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UFLA Newsletter James Yoder, President	FALL 2001	http://weber.edu/ufla Tom Mathews, Editor

Table of Contents Click on any title in order to read that article, or just scroll down.
A Message from our President 2000 ACTFL Delagate Assembly Foreign Language Enrollment in Utah	New Grant to Honor Pat Buckner Madrid and Barcelona: A Virtual Tour

A Message From our President
James Yoder
What I Did Over My Summer Vacation

         As the summer quickly draws to a close and I head back to my classroom to prepare for the coming school year I will take some time to reflect on how I spent my summer. I always say that the summer isn’t long enough and that I don’t seem to be able to do everything that I wanted, but I must say that this summer was very productive, and it has me ready to go back to the classroom recharged and ready to do battle with the likes of the subjunctive and the preterite vs. imperfect!
        Here’s what I did over the Summer Vacation. After spending a relaxing week in Orlando, Florida with my family, I decided to become a student. I filled my notebook with paper, put my backpack on, and headed over to BYU where I began work on my Masters Degree in Spanish Pedagogy. I must say that I was worried that I would become the student that I won’t tolerate in my own classroom, but I think I did a very good job at paying attention, coming on time, and doing my homework. I didn’t procrastinate too much. (As of my writing this, I have two 10-15 page research papers due during the coming week that I still need to finish, but don’t hold that against me.) In taking classes this summer, it gave me perspective. First of all, it is nice to sit on the other side of the desk once in a while. I think it gave me an idea of what it feels like to be a student. Although this will be my sixth year teaching, I think that the farther we get from ac-tually being a student we start to lose touch to a certain degree and we forget what it is like for our students. Secondly, being in my classes helped me recharge my batteries for the upcoming year and reflect on what it is to be an effective for-eign language teacher. I picked up many new ideas that I can incorporate into my classroom. In one of my classes "Principles of FL Learning and Teaching" we had the opportunity to discuss our methodologies and theories about learning a foreign language. I found the discussions to be invigorating because it served almost like a pat on the back. It was helpful for me to validate what it is I do in my classroom.
        All of this learning has lead me to see the importance in continually improving myself as a teacher. There is so much out there to help us: conferences, workshops, grants, scholarships, university courses, travel. This year’s ACTFL Conference is going to be held this November in Washington, D.C., and the SWCOLT Conference will be held in Oklahoma in March. Both conferences will be great sources of information and ideas to teachers looking for a way to build their teaching repertoire.
        The great thing is that you don’t have to travel out of state for professional development opportunities. We have excellent resources of our own right here in Utah. Our Annual UFLA Conference will be held on October 25 at the Wilkinson Center on the BYU Campus. Last year we had 25 excellent sessions last year. We are currently accepting proposals for presentations. In addition to our conference, UFLA offers both the Pat Buckner Teacher Collaboration Project and the UFLA Teacher Vitality Award both of which will provide money for deserving projects or programs. The USOE also has grants of $500 or $1000 for individual teaching projects. In addition, Joan Patterson has information regarding Fulbright Scholarships and other sources of professional development. At our UFLA Board Meetings, our Association Presidents (AATF, AATG, etc.) have reported on the various activities that their organizations have held for their members. The AATG held a German Immersion Day last Spring and it was well attended and those who attended had a very enjoyable time.
        Professional Development opportuni-ties are all around us and they are valu-able. They do not simply have to be part of our summer. Rather, they can and should be a part of our whole year. Before the school bells start ringing and we get trapped into the ruts of our routine, I en-courage you all to take advantage of these opportunities. Apply for one of the UFLA or USOE Grants! In addition, I hope to see many of you at our conference in October; it would be great to have you contribute by giving a session, if not only as participants.

2000 ACTFL Delagate Assembly
By Cheryl Hansen . Weber State Unversity

The 2000 ACTFL Delegate Assembly met on November 16 in Boston, Massachusetts. The order of the day was to dis-cuss ACTFL K-12 Performance Guidelines and performance assessment. The first presentation on the agenda was titled "Alphabet Soup," and the speakers gave us a lesson on what the letters stand for in the acronyms important to our organizations, such as PAU's, NAEP, NCATE, INTASC, NBPTS. How savvy you are with acro-nyms? Before this meeting, they were alphabet soup to me.

PAU's stands for Performance Assess-ment Units.
NAEP stands for National Assessment of Educational Progress.
NCATE stands for National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education
INTASC stands for Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Con-sortium
NBPTS stands for National Board for Pro-fessional Teaching Standards.
WLOTE stands for World Languages Other than English.

        How are all of these acronyms related, and what do they mean to us as educators?
        PAU's are based on three modes of communication: Interpretive (authentic reading), Interpersonal (videos, cassettes, etc. with no notes) and Presentational (written or audio/video presentations). Au-thentic materials are used because they reflect the tasks that individuals do in the world outside the classroom. PAU's are performance-based because they reflect how students use the language and cultural knowledge in communicative tasks. PAU's are used to assess the developmental progress of proficiency and help to blend the classroom instruction with the student's experiences. PAU's also integrate communication plus other goal areas of the Standards. For more information consult actfl.org (Student Assessment Design Project) or ebsactfl@aol.com.
        In 2003 the NAEP will for the first time measure foreign language achievement. In the proposed general framework, commu-nicative ability in languages other than English will be assessed within the three modes of communication of PAU's. Exami-nees will perform authentic communication tasks that are called for in daily life, school and work. The tasks will reflect four interrelated goals that provide the basis for communication:

gaining knowledge of other cultures;
connecting with other academic subject areas to acquire knowledge;
developing insights into the nature of language and culture through comparisons; and
participating in multilingual communities at home and around the world.

Performance will be evaluated on how well the student understands and can be understood.
        In May, 2000 the NCATE Unit Accreditation Board adopted unit standards that will be required for all accreditation visits to university teacher-preparation programs, beginning in fall 2001. The conceptual framework(s) establishes the shared vision for a unit's efforts in preparing educators to work effectively in P-12 schools. It provides direction for programs, courses, teaching, candidate performance, scholarship, service and unit accountability. The conceptual framework(s) is knowledge-based, articulated, shared, coherent, consistent with the unit and/or institutional mission, and continuously evaluated (NCATE 2000 Standards: May 11, 2000). NCATE unit standards are performance-based and focus on what teacher candidates should know and be able to do. Institutions are also required to show candidate performance data. This is a radical departure from the former inputbased system. NCATE 2000 Unit Standards can be reviewed at www.ncate.org.
        The Utah State Office of Education is not yet a participating member of INTASC so Utah teachers work directly with the state for certification. INTASC is the national organization responsible for setting standards for teacher certification and they work directly with NCATE. More information about INTASC can be found at www.ccsso.org/intasc.
        The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards works with NCATE to insure that teachers are meeting their standards that were developed in response to five major propositions:

Teachers are committed to students and their learning.
Teachers know the subject they are teaching and how to teach to diverse learners.
Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring students.
Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience.
Teachers are members of Learning communities.

Finally, we come to National Certification for Teachers of World Languages Other than English. This organization ex-ists to recognize teachers who have met high standards. It is designed to recognize accomplished practice in the field. WLOTE certificates are awarded to teachers of early through middle childhood students (ages 3-12), and early adolescence through young adulthood (ages 11-18+). WLOTE standards are based on the five core propositions of the NBPTS as outlined above. The Standards document will be available online through ACTFL this month. Applications for the WLOTE certificates will be available December 2001.
This was my first year as Utah's delegate to the Assembly, and I came away from the meeting with a better understanding of ACTFL Performance Guidelines, Standards, and how all of the above organizations join together to make a great alphabet soup.

UFLA Teacher-of-the-Year Nominations

Alan Meredith, professor of Spanish at BYU, and our president-elect, is in charge of receiving nominations for this year's Teacher-of-the-Year. Any foreign language teacher in the state can be eligible. The nomination form can be found at:
http://weber.edu/ufla

Foreign Language Enrollment in Utah
By Joan D. Patterson

        Every two years, my secretary and I collect junior high and senior high foreign language enrollment information by mailing out a survey form to each school in the state to be completed on October 1 and mailed back.
        This year, we were able to compile data from the survey by December 15–which is a record! Several of the foreign language supervisors submitted data for all the schools in their district. James Schindler, Jordan District, submitted his data on a disk–which simplified our task enormously. I thank all of you who provided information for this survey.
        This chart, which reflects enrollment trends, includes a selection of information collected by Dr. Elliott Howe up to 1987 and by me after that year. The pie charts show the same information with percentages rather than individual students.

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NEW GRANT AVAILABLE TO HONOR PAT BUCKNER
The Pat Buckner Award
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Collaboration in Teaching Projects

The Utah Foreign Language Association has established an annual grant of $500 to stimulate collaborative work among teachers. It is hoped that this award will facilitate collaboration between two or more language teachers in the same department, school, or in different schools, districts or across the state. This grant is in addition to the three UFLA Vitality Awards that are granted each year. The deadline for application for all UFLA grants is April 15, 2001. Information is available at http://weber.edu/ufla or call Cheryl Hansen at (801) 626-7912.

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MADRID AND BARCELONA, SPAIN: A VIRTUAL TOUR
BY Brian Jolley
VITALITY AWARD WINNER

I am a Spanish teacher at Oak Canyon Junior High in Lindon (Alpine School District). I appreciate the invitation to write this brief article for the UFLA newsletter. This past May I was able to take a trip to Madrid and Barcelona, Spain for 1 week. As I prepared to leave I wanted to somehow share my experience with my students and other teachers. So, through two foreign language grants which I received, I have created a website which amongst other things outlines my trip and the experiences I had. I am hopeful that this website may serve as an effective re-source for students and teachers alike.
This website serves three purposes: 1) to provide basic background information and important facts about Spain, 2) to provide a virtual tour of the places visited, complete with photographs and a diary, and 3) to provide lesson plans which ex-plore important points of Spanish culture (such as diversity, religion, art, architecture, etc.). I was armed with a digital cam-era, basic knowledge of website design, and some time to research the different topics which are covered in the lesson plans. Once time was taken before leaving to research these different topics and to organize what I wanted to bring back with me, it was only a matter of enjoying myself in Spain, taking lots of pictures, and soak-ing in as much information as possible. My principal has allowed me to post this page on my school website. I invite all to take a few minutes and visit www.oakcanyon.apine.k12.ut.us/spain/spain_home.htm.. I also want to thank the UFLA Board of Directors and those in the State Office of Education who awarded me the grants which made this trip possible

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