Blog #6 Professional Development Activity

For my first professional development activity, I signed up for the FLTeach listserv. Since I signed up about a week ago, I have been receiving daily emails from a variety of foreign language teachers across the country, with information regarding foreign language, questions about lesson planning, on to incorporate specific cultural aspects of a country into the lesson, and more. Most of the emails I have been reading have been quite interesting and informational. Over the weekend, I posed my first question to the listserv, which was directed at those who like to use technology in the classroom, and how they use it (I’m still highly interested in this topic, and wanted to get more opinions from other teachers about how it could be used). While there was not as much discussion as with some of the other threads, I did get quite a few personal emails back from other teachers, who recommended several different resources.

The first was from a Spanish/Computer/Technology instructor from Minnesota. She responded to the thread with a link to her own personal blog (link below), which includes her thoughts and several resources for technology use in the classroom, plus how-to steps for beginners. What I found personally useful is she lists a ton of iPad apps she finds useful in the classroom (Yay!). For any iPad users out there, some other cool apps to check out would be Storyrobe, Video Star, iMovie, and Picturebook. On her website, she has tons of other posts with about tech in the classroom, which are worth taking a look at.

 Another cool experience was after introducing myself as a student teacher (to save having to explain exactly what a TA was), who teaches German, I received a personally email from another German teacher, recommended me to join another listserv group exclusively for German teachers run by AATG (American Association of Teachers of German). This has also been an enriching experience, as I can now read discussions between other German teachers! I only just joined today, so there hasn’t been much activity, but I did get to read an interesting conversation between AP German IV teachers about how they try incorporate as much culture as possible into the lesson plans. Overall, this professional development activity was more enriching than I first thought it would be, and I plan to continue on being a member of both groups!

Link to blog: geekieteacher.blogspot.com

Blog #5 – Technology in the Classroom

In this day and age, I personally believe that technology has an important role in the foreign language classroom. With technology, as teachers, we have so many more possibilities of ways to teach material in the classroom than without it. With that said, it should be noted that technology shouldn’t take over the classroom, but rather should be used as a tool to enhance the student’s learning experience. Determining when and where to use technology can be a difficult decision for some, but I think if one asks themselves the right questions, they can determine for themselves whether the tech should be used for a lesson or not. One example of a question would be is the tech too distracting for the kids? And if so, what would be some ways to minimize that?

         
In determining the value of a tool, I believe it personally depends on what the end goal would be. For example in my current placement, in order to work on the listening comprehension with the students, we watched the news from a German website 3-4 times, and discussed as a group what was said and reported. I found this also really useful because it incorporated culture into the activity, and students were able to hear a little bit about current events in Germany.

In my own future classroom, provided I have the right resources, I will try and incorporate technology as much as I can. Thinking back on the reading about Facebook, rather than ignore what the students use everyday, I think it would be useful to incorporate it, since they are already often on the Internet. Furthermore, I am lucky enough to have my own iPad, which since I began TAing, has been a extremely useful learning tool. Before the tech panel however, I was only familiar with a few education apps, one of them being Educreations, which is very useful. It allows the instructor to give record virtual lessons using the iPad as a white board. Luckily there was an iPad expert in the panel, and after the presentation, I now have a lot more ideas of how I can use mine in the classroom. My personal favorite of all the apps was Sock Puppets. Using this app, I think I could challenge my students to be very creative with their language, and at the same time, this would be a good project for them to self-assess their own progress, which personally I find a better way rather than just having the students record their voices using a voice memo app. It’s a chance to use meaningful language, and have fun!  

Professional Article

The professional article I had chosen for this blog post is titled Culture Teaching in Foreign Language Teaching by Li Sun, a teacher in Changchun China. In this article, she addresses a common problem in foreign language classrooms: the incorporation of teaching the culture(s) of the foreign language. Because of this, this firs well with both standards 2.1 and 2.2 of the national standards for foreign language teaching, because of the focus on teaching culture in the classroom. The author first addresses that the relationship between language and culture is very dynamic, and language is an important part of culture because without language, there would be no culture.

The first connection she makes between foreign language learning and culture learning is that a common strategy employed by foreign language is linguistic transfer, which refers to the effect of one language, usually the native language, on the learning of another, usually the target language. She then moves into a discussion of how the hardest thing for learners is not actual language learner, but rather coming to understand cultural differences. Furthermore, while it is inevitable that the way of thinking and expressing influenced by the native culture will be unconsciously transferred to the target language during intercultural communication, defined as cultural transfer, learners should at some point develop cultural schema for the target language, in which they are more knowledgeable and have more of a comprehension of both the culture, and the language.

Sun then moves into the topic of theories on culture teaching. One she introduced that was interesting to me was that foreign language educators should include four fundamental components: language learning, language awareness, culture awareness, and cultural experience. In order to accomplish this, the learners must use their knowledge of their native language to have a comparative analysis with the new language, which will provide an integrative approach for teaching, and learning language and culture. This stood out to me because this fits in with more of our national standards; namely 4.1 and 4.2, which focuses on comparison. An example she takes from her own experience is Chinese language learners, who are from the west. In her experience, while some of these people may have had a good grasp of the language, they were not culturally aware of the customs of China, and often came across as very rude when communicating with others. In order to avoid this, she argues that when conversations occur in the classroom, they should be occurring exactly as they should in real life, which directly relates to our discussion in class the previous week.

Overall the article, while difficult to read at times, was an interesting, and demanding read. Sun did provide some interesting classroom techniques, which may prove useful in the future.

Source:

Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp..371-375, February 2013

2012 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland 

Blog #3

Getting to interview two different teachers about their approaches to lesson planning in regards to foreign language was a really good experience! The first person I interviewed was my CT, and the other was a language professor at Grand Valley. The questions I used were directly taken from those provided to us, but I also asked a few other in addition, such as what they thought about using 90% of the language in the classroom. 

How long before a specific lesson do you prepare it?

I had similar answers from both teachers that I interviewed about this question. Both of them told me they have a good, general idea of how lessons will occur throughout the semester/trimester before the first day even begins, but they continually edit the plan every week to fit the needs of the students. With some classes, they may pick up the material a lot faster, while others may need a little more time with a subject, so lesson plans would need to be adjusted to fit student needs. When I asked both of the teachers about the backward design theory; the Grand Valley professor told me that theoretically, every single lesson plan would be done in that way, but sometimes it just can not be done. The CT was similar in this sense, but with his plans, he focuses on the chapter objectives, and shares this information with the class, so that everybody knows what they will be striving towards.  

How do you decide what to do on any given day?

This already had a similar answer from both teachers; they both refer to the lesson plan they have prepared for the week, but if things need to be changed for the day, they can and will be changed. A good example of this was after our unit test, we saw a lot of areas were students were struggling, and my CT and I decided we would do a day of review with the students, instead of moving on to the next chapter as originally planned. 

Do you write down your objectives? How do you determine your lesson objectives?

Neither of the teachers I spoke to personally write down the objectives for every single day, because they are both to point to where they are so experienced, they know what they are aiming towards for every class period. When the question came of determining lesson objectives, similarly to the idea of lesson planning, their objectives are already predetermined by the overall objectives for the unit, but can be changed to fit the need of the students. 

Do you rely on a lesson format provided by another teacher, the course book, or a Teacher’s book? 

From the talks I had with both my CT and the Grand Valley professor, I gathered that both have developed their own style of lesson plans over the years, and have from the beginning stayed away from the lesson plans provided by the teacher’s edition of a book. They both agreed that those lesson plans are not optimal for use in the classroom, because those lesson plans were not written for the needs of specific groups of students in the classroom. 

I had very good conversations with both teachers, and it was very insight!  

Blog #2

Dear editor,

I am writing to you concerning the recent talk of parents, teachers and students wanting to change the Michigan Merit Curriculum. They argue that the two-year foreign language requirement should no longer be required to be met by Michigan students, and I would like you to know that I believe this is a terrible idea, and I am strongly against it. There are multiple reasons why students should be learning a foreign language; for example becoming more cultural sensitive, learning about the world, improving their own English and other more.

First and foremost, when students learn a foreign language, they don’t just learn the language itself, but they also learn about where the language is spoken, and about the people who live there. Through language courses, students are taught about a new culture, different from their own, and furthermore, they learn more about the world around them. There are several advantages to this; when students become more culturally sensitive, they become citizens in our communities who are well informed about the world and can critical think about issues in our society with that world perspective in mind. Someone who has only lived in a Rochester, Grand Rapids, or Allendale setting will not have the same understanding, unless they have traveled globally themselves and got a first hand experience. 

Students who also study a foreign language also improve their own English. They become more aware of what they are speaking when they speak. From my own experience, through the years as I have been studying the German language, as I learned more of the German grammar, I found myself relating it a lot back to English, and came to understand more of the English grammar, without being directly taught it. As my German skills have improved, with that have also my English, and is something that would be beneficial to students.

Learning a foreign language gives you a unique opportunity when compared to other subjects: it puts you on the global job market. By studying a European, Asian, or another type of language, it opens you open to not only a new culture, but new job opportunities as well.

I could list off hundreds of more reasons for learning a foreign language, but rather than that, I implore you to reconsider the fact that you may think students shouldn’t be required to study a new language, because as we become a more global, “flat-world” community, having Americans who speak foreign languages will be essential for us a society in the future.

Best regards / mit freundlichen Grüßen

Herr Michael Bartus 

Blog #1

TELL Framework:

            As someone who is just beginning to teach a foreign language, reading the different pieces of guiding points provided by TELL was a useful resource for me to begin thinking about how I will in the future conduct my own classroom. Overall I had a good reaction to the points of the document, and a few stood out most to me. First was one of the points in the environment section that stood out to me the most was E5a. The learning space is arranged to facilitate student-to-student communication. Personally I find this to be a very important part of foreign language study for students, because they need to be in a warm, comfortable setting, so they feel confortable enough to communicative with other students in the target language. If the classroom is not set up correctly, little speaking will occur between students, and as a result, little learning will happen. Another point from the document that stood out to me was in the Learning Experience, LE6a. My students can recognize and understand how their culture affects their views of other cultures. I really like this point because it goes beyond just language learning, but also into intercultural learning, and has the students thinking not just about the area they live in, but also the world around them.

Observation Rubric:

            Looking over the rubric for observations a few items from the Learning Activities list resonate with me the most. First, I like the section Vocabulary is introduced and/or practiced in a context – not in meaningless lists. Speaking from personally experience, as a student, I always hated getting a vocabulary list with a bunch of random words that were never used again the classroom. What I would do in the past was just memorize the list of 15-20 words, then forget them the next week to memorize the next list. As a future teacher, knowing this is what most students do, I would try and incorporate new vocabulary in the classroom lessons themselves, so that they are used repeatedly throughout the day and week, so the students see the practical use of learning new words, and become more motivated to learn. Something else from the rubric (and also the TELL document) that is important to me as a future teacher is that 90% of what I will say to be students will be in the target language. This is something I think I really missed out in while I was a high school German student; the teacher spent a majority of time speaking in English to us.

Goals for this Semester:

            Overall I have a few important goals that I would like to complete this semester. First and foremost is that I want to learn all I can about teaching German to high school students from my CT, so that when I begin my student teaching next semester, I will be more prepared to take the rein of the classroom. During this semester, I will closely be observing how he organizes the classroom, what types of assignments he gives the students, and how he assesses the student’s progress throughout the trimester. Something else I wish to accomplish this semester is to overall just improve my own language skills. As a foreign language learner, I personally believe you are never actually done learning the language, so I hope to learn more about German this semester, so that I can effectively teach my students all that I know about the language.