Arkansas Foreign Language Teacher’s Association

1. Arkansas Foreign Language Teacher’s Association Foreign Language Festival

2. Foreign Language Festival • An event sponsored by AFLTA in which students who are enrolled in Spanish, French, German, and Latin can compete against other students in their level and participate in enrichment activities.

3. Foreign Language Festival • Tiered competition • Five District Festivals • State Festival • Student recognition • Trophies, plaques, medallions, ribbons, or certificates • Distinguished, Advanced, Proficient, Honorable Mention • To Qualify for state festival, students must score 15/20 on the 2010 revised rubrics

4. AFLTA Foreign Language Festival • Description of Events • Rules • Rubrics • Judging • 2011 Information • New for State • District Festivals • Contact Information

5. Individual Events • Poetry Recitation • Extemporaneous Reading • Extemporaneous Speaking • Art • Culture Bowl • Vocabulary Bee

6. Poetry Recitation • This competition will judge students on their ability to interpret the poem that corresponds to their particular level.  • They will be critiqued on: • memorization/preparedness, • pace/fluency, • confidence/poise, • pronunciation/accuracy, • intonation/expression.

7. EXTEMPORANEOUS READING: • This competition will require students to read aloud a short passage in the target language.  • The student will be judged on: • comprehensibility, • pace/fluency, • confidence/poise, • pronunciation/accuracy, • intonation/expression. 

8. EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING • This event will require students to talk about a picture or series of pictures. • If needed, the judge may prompt the students or ask them questions. • Judging criteria will be: • content, • embellishment (range of vocabulary), • pronunciation/accuracy, • presentation/expression, • response to questions by judges.

9. Art • This competition will require students to create a piece of art which follows the festival theme. • Entries may be up to 28X22” (standard poster sized) and can be be in color or black and white. Entries using paint, markers, pen, pencil, chalk, pastels, or crayons are acceptable. • Art entries must be student made and not computer generated. Collages and 3-D entries are also not acceptable.

10. Art • Evaluation criteria will be: • Theme (adherence to theme, ability to communicate theme), • Originality/creativity, • Artistic merit (quality of artistry), • Artistic appeal (audience appeal), • Cultural connections.

11. Culture Bowl • To qualify at the district level, a student will take a test at the beginning of the Festival. • Culture Bowl is an event modeled after Quiz Bowl, with the questions being about the French, Spanish or Latin American Cultures. • The top ten students will be randomly placed on two teams with the final event taking place on stage. • The winning team of five students will be eligible to participate in the State Festival.

12. Culture Bowl Changes • For the 2012 festival, the language associations will add 50 current event questions to the pool of questions. • Beginning with the 2013 festival, the language associations will add 100 current event questions to the pool each year to be published in the fall.

13. Vocabulary Bee • This competition will be a test of students’ ability and mastery of general vocabulary. • The words for the Spanish Vocabulary Bee are taken from the AATSP NSE and are available on the AFLTA Website. • New rules for the Vocabulary bee can be found in the “Festival Handbook.”

14. Performance Events • Drama • Talent • Students should make a short introduction to their performance in English stating the cultural connection and context, as necessary.

15. Drama • A creative and fun student-centered activity  • Students, performing alone or with a group, present a skit to judges and an audience. • Skits are to be performed in the target language should not exceed 5 minutes.  • Skits are limited to one (1) skit per teacher and do NOT have to be student written.

16. Drama • Evaluation is based on the following criteria: • originality (creative flair), • memorization/preparedness, • stage presence (poise/confidence), • cultural appropriateness, and • audience appeal. • Skits from all levels of each language are judged together.

17. Drama • Skits (including costumes & props) should be appropriate for ALL audiences and therefore should be in good taste. • Participants are responsible for keeping up with their props. • Festival organizers and the school will not be responsible for unclaimed props.

18. Talent • Students will perform a vocal, instrumental, and/or dance number individually or in groups. • Talent entries are limited to one (1) entry per teacher. • The performance should not exceed 5 minutes and should include appropriate connections to the target foreign language culture (French or Spanish).

19. Talent • Performances will be judged on: • originality (creative flair), • technical skill (memorization/polish), • stage presence (poise/confidence), • cultural connections • (appropriate links to target culture), and audience appeal.

20. Talent • Teachers are responsible for checking with the district festival personnel for availability of equipment at host facility.

21. AFLTA Foreign Language Festival • Description of Events • Rules • Rubrics • Judging • 2011 Information • New for State • District Festivals • Contact Information

22. I. Festival Rules 1. General Festival Rules A. Sportsmanship • Student Participation • State Competition Procedure • Continuity between state and district festivals • State attendance requirements • State festival participation

23. Sportsmanship • AFLTA appreciates all teachers and students who choose to participate in the festivals, both district and state. • All teachers and students who register for festivals agree to meet these expectations.

24. Sportsmanship • AFLTA expects that all teacher, students, and observers will exhibit the highest level of sportsmanlike behavior in following festival rules including: • Competing at the appropriate level • Treating others with courtesy at all times • Respecting the property of the host school • Accepting the judges’ and officials’ decisions & • Representing their schools in a professional manner

25. Sportsmanship • AFLTA expects that teachers will register heritage learners at the appropriate level for competition purposes REGARDLESS of the class in which the student is enrolled at school. • More information can be found in the AFLTA Festival Handbook.

26. Sportsmanship • Teachers will be asked to sign a statement on their registration form stating that they will abide by the Festival Rules and Sportsmanship • More information can be found in the AFLTA Festival Handbook.

27. Student Participation • Each teacher may bring a maximum of 20 students, at district and at state. (District Festival Organizers have the authority to allow more participants, but at the State Level, the 20 student limit is firm.

28. Student Participation - Art • Each teacher may bring up to 5 additional art pieces from students who are not attending. (Registration fees must still be paid.) • Art entries per teacher may NOT exceed a total of 5 pieces. • At the state level, the teacher must bring the art piece on the day of the festival, not mailed in advance. • Artwork should be labeled with student’s name and teacher number on the back of the art piece.

29. Student Participation - Talent • If students bring recorded music to be played on the equipment provided, it must be in mp3 format. • Otherwise, students need to bring their own equipment to play recorded music in other formats.

30. Student Participation • Students CAN participate in both a drama and a talent event. • Each teacher may have one talent AND one drama entry.

31. Student Participation • There is not a limit to the number of events in which students may participate, but they must be flexible and understand that in the event of schedule conflicts, they may not be able to participate in every event in which they prepared.

32. Student Participation • Teachers bringing students to state in “Performance Events” may substitute students in performance GROUPS as long as it does not change the essence of the performance. • This does not apply to solo acts.

33. Student Participation • A student cannot compete at the state festival unless his/her teacher or an approved proxy teacher can be present. • If the proxy teacher is another teacher with his/her own at the festival, the proxy teacher’s total number of students cannot exceed 20 including the “adopted” students. • More information can be found in Section I.B.viii of the Festival Guidelines

34. Student Participation • If a group has to leave before the awards ceremony is over, the teacher MUST appoint a representative to collect trophies for his/her students. • Trophies will not be mailed to those who are not present to collect them.

35. Continuity between state and district festivals • At the state level, a language group must have students from at least three schools in order to compete. • The language organization representing those teachers is responsible for securing judges for those events and materials for the events.

36. Continuity between state and district festivals • Any student may participate in any one district festival regardless of geographic location as long as the student’s teacher attends that festival with the student.

38. Continuity between state and district festivals • Students must qualify for state competition by competing in a district festival. • If no competition is held any given year, the students in that district must travel to another district to compete and qualify. • Extenuating circumstances (i.e. weather) will be considered by the State Festival Director on an individual basis.

39. Continuity between state and district festivals • Special events may be offered at district festivals that are not offered at the state festival.

40. Rubrics • Current “score sheets” are being re-written as true rubrics with descriptors for performances in each category, on a 4-point scale. • Link to new poetry rubric

41. Judging • Teachers who register students for the festival should expect to spend part of their day judging • Teachers should familiarize themselves with the event rubrics prior to the festival

42. Judging • At no time should judges ask questions or make comments to elicit the name of a student’s school or teacher. This is to ensure blind judging. • Judges on panels should take notes on performances and/or record scores in rubric categories in pencil as they watch/listen. • After hearing/seeing all performances, panels MUST choose first, second, third place.

43. Judging • If changes must be made to scoring on rubrics, judges are asked to rewrite those rubrics so that students don’t see scores that may have been changed during the panel discussion. • For the vocabulary bee, judges may wait 5 minutes to allow for late students. Once the first word is given, no students will be allowed to enter the room.

44. Judging • Judges will be advised that in any given year with any given group of students, about 50% should qualify for state. • This is not a hard and fast rule, but merely a very general guideline to help judges realize the level of expectation that might be appropriate. • Comments from judges should be areas for improvement and as specific as possible, especially at the district level.

45. Recommendations for district festivals • Teachers need to be advised very clearly about which students qualify for state competition as quickly as possible following the festival. • Districts should use the state tabulation form to standardize the way that results are reported to teachers. • Teachers and students should be aware of possible bias caused by wearing clothing that identifies the student’s school/teacher.

46. Recommendations for district festivals • Districts are encouraged to give awards to students using the following scale in order to recognize more students at that level: • Distinguished 18-20 • Advanced 16-17 • Proficient 14-15 • Honorable Mention 12-13

47. Recommendations for district festivals • Teachers and students should be aware of possible bias caused by wearing clothing that identifies the student’s school/teacher. • It is recommended that students do not wear such identifying garments while being judged.

48. State competition procedure – new for 2011 • Round 1 /Round 2 system for poetry, extemp. Reading, and extemp speaking. • Round 1 – students compete in front of one judge. • The judge scores according to the rubric. • After hearing all the students in that session, the judge will determine the top three scores. • Those three students will move on to round 2.

49. State competition procedure – new for 2011 • Round 2 – All round 2 finalists will compete again before a panel of judges. • The panel will determine the first, second, third place students from among the finalists. • Students in first, second, and third places will receive trophies and finalists will receive ribbons.

50. State competition procedure – new for 2011 • In competitions with fewer students than required: (20 for poetry, 15 for Ex. Reading, 10 for Ex. Speaking) there will be no round 1. • Students in smaller competitions will compete only once before a panel of judges. • The panel will determine first, second, and third places from among all entrants/finalists.