable one: https://www.grahnforlang.com/…/gconti_wordwall_0816.pdf

 

Step #8: What are your class norms/expectations? Will students collaboratively create them (ex. class constitution)?: https://www.pinterest.com/…/face-to-face-and-online…/

 

Step #9: Are you planning to share the benefits of being proficient in another language with your students? Here are some resources for you: https://www.pinterest.com/…/world-language-learning…/

 

Step #10: Need some brain breaks and mindfulness activities for your students? Here you go: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/brain-breaks/ and https://www.pinterest.com/…/social…/calming-breathing/

 

 

 

Happy end of the school year!: Ideas for the last days

As we come to the end of the school year, we often feel like we have run out of steam. We have very little energy left for creativity. Neither do our students. And, in these last two years, it is possible that we are more exhausted than we have ever been before.

It is my hope that you can use some of the ideas I offer here to make planning for these last weeks of school a little easier. Enjoy!

Practicing speaking and writing skills

Typical end of year activities might include students playing games in the target language; practicing speaking and writing skills. Here are some resources for you in the target language for flexing students’ speaking and writing muscles:

https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/speaking-and-writing-in-world-languages/

To make those activities more communicative, you might add a support that includes rejoinders or language chunks that will make their writing more natural and their speaking more authentic:

End of year projects and multi-step tasks

Here are some ideas for projects and multi-step tasks that will focus your students on using the target language up until the last day of school and allows them to create a performance or product for a real world purpose:

  1. Advice for next year’s students
  2. Writing children’s stories
  3. A healthy debate

1. Advice for next year’s students (recommended for novice levels)

For this project, students create a welcome packet for next year’s classes. The packet might include:

a. A letter to the new students giving advice on how to succeed in the class (may have to be written in English based on the course level)

b. A map of where to find what they need in the classroom

c. A chat mat of the most important phrases they will need

d. A game designed to help students practice what they will learn in the class

Here are some game board templates from Slidesmania:

https://slidesmania.com/?s=game+board

2. Writing children’s stories (recommended for intermediate levels)

a. Individually or in pairs, students analyze children’s stories in the target language using storyboarding, story maps, or other tools.

Here’s the link to my website where I have provided lots of links to online stories and books: https://www.grahnforlang.com/authentic-resources.html#books

You will find graphic organizers in the target language for storymapping here: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/speaking-and-writing-in-world-languages/speaking-and-writing-graphic-organizers/

b. Students use what they learned from the story analysis to write and illustrate their own stories.

c. Students receive feedback from peers and their teacher on their stories.

Ideas for peer feedback here: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/feedback/

d. Students publish the final drafts of their stories.

e. Students read their stories in person or record their stories for a group or class of students at the nearby elementary school or school-based nursery school/daycare.

3. A Healthy Discussion/Debate (recommended for intermediate and advanced levels)

For this multi-step task, students will debate the best ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Student pairs or small groups choose an activity that has positive effects on health. Some examples might include:

a. Walking: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/walking-health-benefits-authentic-resources/

b. Sleeping/napping: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/sleeping-and-napping/

c. Music: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/art-dance-music-and-theatre-authentic-resources/benefits-of-music-and-singing/

d. Smiling/laughing: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/happiness-authentic-resources/

e. Veganism/vegetarianism: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/veganism-vegetarianism/

f. Cycling: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/cycling-authentic-resources/

Stage 1:

a. The teacher selects a topic from the list to use as a model.

b. The teacher guides students through completing the argument graphic organizer as they interpret the authentic texts.

c. The teacher selects a discussion/debate instructional strategy. Some examples might include:

Debate team carousel: https://s3.amazonaws.com/scschoolfiles/546/debate_team_carousel_template.pdf

Talking chips: https://www.smore.com/7a7p5-talking-chips

Bounce cards: https://www.s2temsc.org/uploads/1/8/8/7/18873120/bounce_cards_strategy.pdf

Dice cards: https://tekhnologic.wordpress.com/2016/06/20/dice-cards-an-activity-to-encourage-participation/

Nomination cards: https://tekhnologic.wordpress.com/2016/03/29/nomination-cards-giving-students-a-chance-to-speak/

You will find some additional ideas for discussion/debate strategies here: https://www.grahnforlang.com/questioning-and-discussion.html

d. The students participate in a whole class or small group debate/discussion using their completed graphic organizers and the argument/discussion expression lists.

You can find additional expression lists for discussing/debating here: https://www.pinterest.com/grahnforlang/target-language-tools-supports-and-scaffolds/

Stage 2: Students research the health benefits of their chosen activity and record their arguments and evidence on a graphic organizer.

Stage 3: Student groups design and administer a survey for their classmates based on their research.

Stage 4: Students participate in the discussion/debate using an instructional strategy. They will base their arguments on examples from the authentic resources and the survey results.

Stage 5: After hearing all of the arguments, students rank the healthy lifestyle activities presented to the class based on which activities they will be adopting in the future.

Here’s wishing you a great summer that is reenergizing and rejuvenating!

(Post photo source: pinterest.com)

Moving from Exercises to Activities to Tasks

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As we plan learning experiences for our students along the learning continuum, how can we make them more engaging, contextualized, and communicative?

Let’s begin with some definitions for the purpose of our conversation:

Exercises:

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https://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMi01MjYxNDg2Yjc3ZDIwZmQ0/

Exercises are often recall-based, highly structured, somewhat controlled and guided.  Students complete exercises individually, typically in the form of a worksheet.  Exercises may be used during the guided phase of instruction.  Exercises may not be cognitively challenging for advanced learners and  may not be engaging to reluctant learners.

Activities: 

Classroom activities are typically structured around a routine, process, or strategy.  Some examples are information gap activities, think-pair-share, and inside-outside circles. They are often hands-on and interactive and are planned for the guided or independent phases of the lesson.  Here are some links below for additional ideas for strategies for classroom activities:

 

Tasks:

Classroom tasks involve a context, based on a problem, challenge or scenario.  The students have a purpose for completing the task, the steps of the task should be outlined, and expectations for the performance or product students create are clear.  Tasks are completed individually by students or in small groups.

How can I make exercises, activities and tasks more engaging and purposeful?

Picture1

 

  1. Provide an authentic context: create a scenario which provides a context, possibly based on an authentic resource.  Consider a real life context for the exercise or activity.  For example, in lieu of using a Powerpoint with visuals to introduce new vocabulary, use an infographic or tweets in the target language.
  2. Make activities communicative, interactive, and engaging: transform individual exercises to activities where students work collaboratively, are hands-on, use technology, and allow students to be creative.  Ensure that the activity gives students a reason to communicate and builds their confidence for using the target language independently, while providing supports to allow them to persevere through the activity in the target language.
  3. Design tasks that connect to real life: consider how students can solve a problem or challenge with the content and structures they have gained and thus see the connection between their learning and the real world such as pop culture, current events, and world problems.  Brainstorm scenarios using the SCRAP acronym, including a situation, challenge, role, audience, and product.  Tasks should be scaffolded and supported for struggling learners and should be more open-ended to provide challenge to advanced learners.

 

An example for moving from exercises to activities to tasks:

Here’s an example of an exercise (worksheet) for the comparative and superlative in Spanish:

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Move an exercise to an activity by adding context using posts from Twitter in the target language containing the comparative and superlative:

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Create a real life task where students use an infographic to give advice to travelers about best seats to select on planes using comparatives and superlatives:

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Visit the webpage linked below to access ideas for designing real world tasks:

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What about intentional skill building?

Picture1http://cboronline.com/events/gri-skill-building/

As we facilitate student growth across the proficiency continuum toward meeting learning targets, we plan learning experiences for students through the various phases of learning, guiding them from input to independence.

Much focus has been placed on comprehensible input, where students acquire new content on various topics and on output or independence, where students are able to use the new content on their own in real world contexts.

How do we ensure that our students are building literacy and communication skills?

Along with students acquiring more content over time, attention needs to be paid to the building of communicative skills.  What we know is…

  • Skills are not acquired just through input of content.
  • Students have learned paradigms for skills through language arts
  • Advancing in proficiency levels requires intentional skill building

If we take a close look at the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements, they reveal to us the skills students need to advance through the proficiency levels.

https://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-manuals/ncssfl-actfl-can-do-statements

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For example, at the novice level in the interpersonal mode, here are the skills that appear:

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Some examples of resources that support building interpersonal skills in the area of expressing opinions at the novice level might be the following graphic organizer, anchor chart, and expressions list:

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For building student skill in identifying the main idea and key details from a text,

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for French at the at the novice level, some resources to support that skill building might include an anchor chart, graphic organizer, and instructional strategy:

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And here’s one for the presentational mode at the intermediate level:

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And some resources for building the skill of narrating a story in Spanish:

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Where can I find resources for intentional skill building in the target language?

I invite you to visit a page on my website, entitled “Intentional Skill Building” where I have begun to gather resources in the target language for building students’ communicative skills (click on the image below).

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The page is divided into Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced proficiency levels, with segments in between entitled “Preparing for Intermediate” and “Preparing for Advanced.”  The resources linked within the charts are anchor charts, graphic organizers, expressions lists, and instructional strategies.

Anchor charts are visuals that remind students about processes or routines that can use

Graphic organizers allow students to place ideas into groups or categories either based on interpretation of text or for preparation of a speaking or writing product

Expressions lists serve as supports or scaffolds for students to assist them in persevering through a task in the target language.

 

 

 

 

A thinking process for embedding authentic resources into lesson plans

auth text wordle

Once you have collected a variety of authentic resources on a particular theme or topic and you have established your learning targets (can-do statements), the next step is to make decisions about how each of those resources will fit into your unit plan and lesson plans.

Let’s begin by brainstorming a list of ways you might use authentic resources in your lesson plans.  One organizing framework would be to think about the gradual release of responsibility model.  Which authentic resources will be used as introductory activities, which ones will work for guided activities and which ones will fit best into the independent phase?

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Or, you might identify how each authentic resource will be implemented based on the communicative modes:

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https://www.actfl.org/publications/all/world-readiness-standards-learning-languages

How will the authentic resources be used to provide opportunities to students to operate in the interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational modes?

One approach to thinking about how to make authentic resources work for you is represented through the game board below called “Embedding Authentic Resources into Lesson Plans.”

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Think of each authentic resource you have for a theme as a puzzle piece looking for its “best fit.”

In the Introductory Phase, authentic resources might be used as:

  • a lesson hook
  • the basis for a free write
  • the basis for an interpersonal partner exchange
  • the basis for introducing new vocabulary
  • the basis of discovering grammar in context

In the Guided Phase, which authentic resources might you use to model a routine or conduct a “think aloud”?

In the Independent Phase, which authentic resources might be used as the basis for:

And, will you add an expressions list or a graphic organizer to support learners through the task?

What does your planning puzzle picture look like?

For examples of how this thinking process might play out, go to:

https://www.grahnforlang.com/lesson-and-unit-planning.html

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Adding depth and interest to novice level units through authentic resources

IMG_2701(photo credit: Heather Sherrow)

Many language educators of novice level courses struggle with student engagement.  The students are acquiring very basic vocabulary and sentence structure which limits what they can express in the second language.  The imbalance between what novices can communicate and what they want to express can be very frustrating and disengaging for beginning language learners, especially at the secondary and college levels.

What if extending and deepening typical novice themes to those in which students are interested and about which they care increases engagement?

Understanding the iGeneration

GenZ

The students in our classrooms, right now, are members of what is called the “iGeneration.”  They were born from 1996 to the present.

They are independent and competitive.  They are digital natives.  They have an 8 second attention span and they suffer from FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).  They will have 17 jobs in their lifetime and 15 homes.  They spend an average of 10 hours per day using technology.  They would rather watch or listen to streaming media on demand than traditional TV.   They rarely use email because it is too slow and want to engage with relatable but not overly famous influencers.  They value uniqueness, authenticity, creativity, shareability and recognition.

60% of i-Geners want to change the world.  They feel empowered, connected, and empathetic.  They are self-starters and they want to stand out and make a difference in the world.  They are self-aware and self-reliant.  iGeners would take a 10-20% pay cut to work for a company with a mission about which they care deeply.

Students from the iGeneration are also called Generation Z, Founders, Builders, Globals, Makers, Curators, and Developers.  Notice how many of the labels are action words.  Our students want to be involved in their learning, solve problems, and make a social impact.

Note: To find out more about the iGeneration, go to: https://www.grahnforlang.com/knowing-the-learner.html

Tapping into what engages the iGeneration

How might we tap into what our i-Geners seek by making our content themes more action-oriented and socially-conscious through authentic resources?

Typical novice level content themes in a beginning language course might include topics such as:

  • personal descriptions
  • family
  • food
  • school
  • house
  • clothing
  • weather
  • travel
  • my community

Let’s explore some possibilities of how we can increase language learners’ engagement in typical novice themes.  Many of the authentic resources in these extended themes include vocabulary and language chunks that will reinforce and stretch student language.  Keep in mind that the topics should be age-appropriate for the students.

For each idea below, click on the image to go to the Pinterest page containing authentic resources for multiple languages on that topic.

Novice unit: Personal Descriptions

Theme extension: Identity and Diversity

Note: The photo at the beginning of this blog post is of posters made by middle school level one Spanish students after exploring identity and diversity during the personal descriptions unit.

Novice unit: Family

Theme extension: Types of Families, Adoption, Caring for Elderly Relatives

Novice unit: Food

Theme extension: Food Waste

Novice unit: Food

Theme extension: Hunger

Novice unit: Food

Theme extension: Meatless Mondays

Novice unit: Food

Theme extension: Veganism and Vegetarianism

Novice unit: School

Theme extension: Bullying

Novice unit: House

Theme extension: Homelessness

Novice Unit: Clothing

Theme extension: Buying Vintage/Second-Hand Clothing

Novice unit: Weather

Theme extension: Climate Change/Global Warming

Novice unit: Travel/Vacations

Theme extension: Ecotourism

Novice Unit: My Community

Theme extension: Earth Day

Novice Unit: My Community

Theme extension: Recycling

Other socially-conscious topics of interest to i-Geners include:

Volunteering and Giving

Children’s Rights

Women’s Rights

Immigration

Human Rights

Sources:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/403072235386815013/

https://visual.ly/community/infographic/other/generation-z

https://ahappymarketer.wordpress.com/

https://www.roberthalf.com/sites/default/files/documents/rh_0715_grph_1330x3433_genzinfographic_can_eng_sec.pdf