PLONS: Professional Learning Online Network Spaces

The word plons in Dutch describes the noise made by something splashing into a surface and is thus an apt name for the Professional Learning Online Network Spaces, which are designed to create a ripple effect, by fostering linkages between language teaching, research and practice, and shared ideas and resources between educators.

These groups are intended for foreign language educators in middle school, high school, and college institutions. PLONS vary in length, with activities that take place over the course of a few months to a couple of years. Topics have included the creation of language-teaching syllabi, creating global communities around children’s literature, and the use of literary texts and modes of reading in the development of literacy in a new language.

2024 Call for PLONS Participants:

Bringing Ungrading to Language Teaching

This PLONS will take place Fall 2024, with an optional continuation through May 2025. Applications for group and individual participants are due August 15, 2024.

Led by Nicole Coleman (Wayne State University) and Janice McGregor (University of Arizona).

This PLONS is meant for K-16 language educators who have experience with ungrading, or the intentional act of going gradeless (e.g., in a syllabus or course assignment). Currently, there are limited field-specific resources and materials for K-16 language educators on how they might bring alternative forms of assessment like ungrading to bear in their classrooms (at home or in study abroad) and broader curricula. We thus invite language educators who have developed alternative forms of assessment to join our collaborative PLONS to share and discuss example materials for language educator peers.
 
 

➤ See all the details about the upcoming PLONS–including information about how to apply–here: https://cercll.arizona.edu/2024plonsungrading.

There is no fee to participate in the PLONS, and participants who complete the program will be eligible for a certificate of participation. We may also have limited funding available for participants who will showcase materials developed in the PLONS at the ACTFL convention, or other regional gatherings of language educators.

Questions about this PLONS?

Contact Dr. Janice McGregor or Dr. Nicole Coleman for answers.