[ARCHIVED] Are you a World Language Teacher using Stepping Stones?

[stephanie_migno]

I would love to hear from you! I would like to get a group collaboration going with the goal of setting up Tina Hargaden's Stepping Stones curriculum structure  in Canvas. It could be as simple as embedding the Padlet into a Module; but since my district is moving to Canvas and the students will be using it in all of their classes, I would like to see how I can leverage the features in Canvas to move smoothly through the Cycles and Phases---- virtually, face-to-face, or hybrid.  If you are in a similar situation, and need or can offer help, please speak up! 

I teach high school German, Levels 1-4 in SC (30 years!), but of course all languages/levels are relevant. Any amount of experience with CI, Stepping Stones and Canvas is welcome! A good goal, I think, would be to get a generic (not language-specific) Stepping Stones shell into the Commons. It would be wondrous, of course, if we ultimately had Master Courses for each language in the Commons, loaded with content for each language! (I can dream, can't I?)

So if you would like to be involved, please introduce yourself! Let us know the languages, levels, and grades you teach, where and how long. I have some experience with CI and Stepping Stones (a few years of teaching mostly Description and Narration, using the the daily framework and many of the strategies, plus a Summer Institute in June), but much less with  Canvas (a two-day training in June, that's it). How about you?

[kshaffer1]

Bonjour! I teach French I and II at private Catholic High school in Louisiana. I have been using CI formally for a year and a half. I have been using Canvas for I think five years now. I can probably help more on the Canvas side since I haven't delved too much into Stepping Stones yet. I've been using ANATTY with level 1 and a hodge  podge of things with  level 2 but I want to transition level 2 to Stepping Stones. 

[rachel_thayer]

I'm in to collaborate! 

I like the Padlets that have been coming out but my school system doesn't allow Padlet for student use, so I was wondering how to make it work with Canvas. 

I teach high school French 1 - 7, including AP(5), and I have experience with ANATTY, a bit with Stepping Stones, and Nous Sommes. 

Looking forward to what we learn in this process! 

[ekline]

I also teach French at a small school in Virginia.  I am new to CI and was super excited for the upcoming school year to get started with everything.  I was planning to use Nous Sommes, as our Spanish dept uses Somos, but as our students will be mostly online-only this year, I'm thinking the Padlets from Tina are a better option.  We do have to use Canvas for everything.  Our students will be coming once/week and be in a room all day with a mentor/facilitator teacher who is most likely not me.  So everything has to be accessible through Canvas.  I'm interested in figuring out/learning how to either convert the SS Padlets Tina has created to Canvas or maybe just linking them like you said Stephanie.  Another complication is that a good portion of our students do not have reliable internet access, so everything we do will also need to take that into consideration. (I'm hoping our district will provide more guidance on HOW to do that.)

[jmcarrillo3]

Hello,  I teach Spanish 1 and 3 in CA and we are also transitioning to Canvas and we will be doing Online Distance Learning to start in August.  In the past, I have used SOMOS and parts of Tina's ANATTY. 

[amybanner]

Hi!  I have been teaching Spanish for 25 years now...wow!  I generally have only Spanish 1 and 2 as I am in a small rural high school in East Tennessee. I am the only language teacher in the building. I have been using the CI/TPRS method for 17 years now.  My school does not force me to use textbooks so I use things I have accumulated over the years from CI folks like Blaine Ray, Carol Gaab, Scott Benedict, Martina Bex, and use a lot of Senor Wooly!  Actually, I have not heard of Stepping Stones yet.  My district is going to Canvas this year and I am currently completing online training.  Ran across this thread and would love to be a part of a group sharing ideas and uses!

Nice to meet all of you!

Dr. Amy Banner

[llibbin]

Hola todos! 

I am excited to be collaborating with you all!

I'm new to Canvas, so I'm still getting a picture of what we can do here. I've taken a couple of half-day trainings this summer to get started. I'm teaching Spanish 1 & 2 at a large high school in southern New Mexico. I met Tina and Kaitlin at the ACTFL conference in DC in November. I started Stepping Stones in January... then didn't get too much further than mid-opinion cycle when we left in March. I'll be in Full Steam Ahead mode come August, though we just got news yesterday that we are moving from once-a-week block with online homework TO all online to start the year. It's going to be a wild ride!

Thanks for sharing things when we get going!  Thanks Stephanie for getting us started!

[sabine_schaferm]

Hallo, 

I'm teaching German 1,2,3,4/AP at a High school in Ventura, CA. I 'm kind of new to CI - I only implemented a few strategies last year. I signed up to attend the Summer institute next week. I am glad those sessions will be recorded as I'll be on a road trip with my family. I'm new to Canvas and have been playing with it a bit for the last few weeks. There is so much to it and I think it will be great once I get a hang of it. I am excited about Tina's curriculum and can't wait for the German one to be released. I would love to collaborate. 

sabine

[cathy_gilmore]

Hi all,

I'm from Northern Colorado and I teach French 1, 2, 3, 4 and Spanish 2 at the high school level. My school has been using Canvas for like 5 years. I feel like I am really good with it and in going through our staff PD class which is housed in Canvas I all of a sudden have a new vision for how I could set things up. I will see how it goes and share when I have something to share.

I connected with Tina in 2018 and used ANATTY that year, then Stepping Stones this past year. I am not an expert, and I mixed other things in when I got overwhelmed, but I am slowly getting better at teaching with this curriculum. 

Looking forward to sharing ideas with you all as we start this crazy, overwhelming year!

[lanteje]

Hola. I am the Academic Coordinator of World Languages for my district and will be helping my 40 World Language teachers get started teaching virtually with Canvas. I have taught Spanish and ESL, and I also speak a bit of French, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese. Most of my teachers aren’t very familiar with CI, but I have a few who are interested in using Stepping Stones and I would love to be able to help as much as I can! I attended Tina’s Summer Institute last summer in Georgia and this summer online. 

[broush]

¡Hola! My name is Bethany Roush. I teach high school levels 1 and 2 face-to-face and sometimes middle school levels 1 and 2 for high school credit online – through Canvas! I’ve been teaching in Ramseur, North Carolina for six years and have used Canvas the entire time, but I have taught Spanish for 19 years. I’ve run the gamut of trying the old, traditional textbook way, TPRS and now CI for the last two years. Teaching CI online is a whole new ballgame, but I’ve been using Sr. Wooly, EdPuzzle and Garbanzo a lot. I would like to be able to set up my own asynchronous activities for CI without having to pay for so many subscriptions. I have also developed our district’s permanent online asynchronous Spanish 1 and 2 courses through Canvas, but the other teachers in my distract are more grammar and vocabulary oriented and don’t really subscribe to the CI activities I included. So this year, the district is requiring me to include all the grammar and vocabulary in the course. I don’t have to use it for my own class if I don’t want to, but they say if students transfer between schools, they want them to feel comfortable with the content. I personally don’t thing that happens all that often. I'm concerned about reading materials because my department gets $0 in budget. Anything I buy comes out of pocket or through approved fundraising. So I can't really afford an online reading program other than Garbanzo.

[9940113]

I will be teaching french 2-4 this year . I did the summer curriculum with Tina in June and just join the curriculum club but also wondering how to do it on Canvas since I will not be able to use Padlet

[frissel]

Bonjour! I am Lisa Frissen and I am in my 22nd year of teaching French levels 1-AP (first time teaching AP this year). I teach in Greensboro, NC in high school. We used Canvas last year so I'm pretty comfortable with it but I'm still kind of new to CI. We have three 90 minute classes on the block this semester and I am only teaching level 1 this fall. I have levels 2, 3, 4 and AP in the spring (hopefully we'll be back in the classroom by January but who knows?).

[sabrinahayeninf]

Hello.  I am Sabrina Hayen-Infante.  I have been teaching Spanish for 14 years and i currently teach 7th and 8th grade in 2 different schools.  I teach in Hortonville, WI.  I have dabbled in canvas for the last 4 years and CI for this last year.  We have 43 minute classes which the 7th grade meet all year ever-other day and the 8th grade (HS credited course) meet all year every day.  Students choose Spanish in 7th grade for the first time at the school-H (the other students continue with German) while at the school-G students will continue with Spanish in 7th grade (some choose German for the 1st time) because they have been learning Spanish since 2nd grade.  

Last year I joined CC and attended my first summer institute in MN...attempted to use CI, but I had a difficult time getting around the required curriculum, required PLC, required common pacing and required common assessments (heavy grammar/vocab).  My admin support me, but my vertical and horizontal PLC does not.  They feel CI does NOT teach grammar and students do not learn.  So this summer I signed up for 3 weeks of summer institute so I can be better equipped and have an increased understanding of how to marry CI with the traditional curriculum.  

[mmurov]

Hi, I'm Maureen Murov. I am going to try Stepping Stones with my Spanish 101 groups at Centenary College (Shreveport LA). I have been using Canvas for a couple years to give assignments/ record grades. This is the first year I will use SS. I'd be interested in helping.

[stephanie_migno]

Maureen, it is so great to see a post-secondary person here! The first half of my teaching career was college (German 101-314) and I've been at a high school now for 15 years. I have had the singletons freedom here to study and implement CI, and have watched Stepping Stones' inception and growth over the past three-four years. I still have close ties with my former department at the College of Charleston and dream of introducing Stepping Stones to them. My son just took German 201 this summer, and I tell you, that curriculum needs a change.

[dahl_kristin]

I am in the summer institutes.  Due to all the changes, I'm not yet sure how much I will be able to use Stepping stones this year, but I would like to use it!  I would be happy to share any work I do to put stepping stones curriculum into Canvas.  I will be teaching Spanish.  Probably Sp 2, 4 & AP.  

[stephanie_migno]

Kristen, I think we were in a Summer Institute together (I did three of them, so they are kind of running together). I see you've been asking for Canvas tips in FB, so that's great!  I have been on the Stepping Stones train for a few years, so if you --- or anybody here --- need guidance with that, I'm happy to help.

[grhayden]

Hi! I teach French in a high school in Indiana and am brand new to CI. I am attending the People, Places, and Stories online this week, so my head is swimming, but I think I'd like to find out more about what you all are thinking. I have "used" Canvas mostly to put extra links online in Modules, but this past Spring got thrown into using it for putting assignments online due to our corporation moving to online. So, that said, I am not "fluent" in either CI or Canvas, but would like to come along I think. 🙂 

[sabine_schaferm]

HI there, it's me again!! I saw that Cathy posted a French template. I started on working on the German one today, but I'm stuck. I need some tech gurus to help!!! 

I really want to work on the course and get it going. Ideally I want to have Cycle 1 Phase 1 in course shell once school starts. We can do this. 

[cindy_brenner]

¡Hola! I'm a Spanish teacher in Kansas City, Missouri. I teach Spanish 2, College Spanish 3, 4, and 5, and Spanish for Heritage Speakers. This will be my 11th year teaching and I've been fully CI for the past 3 years. My district has been using Canvas for the past 5 years. I am currently attending the Culture, History, and Issues strand of the Summer Institute. While I would say that I have experience in both CI and Canvas, I wouldn't call myself an expert.

[grhayden]

Hi all! I don’t know enough about Stepping Stones (though I did just complete PPS last week) or Canvas to understand what we would be doing with them together, I guess. Can someone explain a bit pretty please? Thank you?

[stephanie_migno]

Gaylene, and everyone. There is definitely a bit of blind-leading-blind happening in this group, but we are all ready to share our light!.  My vision is of the free Starter Curricula, from the CI Liftoff TpT store, set up in the Canvas Commons --- not as a Padlet, but rather as a Canvas Course, to take advantage of the features that Canvas offers.

If you have not yet dug into the free Starter Curriculum in your language, that would be a good place to begin. The Launching lessons are free and important as well.

If you know Canvas, maybe think of what elements are best pulled in from the Padlet to the Canvas course, and how best to make that happen.

Does that answer your question?

[grhayden]

Yes, thank you! I appreciate it. Last week was insane with SI and my kids were in childcare all week so I could focus. That is not the case now so I will do my best! 🙂 Thank you!!

[ekline]

So I found this idea in a Canvas Users Facebook group and thought it might be a good option for some of us.  The suggestion was to just embed the Google form into Canvas as an ASSIGNMENT.  Then, when students complete and submit the form, have them take a screenshot of the "submitted" screen and submit that screenshot as their assignment for Canvas.  This way, their participation will be recorded in the Canvas gradebook and then you can go back and look at their actual answers in Google if/when you want to.  

I'm leaning towards doing this, mainly because I am not required to give a daily grade so I don't want to spend the time re-creating the form in Canvas quizzes unless I need the actual grade.  Having the assignment submitted also gives us a quick view as to who's doing their work everyday, and then if we want to change the grade after viewing the form answers in Google, that's an option too.  

[stephanie_migno]

That is a good option, Emily! Simple to do (once I learn to embed something...), and it captures the information you may need. And even if somebody wants to eventually have the Form in Quizzes, this could be a way to start out easier. I guess everybody's grading/ teaching situation is different, so that could be each teacher's choice. 

If people here really want the choice, we could also aim for two Commons courses per Language/, I suppose, one with the embedded Form and one using Canvas Quizzes. The work of recreating the Forms in Quizzes could be divided up among interested folks. 

A question for the group at large then: What are the advantages of having the Google Form re-created in Canvas Quizzes?

[broush]

I'm having trouble finding how I got into the course. Since this isn't in my LMS for my school, I can't remember how to find it. Any help?

[stephanie_migno]

I hope that re-sending the invite will resolve this issue, Bethany!

[broush]

When I go back to the original invitation, it tells me it's an error. Stephanie, could you possibly help or send me a new invitation please? I appreciate it!

[lovek]

Hi! Yes! How are we going to collaborate? I see a lot of responses but nowhere to get together! Whether or not that happens, I want to highly encourage you to look into using Desmos along with Stepping Stones. There is a Facebook group called Desmos for Language Teachers - check it out! Also, lots of YouTube videos about using it...look for Brett Chonko and Josh Rooke. I will be converting the wonky Google Forms into Desmos screens instead...I am super excited about it! :D!