Honestly, I was ready to take a nap before David Theune walked into the room. Despite having just given a presentation on Padlet (it's a pretty sweet resource, check it out), nothing seemed better than Mac 'n Cheese and my bed. Seriously, how great does this look when you're sleepy and hungry...
One of the main take-aways for me was the switching around of audiences for student work. Thinking back on my own experiences as a high school student, it certainly grew dreary knowing the only person to read and evaluate my work would be my teacher. I would write a paper, turn it in, have it tossed back to me a week later with a big red grade on the front. For less motivated students, where is the incentive here, especially if the teacher is not especially well liked? This is one of the reasons I really enjoyed David's talk about rubric flexibility and switching audiences for student work. Imagine how much harder students would try if their work mattered in different ways...for example, students wrote research papers on non-profit organizations, during which they basically had to call/e-mail the organization in order to obtain better, accurate information. Students also ended up raising money for various organizations, which is awesome. Like David said, giving students the opportunities to exercise choice and discover their own agency is important. Students could also teach content to other students...
For other assignments, parents would either come in and teach or listen to student essays. At the high school level, this is especially important; did your parents' involvement die down or cease all together as you entered high school? I know my mom stopped even going to my sporting events by that point, forget about school work. Why should parental involvement stop? Why can't it just change to better suit student motivation and learning? Studies have shown that increased parental involvement (not too much, however) helps increase student motivation and achievement...Students could also livestream for their parents in order to show them their class and what actually goes on in their school via ustream.tv.
As a whole, the presentation made me even more excited about trying new things in my own classroom, such as livestreaming students presenting in German for their parents. It would be awesome for them to show their parents what they have learned, and most parents won't understand a single word!
Also, big Nelson Mandela fan...
Hi Kelsey!
ReplyDeleteI also found David Theune's thoughts on providing multiple audiences for students and increasing parent involvement in the classroom to be insightful. Your case as a world language instructor had me wondering if these two things could be successfully combined in a world language classroom. For instance, I loved learning a new language when I was a high school student, but I felt my learning ended at the classroom door. This is not because my parents were not supportive (they were, very much so), but because neither of them had ever taken a world language course nor did they speak any other languages. I think this made it difficult for them to understand what I actually did in my Spanish class and how they could provide support or encouragement with no knowledge of the subject.
I am wondering, as a result of my past experience, if you think using parents as an audience in a world language course would serve a dual purpose? Theoretically, it could boost student motivation by giving them an outside audience to "perform" for, but might it also educate parents on how to become active players in their child's learning of a new language?
As I am not a world language teacher, I am curious as to what your thoughts are regarding a parent audience in world language courses and how you see it being used (if at all) in your classroom?
P.S. I appreciate your incorporation of Mac&Cheese in this post :)
Hey there Kim!
DeleteI definitely agree that parents can have many purposes in their children’s learning of a new language. Even though I sadly don’t have the time a resources to teach the parents German as well, they can still be a valuable audience to their children. Sometimes, someone just needs to practice speaking to a real person, rather than to his/her notebook, mirror, or pet hedgehog, regardless of whether that person understands German or not. In addition, parents can help expose students to input in the target language at home through Internet access to the German radio and news sites I will have listed on my syllabus. When a student is learning a new language, they need support. They will make plenty of mistakes, and this is entirely welcome; by including parents in this discussion, I hope to create not only a comfortable learning environment at school, but also understanding of the need for practice at home.
As for parental audiences, parents could come to the high school in order to watch their students present a project or a powerpoint in the target language, or perform even a skit. Despite not being able to understand everything their children are saying, it is still a great opportunity for them to see the students and their German in action. Like Anthony states below, I could even video some of the classes for interested parents who do not have the time to make it to the school during classtime.
Thanks for the post and happy Wednesday!
Kelsey,
ReplyDeleteI love your realness with this post. I, along with many of the other MAC'ers, have to agree that by 6:30PM....after a long day of student teacher...we are DONE with life. This EDUC 504 class comes at a very inconvenient time at life, and sometimes I feel bad that my "energy bar" is low. Thanks for posting that because I'm never sure if I, alone, feel this angst. Macaroni and Cheese is on my agenda fairly soon now! Ha.
That being said, I feel ya on Dave. In presenting to an audience like us, you NEED to be on your A-game. Dave was definitely bringing a solid B+/A- game. I really like his stance on bringing parents into the classroom. I asked a question about streaming a class, live, so it is accessible to many parents, maybe on their lunch break. What do you think of this?
Keep the realness!