Rhode Island Foreign Language Association

Gazette September 2013 Volume 6 Issue 4 Dear Colleagues, Welcome back! Hope you had a great summer. As you start to think about lessons and projects, RIFLA is providing you with an opportunity to get wonderful ideas to enhance your teaching; an invitation to our Fall Conference! The Board is hoping that you will join us and your other RIFLA friends and colleagues on Saturday, October 5 at Exeter-West Greenwich Junior/Senior High School for what will surely be an interesting Fall Conference. The theme for our 19th annual conference is Many Voices-One World! There are sessions about incorporating art, poetry, and literature into the world languages curriculum, on smoothly integrating technology into our lessons, advocating for world languages, and improving student writing and reading skills, just to mention a few. And don’t forget our old favorite—Tools of the Trade, a session for teachers to describe and exchange activities and best practices. This year our keynote speaker will be Margarita Dempsey from Smithfield High School, a member of our board, and the 2013 Teacher of the Year awarded by the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Language. I am sure she will be a great source of advice and inspiration. On the conference registration form you will find the request to renew your RIFLA membership dues for the 2014 calendar year. Kindly complete that section of the form to ensure that we have your correct email address so that we can update our files. Don’t forget you can always renew your membership and/or register for all our activities on-line at the RIFLA website. Also, please ask your colleagues if they have received this mailing. If not, kindly make a copy for them or tell them to check the website. Encourage them to join RIFLA and to come to the conference, especially new teachers and student teachers. Just a little nudge might be all that is needed to entice some of our old friends to come share ideas with us, and of course we are always happy to welcome new colleagues. Take a stand, be an ambassador, help us provide professional development opportunities to our members in order to encourage, support and retain effective world language teachers. Best wishes for a smooth opening of this school year! I look forward to seeing you on October 5th! Best, Gaby Gabriela McNamara RIFLA President

RIFLA RETREAT! On August 7th the RIFLA Board met for an all-day retreat. Erin Papa graciously hosted all of us in her lovely home in Wakefield. We were able to take care of the “business” of the organization during an extended meeting time, enjoy lunch together and then break-off into groups to discuss pressing issues concerning where we are as an organization and where we want to go. These strategy sessions were very productive and we all felt we made significant progress. Needless to say, we could have kept talking for days! The highlight of the day was a visit from Clay Pell, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International and Foreign Language Education, US Department of Education. Mr. Pell assured us that the US Department of Education feels that world language programs are vitally important not only for our students to understand another person’s language and culture but to help thinking and learning skills.

Clay Pell and the Executive Board of RIFLA Clay himself is a speaker of many languages – Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic. He began studying Spanish in middle school and in high school and in college he attended study abroad programs for Spanish and Chinese. During his time in the military he was sent to China to study law. He is a very intelligent, well-educated man who clearly supports all of our efforts as foreign language teachers. His office supports 126 national resource centers which support pedagogy. Clay mentioned connecting American students to the world using technology; dual language programs; teacher training, and a video competition his office will be sponsoring in the near future.

He then asked us what our concerns were. He was meeting with Commissioner Gist and he wanted to know what to bring to her attention. To have someone on the national level ask us about the issues that are important to us and then to discuss them with Commissioner was a great boost for our morale! Clay said he would lend his support to any program facing cuts by writing a letter of support. So if you hear that your school district’s language program might be cut, please contact a board member as soon as possible so that we might coordinate our efforts to support your program. The RIFLA Retreat was a terrific way to begin the school year! Don’t forget to encourage your colleagues to attend the RIFLA Conference on October 5th and the NECTFL Conference will be held in March in Boston! It’s going to be a great year!

American Association of Teachers of French

Rhode Island

www.aatfri.com

AATF Annual Convention 2013

Destination Providence !

The Rhode Island chapter had the honor of hosting the 86th American Association of Teachers of

French Annual Convention in Providence, Rhode Island this past July. Over 320 people attended the

convention. It was an occasion of exchange, learning, and connection for teachers of French throughout

the United States.

Both Governor Lincoln Chaffee and Mayor Angel Taveras wrote letters of welcome to convention

attendees. The AATF is an “organization of nearly 10,000 members and is a flagship of instruction in the

French language, garnering accolades for its support of teacher training and championship of

multilingual skills, especially among young people”, wrote Mayor Traveras. The Governor highlighted

that it is due to the “devotion and enthusiasm of members of the AATF, [that] there are new

opportunities in countless communities to learn about French language and culture and increase cultural

competence overall.”

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

The subject of the keynote address this year was the «Teaching of French in the United States in the

21st century». After an introduction by AATF President Sister Mary Helen Kashuba, AATF-RI President

Michael Hébert introduced the speakers: Alain-Philippe Durand, Professor at the University of

Arizona, and University of Rhode Island professors Lars Erickson (French IEP), JoAnn Hammadou

Sullivan (Secondary Education), and Karen de Bruin (Head of French Section). The address was

followed by a question and answers session and was overall a tremendous and enlightening success.

The AATF was honored to have some special guest presenters at this year’s convention. Jean Claude

Duthion, the Attaché for Education from the French Embassy of France in Washington, DC presented

on the promotion of French and supporting French teachers, which are the two axes of educational

cooperation. The local chapter is currently collaborating with him to bring an immersion seminar to the

University of Rhode Island this summer. Other guests included William Rivers, the executive director

of the Joint Committee for Languages and the National Council for Languages and International Studies

and Clay Pell, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International and Foreign language Education. Both

gentlemen spoke about the current state of affairs of foreign language teaching in the United States and

highlighted the continued importance of the French language for America’s educational, political, and

economic future in the age of globalization.

All in all, the 2013 AATF Convention was a grand success. The local chapter would like to thank all local teachers for having attended as well as those who graciously gave their time to volunteer. Merci !

FROM LEFT: Margot Steinhart, AATF officer; Margarita Dempsey, AATF-RI officer; Fabien Fieschi, Consul Général of

France in Boston; Sister Mary Helen Kashuba, AATF President; Joyce Beckwith, AATF Regional Representative; Michael

The annual National French Contest (Le Grand Concours) will once again take place in

participating schools in February and March 2014. The board of the AATFRI is pleased to

announce that over 1,000 students of French in RI participated in the contest last year and

is looking forward to such impressive participation for 2014.

2014 Contest Dates

Registration Period

1 November 2013— 15 January 2014

Contest Dates

Grades 1-6 (FLES): 15 - 28 February 2014

Grades 7-12 (levels 01-5): 24 February - 15 March 2014

For more information: www.aatfri.com

ATFRI is now on

http://www.youtube.com/user/AATFRI

The AATFRI has created its own channel on YouTube. The channel has been created for

teachers and students of French to view and share content on a francophone theme. You

will find videos on French-speaking countries, advocacy, grammar, RI’s Francophone

community, music, etc. Comments are welcome and suggestions on new content are

appreciated. Subscribe to the channel to obtain recent updates on content.

2013 Annual AATF

Francophone Concert

Information on the annual

concert for students of

French

in Rhode Island will be

forthcoming.

AATSP

The American Association of Teachersof

Spanish and Portuguese

Rhode Island Chapter

¡Todos a Una!

Writing Contest

When: Saturday, February 1, 2014 10am-11am Where: St. George’s, Newport, RI and Moses Brown, Providence RI Who: All area high school students whose teacher is a member of AATSP-RI Intermediate Level: 3rd and 4th year students Advanced Level: 5th, 6th and AP students What: Students will have one hour to complete an essay of 300 words or more. Students will have several topics from which to choose. Cost: $8.00 per student Prize: $100 per level To register please fill out the form attached (print) and send it with the appropriate fee to:

Mary Ashby 180 RI AVE

Newport, RI, 02840

Registration must be postmarked by Friday, January 17th, at the latest. (Checks or money orders payable to AATSP-RI, ). If you have any questions please contact Mary Ashby at mashby@smcds.org.

Scroll down to the end of this newsletter for application.

AATSP-RI and the Directors of Centro Mundo Announce

Two-Week Scholarship for Juniors in High School The members of the Board of Directors of the RI Chapter of the AATSP and the directors of Centro MundoLengua (www.centromundolengua.com) are pleased to announce the award of a two-week scholarship to study in Spain for the summer of 2014. This is a unique opportunity for a high school junior to immerse himself/herself in the Spanish language and culture while taking classes at Centro Mundo Lengua and living with a Spanish family. The scholarship will cover the cost of a 2-week program and a stipend to cover travel expenses ($1000.00 - $1500.00). We would like to urge all member teachers to encourage the best students of the class of 2015 (current Juniors) who have registered for the National Spanish Exam this year to apply for the scholarship. If you have any questions or comments about this scholarship, please feel free to contact me at mashby@smcds.org. In advance, we want to thank you teachers for all that you do for your students.

Successful scholarship candidates need to complete and submit the following requirements by January 18, 2014 .

AATSP Junior Scholarship winner for last year was Megan Fantes from Moses Brown School. Megan will present a slide show of her "life changing" experience at the AATSP table in the Exhibitors area of the RIFLA Conference. The director of the Centro Mundo Lenguas stated that Megan was the most spirited student that they have had in years! Applications for the Junior Scholarship are included and will be available at the conference.

If you are not a member of AATSP, we encourage you to register so your students can participate in these exciting opportunities. Register online at

AATSP.org. Scroll down to page 16 for more information and application

TIVERTON — Four years of hard work have paid off with interest for Tiverton High School (THS) senior Ian Couto. Couto was one of two students in the state awarded the Rhode Island Foreign Language Association (RIFLA) Student of the Year Award. “It’s about time a Portuguese guy won,” said Dennis Soares, Chair of the Department of World Languages as well as Coutos’ Portuguese teacher at THS. RIFLA, whose stated mission is to promote and encourage, “the learning, teaching and study of foreign languages, literatures and cultures in Rhode Island,” gives the $500 award annually to students who have made great strides in foreign language studies. For Soares, the question of who to nominate for the award had an obvious answer. “I thought about him (Couto) instantly because of his hard work and general interest in the subject,” he said.

“I love the language itself and it is my family heritage,” he said.Couto is the descendent of Portuguese immigrants from São Miguel, Azores, and says this is part of the reason that he is so into the study of Portuguese. It was not easy to get to this point as a lot of good old-fashioned hard work and effort went into obtaining the scholarship. “There were many afternoons spent after-school,” said Soares. “Ian was always asking me ‘You think I can win?’ Of course, we would not be here if he couldn’t.” Soares was not the only person in Coutos’ life excited by his success. “When I told my parents,” he said, “the first words out of their mouths were ‘When are we going to go (to the awards ceremony)? They were nothing but proud.” Nonetheless, Couto knows that having strong support made his trek to achievement a lot easier. “Without his (Soares) help I could have done it, but it would have been much harder,” he said. For that reason, Couto will be asking Soares to hand him his diploma, following in a THS tradition allowing students to choose the teacher who will be presenting them with the document at their graduation ceremony. “I don’t have another teacher like him,” said Couto. “That is why I asked for him to give me my diploma.” “He is well deserving… He represents the school well,” said Soares, while speaking on Couto. “It felt good to finally have a student who is recognized for their hard work, efficiency and love of the language.” Couto intends to enroll at Rhode Island College next year where he plans on studying Speech Pathology and Portuguese. He already has an eye even beyond his undergraduate years in college, saying that he would then like to pursue a Master’s degree in Spanish. When asked why he would wait so long to start studying Spanish, Couto responded, “I’m not one of those people who can study two languages at the same time… It’s too easy to confuse things.

ANNOUNCING

RHODE ISLAND FOREIGN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION

FALL CONFERENCE 2013

MANY VOICES-ONE WORLD!

Saturday, October 5, 2013

7:45 AM-3:45 PM

Hosted by

The Department of World Languages

Exeter-West Greenwich Junior/Senior High School

Conference Schedule

7:45-8:45 Registration, Exhibits, Coffee, and......... 8:45-9:45 Opening Session Welcoming Remarks Gabriela McNamara, RIFLA President

Greetings from Exeter-West Greenwich Jr./Sr. High School

Keynote Address

Margarita B. Dempsey

Smithfield High School

2013 Teacher of the Year

Awarded by the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

10:00-11:15 Concurrent Sessions I 11:15-11:45 Refreshments and Exhibits 11:45-1:00 Concurrent Sessions II

1:00-1:45 Working Lunch - Come interact with the new RIFLA website at the Help Desk. 2:00-3:15 Concurrent Sessions III 3:15-3:45 Processing of In-Service Credits and Evaluation of Conference

Go to: http://rifla.wildapricot.org/ to register, view descriptions of sessions and directions to the Conference.

Sustaining Communities through World Languages

March 27-30, 2014 at the Marriott Copley Place Hotel

in Boston MA

For more info: http://www.nectfl.org/conference

On the Web…

Report focuses on teaching young dual language learners

English language learners in preschool and early elementary school should learn in settings that use both English and their native language, according to Linda M. Espinosa, an early childhood and dual language expert. Evidence shows students who maintain two languages tend to perform better academically, but finding enough bilingual teachers to teach dual language programs can be a challenge, Espinosa notes in a recently published research review and policy brief. In the report, she offers suggestions that monolingual teachers can use in their classrooms to support dual language learners. Education Week/Learning the Language blog (8/19)

Exposing students to a second language or other cultures can improve their overall language skills, open mindedness of other people and future career prospects, English language educator Marc Anderson writes in this blog post. He suggests teachers of all grades and subject matters use other cultures in their curriculum -- such as a comparative literature unit or a themed international night offering food, music and games from other countries SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Education (8/5)

Officers & Directors

OFFICERS DIRECTORS

President Gabriela McNamara, NBCT gabymcnamara@hotmail.com Vice President Amy Hubertus ahubertus@gmail.com Immediate Past President Coleen Griffith coleensing@yahoo.com Corresponding Secretary Erin Papa epapauri@gmail.com Treasurer Andrea Tomlinson andreayrtomlinson@gmail.com Recording Secretary Sandra Shaw bonjourss@hotmail.com

Linda Crawford crawforl@salve.edu Vanessa DelGiudice, NBCT vanessadelg@verizon.net Dana Edward Ramey NBCT dramey@mpsri.net J. Andrés Ramirez jramirez@ric.edu Sarah Steverman ssteverman@westerly.k12.ri.us Claire Leatham claire.leatham@gmail.com

SERVICE MEMBERS RIFLA Gazette Margarita Boyatzi Dempsey mbdempsey11@gmail.com Fall Conference Coordinator Ellen Conroy boconagirl@aol.com

Please send your submissions to the Gazette to: mbdempsey11@gmail.com

AATSP-RI CHAPTER

REGISTRATION FORM FOR THE WRITING COMPETITION

High School _______________________________________________________________ Please print

School address _______________________________________________________________

Please print

Instructor’s name _______________________________________________________________

Please print School phone ________________________________________________________________ Instructor’s email ________________________________________________________________

(copy and paste this portion for each student)******************************************************

Student’s name ______________ ______________________________ ___________________________ Print First and Last Name (as it will appear on certificate) last 4 digits of phone number

Category : Spanish Portuguese

(Circle one)

Level : Intermediate Advanced

(circle one)

Testing Site: St. George’s Moses Brown

(circle one)

*********************************************************************************************

I certify that the above information is correct and that tI am a member in good standing of AATSP. Instructor signature_______________________________________________________ Send this form with $8.00 registration fee no later than January 18th, 2014.

Checks should be payable to AATSP-RI.

Please send all correspondence to:

Mary Ashby 180 Rhode Island Ave. Newport, RI 02840

AATSP-RI Two-Week Scholarship for Juniors in High School The members of the Board of Directors of the RI Chapter of the AATSP and the directors of Centro MundoLengua (www.centromundolengua.com) are pleased to announce the award of a two-week scholarship to study in Spain for the summer of 2014. This is a unique opportunity for a high school junior to immerse himself/herself in the Spanish language and culture while taking classes at Centro Mundo Lengua and living with a Spanish family. The scholarship will cover the cost of a 2-week program and a stipend to cover travel expenses ($1000.00 - $1500.00). We would like to urge all member teachers to encourage the best students of the class of 2015 (current Juniors) who have registered for the National Spanish Exam this year to apply for the scholarship. If you have any questions or comments about this scholarship, please feel free to contact me at mashby@smcds.org. In advance, we want to thank you teachers for all that you do for your students.

Successful scholarship candidates need to complete and submit the following requirements by January 18, 2014 .

ELIGIBILITY: For the 2014 scholarship, applicants MUST: * Be a Junior * Have scored at or above the 75th-percentile on the 2013 NSE * Be registered to take the 2014 National Spanish Examination *Agree to continue studying Spanish during the 2014-2015 academic year COMMITMENT : * Recipient of the scholarship agrees to make travel arrangements by May 1, 2014 and forward confirmation of such to the Scholarship Coordinator. Failure to do so will result in forfeiture of the scholarship. * Applicants must commit to be in attendance for the entire length of the course. If a student cannot

attend for the entire session during the specified time, the trip will be forfeited and another student will be chosen.

* The award may not be postponed to another year. * Upon return from the trip winners will be required to attend the RIFLA Conference in early October to give an account of their experiences along with several digital photographs to interested teachers at the conference. STUDENT COSTS: * transportation to the international airport of departure *personal expenses *souvenirs and gifts SELECTION:

All applications must be postmarked by January 18, 2014. The proposals will be reviewed February and the recipients will be notified no later than April 2, 2014.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE: Applicants should fill out the application form and should include with it the following items: 1. A standard DVD in Spanish in which you: • discuss with your teacher your family, hobbies, and interests, and some of the things you would like to do if you are awarded the Junior Scholarship • spontaneous and conversational in tone (The student should be the dominant speaker.) • speak with your teacher a maximum of 5 minutes without stopping the recording (Both the student and teacher are to be visible in the DVD.) 2. An essay written by the student (approximately 250 words in English), explaining why he/she wants to study in Spain ; the candidate needs to express how he/she will continue the study of the language after the summer program, and any activities concerning his/her language study outside of school.Teacher, please sign the essay to certify that it is exclusively student work. 3. School transcript listing grades for the past two years and a list of extra-curricular activities. 4. Two letters of recommendation: • Letter one from your current Spanish teacher who should comment on your skills in Spanish and your motivation toward your studies. • Letter two from someone (other than your parents) who knows you well enough to comment on your ability to get along with others and adapt to unforeseen circumstances.

Send application materials to: Mary Ashby AATSP

St. Michael’s Country Day School 180 Rhode Island Ave

Newport, RI 02840

Student Information

Student Name:

Home Address:

City: R.I. Zip:

Home phone:

Student email:

Parent email:

Student Information

Current Level of Spanish:

National Spanish Exam taken last year: Score:

School and Teacher Information

Name Of School:

Address:

City: R.I. Zip:

Teacher’s name:

Teacher’s school phone:

Teacher’s email:

Parent Authorization

I consent to allowing my son/daughter_______________________ to travel to Spain for 2 weeks to study at the Centro Mundo Lengua School as an award winner of the Rhode Island Chapter of the AATSP Junior Scholarships. I understand that I must make travel arrangements to and from the international airport (Boston or NY)for my son/daughter once the dates of the course have been confirmed. I understand that my child will not be traveling with a group from the USA, but will be met in Seville by a member from the Centro Mundo Lengua School and will be escorted to the sponsor’s home.

Parent’s Name:(print) Date:

Parent’s Signature: