Thanks very much, Siobhan. Hi, Kendra. Hi, Miriam. Hi, Siobhan. I'm just going to get started with the presentation here today. As you know, my name is Marnie Baudouin, and I'm a consultant here at ISLI, the Institute for Innovation and Second Language Education. I'm going to be talking to you today about the common European framework of reference for languages. And I'm also going to be talking to you about the European Languages Portfolio, which is linked to the framework, also known as the CEFR. Well, as Siobhan explained, I'm going to be asking you to try and use those text boxes. But just for right now on this slide, I'm just going to ask you to grab a regular old fashioned pencil or pen and a piece of paper. And I would just invite you to think for a minute about what languages do you know, make a little list like English, French, Japanese, whichever those languages are, and then what would be a couple of words or phrases that you would use to describe how well you can use each language. So I'm going to give you a moment, a few moments to think about that and to jot down your responses. Okay, now I'm going to invite you to either use your microphone or to use this plain slide that you see in front of you and use the text box. I'm not going to ask you, you know, which languages you feel that you have proficiency in. I'm just going to ask you to jot down or use your mic to share those words or phrases that you use to describe your level of proficiency in languages, you know, such as intermediate or basic, those kinds of words. Go ahead, let's just start sharing here. Okay, well, I'll go because I don't know if you want us talking or not. I used fluent. Sorry, Marnie, I didn't use intermediate beginner advanced, although my friend should think it's intermediate. But I said not fluent, but I could get by in any situation. And everything else was more of a couple words here or there to either ask, do you speak English? Please, thank you, how to order certain beverages at certain places. But that's what I've got. Hi, and then I actually didn't use very basic. I can use it in everyday conversations about my daily life or I can use it to find out information from others. That's great. So just some really good examples of how people describe their language proficiency. And we hear, when I do this particular exercise with teachers, you hear all kinds of words and phrases that are used to describe how they're able to use and function in the different languages they know. The inherent problem with how we have traditionally described our language proficiency to others is that we don't really have any kind of shared understanding around what we mean by these words and phrases. For example, if you take very basic or you take the word fluent, if I were to say somebody, I'm fluent in French, that might mean something very different to them than it means to me.  Whereas I'm thinking, well, no, I only know five to ten words in Japanese. It also doesn't give us a lot of really good information about what types of language skills we're actually able to use in the language. We don't know whether we're talking about oral language. Are we talking about written language? Are we talking about reading? Are we talking about spontaneous conversations with others? We just don't know. So that leads us to the need for some way to describe how we are able to function in a variety of languages. And this is where we get the common European framework of reference. This is where the CEFR comes in. Now just a little, tiny bit of brief background to this document. The CEFR was developed about ten years ago by the Council of Europe. And the reason it was developed is because the European Union was becoming the European Union and there was going to be a great deal of mobility from country to country. And therefore people would be, you know, trained in different types of professions and trades and they would be moving to different places within the European Union with greater ease than they had ever had before. And any kind of language certification, for example, that they may have from their country of origin would not mean anything necessarily in the country where they were trying to seek employment. So the CEFR was actually developed for vocational and economic purposes. Now I believe that you both have, maybe you could just indicate with a little check mark or just a pool, you both have a copy of the CEFR that was sent to you for use during the session. Kendra, you have it. Great. Maryam, do you have a copy of the CEFR as well? Great. Super. So why don't we just take a look at that. Now as you can see, this is just about, I'm very glad that you have your own copy because this is just about no help whatsoever to be able to look at this. So I'm going to ask you to look at your very own copies. And I wonder if you could just use the mic or you can use the chat box to share some of your observations about what are some of the qualities of this particular document. And I'll start you off. I'll start you off with something. What I noticed, so I'll start the phrasing. What I notice about the CEFR is that it has broken down into different language skills. I see reading, writing, spoken production, spoken interaction, and listening. Okay.  It goes from easy to really, really hard. Almost really, really hard that the C2 level that seems even I possibly can't do in my native language. And it's very outcomes oriented. What you can do, they have ICANN, blah, blah. I've noticed that a lot of the ICANNs are simple examples. So for underwriting, it does a short, simple postcard, sending holiday greetings, personal details. So entering my name on a form, some basic stuff, familiar names, words, simple sentences. But it kind of gives something, it kind of gives you some concrete examples, I guess, that you can look at and go, okay, yes, I can do that versus I can write a simple phrase. Well, about what? How simple is it? How hard is it? And I guess, as Marnie was saying, what are the definitions that everybody else has? Those are terrific observations. You're all absolutely right. It does go from A1, A2, which are considered basic user, to B1, B2, which are considered independent user, to C1, C2, which is considered level of proficient user. And, Maryam, I think you're very correct in that. I know that C2, some of those C2 levels, and you said, I'm not even sure I can do that in my own language. There's probably a lot of people who would say that very same thing. If you look at writing, for example, in C2, this is a very advanced level. And it's because it is task-based, really, unless you are doing those tasks in your life or in your work, you won't have need to actually be at that level. So it's very possible that lots of people are not operating at the C1 or C2 level in one of these skills, even in their own native language or their own language of origin. You're absolutely correct that it's self-reflective. It begins with the ICANN statements. It is for the user, and it's for the language learner, to be able to describe their very own language proficiency. It is based on what you can do. So it's proficiency-based. It's not deficiency-based. It doesn't matter what you can do. This framework is only interested in what you can do. It moves into progression from A1 to C2, but it is also recursive. If I am operating, say, for example, at a C1 level in English, all the way up and down in all of those skills, it doesn't mean that I never stop doing A1 tasks. I will always do A1 tasks. I will always be engaged in using language in very, very simple ways. So you will be operating at any given time throughout the framework. It is meant to be very simply written so that a variety of people at different ages, different proficiency levels, it's been validated for many, many languages in many different countries, and the examples are concrete. It doesn't mean that you see, for example, in writing that I can write something simple such as a postcard, but you're limited to those text forms. It just means that this is the type of text form that one might find at this particular level. The CEFR that you see here is just the one global overall framework. There's an entire book for CEFR that's scaled within scales within scales. That's a pretty amazing document. But let's look at what we as language educators working with most of our students, if we're working with a 9Y program or working with a 3Y program, we're going to be most interested in the A1, A2, and B1 levels. We're going to be interested in these particular levels. I'm just going to backtrack here for one second. You'll notice the B2 level is actually considered the international standard for the world of work. So that if you are at a B2, a pretty solid B2 level, and actually most people are not exactly at the same level in all of those language scales, but B2 is considered the level for employment internationally. So if you're at a B2 level, you probably have the appropriate language scales to work in just about any workplace in that particular language, barring really specific technical language, for example. But let's take a look at the first three levels, just listening and reading. This is just a quick screen capture. And I would like to hear from you again about what are some of the words that you see that help you understand these levels better? What are some of the words or phrases that are used within the descriptors of A1, A2, B1 that kind of jump out at you as being repeated or they seem to be key words or phrases that indicate the type of language that is used at this level? Anytime you are ready. If you're familiar, you can understand familiar words, familiar names, high frequency vocabulary, simple. I was going to say as well, simple and familiar. And also when it's spoken slowly and clearly, short, simple, personal things. So it's all things that you are already aware of. And it's all things that are done short, clear, slowly and clearly, flowing clear. None of it's at regular pace. I guess fluent, regular, proficient pace. Yeah, we can see at the A1 level that everything that is done at the A1 level, and we would see this as consistent with any of our beginner levels. For instance, if you were teaching FSL in a nine-year program, your students starting out in grades four, grade five would be at this A1 level. And everything is very basic, very familiar. The learner is supported by others who are speaking very slowly and clearly. You're using visuals to help you understand. And even as you move up to A2, you still have high frequency vocabulary. Everything is still of a familiar context in terms of your immediate personal relevance. The language is going to be basic. It's going to be short. It's going to be clear. It's going to be predictable. And when you start getting into B1, you see the context of communication starts to widen. This mimics a little bit how what we see in our curricula, for example. And it's interesting, one of you said, well, it's not really a level of fluency, but remember that all of these are a description of a level of proficiency. So rather than thinking of there's one standard for what is fluent language use or what is proficient language use, we understand that there are several levels of language proficiency that exist for different language skills. And it's just a matter of describing those levels of language proficiency as accurately and as clearly as possible. So by the end of, let's say, A2, if I said I had accomplished an A2 level, it really means that I'm starting to move on to B1. And you can see that this document here is presented in a linear fashion. It looks, some people call it a rubric, it's not a rubric, but it looks, you know, it's because it's in a grid. It actually would probably be best represented in something that's almost cone shape with the A1 level being at the point and the C2 level being at the widest part of the cone. Because as you progress through those levels, it increases in terms of context, it increases in terms of language complexity. So it takes time to go through each one of these levels. But generally, if you're on an average learning continuum, it will take you less time to get through an A1 level than it will to get through B1 level, for example. And each one of these levels can take years. Absolutely. Unless you're in a very accelerated sort of program or you happen to be a really excellent language learner, it will probably, a very quick language learner, it will probably take you years to get through any of these levels. So now I'll invite you to do this exercise again.  And earlier I asked you to try and describe your language proficiency using some words and phrases to describe it. I'm going to give you a couple of moments to think about the same thing. Do the same exercise only this time with those same languages. Use the C-E-F-R to help you so you can circle things on your grid, for example. Go ahead. Can I just say I'm a mixture of B2 and B1? Thanks, Miriam. What I'll invite you to do now is you don't have to share your level if you don't want to. But what I'm really interested in knowing is how are those two experiences different for you? From thinking about your language proficiency and having to describe it with your own words and phrases, to the exercise of briefly using the C-E-F-R to think about your language proficiency level. What was the difference between those two experiences? I wonder if you would be able to share that. I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for, Marnie, but I know for French, I had a much easier time doing it because I'm very aware of what I can do in French. I'm aware of the C-E-F-R because it's been used in university classes where I'm trying to learn it. Whereas English, I look at it and I'm like, well, I'm kind of the C1, but I'm kind of the C2, but then here I'm back to C1 or maybe I'm a B2. And I think it's because we don't think about our proficiency in English because it's so natural for us that it was almost slightly harder to place myself on that grid. Miriam, how did you find the experience? Well, it's a lot more detailed as opposed to me thinking, oh, it's my language proficiency and then you have to struggle to come up with some situations. But here you can just kind of read each explanation and say, yes, this is me, this is not me, this is me, this is not me, and there's a lot more to choose from. So it is a lot more, I guess it's a lot more detailed and can give, I guess that's why they made it for employers, can give a clearer picture of what the person may or may not be able to do. And this is when we do this exercise with teachers in face-to-face sessions as well. This is roughly what people come up with. It tends to be the CEFR is more detailed than how people would describe their language proficiency if they're just left to their own devices.  A lot of people say that, well, I didn't really talk about reading and writing and it's here in the CEFR, so I had to address that level. And I think what you're saying to Kendra about, well, I'm not really sure in English because a lot of people don't even think about their language proficiency in their own mother tongue.  I can do it really well. I can do everything. When in fact, a lot of us don't do everything in our own mother tongue. A lot of us function at a personal level using language, but we may not function at, say, for instance, a C2 level in the written capacity in our mother tongue. I mean, if you're not writing ministerial reports, if you're not writing briefs, if you're not doing that kind of level of writing, then no, you probably wouldn't be at a C2 level in your own mother tongue. You don't know until you actually do those tasks. These are called can-do statements. All of the statements that begin with I can are described as can-do statements. And they really are can-do statements. They're not, I could do it, I think, or I should be able to statements. They are can-do statements, meaning I can do these. I have some kind of evidence around these. And you can imagine from an employer's point of view or from a university course programming perspective how a grid like this can be helpful in helping to direct people in the best way possible towards a particular job, towards a particular class, for example. Some of the advantages to using the CEFR, which I think you've probably noticed already, it provides a common basis for describing and measuring language proficiency, so it's a coherent document. It also provides a common framework that can be understood by all users, so it's very transparent. Even if you are a younger learner, working with younger learners, we've had good luck with them being able to understand it. Certainly the more basic levels of the CEFR and people at different various language proficiencies. If there's any questions about CEFR specifically before I move on to the European Language Portfolio, please feel free to ask them now. Put up your hand if you have a specific question about the CEFR, and I'd be happy to answer that. If not, I will move along. Okay, I'll move along. But you feel free to put up your hand anytime you have a question. I'm going to talk next about the European Language Portfolio or the ELP. Maryam, did you have a question? So, yeah, this is available. Is there like a test that people do, or how is it actually carried out, the CEFR? Yeah, if I understand your question correctly, you're asking about evaluation in regards to people's language proficiency against the CEFR. There are a number of different international measures that are used to help people get a validation for their level on the CEFR. In French, for example, it's the delf-delf. In Spanish, it's the delé. In German, it's the structiflom. In Chinese, the Chinese government has recently moved the HFKNYCT for young learners over to the CEFR grid. There's English exams through Cambridge that are correlated to CEFR. In Japan Foundation, my understanding is they're moving to the CEFR for Japan Foundation testing, University of Lviv exam for Ukraine, and you get the picture. So, there are large-scale external measures that validate the level of CEFR. But I think that what you'll see is that the European Language Portfolio, or the ELP, is probably the most robust way to provide information about where somebody is on the CEFR, or the way for them to be able to show and explore their own language proficiency. Those large-scale measures are called international credentials, and they are different depending on the different governments that administer them, but they generally are a language credential that a student has, or a learner has, to be able to use a certification of their language level, and they would corroborate it with the ELP. And if you get a B2 level, or C1 level on the structiflom, in most of those international exams, B2 level, for example, in DELF DELF will get you university entrance in France, C1 level in the structiflom will get you university entrance into Germany, as well as, I believe, tuition support and resource support. So there's some currency that's really connected to these recognitions with the credentialing. I hope that answers your question, Miriam. Yeah, so just one more question on that. How are the students, let's say, have a student interested in doing the DELF? And I don't think they have it in red area. Where can they go? Do they go to you or where? Well, what anybody would have to do who wanted to take the DELF DELF, for example, is they would have to go to a DELF DELF Language Testing Center, and we are a DELF DELF Language Testing Center here in Ebbonton Public Schools, and they're in a variety of places. And because the French government is quite particular about how those exams are administered, they are only administered at certain times of the year, and they can only be administered by trained assessors, and we train assessors and we administer those exams. And we do them for externals as well as for our own students. Is there a cost? Yes, but I'm not exactly sure what it is. So why don't we have that conversation, send me an email after the session, and I can direct you in the right place. Let's talk about the European Language Portfolio or the ELP. The ELP is a means of recording and reflecting on skills and experiences in different languages acquired in school or outside. And I just want to draw your attention to, I just want to draw your attention to some words, some really key words and phrases on this slide. This is recording and reflecting. So the learner is, you know, the ICANN statements or the CANDO statements that are used in the CEFR are really indicative of metacognition, self-reflection. And we want that reflection to continue in the ELP. So this is the document that really brings the CEFR to life for individuals because as you can imagine, the CEFR was created for vocational and economic purposes, but of course the educational community, the post-secondary community said, you know, we need to be able to use this, but we need something that's a little more robust and a little more detailed than just this grid, and so that's why the European Language Portfolio was developed. And it is meant to provide a place for learners to reflect on their skills and experiences in all the different languages that they know, including their mother tongue, and everything, the experiences that they have in school and outside of school. Now ELPs within the European Union are validated. So countries develop different ELPs for different age levels, for example. There'll be one for young children, one for teenagers, one for adults, one for use in the workplace. One country can have many different versions of an ELP, but in order to be validated, they must have these three components.  Okay, I'm going to present each one of these components. At the end of the presentation of each one of these little components, I'm going to ask if you have any questions about that particular component. So please just keep those questions in mind to be able to ask them when that time arrives. The first component is the passport. And the very best way that I can really think of the passport to be described, the best analogy I can use is that it's like a snapshot. The passport section of the portfolio, the first section of the portfolio provides an overview of the individual's language proficiency in different languages. So the exercise that we did a little earlier where we talked about, you talked about, all of your different languages that you have some kind of competency in to describe your level of language proficiency using the CEFR, that's kind of like what the passport does, but in a more formal way. It presents an overview. All of the proficiency levels that are defined in that passport are by the seat referenced by the CEFR. So you would be indicating I'm an A1 or an A2 or B1 or B2 in whatever languages, in whatever language skills. The passport is the most formal part of the document. This is where you record all of your formal qualifications so that if you did take the DELF DELF and you achieve, let's say you took the A2 DELF DELF and you passed it, you would write that in your passport that you have this particular language credential. Pardon me, you could include other formal qualifications that you have such as a course maybe that you took at university or a course you completed in high school. Or perhaps you want to talk about some very significant experiences briefly in your passport. They're very brief descriptions such as I went on an exchange or I hosted an exchange student or I participated in the Japan Day such as your students did, Miriam, at ISLI and I learned about Japanese culture. It would be whatever you think is important for other people to know about you as a language user and somebody who encounters cultural experiences. It tends to be a very small document. It looks like a little booklet. Kendra, I think you've seen the one that Evanston Public Schools developed, the little green booklets that are the passports. And Miriam, I don't know if you've seen those but you can see them next time you're in the building. And they're always like that. No matter where you go in the world, there are always these little booklets that have information in them that the user selects to be able to show who they are as a language learner and who they are in terms of the significant intercultural language and intercultural experiences that they have had. And you would use this document to show employers, for example. You would use it to show your parents. You would use it to show instructors. It can be used for articulation purposes from grade to grade, articulation purposes from school to school, and articulation purposes into the world of work. Increasingly, we see the passport moving into a digital format. There's something called the Euro Pass which you can see on the Council of Europe website that a lot of people use for employment purposes. We are, in addition to our paper copies of the passport that we have here at EPS, we are currently developing a digital passport for students to be able to use. Because as you can see here on a passport, this is an example from Europe, a photo I took of a classroom I visited within the European Union. And as you can see, this student is studying English at a beginner level. They have just started studying English. And they have shaded themselves in at A1 level. Now, a person would be able to shade in just part of a level, for example. If you felt I've accomplished an A1 level and I've got about half of an A2 level, you could do that in your passport. Usually, if you shade in an entire level, it means that you've actually accomplished that level and that you are now operating within the next level. And what we see here in this passport would be considered, this would be consistent with somebody who was at a beginner level in studying. And we can see it's English in this particular case where the student has started studying English. Now I invite your questions for the passport component. Please feel free to use your mic. You seem very comfortable using the mic, so that's great. If you also wanted to type it in here on the slide, you can feel free to do that as well. Do you have any questions about the passport? I know you mentioned to me earlier that some groups are using this with junior highs or high schools, but that you didn't suggest using this with the elementary classes. Could you explain why or what you would do or how you could modify that for the younger grades, please? It's not that I don't recommend that teachers use it at the elementary level. I think we actually have several teachers using it at the elementary level and are doing so quite successfully. I do think that the actual document that we have seems to be more consistent with what you see for secondary, geared for secondary students across the European Union. And you seem to see more modified passports for use for the elementary grades. That being said, anybody can use it who wants to. It just means that that teacher really has to support the students' use of that passport to really help them understand what these CEFR levels are, for example. I think some of the higher levels in the CEFR, more advanced levels in the CEFR are more difficult for younger students to understand. So it's just a matter of doing it in such a way that is appropriate for their cognitive level, appropriate for their age. My colleague Norman Zivica and I just went out to, we were at Dovercourt School and we actually began an implementation of passports with students in the Mandarin bilingual program. And these were students in grades five and six and a few even in grade four. And we just, we did it really, really carefully. So we only implemented having the students go through a very guided reflection process, primarily about levels A1 and A2. That's what we stuck to because if you look at the CEFR, if you start looking at, for instance, B2 level, starting at the B levels, you're getting into adult context. You're getting into communicative context that we would consider adult context. So it's not realistic to assume ever that a 10-year-old would be operating at a B2 level even if it is their, you know, even if it is their language of origin and even if they are quite verbal, the actual context for communication tend to be more adult. So it's not that I wouldn't recommend it. It's just that what I do recommend is that there's a great deal of support. That being said, I think that should also be a really supported implementation for secondary students as well. If there's no other questions about the passport component, I will move on. But if you have any other questions, I'm certainly happy to answer those. Have you both seen examples of the passport? I think you've both seen what that passport looks like. So I think you both have a concept of what I'm talking about when we're talking about the passports. Okay. Well, let's move on then. So the first component is the passports, which is like a snapshot. It provides an overview for the learner to show who they are as a language learner. It's really the only piece of the entire ELP that we would consider summative. And the reason we would consider it, you know, from an assessment perspective, the reason we would consider it summative is it provides an overview and it is meant to be shared with those outside the classroom. That's really who they're preparing that passport for. The passport's not so much for themselves. The passport is for other people. What is for themselves is the biography. This is really the learner, you know, a really learner-centered piece. Because the biography, if the passport is the snapshot, the biography is really like the workbook. And the biography allows the learner to plan and reflect upon and assess his or her progress in language learning. It encourages the learner to state what he or she can do in each language and to include information on linguistic and cultural experiences gained in and outside formal educational context. So it's kind of like you're taking what you described really briefly in the passport and very often you're expanding on it in the biography. The biography tends to look like kind of like worksheet kind of materials. It encourages students to set goals for themselves in building their language proficiency. And it's really about the process of learning a language. The passport is here's the result so far, but the biography is here is me and the process of learning this language. Here's an example of a simple biography page, again from the European Union, a student in the European Union. And these are really, really common to see. This is a validated ELP. So a validated ELP means that you kind of, you buy them in bookstores, you buy them from publishers, they're published, and they come with a set number of pages that the students use, or the learner uses rather because they may not be students. And in most of them there's these checklists. So the checklists as you can see has the A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 levels. One seems to go C1, C1, C seems to be plumbed together here. And the student writes in or the learner writes in their different languages and indicates she starts checking off the statements that are all related to the CEFR and where they think they are. This is the simplest type of biography sheet. We also see lots of other biography sheets that we'll take. For instance, there'll be a whole A1 portfolio where the biography takes the A1 level and breaks it down into little can-do statements that are at a cognitive level appropriate for whatever age group is using that. Students would take, for example, something else you could teachers do with the biography, is you take one of these can-do statements that the students have indicated they can do. And you use that as the beginning of some goal-setting statements. So you have the students perhaps write a little piece or describe a piece orally about what it is they want to work on and improve on that they see in their can-do checklist. We see all kinds of things in the biography component. Most teachers end up liking to personalize their biography components. We tend to, here at Edmonton Public Schools, we have, because we don't have any kind of Canadian language portfolio that's been validated, we seem to have a group of people who like to create all their own materials. We have a group of materials that we've just adapted for use from the European context and our teachers tend to use those and then also create their own. And, of course, some of them are actually student-created. So the biography component is quite a large component, actually. And we talked about it very briefly. So you may have some questions about this particular component and please feel free to ask those now. Marni, would this potentially tie in with our ICANN statements from the curriculum if you can align them, I guess, with the A1, A2, or B1 level, depending on what grade you're teaching? Yes, that's an excellent question. And where the curriculum can be addressed or aligned, I guess, into the ELP would, in fact, be in the biography component, which you want to be able to do. What we try and do with our CANDU statements, we develop CANDU statements, for example, centrally for our bilingual programs and our French immersion programs. And we are doing that for our FSO programs as well, Kendra, so you can watch for those. What we want to make sure is that the ICANN statements that are developed and used and included in the ELP also follow the philosophy of the ELP. So that would mean, for example, that they don't deal with language and discrete points. Those ICANN statements that would be included in the biography to align the CEFR would need to be reflecting that part of the curriculum that's most communicative that's task-based. So in the case of FSO, for example, you would be using a CANDU statements, for example, that relate to the communicative targets that are in your program articulation document. Those would probably align quite nicely in an ELP because you want to be carrying through that spirit of the CEFR that you see begun in the passport. In the case of the Japanese Language and Culture program of studies, you would probably be using mostly, reflecting mostly ICANN statements from the applications portion of your program of studies because that's where you see the language proficiency in action. ICANN statements such as, you know, I can conjugate a verb or something like that are of, I think, well, they're probably of limited use. They can be included, of course, but they really don't give you any information about language proficiency. The CEFR talks about what people can do with a language. So that's the kind of ICANN statements I think that you want to reflect in the biography. But yes, absolutely, the CANDU statements that we use for curriculum, those are part of the biography component. And just to clarify, you're working on something district-wide for FSL that if I didn't get around to creating my own this year, you would have eventually. I'm putting up my laughing face because it's in my work plan for this year and I know that we have to start working on that. We've had plans to work on that. So yes, you've given me the inspiration that we do indeed have to go back and get that done. I actually think it's not a terribly, well, I say this, I don't think it's a terribly complicated job. I think it's around those communicative targets and it's a matter of making them. Any kind of CANDU statement that's created around curriculum is in a level of language that's comprehensible to the student because some outcomes are kind of difficult. But yes, Kendra, the answer is yes. The sample you gave was in the native language. I mean, not native, like in the second or third language. Is that what the CANDU statements are and the language that they're learning? That is also an excellent question. Very often we hear what language should the learner be using to access these biography materials? What language should they be using for doing these checklists, for using CANDU statements? And my answer to that is always, well, it depends. You have a couple of schools of thought on this particular issue. Some assessment experts such as Black and Willem will say, listen, you can't have students using any kind of assessment information if they don't understand the assessment information. So that's an argument, for example, in a Japanese second language class at a high school that to have, OK, have those biography materials in English, have these CANDU lists in English. Another colleague of mine from the UK, David Little, who works extensively in CEFR, says we will never achieve, he says we will never achieve a true advancement in language proficiency until we have students engaging in metacognition, even if it's at a very, very simple level. So that's a case for trying to have students work with the materials in the target language. I think there's probably a continuum. I think that probably what you can do is use very simple, start off by using very simple CANDU statements in the target language, but the more complex kinds of biography materials needs to be in a language that they are able to negotiate their way through with ease. We all want to move our students towards this great language proficiency. Of course, if you're working with a Japanese 10, 3Y class, their language proficiency is going to be so, so simple that it may be only the very simplest CANDU statements that you can play around with in your classroom. So I would say you have to try some different things. I think the rule of thumb with assessment is that it should be consistent with your instruction. So whatever your philosophy is around how you do instruction, that should be pretty consistent with your assessment. That being said, if you're doing more complex kinds of biography materials with them with a type of vote, you're using language that is very specific or technical and certain kinds of inventories, language inventories, for example, you probably want to do it in the language the students can use. Well, it doesn't look like there's any other questions at this time for the biography sessions. So I'm just going to move on to the dossier. But again, if you want to be able to backtrack to biography, we can do that too. So the passport was the snapshot, and the biography is the workbook, and the dossier then is actually the evidence. So this is where you prove what it is you're actually able to do in the language. So in the passport, I present an overview about myself. I present an overview about what my language proficiency levels are in different language skill areas and in different languages. And I'm presenting information about my really important cultural experiences that I have that I think are significant for other people to know. And then in my biography, I'm goal setting, and I'm tracking my progress, and I'm exploring my language proficiency in different languages. And I'm setting goals for myself, and I'm talking about whether or not I was able to achieve those goals. And then in the dossier, I actually show what I can do. So the dossier actually most resembles, I think what a lot of people here in Canada think a portfolio actually is. It can be a collection of student work, it's exemplars of student work, it shows your best examples for example. All of these things can be included in the dossier. The dossier offers the learner the opportunity to select materials to document or illustrate achievements or experiences that were recorded in the biography or the passport. So in essence, the whole ELP, all three components are singing the same tune. So if I say for example, okay, in Japanese, I'm in Japanese 20, and I'm very confident that I have accomplished an A1 level, and you can see reflected in my passport. I've got my English levels. And in my Japanese levels, I believe that I'm a solid A1 level. And then when you go to my biography, you see information in there about me reflecting on some more detail about the Japan Day that I participated in. I have some can-do checklists that I've checked off about what I can do in Japanese. I have some anecdotal information, for example. In the dossier, we should see some evidence about you at an A1 level using Japanese. Perhaps there is an excerpt of a text in Japanese in your dossier. Perhaps there's a copy of a postcard or an email that you were able to write. Perhaps there is an example of calligraphy. Perhaps you have a cultural artifact or a picture of a cultural artifact that you were able to collect. Here's an example of a student dossier page that's actually paper-based. And as you can see from the little mark at the bottom, that this was a summative piece that was included. And that's absolutely fine too. You can include summative pieces in there. For whatever reason, the students felt that this was important to be able to include in their dossier. And that's kind of the key, is that the students think it's important for them to include in their dossier. So they select the work to go into the dossier. Now, when you look through a class set of dossier materials, sometimes you'll see things that are very consistent from student to student where maybe the teacher has said, you know, this would be a really good item to include in your dossiers, everybody. And sometimes you see dossiers that are completely different from student to student. In the end, what it really should do is it should reflect the student's language proficiency, and it should reflect their cultural and intercultural experiences. The actual physical form of the dossier can vary depending on the learner. It's all representations of cultural and language experiences. It could be digital. We have one high school that said, you know, we collect so much information digitally through use in our language lab, for example. Why aren't we turning this into dossier evidence because we're implementing ELP? In younger grades, a shoebox or some kind of holder for a dossier seems to be popular. Also, some of the, you know, things that you can get at like Staples or whatever where they're kind of like these big envelopes, big plastic envelopes or file folders, things that can hold interesting objects. Oral and written samples can be included, really moving towards a lot in digital because so much can be captured digitally and stored on servers. All items in the dossier are chosen by the learner ideally, although we do know that teachers need to guide teachers need to be able to guide this process with students. It's really easy to let the dossier become really big and huge and just the collection of all their student work. What you really want students to do ideally with this section is select that work that really shows their language proficiency and it's important for students to somehow be a part of that conversation so that they're thinking about their own language proficiency because ultimately if they can select items that reflect their language proficiency, they're going to be better self-reflectors on something like the CEFR and the passports. You may want to just think to yourself, for example, what items would you put in your dossier to represent if you were the language learner and you have your own ELP? What would represent your language proficiency? What would represent your intercultural experiences? Would you print off an email that you received from someone that you were able to respond to?  Would you include capture a link to a website of something in the target language that you use very frequently and something you talked about in your biography? Maybe there's a cultural artifact that you collected when you went on a trip somewhere that's meaningful to you.  And you went to an event, for example, a francophone event at Cité Francophone. You went to a theater show. Would you include the billfold from the theater that shows the experience that you had and the level of language proficiency you were able to operate at, your work, your papers that you've written, that kind of stuff can go in the dossier. As well, if you had actually done any language credentialing, if you had done the DELF DELF and you had a certification, frequently people put those certifications in their dossier. Sometimes people put their PAT scores or they wrote down that they wrote a PAT, a Provincial Achievement Exam on França in French language arts. Maybe they put the print out of their score in the dossier. At this time, I invite you to use your mic or use the chat box to share any questions that you might have about the dossier component or any of the components. Mary, just a good idea that popped up. Do you know of any schools that have their second language teachers working in conjunction with their English language arts teachers to say kind of do this project and say okay, in your LA class, you may be at a B1, B2, and here's examples in their LA portfolio, and in their second language, they're working at say an A1 or A2 and here's examples of that. That is really our hope, Kendra, to move schools towards a whole school approach in using the ELP and to think about it in terms of all of the language areas. We've had a lot of interest from schools when we come into information sessions. We have a lot of interest from schools in the various departments. It's a matter of time. It's a matter of that kind of collaboration that you have to trigger to be able to make that work. We feel like we're really moving towards that. At this time, it still seems to be, overall, it still seems to be in the domain of the second language teachers. But we really encourage, we really encourage that kind of cross-collaboration and if your school wants to pilot that kind of project, that would be fantastic because that's really what we want to move towards. We really think that when we talk about 21st century literacies, when we talk about high school completion, we feel it's absolutely critical for kids to be engaged in meaningful metacognition around what they can do in language, not in just the language of their study, but the language of origin, the language of their neighborhood, the language that they're also using in their languages, that they're also learning in school in terms of their ELA classes. We think all of that is really, really critical. I don't have a question, but just a comment. I think it's a really good way to make your kids identify with the second language as well. It's like a portfolio, right? And then they can be proud of that work and have something to show people that they can achieve in that second language. So I might try that. We saw some really inspiring examples. We went to Spain, and one of the things we looked at was visited some classrooms that were implementing ELP because, of course, they have validated portfolios. And we talked to some students who had some proficiency in English and they were students at the junior high level and they shared that they frequently make these portfolios home to show their parents because to their parents, this world of learning English is different for them. They hadn't experienced this type of thing when they went to school, so they were able to describe and show their parents their language proficiency levels. One student said, and this was really, really interesting, from an assessment perspective, I think it's really powerful, the student said, I understand now that it's my job to do the work to get better at languages and it's my teacher's job to help me, but I also have to tell the teacher what I need. And it was actually the mechanism of using the checklist of using the biography section and gathering that kind of information through the dossier that brought the student to that realization about his own learning, which is amazing to hear from a student be able to articulate that. The fact that he could articulate it in a language that was not his own mother tongue was even more amazing, but from an assessment perspective, we thought that was really powerful. Well, I will just move on then. If you have any questions, please just raise your hand and I will stop and address those questions. So you've learned about the three components of the ELP. Well, first of all, you learned about the CEFR, which is the foundational document. The framework of reference for all languages. And we learned how that CEFR can come to life in the educational context, also in the vocational context through the passport, which is that summative piece, the snapshot or the overview of the language learner. The biography piece, which is really where we see the learning with our own eyes. We see the goal setting. We see the progress tracking. And then the dossier, where we get to see the results of all that learning, we get to see the evidence of that learning or the work that the students have actually produced. Now I want to think about, so where are we going with all of this in Canada? Well, the answer to that is we're going a lot of places and it seems like we're going faster and faster with every year. When we first started talking about CEFR and ELP here at Edmonton Public Schools about six years ago, it was just coming on to the scene. We were just building an awareness about it in Canada and we were the only place, I think, in Canada that was really launching any kind of pilot work with it. We have since seen things move much faster in Canada and we've seen them move throughout Canada. The slide that I have up there right now is quite text dense, so I just invite you to read that through. This is from the CMEC, which is the Council of Ministers of Education in Canada. And the Council of Ministers of Education in Canada have endorsed the CEFR for adoption for use in Canada and have recommended that it occupy a central place in Canada as a reference tool to support language learning. Throughout the European Union, we see that the CEFR is used as the basis for developing resources. It's used as the basis for curriculum development. It's used as the basis for creating assessment tools. So it is the go-to document for language teaching and learning across the European Union. And it is starting to pick up steam here in Canada. So the CMEC document is part of that picture. We really see the spreading of international credentialing throughout Canada. So the CMEC document is part of the school district to start using measures such as the DELF DELF and the Schroctoclome and the HSK and YCT for young learners at the school district level. And since then, we've just seen it explode, particularly with DELF DELF. There are now many DELF DELF testing centers across Canada and there are thousands of students getting these international credentials across Canada for use both inside and outside of the school district. It continues to be endorsed across Canada and used as a measure across Canada. That will only increase. Universities are starting to calibrate their course offerings to CEFR. The latest university that I know of is the University of Ottawa is calibrating all of their course, language course offerings to CEFR. Cathy St-Jean here in Edmonton is moving to that as well. I took an adult course from them in the summer to CEFR for all of their non-credited courses and language courses. And I know U of A is moving towards that as well because we've been talking to them about that. So we're going to see, the implication for that as educators is that this is what our kids are going to need to know. When they leave us, when they leave our level of education, if they go into post-secondary education, they take any kind of language offering. And maybe this will also spread to all kinds of English language offerings as well. They will need to know what their CEFR levels are. They have to have some kind of familiarity. So it's part of when we talk about the leave taking skills that we want students to have when they leave our school districts. And we talk about 21st century literacies. This is really part of that big picture. And it's equipping them with something very concrete, a piece of knowledge that's very concrete. Schools and jurisdictions are going ahead and creating all their own versions of ELPs. Generally, we see things being created mostly on an ad hoc basis. I get lots of calls and emails from people working across the country asking, you know, can we see what you've done? And can I talk to you about what you've done? And so there's this information sharing. But at the end of the day, everybody has a little bit of their own, they have their own agendas and they have their own languages that they're offering in their school district. But we do see that curricula, for example, it's not here on the slide, but curriculum is really where we're starting to see a lot of movement with CEFR in Canada. The BC language curricula is now correlated to CEFR really strongly. If you look at it, it says A1, A2, B1, B2, Ontario has correlated its curricula to CEFR. And I believe that that's the direction that the territories are going as well. So as curriculum comes under review and gets renewed in the various provinces, including Atlantic provinces as well, I believe, are doing that. I know they're doing a lot of work with ELP now. As all of these curricula across Canada come under review, they're all aligning to CEFR, which is really interesting because in the past, every province and every territory, education is under the jurisdiction of the provinces is different. And now we're starting to see this, maybe not a common curricula across provinces, but we're seeing this one reference point in the different provinces by using the CEFR. So it's really, it's quite exciting. Please go ahead, Kendra. Is this then where Alberta's going to go whenever we do get a new curriculum? Is that the direction that the province is planning on taking us as well, or I guess whoever's on the board? In terms of Alberta, what I can tell you is that we already have curricula sets that's aligned with CEFR. All of the language and culture curricula that was created for all the languages other than French. So the curricula that Merriam is using, for example, when they were developed, the CEFR was in draft and it was used to inform very strongly the development of that curriculum. So when Merriam is using the applications, for example, she's going to notice that the applications outcomes, which are the driver outcomes for her program studies, very clearly, are aligned to the kinds of functions and tasks you see in the CEFR. For French as a second language, the program articulation document and the communicative functions you see in the program articulation document are aligned to the CEFR. The FIM program, the French Immersion Program, the Bilingual Language Arts Program of Studies weren't created when the CEFR was around. It's very much on the... I can tell you that it's very much on the radar screen at the ministry. Currently, the only program of studies I know of that's under any kind of even initial redrafting is the French Language Arts Program of Studies and I'm not involved in that, so I'm not exactly sure where they're going. I can't imagine that programs and studies that are being created now in Canada wouldn't be referencing the CEFR. It's the direction that the entire country is moving in. So the answer to your question is, I think probably as curriculum comes under review, it will be aligning with CEFR, but the answer is also that we already do house curricular documents that are aligned to CEFR and Alberta. Yes, please, and that's my last slide has my contact information there and I'm not the only person who is working in the area of CEFR and assessment, but my principal area, of course, that I'm working in is assessment. So I have probably one of your information sources to be able to use for this topic and please feel free to call or email if you have any questions about the European Language Portfolio or the Common European Framework of Reference and how it can be used in the second language classroom. I thank you for your time. Thank you for staying late. It's dark outside already to be able to learn more about this topic. I think it's really fascinating and I believe that this is absolutely the future direction of teaching and learning in languages. And you're now part of a large cohort of teachers that have more information and have a knowledge and awareness of the Common European Framework of Reference and ELP and should you be interested in joining the ranks of teachers who are implementing these documents, you know, please do so. It's quite a rich language learning experience. If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to entertain those now. Otherwise, thanks very much. And when you exit the room, you will have a survey, I guess a prompt to be able to fill out a survey. Thanks everyone.


Mike, what did coach say to the team at halftime? Just keep fighting and we need to play better. Obviously, that wasn't our best effort and best execution, offensively, defensively, and special team. So just make sure we come out there and play better in the second half. When were they able to sustain those drives? Those seven, three hours in the battle, then they put three drives to get, well, two drives and a block. Yeah, just not getting off the field. We did a good job with the run game, but we just couldn't get off the field. Third down, then a couple of fourth downs. And when you're playing a good team like that and you're giving them momentum to just keep going up and down the field, it's tough. And that team is very, very talented. And coach said it this week, if we don't make it tough on them, it's going to be a tough one for us. And got to give credit to Dallas. They came out here with great energy, played well, and executed on all cylinders. And it looked like y'all were mixing it up, trying different things and so forth. But the man and zones and so forth blitz every solid, a little bit of everything. How tough is that when you're trying different stuff and you can't find anything to put the fire out? Well, I think when we look at the tape, you never want to judge the game when you don't see the tape. But I just think we could be just a little more detailed in areas just because that's, like I said, it's a talented football team. If you do something that's not as detailed, you got a freaking great quarterback over there who's going to find it. And that's what he did today. So we just got to wash the tape, flush it down, and just get ready for Thursday. That's the thing I love about Thursday night games. You only got to wait four days to play again. So we'll look to be better on Thursday. What if I think you say to Fabian and to Avery, because especially early on, Douglas was really targeting kind of the two of them, especially whenever CD was on. Yeah, just keep fighting.  He's a great football player and great young football player who's made a lot of plays all year. And obviously they didn't have the game that they wanted to last week. So we knew they was going to come up, fire it up, and they did. But that's the national football league. You get some plays on you. But it's all about what you do after. They kept fighting. But at the end of the day, the Cowboys made more plays than us. And that's the reason why they won the game the way they did. Your vantage point, when did this really start to unravel? Well, like I said, we just couldn't get off the field on second down, I mean, the second quarter. And when you're giving the team like that momentum, and they're just kind of driving up and down the field, can't get off the field on third down, the momentum just kind of went their way. And just stayed that way for the rest of the game. Matt and Arthur both said that they felt the week of practice was good. Was there any sense from you at any point during this week that said, you know, this could end up being the eventual outcome? Oh, no, not at all. Like they said, I felt like we had a great week of preparation, a great week of practice. Guys are locked in. I mean, felt like Dean put together a good plan. But just to execute the plan to the capability that we needed to be the team like that, you know, that's one of the best teams in NFC. You know, they're playing at a really, really high level offensively, defensively, and special team. So just got to go back, learn from the family and get ready for the Patriots on Thursday.


The woman who answered the door when I knocked had tears in her eyes. She clutched her housecoat tighter around herself and took me in Looking me up and down Mrs. Burton. I'm agent Barnes. May I come in, please?  You're from the FBI some sort of special unit. That's right, ma'am I said pulling out my ID badge and showing it to her After examining it for a while. She turned the handle Pausing to take a quick hopeful look around the neighborhood before finally holding the creaking screen door open for me I stepped up the wooden staircase and entered the house The home was well kept Old but comfortable furnishings walls covered in framed photos showing barbecues and family gatherings Weddings and birthday parties. It looked like a peaceful place Not an abusive household or a neglected one. I thought to myself I took out my notepad and scribbled something eligible I'm here to follow up on the case involving your son Brian Do you mind if we sit down to talk for a few minutes? She showed me into the living room and I took a seat on the couch Can I get you anything agent? Barnes and no, no, I'm fine. Thank you though Instead of sitting down opposite to me.  Well, I was hoping to ask you a few questions about your son's disappearance I understand he went missing from his bedroom late one night and there was no sign of forced entry The doors were still locked in the morning when you woke up. Is that right? She nodded slowly and All this despite the fact that he didn't have a key and none were missing from the home She stood with her arms crossed not saying anything Was there a question in there somewhere agent Barnes? I Waited for a beat. This wasn't how I'd expected it to go Already, I felt like my entire preconception of this case was wrong my theories were immediately forgotten and I began to examine the whole situation with fresh eyes as I sat there Looking into the woman's Unreadable face. I Suppose my question is How did he go missing? It seems impossible Unless there's something you aren't telling us a door left open or a window a neighbor with a copy of your key Something you have to try to remember You're singing the same old song that the detective was singing Nobody else had a key. None of the windows or doors were unlocked. I'm sure about that And you're sure he didn't sneak out after dinner to play with friends No one would blame you if that were the case kids that age like to go out in the forest run around to get into trouble Are you sure he was in the room that night when you went to bed? I'm sure I tucked him in myself.  I didn't forget seeing my son in bed that night Just like I didn't forget to lock up This was going nowhere. I could already tell we were off to a bad start And I had a feeling she could sense my newfound hesitancy and uncertainty I put my note pad away and thought for a few seconds. What direction to take I had to improvise Can you show me his room? I'd like to see it if I could Her face showed no change of expression at the request. She just held her hand out Inviting me towards the back of the house. I followed her as she led me down a hallway with creaking wooden floorboards Do you have children agent Barnes? Yes a son How old is he if you don't mind me asking? 11 actually same as your Brian good now Imagine for a second what it would feel like to have him taken away from you in the night Despite doing everything possible to stop something like that from ever happening. I Hate to think of it. That's every parent's worst nightmare. I replied Here's his bedroom. She said opening a door at the end of the hall on the left It's just as he left it.  There were no signs of violence or disarray Nothing looked out of place or broken a few items of clothing and toys were scattered here and there But overall it looked cleaner than my own son's room Was anything missing any of his belongings? clothes toothbrush phone Brian doesn't have a phone. He kept begging me for one, but I told him he wasn't old enough She broke off suddenly grimacing sadly If I just let him have a damn cell phone, maybe they could have traced it I put a comforting hand on her shoulder and she let me do that at least without pulling away Even if you had he wouldn't have had it on him while he was sleeping. You can't blame yourself for that I told her feeling suddenly more on her side And just so you know my son doesn't have a cell phone either. I told him the same thing The woman bit her lip hugging herself tighter She turned her eyes up to the ceiling trying to dry the tears within them as if she couldn't bear the thought of weeping one minute longer Do you think Brian could have made a copy of your key? Maybe without your knowledge that just maybe he could have snuck out in the night and locked up afterwards She shook her head rapidly. He's 11 and no I told the officers. He isn't like that. He's a good boy. I Looked over to see the closet in the corner of the room was now hanging open ever so slightly But I distinctly remembered it being closed when I came into the room Inside it looked pitch black For some reason I was drawn towards that darkness and began to walk across the room towards the closet door What was I looking for within that darkness? I wasn't sure But it seemed important that I check inside Brian told me something the night before he disappeared He said there was a monster in his closet I stopped dead in my tracks Most children of 11 years old have grown out of seeing monsters in the shadows Haven't they at least my son had He'd grown out of that phase for a long time She said as if reading my thoughts But then all of a sudden that night he told me there was a monster hiding in his closet and he He what? He actually wet the bed. He hadn't done that for a long time I see and so he came out here and told you all that and then what happened I went back to his room with him right away and I turned the light on and opened his closet To show him that there was nothing inside just his clothes and a few old shoes But he still wasn't convinced He said the monster was a very good hider that he pretended to be shadows Glancing back at the open closet door again. I started moving towards it once more This time with my legs feeling a little wobbly He washed up and I changed his sheets and he went back to bed Brian wanted to stay up with me and watch TV after that. He didn't want to go back to his room But I made him go What time was this around? Two o'clock in the morning Around then he had to get up for school the next day. She said Opening the closet door I peered inside The darkness permeated the whole space like a thick oily cloud of smoke It was almost as if that darkness were a living thing Camouflaging itself there Pretending to be just a closet just like the missing boy had claimed I shook my head trying to clear these thoughts from my mind, but they persisted Can you turn the light on any brighter than that? No, it's all the way up The stupid light bulb seems to get dimmer every day even after I replaced it I'll have to get an electrician over here one of these days Pulling out my flashlight. I shone it into the dark space The oily blackness retreated almost reluctantly as if in a delayed reaction that shouldn't have been possible I blinked my eyes twice trying to decide if I was seeing things My heart was suddenly hammering and the palms of my hands were sweaty As I stared at the darkened space in the dim beam of my flashlight It seemed to be malfunctioning Weak compared to its usual strength I smacked it a few times and tried to remember when I'd last replaced the batteries Can you feel it too? She asked from behind me I wanted to turn around and look at her but was afraid to leave my back exposed to that darkness I know it's crazy, but ever since that night I can't help but feel Like maybe he was right Can you feel it?  Fine, fine, I'm fine Now can you tell me about Brian's father? I understand he passed away several years ago Did he have any family? Close friends She shook her head at me as if none of these questions mattered And she was right in a way They didn't The interview didn't lead anywhere and I couldn't focus on anything she said Soon I was back out on the street The memory of the end of it gone entirely from my mind It was like I'd been on autopilot without realizing it And I didn't like that feeling As if someone else had been driving the car And I'd been asleep behind the wheel I had a very strong suspicion that whatever had happened to Brian Would not be a solvable crime And if it was solved Those findings would not be suitable for an official report This had redacted written all over it Assuming it ever made it up the chain of command If I told my superiors what I'd just experienced They wouldn't believe a word of it The case had gone cold months before So it wasn't expected for me to solve it Only to try to lend a hand if I could Most of my cases ended up remaining unsolved So it wouldn't require much explanation If I wasn't able to do anything useful And I really didn't feel like I would be able to do something useful I had terrible brain fog for the rest of the trip Getting contemptuous looks from the local police detectives Whenever I suggested anything I thought might be useful Everything had been tried before by the sounds of it And I began to feel as if I'd overstayed my welcome The flight back home was a red-eye And I tried to sleep through it But found my dreams were plagued by nightmares I kept dreaming I was a kid again Back in my childhood bedroom Not only that But my closet door kept squealing open in the night Creaking loudly The wood swinging back and forth As if blown by an impossible wind I stood up on my child's legs to go over to it But found myself frozen with fear Staring at the blackness within the closet That deep penetrating darkness Which seemed to spread like flooding Overflowing water towards me And then as I reached out my trembling hand For the door handle to close it Something else reached out and grabbed my wrist An ice cold gnarled hand rotten and macerated The flesh was pale and bluish purple Modeled and covered in wounds Seeping and oozing with blood and pus As I tried desperately to pull away Fighting it with all my strength It pulled me deeper into the darkness I fell in plunging into the depths of it Suffocating in the dark abyss When I woke up I was screaming and the airplane had just begun to descend The flight attendants gave me a look Which told me my terror was not appreciated By the time I got home that night It was already dark and well past Greg's bedtime My wife was in bed So I poured myself a drink and sat down on the couch To watch TV for a little while Hoping to distract myself from the things I had seen And from the dreams I couldn't unsee I wanted so badly to forget that dream But it was the only thing I could visualize when I closed my eyes That rotten corpse hand grabbing hold of my wrist and squeezing I felt as if I could feel that pain even after I'd awoken That feeling of something tightening around my forearm Like a freezing vice I looked down at my arm To see a handprint there Slightly purple like an old bruise It was faded like it was old And yet I hadn't seen it earlier What the hell is happening to me? I asked myself standing up and pacing There was cold beer in the fridge I remembered Despite the time I went in and grabbed a bottle Popping it open and shrugging it I felt so thirsty all of a sudden Like I hadn't drank in days But I didn't want water The thought of it disgusted me The bottle was empty And so I grabbed another and another draining them both Soon I was on my fourth and then it was empty The rest of the six pack was gone two minutes later And I belched loud enough to wake the dead after I'd finished polishing it off Still thirsty I went into the cupboard and pulled out an old dusty bottle of Gibson's I drank it straight down The usual burn of it absent now Instead it just felt like heat in my belly afterwards Suddenly very tired I stumbled off to bed But not before peeking into Greg's room to check on him It was around 3 a.m. by that point He was fast asleep and snoring And his closet door was closed tightly I made sure of that When we woke up the next morning Greg was gone I'd locked all the doors and windows And Greg didn't have his own key He didn't have a cell phone we could trace either But I got the feeling it wouldn't make a difference either way The police came to investigate and were surprised to hear what I do for a living They were even more surprised to hear about the case I'd just been investigating Think it might be a copycat? One of the detectives asked innocently If only it could have been so simple Or maybe the same guy? You might be right I said unable to deny their logic But I knew that wasn't what had happened Not really Well, let's take a look around the room They said and I led them down the hallway towards Greg's room Showing them inside I left it exactly how it was We didn't touch a thing The closet door swung open an inch Then stopped It opened an inch wider And stopped again Does the closet door always do that? The taller detective asked No Why don't you go and take a look