Eight Essential Elements for Every World Language Unit
by Shelby Cole, M.Ed., NBCT
Using The Essential 8 to structure my planning or,
Season 18: Third time’s a charm?!?!
“ Rome wasn’t built in a day, or a year. Neither will a curriculum - especially if you are creating some or most of it!”
Why write a blog now? Well one, my friend Lisa says that I should. More importantly though, I think I finally have enough to say for one. So season 18 of my teaching career is coming up; I start work next Wednesday and students come the following Tuesday. My mantra this year will be “Third time’s a charm” because it is the third year I will be teaching English to ML (Multilingual Learners) students at my school. Year one’s mantra? Survive and advance (quoted from the late Jim Valvano). Year two’s mantra? Try to enjoy it (original quote). This year, I hope that third time’s a charm (who came up with that? IDK…) because not everything is new and I think this time around I will really feel like I know what I’m doing. Or I have another year where I feel like I’m on a roller coaster and then I can just recycle this mantra for next year, and the next and the next. #fifthtimesacharm
The power of the Essential Eight
Something I did this summer was clean up my Google Drive and reorganize, take stock, and make myself aware of what I need to add into my curriculum for each unit. I came up with this idea that every unit should have 8 elements to it (8 is my number from sports, and therefore my number; athletes you know what I’m talking about).
These 8 Essential elements are:
Vocabulary that revolves around a theme that relates somehow to everyday life
How this list is created is up to you; my friend Lisa has great tips for authentic vocabulary instruction here. I do believe in vocabulary assessment; if you don’t make them produce it, they won’t learn it. Point blank.
Two, or no more than three structures (grammar-related)
I say one “bigger structure” like a tense and one smaller like frequency words or possessives
Two listening activities (1 low-level, 1 more challenging)
Two speaking activities (1 low-level, 1 more challenging)
Having more than one allows students to see their progress from activity 1 to activity 2. Don’t always use the same ideas! Change it up every unit but have a few “go to” activities that are easy for you to implement.
One Reading assessment that links to the theme
I’m the first one to admit that teaching reading is hard. Find some inspiration here
One Writing assessment that links to the theme
The writing assessment can really bring everything together and show you where a student is really at. At the end of the day, a student should be able to write about what you’ve been doing in some fashion!
A way to review everything from the unit and tie up the “loose ends”
This gives students a chance to show what they’ve learned, and show you what they’ve not learned before the unit assessment. These are what I call my “loose ends.” Do NOT skip the loose ends; they will come back to haunt you in later units and at the end of the semester/year!
Unit assessment (test, project, checklist, whatever you think!)
When I taught Spanish, we would always do a mini-project and have a “test-like” assessment. Now that I do ESL, I only do projects. What types of projects? I’ll share in a later post.
Clean up, clean up everywhere
To reorganize my Google Drive, I renamed all my folders. Here is what my drive for ESL 1 and ½ looks like right now (depending on my numbers of students, I either teach a level 1 or a combined level 1/2). Everything starts with ½ (for the levels), then a number for the sequence of units, and then a catchy name that I made up. So my first unit for ESL 1 this year is called “1/2 1 This is me!”
A well-organized Google Drive makes every day easier!
More importantly, I took a deep look at each of my units to see what was missing from my units. This is so important for teachers, ESPECIALLY those who have been teaching a while. I realized that year to year, unit to unit, I always wanted to “fill in” these gaps but ended up just doing what I had always done.
“Year one mantra: Survive and advance
Year two: Try to enjoy it!
Year three: third time’s the charm!”
Last spring I made it a priority to change that; so if a unit was missing a reading assessment, I made it. Only one listening activity? I made it. Then this summer, I made a spreadsheet to “take stock” of what I had and what I didn’t have. It is linked here for your viewing pleasure. I’ll be the first one to tell you; I have a LOT of gaps to fill in this year!
So I’m being transparent in that this year I will be making sure I have my Essential eight every time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, or a year. Neither will a curriculum, especially if you are creating some or most of it. What I realized in making this spreadsheet is that I am great at creating end of unit reviews and project ideas, good at speaking and writing, and bad at incorporating listening and reading. Knowing these weaknesses will help me and my students; this is how I will grow as an educator this year.
Now what?
Now what? To make my Essential eight a priority, I have to put it at the forefront of my mind. That means a couple things that I’ll be doing: one, try to make it an official goal on my PDP (Professional Development Plan) school paperwork. That puts it out there to my admin that I’m working on this. Two, put something in writing to remind me; this will probably be a little post-it note on my desk somewhere, which is where I do my curriculum work. Then, allow myself the time to create/borrow the resources I need to make sure I have my Essential eight in each unit.
Maybe you don’t have 8 essentials; that’s okay because you have to make your curriculum work for you. These are just my suggestions, so make the Essential eight your own. Are there other elements that are important to you? Maybe for you it’s the Sweet six, Super seven, Nifty nine, Terrific ten? Share in the chat!
Until next time,
Shelby
Shelby Cole, M.Ed., NBCT
Shelby Cole is taught Spanish for 15 years before switching to ML (multilingual learners) in 2022. Shelby was a finalist for Wake County (NC) 2023 teacher of the year, holds an M.A. in Spanish and is a National Board Certified Teacher.
