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.