Sneak Peek: A deep dive into the best standards to use with your heritage Spanish class!
Many Spanish teachers have grown accustomed to using the ACTFL standards across the board with their learners. During college, preparatory courses instructed teachers to use the 5 C’s (Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities), which were supposed to cover all the areas you’d need while teaching a foreign language…but what if you have students coming into your classes and they already speak Spanish?
If you’re measuring them against the ACTFL proficiency guidelines, you’d be evaluating and placing them into categories ranging from novice to distinguished, in relation to their ability to communicate using the language. If your heritage or native speakers can already communicate and understand Spanish at a high level, the standards you use for them should reflect that elevation.
During my time teaching native speakers and heritage learners, I know I’ve found myself questioning the standards I was implementing, and whether the inherent goals and metrics of said standards were best positioning my students for success. I questioned whether better standards were out there, or if I was settling on the current standards I was using due to familiarity and experience. Perhaps you have found yourself doing the same?
A quest for different educational standards is not for the faint of heart. I would look for some, and occasionally I would stumble across a certain set of state or college standards that more accurately represented the skills I wanted my students to gain.
Each time I got excited, and started moving forward only to find that my new favorite standards weren’t accepted in the state I was teaching in. That, or it would become apparent there was too much red tape to cut through to get my district onboard with approving something beyond the widely accepted ACTFL standards.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to take away or disparage the ACTFL standards or the work they have done in the world of foreign language learning. It’s also commendable to see the work they have been doing to update their standards and this especially as they just released an updated version. That said, even as they’ve expanded the parameters and performance descriptors, I still believe there is a better standards-fit for your heritage learners due to the unique skill set they bring to the classroom.
Part of the beauty of working in education is when new research comes out, we can advocate for change, and teach towards adapting and growth versus being rooted in our methods and mentalities. And we can do this…right along with our learners! So without further adieu, let’s dive into the standards that I believe are the best fit for heritage Spanish classes!
In 2023, a new set of standards were published by WIDA, which is housed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Disclaimer: We are not endorsed, affiliated with, or associated with WIDA™, WCEPS, Marco DALE, or the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. WIDA and the WIDA logo are trademarks of the Board of Regents. The copyrights to all WIDA materials are held by the Board of Regents. All opinions expressed here are our own. Additionally, we do not receive any commissions for recommending them.
The WIDA acronym is known in the education realm as World-class Instructional Design and Assessment. You may recognize WIDA or the term ACCESS testing for English Language proficiency, but they’ve since expanded their work to include resources and standards for K-12 Spanish. Their goal has always been to support students and educators through their language development, helping multilingual learners to reach their full potential.
WIDA’s standards are accepted by over 41 states and territories. (States and districts make their own decisions about what standards they accept/use.) Check the map below to see if your state is already a part of the WIDA Consortium!
What are the new standards called?
The title you will see is Marco DALE (Marco de los estándares del desarrollo auténtico del lenguaje español de WIDA). These standards are geared towards students who are learning academic content in Spanish. There is a heavy focus on literacy and language development. The framework of DALE includes standards for other content areas such as math, science, and social studies as well. This is perfect for heritage class as it accounts for the higher-level thinking tasks we ask of them. These standards are also a great fit for dual language or Spanish immersion settings.
Why did I choose them for my heritage Spanish class?
When WIDA designed Marco DALE, they carefully considered the skills native or heritage speakers bring to the classroom, which is exactly what I always dreamt of seeing. The standards are more appropriate, and not just based on how well the student has acquired the language, because as you well know, many heritage learners are proficient in speaking and listening already. A teacher’s goal should now be to pivot towards developing stronger reading and writing skills to accompany their student’s strong spoken and verbal language skills. This, along with their ability to use their language abilities to understand complex texts, present and defend researched-based opinions, explain cause and effect, and communicate high-level conclusions is the full extension of our new goals for teaching and growing the whole student.
Heritage learners are ready to use the language in a deeper way, and their curriculum should be aligned to standards that reflect this, not just ACTFL proficiency-based rubrics. As teachers of heritage learners, we know that there are challenges. Typically, the challenges revolve around formal written tasks and reading comprehension. Rather than being daunted by the enormity of the task at hand and shying away from these challenges, we should lean in, and continue working on the development of those skills. Making a focal point on this avenue of approach in the way we build our lesson plans and gear them towards building up skills in reading comprehension and writing. Marco DALE, in our estimation, is the best fit for this end goal.
The WIDA philosophy behind Marco DALE is based on linguistically and culturally diverse learners bringing a unique set of assets to the classroom, with the power to enrich the experiences of all learners, including the educators themselves.
These standards were designed with six big ideas in mind:
Equity: Support the learning of bi/multilingual students who come from a wide range of backgrounds.
Integration: Provide linguistic expectations to develop language and learn curriculum content simultaneously.
Collaboration: Teachers, administrators, families, and communities who work together for the development of bi/multilingual students.
Interaction: Exchange ideas with others through different types of communications and situations.
Multiliteracies: Analyze, interpret, and construct meanings and identities using multimodal artifacts in diverse contexts.
Transculturalism: Navigate between communities dynamically and fluidly, including the use of translinguistic practices. Translinguistic practices include code-switching, language mixing/borrowing, calquing (creating new words/expressions), language shifting depending on environment, and translanguaging (using multiple languages flexibly).
What are the key uses of the language within Marco DALE?
Within five overarching standards that I will cover in the next section, there are four key uses of the language defined: relatar, informar, explicar and argumentar.
For ‘relatar’ we are looking specifically at how students work with stories. Can they add details about characters, themes, events or scenes? Do they know how to utilize dialogue with different goals? How well do they use descriptive language to create images and perspectives? How about interpreting, constructing, or presenting experiences to others?Even in simply reading about this first key use of the language, I can’t help but feel like this is going to be a much better setup for heritage learners.
For ‘informar’ students are working with information, making observations and descriptions, constructing concepts, and connecting ideas. In the classroom this may look like a teacher examining multiple sources of information, students taking notes to prepare for a collaborative activity, or a student giving a presentation from researched information.
‘Explicar’ elevates things to a higher level. Through exercises in critical thinking, students are asked to discern how something works, identify cause and effect, describe the relationship between events, and develop questions about events or processes. An example of ‘explicar’ in the classroom may include students interviewing bi/multilingual relatives to deepen their understanding about a theme or topic. Or, it could dive into having a student explain to someone how they solved a problem, or showcase their language skills to create videos on different topics.
In the area of ‘Argumentar,’ students share and support their opinions and perspectives using evidence and reason. Students reinforce their learning in this area by forming and using counter arguments in a strategic manner and in doing so, take into consideration different perspectives and scholarly voices. In the classroom this may look like students stretching their ability to think critically in their target language as they analyze propaganda in different languages to identify their own position and opinions.
Another great way to accomplish this is to have pairs of students discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a proposal. Have them show out on their persuasive ability and grow their ability to think on their feet all while students respond to disagreement or criticism of their perspective. Debate isn’t straight forward after all, and you want to have students spend some time grappling with alternative perspectives. It’s important in today’s world especially, that students prepare themselves to think about “the critic in the room,” and understand how to develop avenues of approach towards those angles and thoughts which will present the strongest opposition to their views. So, in that, I’m a huge fan of students having a debate where they present their arguments. Students document change in thought, or defend research all in a coherent and organized manner.
Each of the four key areas described above are broken down into “interpretive, interactive, or expressive” strands, which all language classes should include.
When I think about the curriculum design of Ascendencia and Linaje, the types of tasks described above are what I assign to students. Heritage learners come from a wide variety of backgrounds and varied skills, but they are all able to exchange ideas through different types of communication, which is a strength to be drawn upon! My goal is to have them working in a collaborative environment that promotes self-reflection and critical thinking, and an expansion of understanding of culture and literature. Check out this sample lesson from Ascendencia Year One so you can see how we have aligned the Marco DALE standards.
What are the five overarching standards?
The standards summarized below are for grades 6-12.
Standard 1: Language for socializing and learning (DALE-SA): This standard focuses on the use of language for social communication and interactive learning in the school environment. It includes language skills related to social interaction, collaboration, relationship development, and participation in learning communities.
Standard 2: Language for language arts (DALE-AL): This standard addresses the use of language in the context of language arts, such as reading, writing, oral expression, and comprehension of literary texts. It focuses on the development of language and literary skills for effective communication and understanding of texts in various genres and contexts.
Standard 3: Language for mathematics (DALE-MA): This standard focuses on the use of language in the context of mathematics and quantitative reasoning. It includes language skills related to interpreting mathematical problems, communicating solutions, and understanding mathematical concepts in different formats and modalities.
Standard 4: Language for natural sciences (DALE-CN): This standard addresses the use of language in the context of natural sciences, such as biology, chemistry, physics, and geology. It focuses on the development of language skills for understanding scientific concepts, communicating observations and conclusions, and interpreting information in scientific texts.
Standard 5: Language for social sciences (DALE-CS): This standard focuses on the use of language in the context of social sciences, such as history, geography, economics, and political science. It includes language skills related to research, analysis of historical sources, argumentation, and communication of ideas in the field of social sciences.
Is Marco DALE similar at all to ACTFL?
In short, yes. Marco DALE also has a subset of language expectations and proficiency levels for interpretive, interactive and expressive components. In any language classroom we need to develop skills and measurements in those three areas, so that is definitely a crossover.
Where Marco DALE really works better in a heritage classroom is that it is not simply proficiency based. Marco DALE asks students to use language for much more complex tasks, and there is an expectation for students to go deeper into other subjects such as math, science and social studies. The language of Marco DALE encourages linguistically diverse students to share their experiences, knowledge, cultures and skills, all while supporting one another. To me, an ACTFL based classroom feels more like what can we bring in from the outside world, whereas a Marco DALE classroom focuses on the culture and assets already present in the classroom, and how we can take the sumtotal of our unique group and expand it for the enrichment of all.
If you’re new to teaching a heritage class, or your school is considering making a separate section for you apart from the usual L2s, check out my podcast interview with Joshua Cabral! I spill the tea on my best advice for teaching heritage learners, how I got my start with the class, and how I differentiate for the wide ranges of proficiency, particularly with regard to literacy.
Podcast: Teaching Heritage Language Learners
See the Marco DALE aligned curriculum maps for Ascendencia and Linaje here!
Looking for more? Get access to full curriculum and lesson plans aligned to Marco DALE by signing up here to join Heritage Spanish Club.
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