CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, STANISLAUS Department of Philosophy and Modern Languages
Ana Cristina Sousa  Coordinator of Portuguese Programs, DBH 322, (209) 202-0980
PORT 6200
Teaching Portuguese in the 21st Century: Principles, Practices and Tools 4 UNITS (60 hours)
RATIONALE: Since the 90’s California State University, Stanislaus has been playing an important role in serving the educational needs of the large population of Portuguese immigrants and descendants residing in the campus service area, namely by providing a Portuguese Minor program, and intensive winter and summer courses for educators and future educators. The Portuguese Studies program is also a good example of sustained collaborative actions, which have involved the Portuguese government and other institutions from Portugal, community-based organizations and the campus admnistration. Recently, a MOU was signed with the Portuguese Government to host on campus the newly appointed Coordinator of Portuguese Programs. Within this agreement, the Coordinator will develop technology-based components for existing catalog courses, create new online offers and provide teacher professional development (initial and continuing). Since professional development and growth opportunities for teachers of Portuguese at all levels of education continue to be scarce and short-lived in California, this workshop on methods, practices and design of web-based materials is offered in continuation of past efforts, and aims to become another stepping-stone towards a more encompassing, sustainable professional development program for Portuguese teachers at CSU Stanislaus. By providing participants with a hands-on, praxis-oriented experience, the workshop addresses immediate needs of practitioners in the field, and concurrently develops a community of learning and practice, with the additional benefit of being open to international participation.
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WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION: For California residents, this educational workshop follows a blended mode of delivery with 20 hours of face-to-face contact with the instructor, either in large groups, small groups or individually, complemented by 40 hours of independent/pair/group online work, both synchronous and asynchronous. For all other participants out-of-state or international the workshop will be delivered totally online, including frequent opportunities for synchronous contact with the instructor. Starting with reflection on participants’ knowledge and practical experience of foreign language methods and implementation of standards, the program goes on to introduce best practice principles to materials design according to the model of “teacher teaching teachers” (Marsh, 2001). A variety of open-source tools will be used to allow participants to (re)design materials they can easily transfer to, adapt and use in their current educational settings. Participants are also encouraged to make an extensive use of the Portuguese language among themselves and with the instructor (a native Portuguese speaker), reaping the additional benefit of immersion in the target language. OBJECTIVES AND OUTLINE: - To promote a critical approach to foreign language methodologies and current standards - To enhance participants’ computer-mediated communication skills (including synchronous and asynchronous tools; text, voice and video-based functionalities). - To capacitate participants to: • • • • •
identify and evaluate a range of online learning resources, make effective use of search tools and techniques to access online resources, integrate online learning resources into student learning activities, design computer-based materials appropriate for specific educational settings, use the internet to participate in and contribute to a practice network and community.
Topic I Teacher as reflective practitioner Module 1 Welcome. Becoming familiar with the basic virtual tools.
Duration: 2 weeks Dates: Oct 27 – Nov 7
• Online welcome to all participants. • Getting to know each other (including expectations, personal goals, foreseeable difficulties, etc.). • Exploring the workshop’s basic tools for communication (synchronous/asynchronous) and production: Google suite of tools (including Gmail), Moodle, Skype, Firefox (with a focus on tabbed browsing). • Discussing workshop organization, contacts with the tutor, weekly workload, deadlines, etc. • First face-to-face meeting for California participants.
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Module 2 Foreign language methods and standards: Reflexion and discussion with examples related to practice.
Duration: 2 weeks Dates: Nov 10 – Nov 21
• Overview of the most used foreign language teaching methods. Pros & Cons: examples; impact on teachers’ practice and students’ learning. • Definition of a personal teaching philosophy and choice of methodology. • Discussion of the National Standards for Foreign Language Education (ACTFL) and the California Foreign Language Framework. Comparison with frameworks/standards implemented in other states/countries.
Topic II Teacher as designer
Module 3 Creating a Christmas exchange activity.
Duration: 2 weeks Dates: Nov 24 – Dec 5
• Teachers work in pairs to create a Christmas exhange activity for their students supported by electronic tools. • Collaborative planning of the activity. Choice of tools. Preparation of materials. • Implementation and evaluation of activity with the tutor’s support (as pairs work autonomously, the tutor will assist each pair individually. Although the next whole-group activity is scheduled for January 5, forums and chats remain open and productive). • Online publishing of results.
Module 4 Designing a content-based Learning Unit.
Duration: 3 weeks Dates: Jan 5 – Jan 23
• Debriefing of the activity developed during Module 3. • Reflecting on materials design – guidelines for best practice (“a purpose for every activity – no activity without a purpose”). • Preparing to design a Learning Unit (LU), individually or in pairs: selection of a content area related to the curriculum, language focus, available materials for adaptation or repurposing internet search of educational sites, repositories of lesson plans, image collections, etc. • Designing a Learning Unit: goals, anchoring materials and activities, learning materials and activities, student products, evaluation. • Discussion of pedagogical/technological problems encountered and proposed solutions. • Additional open-source/free software for quiz creation, multimedia presentations, web publishing, rubric writing, etc. • Development of a class LU template and publishing of all the LUs. • Second face-to-face meeting for California participants.
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Module 5 Teaching a content-based Learning Unit.
Duration: 2 weeks Dates: Jan 26 – Feb 6
• Teachers implement their planned LU. • Discussion and peer evaluation of projects, focusing on contribution of critical friends’ comments to future improvement of LU.
Topic III Teacher as architect of change
Module 6 Extended project. Workshop evaluation.
Duration: 4 weeks Dates: Feb 9 – March 6
• Participants (individually/pairs/small group) design and create a project they have not tried before, or they would like to pursue in more depth (e.g. create a class webpage, develop a resource portal, publish a class newsletter, create a webquest, a field trip album, etc.). • Peers evaluate projects and help focus on product adequacy and quality. Reviewed projects will be presented at the Annual Conference of the Luso-American Education Foundation to take place at CSU Stanislaus on March 27-28. • Third face-to-face meeting for California participants. • Evaluation of the workshop, including participant satisfaction, usability of learning outcomes and tutor’s performance and facilitation style.
REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION: - Participants should be personally motivated to use technology in their classes and be familiar with word processing, emailing, and basic image treatment (such as digitalizing and resizing). - Performance will be evaluated through participation in activities and discussions, an individual project and a class journal or portfolio. TEXTS AND MATERIALS: Most of the reading materials will be available online and participants will be asked to compile a collection of relevant references to be included in the class online portal. All the software needed for the workshop is openly available on the internet, or otherwise made available through the Keck Language Lab. The following are introductory references.
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Brown, A.L., Campione, J. (1996). Psychological Theory and the Design of Innovative Learning Environments: On Procedures, Principles, and Systems. In Schauble, L., Glaser, R. (Eds.), Innovations in Learning - New Environments for Education (pp. 289-325). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. Hamilton, H., Crane, C., Bartoshesky, A. (2005). Doing Foreign Language: Bringing Concordia Language Villages into Language Classrooms. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education. Hirsh, S. (2004). Standards need 'critical friends.' Results (March). National Staff Development Council. [Online]. Available: http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/results/res3-04hirs.cfm. Hopkins, B. (2005). Designing Learning Materials [Online]. Available: http://www.bryanhopkins.co.uk/learning_design/learning_map.htm. Lipton, G. (Dec., 1994). What Is FLES Methodology?: An Overview. Hispania, Vol. 77, No. 4. pp. 878-887. Marsh, M. (2001) Teachers Teaching Teachers: From Sharing Information in the Hallway to Desktop Movies on the Internet. Computer Learning Foundation [Online]. Available: http://www.itv.scetv.org/PDFfiles/CL2001.pdf. Vicente, A., Pimenta, M. (2008). Promoção da Língua Portuguesa nos EUA – Portuguese Language Initiative. Lisboa: Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento.
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