In episode 67, Stacey talks with the Williamson County Schools world languages curriculum writing team including teachers Amanda Baker, Robert Collard, Chelsea Graves, Nicole Hernandez, Brian Rentfro, and Rebecca Roa, district supervisor Christi Gilliland, and consultant Thomas Sauer. In the second part of this interview, they discuss some of the changes they have made in their teaching and describe what a proficiency-oriented classroom looks like.
This week’s episode is part II of the interview. Also check out episode 66 to hear part I in which the team discusses the remarkable assessment results their students have achieved.
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Show Notes
We welcome feedback, resources, and diverse perspectives on this topic! To contribute to the conversation started here, leave us a voicemail or send a text message to (629)888-3398. Or you can follow us on Twitter @weteachlang or use this contact form to send us an email.
You can find the Williamson County School World Languages department on Twitter @wcsCOcg
If you are interested in seeing the curriculum that the writing team has developed, piloted, and implemented, those documents are available here for level 1: Williamson County Schools Level 1 World Language Curriculum, and here for level 2: Williamson County Schools Level 2 World Language Curriculum
Some resources mentioned in the episode…
Previous episodes mentioned on this episode…
…Episode 41: Vocabulary Lists with Kara Parker & AC Quintero
While this is the first time a whole school district has been featured on the podcast, if you are interested in making the move towards proficiency, we have talked to a few teachers in the past and you should definitely check out those episodes…
…Episode 14: Making the Transition to Authentic Resources and Proficiency with Lisa Shepard
…Episode 32: Reflective, Principled, Proficiency-Oriented Teaching with Walter Hopkins
…Episode 36: A Departmental Shift to IPA-based Units with Rich Madel
…Episode 47: Professional Development and Working Together with Rebecca Blouwolff and Tim Eagan
Excellent interviews – I’ve followed both and am encouraged by what this department is doing. Thank you all for sharing!!
This is one of my favorite episodes and I keep coming back to it as a great demonstration of the power of collaboration on many levels- within a department; school district; K-16 partnerships, etc. The big takeaway for curriculum development is to collaborate across languages instead of replicating the work at each level, language, school, etc. We have so much to gain by working together and bringing in all perspectives, from different languages, levels, and school contexts.