1. Additional Languages Revised Curriculum Update
On Sept. 19th and 20th educational representatives met to discuss moving forward
with revising the additional languages’ curriculum in BC. The language teams that
met covered the areas of American Sign Language, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean,
Italian, German, Japanese, and Punjabi. It was mentioned that a framework would be
created so that other languages, such as Russian, could develop their own revised
curriculum in the future.
On the morning of the first day, participants reviewed the reasons for curriculum
updates in BC. In addition, a representative from FNESC shared the work being done
around the province in embedding Aboriginal learning principles, content and
worldviews.
In the afternoon, discussions focused around the need for concept-based learning
and the KDU model as a framework (Know, Understand and Do), which is at the
heart of the revised curriculum in BC. This covers the big ideas, core and curricular
competencies and content needed in grades 5-12 for all additional languages. The
process that the French teachers went through, as they revised the curriculum, was
shared with the participants and common linguistic and cultural goals were talked
about for all languages. Each language group was encouraged to develop one big
idea and then to work through the curricular competencies and content for that big
idea. It became clear that each language would be unique based on its linguistic and
cultural needs and, as a result, it was made clear that each language may not be able
to follow the French template exactly. In other words, we cannot just remove the
word French and replace it with another language when we revise the additional
languages curriculum. For instance, languages requiring different script(s) would
need to have a place for that in the revised curriculum and it was also mentioned
that elaborations with videos (using sign language) would be helpful for American
Sign Language teachers.
Questions were asked about assessment and using the Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages. The Ministry asked us to “park” assessment
for now, meaning this area will be discussed later. As far as the CEFR, it sounds like
teachers will be able to use this if they desire, but it may not be written directly into
the curriculum documents.
We will meet again October 3rd and 4th, November 8th and 9th and December 1st and
2nd. The goal is to have a draft out by early 2017. More news to follow…