use the target language, they also provided authentic context for language use.
Collaboration/Colaboración
Our focus on teaching writing also provided an opportunity for shared professional learning. After the authors collaborated to integrate literacy development into Spanish class, other members of the world language department decided to adopt writing as the target skill for our school’s annual professional practice project for teacher evaluation and action research. Together, we unpacked mentor texts, examined examples of student writing from different classes and analyzed videos of teachers conferring.
Each week, teachers met to share how they were teaching writing in language classes. Next, the learning coach led a mini-lesson, demonstration or protocol to provide the focus strategy for the next week. As teachers tried new strategies in Japanese, Spanish, Thai and Mandarin, we learned about each other’s teaching approaches, and co-constructed a shared understanding of how to apply literacy tools to the world language classroom. At the end of the year, colleagues shared that this collaborative, embedded professional learning not only provided them with a new approach to teaching language, but also helped them to feel more connected to others in the world language department, as well as colleagues across the hall teaching English language arts.
The journey continues as we look forward to learning more about how to develop language skills while we develop writers, and exploring how the pen can be “the tongue of the mind” -- in any language.
About the authors/ Los Autores
Gabriela Jiménez has taught Spanish to various ages and proficiency levels at International School Bangkok for the last ten years. She has also been the world languages department head for the last 6 years. Previously, Gabriela taught in Quito, Ecuador. She has previously presented on formative assessment and digital tools for writing in the CEESA conference, Digital Writers Notebooks in the EARCOS conference, as well as professional development sessions at ISB.
Jon Nordmeyer is the Director of International Programs at the WIDA Consortium, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been an educator for 25 years and has worked in international schools in Ecuador, The Netherlands, Taiwan, Turkey, China and Thailand. Jon has also taught graduate seminars at Harvard Graduate School of Education and Tibet University. Jon has written journal articles and chapters in several books, including Co-teaching and Other Collaborative Practices in the EFL/ESL Classroom and Breaking the Mold: Classroom Management, and is the co-editor of the book Integrating Language and Content.
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