Lessons that Connect C o m m u n i t i e s

1. Lessons that Connect Communities Joanne E. O’Toole, Ph.D. www.jotlanguage.com Jillian Richardson SUNY Oswego

2. Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century: Communities Goal • 5.1 Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting. • 5.2 Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment.

3. Communities Standards (5.1, 5.2) • Combine elements from other goal areas to… • Communicate meaningfully (Standard 1) • Apply concepts of culture (Standard 2) • Connect to other disciplines (Standard 3) • Develop insight into own language and culture (Standard 4) • …within the classroom, school, and target language communities near and far (5.1) • …for personal benefit (5.2)

4. Community within the Classroom • Creates a sense of belonging, caring, and trust; • Increases learners’ commitment to each other, ethical behaviors; • Develops learners’ social and emotional competencies; and • Increases learners’ academic motivation

5. Community in the Classroom Happens When Learners Have Opportunities to… • Learn about each others’ identities, thoughts, feelings, perspectives, and experiences • Engage in common activities • The result: • Shared experience, language, knowledge and culture.

6. One Teacher’s Approach • Audience: Culturally, ethnically, and racially diverse 8th grade, Spanish 1 learners • Community Building Goals: • Bring the outside community into the classroom • Create community within the classroom • To facilitate relationship building • To build social skills

7. A Unit to Build Community NYS Syllabus Topic: Food and Mealtaking Learning Resources: Culturally-based texts Culminating Project: Student-created cinquain poems based on recipes from own family and/or culture • Communicate meaningfully • Apply concepts of culture • Connect to other disciplines • Develop insights into own language and culture

8. Community Outreach Students… …reached out to family and community members to discuss and identify a recipe or food item important to their culture …brought recipe into the classroom …integrated recipe into cinquain poem

9. Building Classroom Community Students… …wrote and illustrated cinquain poems …shared their poems with each through a poetry symposium …explained the recipe choice and the meaning they gave it

10. Some Examples

11. Outcomes for Learners A visibly noticeable sense of community emerged in the classroom! • Improved student interactions • Interest in classmates’ cultures expressed through questions and conversation • A sense of unity among classmates derived from the shared experience

12. Food for Thought Consider… What are some ways you have or you might bring the outside community into the language classroom? What are some ways you have or you might build community within the language classroom?

13. Community Inclusive, celebratory Belonging, trusting, valuing Building community builds understanding. Shared culture

14. References Kriete, R. (2003). Start the day with community. Educational Leadership, 61(1), 68-70. National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project (1999). Standards for foreign language learning in the 21st century. Lawrence, KS: Allen Press. Schaps, E. (2003). Creating a school community. Educational Leadership, 60(6), 31-33. Shrum, J. L., & Glisan, E. W. (2010). Teacher’s handbook: Contextualized language instruction (4th ed.). Boston: Heinle.