InTASC Reflection:
The 7th InTASC deals with the teachers ability to plan instruction everyday that requires high expectations of students, learning that involves previous knowledge, knowledge and skills from other disciplines, and learning that requires an intimate understanding of the students and the community in which they live in (both local and broad). This InTasc is the one that deals most explicitly with what I have always perceived the job to be: organized learning. How do we organize it? Who are we organizing it for?
Planning for instruction involves cross-disciplinary planning with other teachers, knowledge of where and how to get various resources for instruction, knowledge of how the students function in your class and what activities will aid in their development and which one's won’t, and it involves a high degree of adaptability both at various levels of time. For foreign language instruction, there are many organized communities on the internet that are there for specific foreign language instructions needs such as translated songs, where to get online Spanish menus, and so much more. One example of these is FLTEACH; an online email community that allows for foreign language teachers to ask and answer any questions/cries for help. Users put in a lot of effort to maintain the helpfulness of the community. In terms of cross-disciplinary planning, it is always useful for the student to see the same topic being discussed in slightly different ways in different classes. It let's the material get soaked up in their heads all the more effectively but it also exposes the students to different perspectives. For example, a high school history class could be discussing Native Americans near Maryland and in a Spanish class they could be discussing the indigenous people of central/south America. Students who are in both of those classes can see the diversity within different indigenous communities in all of the Americas, not just the America we live in.
The most important aspect of planning for instruction, I believe, is a knowledge of pedagogy and how it transfers to a larger scale: unit planning. This involves knowing how to break down themes of instruction and making sure that the order of everything is based in pedagogical research relating to a teacher’s specific field. For the field of foreign languages, to give an example, the most prominent and well agreed upon linguistic theory is the i+1 theory by Stephen Krashen. It essentially says that when teaching new material in a language, said material must be one step above what the language learners already know. The equation means that “i” is their current level and their ideal learning instruction should always be one more than that. To go too far ahead of their ability would discourage them and the material will not make sense to them, but to teach something too easy for them will make them disengaged. The same could be true for any material, not just languages. When planning instruction, a foreign language teacher must be acutely aware (I would argue more aware than say a Science class) of where the students are in their grasp of the target language. Language learning must always be seen as something attainable, otherwise students will quickly find the irrelevance in it and become unmotivated to do well.
Planning for instruction involves cross-disciplinary planning with other teachers, knowledge of where and how to get various resources for instruction, knowledge of how the students function in your class and what activities will aid in their development and which one's won’t, and it involves a high degree of adaptability both at various levels of time. For foreign language instruction, there are many organized communities on the internet that are there for specific foreign language instructions needs such as translated songs, where to get online Spanish menus, and so much more. One example of these is FLTEACH; an online email community that allows for foreign language teachers to ask and answer any questions/cries for help. Users put in a lot of effort to maintain the helpfulness of the community. In terms of cross-disciplinary planning, it is always useful for the student to see the same topic being discussed in slightly different ways in different classes. It let's the material get soaked up in their heads all the more effectively but it also exposes the students to different perspectives. For example, a high school history class could be discussing Native Americans near Maryland and in a Spanish class they could be discussing the indigenous people of central/south America. Students who are in both of those classes can see the diversity within different indigenous communities in all of the Americas, not just the America we live in.
The most important aspect of planning for instruction, I believe, is a knowledge of pedagogy and how it transfers to a larger scale: unit planning. This involves knowing how to break down themes of instruction and making sure that the order of everything is based in pedagogical research relating to a teacher’s specific field. For the field of foreign languages, to give an example, the most prominent and well agreed upon linguistic theory is the i+1 theory by Stephen Krashen. It essentially says that when teaching new material in a language, said material must be one step above what the language learners already know. The equation means that “i” is their current level and their ideal learning instruction should always be one more than that. To go too far ahead of their ability would discourage them and the material will not make sense to them, but to teach something too easy for them will make them disengaged. The same could be true for any material, not just languages. When planning instruction, a foreign language teacher must be acutely aware (I would argue more aware than say a Science class) of where the students are in their grasp of the target language. Language learning must always be seen as something attainable, otherwise students will quickly find the irrelevance in it and become unmotivated to do well.
Artifact: Directed Reading Lesson (DRL)
Please click the button to the right to learn about the artifact that accompanies this InTASC.
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