'This week I feel as if I am still on an unending journey, but a gaining some clarity into the path ahead. There is much to do. Critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity seems like a lot things to have to include when thinking about a lesson. For me as a language teacher, communication is a key skill and I can get students to collaborate or be a little creative but critical thinking is a tough one. In my subject students do not often have the vocabulary to be able to express themselves in a more in depth way & "think critically". If they are learning the basics of the language they can often only give very simple opinions on something at best. My French 1 class has just learned greetings and introductions and is moving onto numbers, so getting them to think critically seems really beyond reach.
Some of the videos I watched this week have made me really think about how I could change things around in my classroom and make me less the focal point and put much more emphasis on the students. In my Spanish 4 class, students are already making presentations using google slides where they choose a topic of cultural significance to explore, but they are working alone, not in collaboration with another student. I do get others in the class to ask them a question about their presentation (once they have presented)via a google doc, and the presenter then has to respond to that particular question. I am wondering if I could get each of my students to set up a weebly page of their own where they post their projects so that others can leave comments. I saw a video about bringing poetry into the classroom and I'm thinking of getting my Spanish 4 students to pair up and investigate a certain Hispanic poet and then report back to the group. Sometimes when students report back, the other students in the class seem to zone out a little, I'm wondering how I can get them to be more focused. They do have to devise a question to ask the presenter, but sometimes that doesn't seem like enough. I would like them to be more involved. In French 1 I'm thinking of assigning pairs of students a grammar point that we will cover between now and Christmas. They would have to research it, make google slides and present their findings to the class. The would then become the 'expert' for that particular topic. As we progress and learn more each pair would present their findings to the group and then as a whole we would focus on that particular grammar point in more depth. At the end of the semester before the final exams, each pair could then present a summary of their presentation again as a type of review. I'm hoping this would help students hone in on each grammar point more effectively. I am interested in learning how to use more apps for blogging, or ways for students to comment on each other's work. I checked out & made a voicethread this week about the case that I looked at. Sometimes I am reluctant to check out new apps as you have to pay and they are complex, but this one was actually relatively straight forward and simple so I would definitely recommend it. Just plan your presentation, upload pictures, move them into the correct order and then record a comment about each one. I'm looking for inspiration for other apps / ways that students can collaborate/comment on each other's work. The search continues....
6 Comments
Jona Sandau
9/22/2018 11:20:47 pm
Hi Tasha,
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Rafael Garcia Avila
9/23/2018 02:31:41 pm
Tasha,
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9/23/2018 11:03:44 pm
Hi Rafa - thanks so much for your suggestions. I've used prezi a little, but I need to get more familiar with it. Students seem to want to stick to google slides because of the good sharing features and the fact they can both work on it at the same. Do you know of any other presentation apps where both students can work on a presentation at the same time? I've not used slides. com, I'll check it out thx
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Monica Knecht
9/23/2018 04:14:39 pm
Tasha, I have to tell you how impressed I am with your presentation of the video review. You have to show me how you did that! You have so many technology skills that I seem to lack as of yet.
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9/23/2018 11:00:48 pm
Hey Monica
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AuthorI am a French & Spanish teacher at Justin-Siena High School wanting to get new ideas to motivate my students. Archives
March 2019
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