Overview:  This OER: Understanding Fairytales with a Graphic Organizer was created by Stephanie Werner and as part of the 2024 World Language OER Summer work and training. Educators worked with Chrystal Liu, Nick Ziegler and Dorann Avey to create OER Learning Plans and materials. The attached Lesson Plan and Graphic Organizer is designed for 7-12 World Language Teachers of Low to Mid level Intermediate Spanish, French or German language learners. It is expected that this Lesson Plan will take students 60 minutes.

Research shows that engaging students in self-assessment positively impacts language learning, motivation, and learner autonomy. To help World Language Educators accomplish this, the Nebraska Department of Education invited experienced world language teachers across the state to create student-friendly assessments in the form of can-do statements in the summer of 2022. This document is a student-friendly self-assessment activity for Intermediate Low world language learners created based on the 2019 Nebraska World Language Standards. The language use described in all can-do statements is meant for the target language, except for the second for standard 3.1 and the first for standard 4.2. It is recommended that word language teachers engage students with this document three times in an academic year: pre-course, mid-course, and post-course. Engaging students with this self-assessment activity will help students see growth over time and hopefully attribute growth to effective learning practices. Please feel free to contact chrystal.liu@nebraska.gov for any questions and concerns. 

Research shows that engaging students in self-assessment positively impacts language learning, motivation, and learner autonomy. To help World Language Educators accomplish this, the Nebraska Department of Education invited experienced world language teachers across the state to create student-friendly assessments in the form of can-do statements in the summer of 2022.  This document is a student-friendly self-assessment activity for Intermediate Low world language learners created based on the 2019 Nebraska World Language Standards. The language use described in all can-do statements is meant for the target language, except for the second for standard 3.1 and the first for standard 4.2.  It is recommended that word language teachers engage students with this document three times in an academic year: pre-course, mid-course, and post-course. Engaging students with this self-assessment activity will help students see growth over time and hopefully attribute growth to effective learning practices. Please feel free to contact chrystal.liu@nebraska.gov for any questions and concerns.

4-6 weeks of distance (remote) learning content provided for middle through high school-level world language programs: Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean & Spanish courses. These units were adapted from existing Unit & Pacing guides created by teachers from Tacoma Public Schools in Washington State.

Nowadays, the use of technologies is deeply embedded in the teaching and learning of foreign languages. Therefore, students and teachers are compelled to continuously update their digital skills. Moreover, the need for online teaching has been spurred by the COVID pandemics, which has posed new challenges in this regard. When searching for online tools, one of the main difficulties is the vast amount and disparity of resources available to both teachers and students, who often feel overwhelmed due to the lack of time or assessment criteria. In such cases, the potential of existing resources remains largely unexplored. In this context, we developed an online open access database of digital resources for Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language. It includes a collection of metadata to satisfy users with different profiles and needs. In sum, we set up a multilingual (Catalan, Spanish, English and Chinese) and dynamic website, which can be useful for both teachers and learners who, in turn, will be able to enrich it through different types of feedback. Check our website and subscribe to our newsletter to be informed of the latest resources added to the database.

Students will warm-up with practice regarding familiar fairy-tales. They will then read or watch a Japanese folk-tale and discuss the story together. They will finish with some questions that analyze the message of the story and compare the story to folk-tales from their home culture.