domain 3: Instruction
Graphic organizer ~ Homework
Edmodo communication
Communicating clearly to students is very important to me. Transparency in what expectations are - in assignments, assessments and grading - foster trust. The graphic organizer that I provided was a note taking tool for a flipped homework assignment. I made a conscious choice for the students to find restaurant-related vocabulary that fits into the grammar topic. An unexpected result of my transparency has been the AMOUNT and TYPES of communication that is initiated by students, particularly on Edmodo.
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Questions used for lessons ~ Circling to introduce new vocabulary and structures
Questioning, in particular circling technique, is embedded into every lesson, every day. This is one of the tenets of Teaching with Comprehensible Input. I model reflection with the students and ask their thoughts about certain activities or the way that their vocabulary list looked. In addition, I used the poster during a homework assignment for students to monitor their own progress. In subsequent formative assessments, students used the poster -- without my prompting -- to self-evaluate.
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Student assignments - Extension of reading of the novel: Berto y Sus Buenas Ideas. What apps does the main character have on his iPhone? Use text-based evidence to support your choice(s).
Another example is of a student assignment related to reading of the novel: Carl No Quiere Ir a Mexico. Students had to create a 5 question assessment (in Spanish) based on what they read. In another class period, they were able to give their assessment to 3 or more classmates and kept track of their progress. Students asked many in-depth questions to me and to their peers.
I found the app activity from an elementary dual language teacher on Pinterest. To increase higher order thinking skills, an extension activity was in order. Their engagement and authenticity were increased by having them think of character-appropriate apps and to be able to justify their choices using text-evidence.
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Evidence of Learning Notebook (a.k.a. paper grade book)
I refer to my paper grade book as my "evidence of learning" notebook. Instead of just recording grades, I make note of: My grading criteria, students' errors and trends. For example on a Spanish 2 summative assessment called "Una Historia de Amor", I noticed that the most common errors were accent marks, when to use the -ieron vs. -eron ending, and the word hice. This lets me know that I need to provide more repetitions to the students in both oral and written form.
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Lesson Plan Book ~ arrows/ cross outs/ notes
Lesson plans ~ ¿Adónde Vas? game
During the Adonde Vas activity, I had to retool the activity from class to class based on common errors. My goals were to include the "VA" words and contextualize their use based on events in the novel. At first I used an online random number generator but found it to be too difficult to go back and forth between the image and the generator. For the next section, I switched to foam dice and noted that the students kept answering numbers 5 and 6 incorrectly. I needed to clarify the types of answers that were acceptable. For the third section, I let students take turns throwing the dice and clarified the problematic questions ahead of time. They showed that they had a good handle on the "VA" words in a written context.
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