The Cardinal

Tips for Incorporating Novels into Novice Classrooms

Lauren Racela, OFLA Technology Integration Committee Chair
French Teacher, Milford High School

Each year I’ve taught, I’ve elected to teach with a leveled reader. I truly think that the students have benefitted from this experience. It builds the confidence of novice learners to think that they’ve read an entire book in French. I want to share the ways I’ve taught with leveled readers in the past and what I thought about each method. 

Reader’s Theater – This is the way I first taught with leveled readers, and the method I’m employing now. Each day when we’re reading, students know to grab a book, open WordReference on their computer, and find their notes. Most students take all their notes for the whole book on one Google Doc, but others find it more useful to take their notes on paper. We read together, referencing slides on the board where I’ve typed out all the text of the book and added pictures for context. Students take turns reading a few sentences aloud, then we stop and summarize in English. As we’re reading, students are taking notes about new words as well as notes about the major ideas and plot points of the book. We also take multiple choice quizzes, which are all in French, every few chapters. The quizzes cover major plot points in the book, as well as any relevant cultural knowledge.

Transforming Language Learning

Marcia Davis, OFLA Secondary Language Learning Chair
World Language Middle School, Columbus City Schools

Language is a powerful vehicle through which its learners can communicate about a variety of topics. Traditionally, that communication may have been about the weather, how to order a meal in a restaurant, how to introduce yourself to others, or how to plan travel abroad. Have you ever thought about using language to help learners begin to have critical conversations and interactions to disrupt racism as they navigate the world around them?

In their most recent publication, The Antiracist World Language Classroom, Drs. Krishauna Hines-Gaither and Cécile Accilien draw on current foundational knowledge of antiracism to help world languages educators consider what antiracism looks like in the world language classroom, why it is necessary to establish antiracist practices in the world language classroom, and how to effect antiracist pedagogies that benefit all learners in the world language classroom. 

Pascale Abadie, OFLA Recruitment and Retention Chair
Associate Professor, Wright State University

It has been more and more challenging to recruit teachers and professors alike; fewer students choose the teaching path, and a job that was once seen as rewarding and fulfilling has become less attractive over the last decade or so. The main reason for this decline might be that parents would rather not have their children choose a career that has inadequate pay and benefits along with a drastic change in students’ behaviors and lack of discipline. Because the profession is more challenging, it has become less desirable to potential candidates. A job that was seen as respected or valued in our society has lost its sheen over the years. Widespread teacher strikes over the United States over low salary and lack of resources for classrooms are not helping the recruiting process for teachers. Not to mention the legitimate after effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Research has shown a 35 percent decline in teacher ed enrollments, highlighting that the teacher shortage problem is very worrisome. According to the National Education Association, schools are facing a shortage of 300,000 teachers and staff across the U.S.