Content-Based Language Teaching Through Technology
The ACIE Newsletter, November 2000, Vol.4, No. 1
by Marcy Zachmeier-Ruh, COBALTT Project
Assistant, CARLA, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
First in a Three-Part Series
The Content-Based Language Teaching through Technology (COBALTT) program sponsored by National Language Resource Center funds and administered by CARLA (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition) at the University of Minnesota, began in 1999 and is now in its second year.
Each spring, 25 foreign language teachers are selected to
participate in this year-long professional development program.
The teachers represent both traditional instruction and immersion
programs at elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels.
The COBALTT program is comprised of a week-long summer institute
and three two-day work-shops during the following academic
year.
Summer Institute
Through selected readings, class discussions, and hands-on
practice, teachers master advanced principles of content-based
language instruction, proficiency-oriented language instruction
and assessment, and standards-based education.
The technology component of the program encourages teachers
to explore ways in which they can use a variety of computer
and information technologies, including the many authentic
sources available via the Internet, in conjunction with the
principles of content-based language instruction. During the
summer institute, teachers also begin developing content-based
lesson plans for use in their own classrooms. These lessons
should utilize technology in creative ways while addressing
state and national standards.
Fall, Winter, and Spring Workshops
During the academic year, COBALTT participants work independently
to create new lessons, pilot them in their own classrooms,
make revisions, and collect exemplars of student work. Throughout
this period, teachers share information with colleagues and
COBALTT staff via e-mail and the web. Participants also meet
for three Friday-Saturday workshops to share the new lessons
they developed following the summer institute and work in
teams to make adjustments to these lessons. They also share
their experiences using technology-based materials in their
classrooms and their explorations of key sites on the Internet.
In addition, teachers learn how to use technology to create
checklists and rubrics for perfomance assessment, ways in
which to evaluate the effectiveness of technology-based materials,
the basics of using authoring programs, and how to create
their own web pages.
COBALTT Web Site
At the completion of the spring workshop, teachers submit
their lesson plans, which are then edited and added to the
Lesson Plan Search on the COBALTT web site (/cobaltt/).
The web site also contains an annotated bibliography of sources
on content-based language instruction. Both the lesson-plan
search and the annotated bibliography are currently available
and are being expanded
