Today’s classrooms are full of students from a cohort referred to as Generation Z or Gen Z. Understanding the characteristics of students can be an important tool for an effective teacher. The good news for language teachers is that there are several ways to capitalize on Gen Z characteristics to prompt growth in your language […]
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Ready or not, the start of a new school year is here. As language teachers launch their courses, this can be a great time to set the tone for a path towards the Seal of Biliteracy–even if AAPPL testing won’t occur for months (or years) for your students. Beginning the journey toward language development with […]
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Over the last two blog posts, I have looked at student scores by grade over the years of 2019-2022 and then compared the scores of my students to the school’s average scores. Today, I want to dig into differentiating your focus. Read –> We did the test. Now what? Part 1: Looking at yearly performance […]
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By Pete Swanson, PhD, and Jean W. LeLoup, PhD, USAFA Introduction Some would say communicative Language Teaching approaches have helped shift the paradigm of world language teaching and learning. Proficiency testing has now been prioritized where program coordinators and others set proficiency benchmarks for language learners to achieve. Unfortunately, proficiency testing can be costly and […]
Continue readingIn my previous article, I took a high-level look at my 11th and 12th graders over three years (2019-2022). In this post, we’ll dig in a bit on the data analysis, or what I did as I looked at the data from AAPPL reporting tool. I started by looking at the top performance by grade […]
Continue readingWe love to use the AAPPL test for our students to earn the Seal of Biliteracy, but to refine our program and to recognize growth as well as achievement, we have explored the data reporting tools that the LTI Client Site has to offer. In this article, I will discuss a few of the ways […]
Continue readingBy Sandra Baumel Durazzo, Head of Internationalization and Languages at Bahema Educação – Brazil The role of schools today is different from what it used to be. In the 21st century, schools aim at preparing students to participate actively and critically in a world with subtle frontiers. Thus, instead of transmitting information, it is necessary […]
Continue readingBy Chris Lemon, Northmont High School, Clayton, OH (Spanish Teacher, Department Chair) Four years ago, our school chose the ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Language (AAPPL, Form B: Novice High to Advanced Low), over sixteen other options, as our preferred method for students to earn the Seal of Biliteracy accepted by our state. […]
Continue readingMy introduction to the AAPPL test came with the inception of the Seal of Biliteracy in the State of Iowa. Like many world language educators in Iowa at that time, my department began investigating the different ways that we could help our students prove their qualifications and obtain the Seal. Earning the Seal of Biliteracy […]
Continue readingI get so excited watching my students focusing so hard as they take the AAPPL. However, immediately after the test, the students seemed stunned, mentally spent, and slightly overwhelmed. I worried at first that this was caused by the test being too difficult for them, but then realized that it’s the result of the stamina […]
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