Lesson Planning

What Teacher's really do  #lessonplanning

When I think about lesson planning, I think about a long process that starts with figuring out your objectives, aligning it with the curriculum, narrowing the objectives into activities. When ever I hear the words "lesson planning" I think about a process that takes a lot of thought and time to do well. The more experience you get at doing it the better you become, but it is the most important part of Teaching. It outlines how you do your job as a teacher.

After interviewing two forign language teachers about their apporoaches to lesson planning and there were some similarities and some differences between what the teachers said and what our readings have shown us.

How long before a specific lesson do you prepare it?

Our readings show how to approach lesson planning with organizing thematic units that are derived from the unit divisions in the text books. One of the teachers said that she planned a month a head. She has about 1 month planned out before school starts and gauges her schedule based on how the daily objectives go. The other teacher said she gets an idea of the curriculum and objectives about one month ahead of time as well, but actually writes down her lesson plans at one week in advance increments.  So gathering from that, I would say it is good planning, if you have one month planned ahead.

How do you decide to do on any given day?

Our readings from Shrum & Glisan tell us that one of the most important aspects of daily lesson planning is to identify the objective(s) that you want to achieve by the end of the class period. From my interviews, I gathered that both teachers follow the curriculum for the daily objectives, also incorporating different activities (3-5) each week, to differentiate instruction based on the students of each class. These sound like great answers, but I wasn't given an specific examples of objectives. My thoughts are that the teachers are using just the textbook objectives to guide lesson planning and not reaching from the students personal goals(objectives) that they could integrate into the planning process. I agree that aligning the objectives to the curriculum is needed, but for my future classroom I would like to incorporate my students personal language objectives as well, and try to accomplish their goals over time.

Do you write down your objectives? How do you determine your lesson objectives?

The biggest factor that stood out to me in the answers to these questions was that neither teacher said they took their standards from ACTFL. They both stated that they get their objectives from the book, but one teacher did say that she does try to align her lessons with the five C's, standards for foreign language learning. Some of their answers do not line up with our readings, for instance, niether of the teachers talked about any kind of anticipatory set in there lessons, something to get the students excited about the objectives that are to be reached in that specific lesson.

Do you write down lesson notes to guide you? 

Both teaches stated that they do take notes on their lessons. One teachers jots down notes, circles a concept that works, highlights or crosses activities out that weren't successful. The other teacher writes notes down in bullet form, more like an outline that she can later organize for adaptions for future lessons. Srum & Glisan talk about the reevaluation and reorganization aspect of lesson planning where the teacher checks for flow and transsitions, controlled versus open ended communicative applications. The comments about note taking from my two teachers seemed to be focused on the moments during instruction more than a reflection after. Either way, taking notes to guide you for the future lesson is a great way to continiuously assess and reevaluate your instruction.

These interviews were helpful in the sense that it made me reflect on the research behind lesson planning and how intricate it can become, depending on how much time and effort you put into it. For me, it seems like the over all take away that I got from my interviewees,  was that since they are experienced 20+ year veteran teachers, they seem to be able to just familiarize  themselves with the curriculum, plan ahead, integrate authentic activities, and plan their lessons. My goal is to strive to write lesson plans that integrate the goals of my students as well as tie my objectives into the curriculum ( not the book objectives, but the national ACTFL standards), and really take time my first few years of teaching to create lessons plans that are interesting and engaging to my students. The more I observe teachers, the more they tell me that you (as a teacher) don't have to write detailed lesson plans and objectives, but I don't see how that is possible because that is what strives the car! If you don't have  a hold of the wheel, you might take your students to places they either won't remember, shouldn't have went simply because you don't know where you're taking them! I want to create lesson plans that take my students to places they never thought they'd be able to go to before and ones that they'll never forget!

-Srta. Myers

Blog #2-Why study a foreign Language

Dear Parents,

Currently, the state of Michigan has a two year foreign language requirement for high school graduation as part of its Merit Curriculum. However, many of you are not aware of the reasoning behind this requirement. I am writing to inform you of the benefits of foreign language study. There are many benefits your student will receive, but this Washington State University article "Why Study a foreign Language" clearly summarizes three reasons why this requirement will benefit your student.

Give Yourself a Competitive Edge

Did you know that studying a second language can improve your student’s skills and grades in Mathematics and English and can improve entrance exam scores -- SATs, ACTs, GREs, MCATs, and LSATs? Research has shown that math and verbal SAT scores climb higher with each additional year of foreign language study, which means that the longer you study a foreign language, the stronger your skills become to succeed in school.

The Job Advantage in a Global Economy

More and more businesses work closely with companies in other countries. They need many different kinds of workers who can communicate in different languages and understand other cultures. No matter what career your student chooses, if they learned a second language, they will have a real advantage. A technician who knows Russian or German, the head of a company who knows Japanese or Spanish, or a salesperson who knows French or Chinese can work successfully with more people in more places than someone who knows only one language.

Learning other Cultures

Studying a new language, reading other peoples’ stories, and connecting with people in their own language can be a source of pleasure and surprise. Connecting and learning about other cultures will help your student expand their personal horizons and become a responsible citizen. Their ability to talk to others and gain knowledge beyond the world of English can contribute to their community and their country.

I hope that you are now more aware of the benefits of your student’s foreign language study. I ask that you help as we try to educate and prepare our future generation for the ever changing global society! If you want to read more from this article, I encourage you to visit http://www.forlang.wsu.edu/top10.asp.

 Sincerely,

Ms. Myers

Blog #1-TELL Framework

When I first read about TELL framework, I loved the introduction about teacher effectiveness.  It stated that research suggests that it is not so much what the teacher knows but what the teacher does in the classroom that maximizes student achievement. Teacher effectiveness is a goal that I will be striving for this semester. I aspire to be a teacher who instructs in such a way that my students can walk out of my classroom and use what they’ve learned in the real world. I want my students to be able to apply their knowledge and show off how much they know inside and outside of the classroom. A few main points I liked in the TELL framework was how it said to use background information about my students learning to inform my approach in section E1-a. Second, I resonated with the LE3-c; helping students see connections among learning experiences. This allows students to build on previous knowledge by helping them make those connections throughout instruction. Building on prior knowledge is part of the philosophy of Dewey’s progressive approach which is part of my own philosophy of education. Lastly, I really liked how TELL included the learning tools section; especially LT2 about incorporating authentic materials. This is important to help build their knowledge of the target language culture.