Using LEARNING-FOCUSED Strategies in a World Languages Classroom

Debbie Willingham
Dec 08, 2008

We all know by now that using the Learning-Focused Strategies Model can increase achievement, and that the strategies and practices are all research-based evidence-based, and data-proven. However, when it comes down to actually planning lessons, do they always fit every course we teach? The answer is YES, because we know we have to adapt the strategies we use to make them fit our students, subjects, and teaching styles.

This concern is often brought to our attention by world language teachers (formerly called foreign language teachers) because of the way they must continually have students practice newly learned words and phrases. Their needs in teaching a new language to students are in actuality very similar to the challenges primary teachers face in teaching their students to read, write, and speak English correctly. Obviously repetition is important, so teaching single lesson essential questions one at a time and not revisiting previous lessons is not the answer. The components of good lessons (EATS) should be included in every lesson, but previous lesson essential questions should be revisited to continually refine students' use of new words and phrases at the same time they are extending their use of them. Try using some of the variations of strategies listed below to help students be the most successful they can be in learning a new language.

  1. Use family word walls for words relating to a specific topic (family members, household items, classroom items, numbers, months and days, etc.). Continually refer to the word walls as students build their vocabulary, and let them "cheat" by looking at the word walls during sentence drills and when answering questions in the new language.

  2. Have a specific place to post lesson essential questions, and add to the list as a unit progresses. Putting the Lesson Essential Questions on sentence strips is an easy way to write and post them, adding to the list and referring back to previous Lesson Essential Questions as a continuous review of new information previously learned.

  3. Write the Lesson Essential Questions both in the new language and in English, so students can see the correlation and differences in sentence structure in the two languages.

  4. Label items in the classroom with their names in the new language.

  5. Have a systematic weekly review (an adaptation of the systematic monthly review) of information previously taught to continually refine students' use of new words and phrases.

  6. Have students reflect on their own learning by writing about what they are learning, what is difficult for them and why, what seems to come more easily and why.

  7. Always have an activating strategy and summarizing strategy, even in lessons that carry over for more than one period. Research also tells us that what students hear at the beginning and at the end of their lesson sticks with them best.