Excellent advocacy of elementary foreign language program
Elizabeth Lindenberg, VFLA member & French teacher at Maple Street School in Manchester, VT, submitted an article to The Message, which was published in their Nov 14-20, 2007, issue. http://www.messagefortheweek.com/ *
In the article, Mme. Lindenberg described collaboration with a retired French teacher from France, who now lives in the community. They turned the classroom into a French bistro and simulated restaurant conversations with the 4th grade students. Sampling real French cuisine topped off the activity!
This is an excellent example of what we all should be doing to keep our programs' successes before the community. Bien fait, Mme. Lindenberg!
*Note: I was not able to find an online version of the article. I will scan and upload soon.
Nov 2007: VFLA nearing completion of update of the 2005 survey of elementary
foreign language programs.
There
are four versions, depending on a school's response in 2005.
Principals or their designees should go to the Survey Monkey
address given in the e-mail from VFLA.
If you
would like to see a sample version, click
here.
Interim results
reported at Fall 2007 Convention and the
Winter 2008 VFLA Newsletter
FEB
21, 2006: UPDATE ON K-12 FOREIGN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS IN
VT
The
State Board of Education today approved the following goal:
All
Vermont children will begin the study of a foreign language
in the primary grades (PK-4), and they will meet a minimum
of novice middle proficiency by the end of eighth grade. All
Vermont school districts will coordinate foreign language
curriculum from primary grades through high school.
The
Board of Education needs to hear from you! They need to know
that the public supports this goal and wants the Board to
move forward.
Click
here to download a
template for a letter of support.
Click
here to download an example
of a personalized letter.
This
page is designed specifically to support
early language learning in VT by:
providing tools and strategies for starting, growing and
retaining a pre-school, elementary, or middle school program
reporting
news on foreign language in elementary schools (FLES)
program development at the local and state level
Step
1: Membership in NNELL is highly recommended.
NNELL
is the National Network for Early Language Learning.
We are foreign language teachers and community advocates
for starting foreign language early.
Click
here
for membership information & application.
Members
have access to the members-only areas of the NNELL website,
the NNELL Networking Newsletter, & advocacy links. They
also receive Learning Languages, NNELL's professional
journal.
Sept
2005: Staff at Deerfield Valley Elementary
School (DVES) in Wilmington, VT, are making plans
to pilot a first grade Spanish program. If all goes well,
the students will begin learning Spanish in October, 2005,
which is Early Language Learning Month of ACTFL's Year of
Languages and Spanish Heritage Month!
Got
news? Send it in!
Your
contact on early language learning is Ruth
Ann Dunn, Vermont's representative to NNELL (dunnru@msu.edu)
This
page is a work in progress. Please let us know of other
helpful ideas or links that should be added.
Contact
Ruth Ann Dunn regarding
the administration of this site. Last updated Saturday, November 17, 2007 11:23 AM.
