1. technology and computing

Teacher Work Sample
Emma Jo Yeager
La Tecnología
BYU ID: 54-444-7342
Bennion Jr. High, Granite School District
Brigham Young University
Spanish Teaching Major
Winter 2013
Spanish II
Grades 8-9
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Table of Contents
Contextual Factors .................................................................................................2
Unit Overview ........................................................................................................6
Guiding Question/ Unit Objectives .........................................................................7
Unit At-a-Glance .....................................................................................................8
National Standards .................................................................................................9
Assessment Plan ...................................................................................................10
Design for Instruction ...........................................................................................11
Lesson Plans ..........................................................................................................13
Instructional Decision-Making ..............................................................................33
Report of Student Learning ...................................................................................34
Reflection and Self-Evaluations .............................................................................36
Student Permission Forms ....................................................................................38
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Contextual Factors
Community
Bennion Jr. High is located in Taylorsvile, a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah. Taylorsville is a
midsized town of about 60,000 residents. Over a quarter of the population is under eighteenyears-old. With a median income of $57,600, its residents are mostly middle class. However,
11% percent live below the poverty level. The city has baseball fields as well an abundance of
public parks and trails.
School
It’s a two level building with a ring of out and inner classrooms. Bright yellow lockers
line the halls along with posters created by the student government, who are quite involved in
the school and its activities. There are just over 1,000 students enrolled. Average class size is
around 32 students. With 78% of its population Caucasian, 2% Black, 1% Native American, 4%
Asian, 2% Pacific Islander, 3.5% mixed race, and 19% hispanic, it is fairly diverse compared to its
rather homogeneous state’s population as a whole (which is 91% caucasian).
There is a 6% mobility rate among students. There are 9% that have disabilities, 37%
qualify for free or reduced lunch, and 8% are English Language Learners. However, despite
these statistics they have over 95% daily attendance at school and have met AYP.
The school hosts parent teacher conferences, and has an active PTSA, as well as an
event called “Bennion on Parade” where 6th graders, who have the opportunity to attend
Bennion Jr. the coming year, and their parents come tour the school and learn about the great
programs that are available. As with most schools, the highest parental involvement typically
comes from students who already are successful in the classroom. For students who are not as
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successful, or who have behavioral issues, parents are often brought into create behavior plans
with their student and a counselor.
Classroom
The school has eight class period days starting at 7:50 am and ending at 2:45pm. Fridays
are early-out for students to allow time for professional development and collaboration for
teachers. This class is on the second floor in the outer ring of classrooms. There are
whiteboards on all four walls of the room. Three of these walls are covered with butcher paper,
turning them into bulletin boards with Spanish and Math posters. On the front wall there is a
SmartBoard flanked on either side by whiteboards. In addition to the SmartBoard, there is a
document camera (Elmo), access to several shared computer labs, and the Librarian who
doubles as the technology consultant.
There aren’t many firm classroom procedures such as a bell ringer or exit slip. Students
are allowed two hall passes per term. (Each classroom in the school has a neon vest that
students must carry or wear when in the hall during class time.) When students are late to
class, they must go to the office to get a pass. The office then records their tardy. This schoolwide procedure has greatly cut down on tardies. There are no posted classroom rules. The
students are expected to respect the teacher as well as the learning of others.
Student Characteristics
As a Junior High, Bennion hosts students grades 7-9. Students range in age from 12-15
years-old. My students are primarily 8th and 9th graders. Socioeconomically my students are
mostly middle-class, with a little less than a third of the school on free or reduced priced lunch.
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There are also several students at the school who are refugees from African and Middle-eastern
countries.
Instructional implications
The Spanish 3/ Native Speakers class was created this year to allow the (then) 8th grade
Spanish 2 students to keep progressing in Spanish. This combined class creates a unique
challenge in teaching. Even among the native speakers there is incredible variation in
proficiency: some struggle to read and communicate, while others know all of the answers.
Often I have to ignore or silence those who “know-it-all” in order to truly gauge the
understanding of the rest of the class; those few will push the class forward before the others
have a chance to learn. It’s a careful balance between not letting the native speakers get too
bored, and yet not teaching above the heads of the Spanish 3 level students. As you increase
the level of abstraction from grammar concepts and vocabulary lists, to themes and even social
issues, it allows for greater diversification and engagement of varied levels.
Short days on Fridays are somewhat of a challenge. Each period is 26 minutes long. This
precious instruction time is often wasted because “it’s not long enough to teach anything.” I
disagree. I believe that Fridays are great for teaching culture, silent reading in Spanish, fun
activities, or teaching songs. They can be both fun and educative, however, they require good
classroom management as well as classroom procedures to take advantage of the short time.
In December, a student from Bennion Jr. High committed suicide. Several of my
students were witnesses to the event; some of them within a few feet of him. Although it has
settled a lot in the passing weeks, it is still spoken of and will not be soon forgotten. There is a
school-wide push to “be an ally” to those who are different. Talking about violence and
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particularly guns is highly discouraged in sensitivity to those who were impacted by the event.
Some of them also suffer from PTSD and have accommodations made in turning in work late as
well as amount of work assigned outside of class.
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Unit Overview
Unit Title: La Tecnología
Unit Overview: This 3-week, six-lesson unit is based on Chapter 9B of Realidades 1. It
engages intermediate Jr. High Spanish II students in exploring the theme of technology. During
the unit, students will learn to debate using the irregular verbs “saber”, “conocer”, “servir”, and
“pedir.” The unit will revolve around 2 primary topics: the advantages and disadvantages of
technology. Major activities include: analyzing memes for meaning/argument, a self-analysis of
technological use, and a written argument for or against technology. The unit culminates in a
debate of technology’s merits and problematic implications. Additional assessments of student
progress include: Daily self-starters, homework, and class participation. The unit assumes that
students already know present tense conjugation and familiarity with basic technology and
social media.
Unit Rationale:
This unit is designed to help students understand the importance that
technology plays in the world today. It engages students in exploring how and why the
internet and social media shapes our society as well as those of Spanish-speaking countries.
This unit gives students opportunities to consider their own use of technology. Students will
develop communicative proficiency by exploring the guiding question: “How can technology be
used as great resource yet also be problematic?”
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Guiding Question
How can the internet and social media be a window to the world and great knowledge,
yet can also pose great challenges?
Unit Objectives
Grammar/Vocabulary - Students will explain the purpose or use of aspects of technology using
the present tense of the irregular verbs “saber”, “conocer”, “servir”, and “pedir” with 80%
accuracy.
Grammar/Vocabulary- Students will identify 5 arguments for or against social media in a
newspaper article using “servir” and technology vocabulary.
Culture- Students will compare and contrast attitudes towards and availability of technology
between Latin American countries and the US using at least 5 targeted vocabulary words.
(Cybercafes)
Social Issues- Students will debate the pros and cons of technology in a 10-sentence argument
mini-essay.
Social Issues- Students will analyze their own use of technology using technology vocabulary in
response to a survey questionnaire.
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Unit At-a-Glance
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National Standards:
Standards-based Essential (Guiding) Question:
How can technology be used as great resource yet also be problematic?
Standard 1.1, Communication
(Interpersonal): Students engage in
conversations and exchange opinions
about their technology usage.
Standard 3.1, Connections: Students reinforce and
further their knowledge of Math through the
foreign language and its cultures by calculating and
evaluating their own technology use.
Standard 1.2, Communication
(Interpretive): Students understand and
interpret written language on social media
by reading celebrity Twitter pages and
memes.
Standard 3.2, Connections: Students acquire
information and recognize the distinctive
viewpoints that are only available through the
foreign language and its cultures by discussing and
viewing photos of internet cafes.
Standard 1.3, Communication
Standard 4.1/4.2, Comparisons: Students
(Presentational) Students present an
demonstrate understanding of the concept of
argument of the pros and/or cons of
globalization through comparisons of latin
technology to an audience of readers in a american culture and celebrities to our own, noting
written document as well as to their
the effect of technology of cultural diffusion.
classmates orally.
Standard 2.1, Cultures: Students
Standard 5.1, Communities: Students use the
demonstrate an understanding of the
language within and beyond the school setting by
relationship between the practices and
communicating on social media.
perspectives of the culture studied by the
social media of their celebrities.
Standard 2.1, Cultures: Students
Standard 5.2, Communities: Students use the
demonstrate an understanding of the
language for personal enjoyment and enrichment
relationship between the products and
when they talk about their feelings about social
perspectives of the culture studied by the media
availability of internet cafes.
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Assessment Plan
Students progress toward unit objectives will be assessed by their involvement in a
student-conducted survey of their own as well as their classmates’ technology use as well as
listening to and deciphering the meaning of the song “La tecnología” by Tronic.
The
culminating assessment for this unit will be oral and written presentations of the pros and cons
of an aspect of technology or social media.
Objective
Assessment
Assessment
Type
Objective 1: Students will debate A written composition
Pre and Post
the pros and cons of technology explain how they use
in a 10-sentence argument mini- technology and how it can
essay.
be both useful and
detrimental.
Modality
Writing
Objective 2: Students will analyze Students speak to each
their own use of technology
other in order to fill out
using technology vocabulary in their chart.
response to a survey
questionnaire.
Formative
Speaking/
Listening
Objective 3: Students will explain In small groups, students
the purpose or use of aspects of will present either the
technology using the present
pros or cons of a specific
tense of the irregular verbs
technology or social
“saber”, “conocer”, “servir”, and media.
“pedir” with 80% accuracy.
Post
Speaking
Assessment Adaptations:
1) Students who are learning disabled will present oral assessments to me privately after class.
2) Students who are native speakers will be held to a higher standard (I know their skill level
and I want to see them stretch their vocabulary and grammatical skills).
3) Students who are new to the class (recently transferred from other schools) will be allow to
present the second day of presentations (extra preparation time).
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Design for Instruction
I pre-assessed the objective “Students will debate the pros and cons of technology in a
10-sentence argument mini-essay” by having students write as much as they could about how
they use technology as well as the pros and cons of it.
As the graph indicates, the average score was 82% on the pretest. I graded the mini-essays with
the following rubric. Most students struggled with having vocabulary and verbs to discuss the
topic, so they either inserted words in English or only wrote very basic, list-like ideas.
These results suggest that students have some ideas, but just need the language to
express their ideas. Consequently, I will modify my lesson plans by working some on developing
ideas and focusing on developing vocabulary of nouns and verbs to express ideas that they
already have.
Content
25 puntos
Three good reasons for
and against technology
Structure/
Length
Grammar
Vocabulary Use
Paragraphs and fully There was correct usage of A variety of vocabulary from
developed ideas (not grammar from this chapter this chapter as well as previous
just lists).
as well as previous chapters. chapters was used.
20 puntos
Three okay reasons for Some elaboration on Verbs were used, but some The basic vocabulary from the
and against technology. ideas.
were not necessarily in the current unit was used.
correct tense or form.
15 puntos
Less than three reasons List-like
for and against
presentations of
technology.
ideas.
Total:
___/25
___/25
Very few verbs were used in Incomplete or minimal
the presentation.
vocabulary usage.
___/25
___/25
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Lesson Plan for Realidades, Chapter 9B: La Tecnología
Lesson 1
Standards-based Objective: Students will express their preferences in regards to
communication using six new vocabulary words in a conversation with a partner.
Assessment Task: Students will complete the pre-assessment for the unit.
Context for the Lesson: Students will be reflecting on their own use of technology. They will
also learn briefly about the oldest written communication that we know of, the cave paintings
in Altamira, Spain and consider how communication has evolved as well as stayed the same.
Grammar Structure- Review giving explanations using phrases such as “Es bueno porque...” or
“Es malo porque...”
Vocab phrases-Hablar por teléfono, Hablar cara a cara, Enviar un correo electrónico, Enviar una
carta, Estar en línea, y Navegar en la Red
Activity Title
Students will . . .
Warm-up:
Contextualized
Experience:
The teacher will . . .
- Ask them about their weekend. What
did they do?
-Autotrabajito- ¿Cómo usas la
tecnología cada día?
Focus on Meaning:
- Introduce 5 key vocabulary words via
powerpoint.
- Use the vocab words in contextualized
- Students will show a thumbs
sentences (some of which are
down or up to show whether they nonsensical)
believe the sentence is logical or
not.
Focus on
-Talk to their partner about how
Communication: they use technology everyday
using the new vocab words
Closure:
- Ask random students to share how
their partner prefers to communicate.
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Lesson 2
Standards-based Objective: Students will compare and contrast attitudes towards and
availability of technology between Latin American countries and the US using at least 5 targeted
vocabulary words. (Cybercafes)
Assessment Task: Students will complete the worksheet as a performance of their conversation
with a partner.
Context for the Lesson: They will consider their own technology usage and consider how it
would change if they didn’t have access to a computer in their home, like many in Spanishspeaking countries.
Vocab words: Reactionary words such as ¡Mentiroso!, ¿En serio?, ¡Híjole!, Vale, and Por
supuesto.
Activity Title
Warm-up:
Students will . . .
The teacher will . . .
- Autotrabajito- ¿Como prefieres
comunicar con tus amigos?
- Ask some of them to share answers
and praise use of new vocab words.
Contextualized
Experience:
- Using pictures and a video explain that
- Consider how this might change technology is not nearly as common in
their relationship with
many Spanish-Speaking countries, so
technology if they didn’t have it Cybercafes are common.
in their homes.
Focus on Meaning: - Brainstorm questions that they
would ask a friend about their
technology use.
- While going over their questions as
Focus on Form:
well as the sample conversation on the
activity worksheet, I will highlight/
remind them that all question words
have accent marks.
-Fill out their own technology
Focus on
first, then talk to 3 friends about
Communication: how much technology they use.
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Lesson 3
Standards-based Objective: Students will debate the pros and cons of technology through a
meme and song.
Assessment Task: Students will be able to explain the message of a song that talks about
technology.
Context for the Lesson: In any issue, it’s beneficial to look at other’s perspectives. This one
happens to be an authentic chilean resource that speaks very explicitely about how they feel
about technology through song.
Vocab words: Descubre, celulares, virtual, maquinas, corral
Activity Title
Warm-up:
Students will . . .
The teacher will . . .
Autotrabajito- ¿Como pueden ser
buenos los computadores y el
internet?
Contextualized
Experience:
- Read the meme and discuss
what the meme is saying about
whether technology is good or
bad as well as debate whether
this is legitimate or an
exageration.
- Show them a meme that shows two
people out at dinner together, but
talking via text.
- Introduce them to the band Tronic,
showing them where they’re from and a
little bit about them.
Focus on Meaning: -Listen to the song, the first time
just listening for, and underlining
on their worksheet, words that
they know.
-2nd time they will start filling in
the blanks.
-With a small group the will try to Focus on
decifer its meaning as well as
Communication: opinion on technology.
Homework:
- Students will finish deciphering
the lyrics and looking for the
message of the song.
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Lesson 4
Standards-based Objective: Students will explain the purpose or use of aspects of technology
using the present tense of the irregular verbs “saber”, “conocer”, “servir”, and “pedir” with 80%
accuracy.
Assessment Task: Students will participate in both class and partner discussions demonstrating
understanding of technology’s attributes as well as their ability to conjugate the newly
introduced verbs.
Context for the Lesson: Students will consider what roll technology plays in their lives and how
it can have both positive and negative attributes.
Grammar Structure: Servir and Pedir in the present tense
Activity Title
Students will . . .
The teacher will . . .
-Autotrabajito- ¿Cómo es mala la
Warm-up:
tecnología?
- Share their answer with a
partner.
Contextualized - Explain to a partner what they - Facilitate the conversation, asking
Experience:
think the tronic song said about about specific lines and their meanings.
technology. Do they agree or
disagree?
Focus on Meaning
- Show them a couple of memes relating
/Form:
- Decifer meaning and decide
to technology’s problems.
what the meme is saying about why technology is bad.
- Inductively teach the meanings and
- Take notes
conjugations of pedir and servir.
- Come up with ways in which
pedir and servir could be used in
talking about technology’s pros
and cons.
-Write a few sentences using the Focus on
two new verbs, and then share
Communication: them with a partner.
Closure:
- A few students will share their
sentences with the class.
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Lesson 5
Standards-based Objective: Students will debate about the pros and cons of technology using
“sirve para...” accurately in at least three sentences
Assessment Task:
They will interpret comics and produce a chart filled with their
understanding.
Context for the Lesson: Because technology use is a large part of each student’s life, speaking
about technology, how they use it as well as its pros and cons is a very authentic task.
Furthermore, the comics are culturally authentic, providing a cultural perspective on
technology.
Activity Title
Warm-up:
Focus on Form:
Contextualized
Experience:
Students will . . .
- Answer the questions: ¿Para
qué sirven las computadoras, la
red, y el correo electrónico?
- Students will use the
conjugation of “servir” in their
answer to the autotrabajito.
Homework:
- Ask for possible answers, emphasizing
the correct conjugation of “servir.”
- Students will identify the flag of - Present Gaturro, comparing it to
Argentina as well as the location American comics they know.
of Argentina on a map.
Focus on Meaning: - Students will read and find
meaning in three ‘bromas.’
- Speak with eachother to
Focus on
negotiate the meaning of each
Communication: broma
Closure:
The teacher will . . .
- Remind them of the meaning of “servir”
in relation to technology
-Students will share what they
wrote and thought about each
cartoon.
- Walk them through the process of
finding meaning in an example broma.
- Walk around and answer questions/ help
students to negotiate meaning from the
bromas.
- Lead a class discussion of possible
answers
- Introduce the homework, emphasizing
- Read an article from online and the use of the word ‘sirven.’
answer the questions about
‘¿para qué sirven las redes
sociales?’
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Good
Didn’t understand/Needed more scaffolding
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Lesson 6
Standards-based Objective: Students will explain the purpose or use of aspects of technology
using the present tense of the irregular verbs “saber”, “conocer” with 80% accuracy
Assessment Task: Students will produce sentences describing what they know using saber and
conocer.
Context for the Lesson: Students will ask each other questions about what they know and
don’t know (how to do/about).
Grammar Structure: Saber vs. Conocer
Activity Title
Warm-up:
Students will . . .
-Autotrabajito- conjugate Pedir
and Servir in several sentences.
- Ask questions about and then
turn in their homework.
The teacher will . . .
- Have students write their answers on
the board and review and correct as
necessary.
- Inductively teach Saber vs. Conocer
using examples that are interesting and
relevant to the students, asking them
questions like ¿Quién sabe dónde está
España?, ¿Quién conoce los libros de
Harry Potter?
Contextualized
Experience/ Focus
on Meaning:
-Fill in sentences with the correct Focus on Form: verb, either Ser o Estar,
conjugated correctly.
-Students will ask eachother
Focus on
questions about what they know
Communication: and don’t know (how to
do/about).
Closure:
- Several students will share with
the class what their partner
knows.
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Instructional Decision-Making
Incident #1: Lack of understanding. During the cartoon activity, many students struggled to
understand the comics, despite the visual component and the “pista” included on their
worksheet. In the first period, I walked around and clarified meaning with individual students as
well as small groups. I decided that in the next class period, I would pre-teach some of the more
difficult words as well as reading through the “pistas” as a class to give them tools to help with
comprehension.
Sound Professional Practice:
I realized that students were struggling to understand the
language, and although I was going around helping and scaffolding understanding, I thought
that I could support more students’ understanding more efficiently if I were to add more
scaffolding to the activity before I released students to work independently. Although there
were still students that needed my assistance as I walked around to help, it was very beneficial
in increasing student understanding in and preparedness for the activity.
Incident #2: Unparticipative students. My 7th period is much more hesitant to speak in class
than my other classes. One day they came into class, and just sat there, not even talking to each
other. When I would ask questions, no one would volunteer answers, and when I would call on
people they would answer very minimally. It was painful. I stopped what I was doing and had
them talk to a neighbor about what they did over the weekend.
Sound Professional Practice: My modification in instruction was quite effective. Sometimes
students have a hard time transitioning to Spanish after speaking in English all day. Speaking
with a partner engages all students and has a much lower effective filter than speaking in front
of the class.
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Report of Student Learning
Overall, students did about 10% better on the post-test than on the pre-test. The
average pre-test score was 82.9% while the average post-test score was 91.8%.
In grading, I’ve chosen to take a communicative approach, meaning that I focus more on
their ability to communicate ideas, and less on perfect grammar, so my expectation for them
was a 90%. Only five students didn’t meet that. (80%, 85%, 85%, and two that didn’t turn it in).
Overall, I was quite pleased with their results.
Next time, I would further emphasize format and expanding on ideas, which would force them
to stretch their language abilities even more. Although I went over the rubric with them,
clarifying my expectations, many still didn’t elaborate on ideas, writing little more than lists. I
feel like they are all capable of writing more, but they chose to write just sufficient to get the
grade that they desired. Also, as a college student I assume that they know to keep their
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margins and font on the default setting, however that was a poor assumption. I feel like if I had
emphasized format such as paragraphs, they would’ve felt the need to expand their ideas.
Subgroup
I was curious about how my 7th period did in comparison with my 8th as well as my
boys vs. girls. My two classes have very distinct personalities. 7th period is more quiet and
hesitant to answer questions and participate, while my 8th period is made up of nearly twice as
many boys as girls, who all enjoy chatting and participating.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that my classes don’t have that large of a difference in
performance. I had suspected that my 7th period wouldn’t perform as well because they aren’t
as participative, and thus don’t use their language skills quite as much as my 8th period, but
they did nearly as well, and when you see the gender break down, there is virtually no
difference from class to class or between boys and girls with the exception of the 8th grade
boys. I attribute this difference to their participation, friendly competition between them, as
well as team work in completing assignments and negotiating meaning which increases their
understanding and proficiency.
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Reflection and Self-Evaluation
Interpretation of Student Learning/ Implications for Future Teaching
There are a few things that I think contribute to student success. First of all, the learning
was contextualized. We talked about how they use technology. Junior High students love to
talk about themselves, and technology is a huge part of their lives. Second, I found fun memes
on the internet that dealt with the pros and cons of technology. They were in a format that the
students are familiar with and is funny. We were able to talk about a divisive issue and
brainstorm pros and cons through a fun medium. Finally, my lessons built off of each other.
Each day, we started with a question that reviewed what we learned the previous day, allowing
them the opportunity to get into Spanish-mode.
Although my students were quite successful, I believe they could’ve been more
successful. My students get frustrated when they don’t understand language, and some will
give up on a reading assignment if they don’t know every word. I would like to add more
scaffolding to reading, so that they don’t give up.
Next, I try to have a communicative approach in my classroom, meaning I focus more on
communication rather than perfect grammar. However, I believe that my students could
benefit from more grammar practice to solidify what we cover in class. In teaching this unit
again, I would add a couple more homework assignments.
Finally, as an advanced learner, I make assumptions about their note taking skills, as
well as other student skills such as reading rubrics. I need to stop making these assumptions
and explicitly tell them what I expect from them in their assignments and notes, helping them
to succeed not only in my class, but in all of them. Clear expectations would also help them to
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focus their efforts on things that are most beneficial. For example of the written presentation,
many focused more on format and less on content, because they wanted it to look pretty.
While format is important, I am more interested in the content.
Implications for Personal Professional Improvement
Planning. I had a rough idea of the activities that I wanted to do, but having each day planned
would make my life less stressful as well as giving me more opportunity to secure that my
lessons are engaging, interactive, and allow for accommodations. Furthermore, I would love to
incorporate more culture into my lessons to help expand their world view as they view the
world from other perspectives. Finding culturally authentic texts that are interesting,
appropriate, and intelligible to my students is very time consuming. Planning ahead would
facilitate this desire of mine.
Learning Centers. I would like to try learning centers. I have done them before in other
classrooms and found them to be quite effective. They allow for more involvement by students
as well as a lower effective filter because of the small group size. In addition, if they are well
constructed and implemented, it is possible to cover more material in the same amount of
time. In order to work on this I would look online for ideas from other teachers and modify
them to work for my purposes.
Organization. As a student teacher I didn’t have a place to file past worksheets, so that when
students would ask for missed work, I had to dig through my pile of worksheets. If I had my own
classroom I would develop a system where students have access to past lesson plans, and could
therefore find their own missed work. I will talk to other teachers and see what their system is,
and adopt and modify to find a system that works for me.
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