Meet the ESL Coordinators

Anne Millette started in the ESL field 25 years ago as a teacher and she loved it.

In 1988, she became an ESL consultant for the Sorel and Tracy School Boards. Over the years, she has worked with teachers and consultants from all over the province. She participated in MELS committees, gave workshops at SPEAQ conventions and to the members of RCCPALS (Regroupement des conseillères et conseillers pédagogiques d'anglais, langue seconde) and RREALS (Regroupement des responsables de l'enseignement de l'anglais, langue seconde).

Lately, she co-authored the ESL Elementary Cycle Two and Three Programs. She is presently involved in writing the brand new ESL Elementary Cycle One Program.

Since the month of August 2004, she has been working for the Ministry of Education as the ESL Program Coordinator (interim). Anne says that this challenging responsibility is making her even more aware of the formidable impact the ESL programs have on students experiencing a new culture.

Lisa Storozuk has been working in ESL for almost twenty years as a high school teacher, pedagogical consultant and university instructor. Over the past ten years she has been involved in various projects at the MELS. In 2002, she was appointed as the ESL Evaluation Coordinator.

Her responsibilities consist of coordinating the following:
At the elementary level

• the collecting of exemplars to illustrate the levels of competency
• the writing of Learning and Evaluation Situations
• the training sessions in evaluation

• the production of competency levels for Cycle One
• the writing of Learning and Evaluation Situations
• the production of the Secondary IV and V examinations
• the training sessions for Cycles One and Two

by the Programs Team
Anne Millette, Catharine MacDonald, Carol-Ann Maskrey, Martin Doucet, Eugene Graziani and Derek Wright

The Programs team from the MELS presented a lively and informative pre-convention session at SPEAQ in November in Québec City. The presentation focused on the new Secondary Cycle One ESL Core and Enriched programs. Participants who attended this presentation were asked to reflect on how they can move ahead in the Reform by experimenting one of the aspects of the new programs in their classroom. At the same time they reflected on what teaching practices they will leave behind. They wrote their ideas on post-its and put them on the front and back of the "Reform Man", a cutout silhouette representing all reform-minded teachers. Their comments were displayed at the MELS information booth to share with other teachers as they prepare to implement the new ESL programs in the first year of Cycle One in September 2005.

Participants' responses to how they will move ahead and what they will leave behind touch upon a variety of aspects of the new programs: the synergy of the ESL competencies, classroom environment, oral interaction, reinvesting understanding, the writing and production processes, grammar, evaluation, and strategies.

Skills versus Competencies
Teachers want to move ahead with the new competency-based ESL programs, which focus on the students' development of three competencies: interacts orally in English, reinvests understanding of texts, and writes and produces texts. In the previous secondary school objective-based program, the four skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing - were often taught separately for specific purposes. The new ESL programs go beyond the sum of these skills. The three competencies are developed in synergy: when students are developing one competency, they constantly draw upon the other two. Interacts orally in English is the backdrop for the other competencies as English is the language of communication at all times.

Classroom Environment
Teachers will ensure that the classroom is a positive environment where they work together with their students as a community of learners to develop the three ESL competencies. They want to move ahead by having more student-centered activities and by leaving behind some of their teacher-centered instruction. The teacher is a facilitator and model, a "guide on the side and no longer a sage on the stage". Students will play a more active role in class, and take responsibility for their learning by contributing to decisions about the content of learning and evaluation situations, the resources they will need to carry out a task or the format of a final product.

Oral Interaction
Teachers will move ahead by setting the example of speaking only in English and encouraging their students to use English at all times in the classroom. They will leave behind oral presentations and move ahead with oral interaction. Students will speak English with each other in a variety of situations - spontaneous conversations, structured activities and in the carrying out of tasks. Students develop the competency interacts orally in English when they are given frequent opportunities to communicate. Teachers provide these opportunities for oral interaction and establish a positive learning climate where students feel comfortable taking risks and making errors when they communicate in English. Teachers will leave behind the silent classroom and be more tolerant of noise as students collaborate and cooperate in a more dynamic, interactive environment.

Reinvesting Understanding
Teachers are interested in moving beyond "wh" questions as the only means of verifying comprehension of a text. They will help students experiment with the response process to construct meaning and come to a deeper understanding of a text. Students develop the competency reinvests understanding of texts by carrying out a meaningful task where they manipulate and reuse the ideas, information, vocabulary and structures from the text in a new context. By doing more than just answering information questions on a text, they enrich their cultural knowledge as well as their second language. Teachers also want to leave behind the definition of text as only the written word, and move ahead with the idea that a text can be any form of communication-spoken, written or visual- involving the English language.

Writing and Production Processes
Teachers want to move ahead by showing and encouraging their students to use the writing and production processes as frameworks of actions that will help them to become better writers/producers. Students explore the different phases of the writing process and production process, and eventually personalize them, applying what works best for them in a given context. To develop the competency writes and produces texts, students experiment with a variety of popular, literary and information-based texts. The writing process involves only the written word whereas the production process involves different media such as video, computer presentation or radio broadcast.

Grammar
To move ahead with grammar, teachers want to focus on form through student-centred, contextualized activities. Grammar or "focus on form" refers to communicative teaching that draws the students' attention to the forms and structures of the English language within the context of the interactive classroom. Teachers will provide students with language-focus activities, and individual and group corrective feedback when needed. Students are more likely to retain the correct form when they have to use it in a meaningful task.

Evaluation: support for Learning
Many of the comments from teachers were related to the evaluation of the competencies. Teachers want to leave behind the practice of "teaching to the test" because students do not learn in order to be evaluated; rather they are evaluated so they can become more effective learners. Evaluation is a support for learning, helping students reflect on their progress and make adjustments when necessary. Teachers will evaluate both the students' learning process as well as their final product. They will encourage students to participate in their evaluation by using a variety of tools such as conferencing, self- or peer- evaluations and portfolios. They want to move ahead by trying different ways of evaluating such as using rubrics and anecdotal notes, leaving behind some of their traditional tests and quizzes.

Strategies
Teachers want to move ahead by teaching their students learning strategies - essential techniques to promote communication and develop thinking and learning skills. Strategies help students become aware of how to learn more effectively and ways to transfer that learning to new situations. Students will make use of the following strategies in order to develop the three ESL competencies: communication (e.g. stall for time), metacognitive (e.g. plan), cognitive (scan), and social/affective (e.g. take risks). These strategies are taught explicitly by the teacher through modeling and elicitation.

Commitment to Professional Development
From teachers' responses, it is clear they are well on their way to meeting the challenges that lie ahead in implementing the Reform in 2005. They are leaving behind some of their feelings of insecurity about the new ESL programs. They propose to move ahead by investing in their own professional development, attending training sessions, and sharing successes and challenges with their colleagues. The key is to move ahead one step at a time.

What's New in Evaluation at the MELS?

SPEAQ 2004

For the second consecutive year, the MELS was present at the annual convention. The novelty this year was the MELS booth, which was located in the main hall. People from both Programs and Evaluation were on hand to answer questions and give information. We are very pleased with this first experience and are planning on renewing next year in Montréal.

Support to Elementary ESL Specialists

By Carolyn Faust

The two-day workshop entitled One Step Forward has finally reached its end. In all, a total of 275 elementary ESL specialists participated from every region of Québec. We were warmly received and encouraged by the willingness of teachers to continue to take new pedagogical steps forward.

We are grateful for the opportunity to have witnessed such diverse realities and experiences. With the writing of the first elementary end-of-cycle evaluation situation for Cycle Three this year, it is important that this diversity be taken into consideration.

I am currently looking for classrooms to visit and for teachers willing to participate in the validation and experimentation of this evaluation situation. If you are interested, please contact me at carolyn.faust@meq.gouv.qc.ca

Exemplar Project Update (Elementary)

by Sylvia Schmidt

The exemplar project's objective is to illustrate the five competency levels for the three ESL competencies with samples of student work. In 2004, the focus was on Competency 3, To write texts. Exemplars of student writing are in the final stages of validation and should be available to teachers in the spring. The filming of students interacting orally in English for Competency 1 exemplars is winding up as the editing process begins. Work on Competency 2 exemplars is scheduled to start this spring.

It's not too late to become involved in the exemplar project. If you would like to participate in the filming or are interested in giving a validation committee a try, please contact me at sylvia.schmidt@meq.gouv.qc.ca.

Learning and Evaluation Situations, Secondary Cycle One

by Élyse Deschambault
elyse.deschambault@meq.gouv.qc.ca

Some twenty teachers from several school boards are currently validating two learning and evaluation situations in their classrooms. Evaluation tools for ongoing evaluation are also being designed and validated. You're probably wondering when and where these tools will be available; a team from the MELS is currently looking into the best way to make situations from all disciplines available to the milieu. To be continued...

Levels of Competency: Secondary Cycle One

By Lisa Storozuk
lisa.storozuk@meq.gouv.qc.ca

When the new Quebec Education Program is implemented in Secondary Cycle One next September, teachers will need evaluation tools to evaluate their students' levels of competency.

Presently, two groups of very hardworking teachers (one team for each of the two ESL programs) are working together to create indicators for the five competency levels for Competency 1: Interacts Orally in English. These teachers have been meeting together every two weeks since the end of September.

The next step in this project will be to validate the work they have done. This validation will be done by Secondary II teachers throughout the regions of Québec; perhaps you will be one of them! The five levels of competency for Interacts Orally in English should be in your schools in the fall of 2005.

Requests

To request workshops and/or presentations in evaluation, please contact Lisa Storozuk at lisa.storozuk@meq.gouv.qc.ca.