Evaluate 3.1.2. Self-Reflection on Teaching Abilities

Self-Reflection on One's Teaching Abilities

We can never stop growing & learning. If we do, we rot.

I've never thought of myself as a "creative." Creatives to me were always musicians, artists, writers, etc. I never considered "left-brainers" as being creative. I now think differently and embrace creativity in all its splendid forms. As an educator, I'm spurred on by "how" I can engage my students in the course content and share with them my passion for the Spanish language and the many Latino cultures.

 Señora's Teaching Philosophy

an excerpt...

As the daughter of a retired special education teacher, I firmly believe that every child can learn. Naturally, accommodations to a pupil’s educational plan, varied learning styles and the recognition of the multiple intelligences must be embraced and addressed in a teacher’s instructional delivery. Undoubtedly, access to an assortment of resources (some high-tech, some low-tech and some the old-fashioned yet effective no-tech) and the number of these resources affect our efficacy with our students. Two years ago, when my school could not afford to buy more SMART and Promethean Boards, I took it upon myself to research the “outwrite” which converts a static dry erase board into an interactive medium. I encouraged my principal to purchase 4 and was able to get the merchant to reduce the price by $50 on each item so that we paid a flat $2000 instead of $2200.  Nonetheless, at the end of the day, an educator’s real service to school is to his/her students’ learning process.


As a practitioner, I realize the benefits of continued learning and the joy of attending conferences and associating with like-minded people. It is always a humbling, honor to be selected to present at such functions.

 Weakness/Challenge

 Staying abreast new technologies that are beneficial for instruction and pedagogically sound is a constant challenge that I embrace and enjoy. I'm always learning from my students. I'm always amazed by how much they grow and mature over the years. Recently, I attended a former student's wedding and a year later was invited to his wife's baby shower. He had been my student his sophomore and she was my after-school helper her senior year. Although they never dated in high school, they went off to separate colleges, rekindled their friendship and now are parents years later.

As a teacher, it is a true gift to participate in a student's life and personal growth. One's course discipline just opens the door to do so.

Strength: Recognizing that my student is more than his grade in my course

Below is a poem that a former student wrote for me. I think it speaks to the heart of who I am as an educator, for this particular student was in my social studies class but did not like the subject matter. 

Evaluate 3.1.1 Differentiation

The Story Behind the Numbers

I mentioned in my previous blog that data captured by reporting tools only provide teachers with a partial profile of a student. The fuller, accurate, and typically more complex, picture is formed when the teacher interacts with the student. For the virtual instructor, communication methods may include e-mail, synchronous class sessions and discussion boards.

Several years back, before my department had common summative assessments, unified pre-tests (so students were properly placed from the beginning and did not lose valuable learning time in an ill-fitted course just to later switch classes), I noticed that after Interim A (Progress Report #1) of the 1^st Qtr (roughly 3.5-4 weeks into the 9-wk block semester) that some of my students were doing poorly and didn’t seem “to bounce back” after 1-on-1 discussions, parent-teacher-student conferences, teacher-student-counselor meetings, lunch tutorials, after-school tutorials – you get the picture – nothing seemed systematically “to work.”

There might be a spike here or there, but results weren’t consistent. This bothered me as a teacher. The students who didn’t bounce back seemed to plateau at a low level, or worse spiral downward. Many times these students became frustrated and despondent thinking “Why bother? I’m just going to fail anyway?” As an educator, I was disappointed in myself because I felt as though I had no “concrete plan/solution” to offer them.

This feeling of discontent plagued me. Around this time, the principal requested that as a school-wide goal and subsequent professional goal for evaluation, each teacher think of ways to remediate for learners getting lost in the fray. Ah, hah! The birth of “El Grupo: ¡Manos a la obra!/ The Group: “Let’s Get to Work” dubbed “El Grupo.” (I didn’t want to include “remediation” anywhere in the title.)

The purpose was to reteach concepts that were plaguing students during the previous two weeks OR to introduce difficult concepts to these students before they were taught in class, whole group. My theory and hope were that upon seeing the material a 2^nd time in class with peers the El Grupo students would have better odds of “getting it.”

Below is a snippet of actual Spanish 1 data from the 1^st semester the program was implemented. I ran the program for 14 semesters, always with 8 sessions per semester scheduled 2 weeks apart. Over the years, I tweaked it to include any Spanish student in the school taking whatever levels I was teaching that semester. I drafted a “contract” so students would take the program seriously. I incorporated an attendance clause: students could only miss 2 sessions of the program (no questions asked nor note/call sent home) and still be eligible to receive extra points for attending. Points were no longer awarded for merely showing up.  Successful completion of the session meant earning an 80% or higher on each activity covered in the session. This was pre-SMART goals so the number was arbitrarily chosen. Eighty percent is a mid-C (not the lowest B) on our grading scale.

I’m not going to go over the data in detail for the viewer is able to read the raw scores and draw her own conclusion.

Is there work to be done in terms of improving the teacher’s abilities in order to have a greater impact on student performance? Yes, no doubt! Could students do more, such as attend all 8 sessions, or at least 6? Most definitely!

What I will say is that my “doing something,” even if it were ridden with holes and false starts, propelled me to move forward in an effort to positively re-engage my flailing students in my course and to offer them a helping hand from within our sinking ship rather than just to cheerlead from the shoreline.


“The Backstory” of a Few Individual Students in this Data Group

Brittain would go on to Spanish 3 and participate in the school’s Spanish Honor Society.

TJ would pass Spanish 1 & 2 and not have the courses “bring his overall GPA down.” He graduated from high school with honors.

Sarah would go from Spanish 1 with a 77.7 on her initial Interim to go through AP Spanish (Language and Literature classes) and later minor in Spanish at the university level. I still stay in touch with her.

Evaluate 2.1.2 Rubrics and Competencies

Online learning and digital technologies merge to foster the ideal environment for the competency-based learning model. The self-paced structure, within guidelines, and clear rubrics allow students to exercise real choice in determining "how" they want to demonstrate mastery of a learning outcome and "which resources" they choose to use in meeting that outcome, or competency.

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) is the premier professional organization for World Language Educators. ACTFL's 5C's encompass all the reasons to learn a second language.

 Communication is the focus which has 3 standards associated with it. These standards align with the standards of Common Core and many state standards.

The ACTFL Performance Assessment Rubric creates shared product expectations between the stakeholders, especially between the student and the teacher. The Performance Assessment Rubric serves as a unifying guide regardless of Communicative Skill (reading, writing, speaking, listening).

 

 Since the student is in Spanish 3 and it is near the beginning of the course, the Competency which is Communication demonstrated specifically via the communicative skill of Speaking (as opposed to Writing) has been fleshed out into clear "I can statements" so the student knows what has to be demonstrated.

There are 3 subcategories to guide vocabulary use and grammatical structures. Each area has at least 2 options to demonstration knowledge acquisition in that subcategory. A virtual teacher might then request that the student cover 2 objectives by creating 1 learning object in each of the 3 subcategories. As a result the student will produces a total of 3 learning objects (1 per subcategory incorporating 2 objective sets of grammatical & vocabulary structures in each).

The digital technologies that the student selects can be open-ended or the teacher might provide additional structure by suggesting 2-3 technology options. Look at Allan Carrington's The Padagogy Wheel 2.0 for inspiration!

Evaluate 2.1.1 Data Driven Instruction, Analytics, Reporting Tools

In an online environment, data create a mental snapshot of the student when the teacher has nothing to go on. Synchronous sessions provide a more complete formation of the student's profile. As virtual instructors, we need to be mindful of "limiting students to their academic data." Understandably, data are helpful but are just one aspect of a unique and talented individual - talented in some way, but perhaps not necessarily in the subject matter taught by the particular teacher.

Student Enrollments

A student's enrollments inform the teacher of his class load and provide an idea of the student's academic rigor. Course selection and combinations (i.e. 2-3 AP courses taken the same semester)  also speak to the required estimated study time to be successful given a particular class load. A "gap" in this data would include: Does the student have a job? If so, how many hours are worked weekly? Does he play sports? All year long? Is he involved in extracurricular and community-based activities? How many hours a week are dedicated to these endeavors? Again, data is helpful but incomplete at best.

After a few introductory assignments have been completed (so I can get an idea of work style and time management - Are assignments thoroughly done or the bare minimum submitted?, When are these assignments submitted - systematically or at the last minute?) and we have had the 1st or 2nd asynchronous session, I then feel comfortable placing my students in groups. I'm mindful of personality type and actual class performance (vs student's perceived potential based on grades from other courses). I strongly believe that all students can learn from one another, so I am proponent of mixed-ability groupings.



Student Progress in the Course

Student progress is the reflection of several factors/behavioral habits that collectively form a picture. Does the student log in daily? How much time is spent on the home page reading the daily updates? Reading the teacher's "Tips" for success in the course? Or, does the student immediately go to the assignment without reading the lesson first? Does he participate in the discussion boards? Attend synchronous sessions? Reach out when he experiences difficulty?

As a Virtual Teacher for GVL, I have to use the data (analytics & reporting tools) to help me answer these questions and then, more importantly, propose solutions to these factors/behavioral habits to all the stakeholders involved so that we, collectively, can detect potential problems early addressing them immediately so they don't manifest into something harder to remedy.

Evaluate 1.1.3 Summative Assessment

A Summative Assessment is an opportunity for a student to show mastery of content, or "demonstration of knowledge." A series of formative assessments aid the student along the journey of content exploration and understanding. It is important that a Summative Assessment capture what a student knows and assessment items are presented in various ways (multiple choice, short answers, cloze questions, essays/compositions) while including discreet questions (i.e. of grammar) and open-ended questions (i.e. that focus on knowledge application & extension).

For online test creation, both Easy Test Maker (www.easytestmaker.com) and Class Marker (www.classmarker.com) appealed to me. Class Marker appeared to be easier to use and is mobile responsive so students can view content clearly on their devices while using them to complete and submit the assessment. Features include question item randomization, timed test-taking, inability to return to previously answered questions and the option to set test availability dates. I used ClassMarker for the assessment below.

For sake of demonstration, the screenshot of the Test is in teacher's edit view. The test is true/false. It is designed for Spanish 1 students who completed a study on cognates ("cognados") words in Spanish and English that look alike, sound similar and mean the same thing.

Evaluate 1.1.1 Formative Assessment

 Definition of Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment is an ongoing system of weighing in on students to gauge if they are understanding the material. I like to call this process "checking the pulse" and it has a myriad of forms: thumbs up, down, sideways; two fingers discreetly in front of student "yes, I get it" or one finger "no, I'm lost;" games; peer reviews; quick entrance/exit tickets; graphic organizers; virtual hand raised "yes," lowered hand "no;" discussion boards; etc.

Regardless of form, the formative assessment is for student (a reflective exercise) and for teacher (an indicator to help determine overall student learning) It is then the teacher's responsibility to incorporate responses to help drive/alter the balance of that session/module's content delivery.

Example of Formative Assessment - Virtual Game

Here is a link to the Spanish 2 Preterit Verb Tense Review Game "Bouncy Balls." After correctly answering a question, student gets to try to clear as many balls from the screen before they balls fall on him. http://reviewgamezone.com/games3/bounce.php?test_id=19337&title=Spanish Review Game 2

Create 4.1.3 Aggregating Lesson Material

 Ever increasing options are populating the market when it comes to aggregating and presenting learning materials in an online environment. Three options are explored in this blog post.

WordPress - WordPress.org, not to be confused with WordPress.com, is a free open source software. (WordPress.com is a web hosting service.) Originally designed as an online journaling, web logging - blogging - service, WP has greatly evolved. With the availability of numerous plug-ins that morph it into a commerce site (Woo-Commerce, Shop, Foxy Cart, Cart 66 ), social media hub, and membership area platform that can capture e-mail addresses on its landing pages, WP can be just about anything a user would want. Theme templates allow for the easy customization of the site's look and feel. WP requires a database so a server is needed. Just about all web server services work alike. The location of your server if the user is in US but her server in India makes no difference as if it were located in nearby France.

Tumblr - Tumblr is the conceptual blend of a Content Management System + Social Media Platform. It is free although it is not open source so a user can not customize it beyond the built-in customization features. Tumblr is mainly used for blogging and receives major amounts of traffick daily. If used as a CMS, it also requires a server to connect to its database from which it runs.

Stacey - Stacey offers a new technology for CMSs. It does not require database setup nor the installation of text files. It is dubbed the "Lightweight CMS." A user just goes to the directory, copies the application, places the application on her server in a new directory associated with her site's domain name, runs it and she's done! There are no login screens nor admin interface.

Create 4.1.2 Principles of Building Portable Learning Objects

Learning Objects that are portable, engaging for the learner and reusable generate a higher return on investment (ROI) for all stakeholders in an online learning environment.

As mentioned in my previous post, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) is the standard bearer for World Language learning.

STANDARD: Connections -  Standard 3.1 Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through the foreign language

 Activity 1

Corridos sin Fronteras = Ballads without Borders
http://www.corridos.org

 
On this Smithsonian website, you will find information about the “corridos” with reading and listening materials and even a section where you can compose your own “corrido!” (Think passionate country song.)

“Corridos” are narrative songs that chronicle the history of the “corridor/a,” a person who made his/her passage out West, territory that was originally owned by Mexico. “Corridos” tell the stories of the Mexico cowboys and cowgirls in song form.  

1)Learn – select a video to learn about different aspects of the “Corridos”

2)Listen – choose a “Corrido” and see the lyrics in Spanish and English, sing along!

3)Write – compose your own “corrido,” music samples and examples are showcased

Be sure to have your “Corrido” Project Guide that was posted in the News Update when we have our synchronous session on Monday at 7pm EST. We will have a Q&A about the project details.

Nos vemos pronto,

Sra. Westall ;-)

 


Activity 2, Part 1
The Spanish 3 short story is from an Creative Commons educational site. I've placed the unaltered story in document form for easy access and portability. Students can print document and take manual notes or use the highlight feature and take virtual notes as they read the story. This option allows the student "to touch the screen" (on a simplistic basis to interact with the content). Only page of 1 of 4 is posted.

 

Activity 2, Part 2

A bank is provided. Students look up these words and/or create their own customized vocabulary lists. The goal is for students to interact with words uniquely challenging to them as individuals. This will vary from student to student. Please see the  page titled "Palabras y expresiones útiles/Useful Words and Phrases."