InTASC Reflection
The 8th InTASC deals with varying instructional strategies so that learners stay encouraged and motivated and that the knowledge that they are exposed to is retained in meaningful, context heavy ways. Instructional strategies are the ways in which content and learning is exposed to the children so that they will find meaning in it and eventually retain it.
In order to succeed in creating beneficial, motivating instructional strategies the teacher must be aware of the range of learners that are in any given classroom and must know how to adapt their instruction and their planning in order to most benefit the students. For example, if certain students in a language classroom are extremely, extremely shy of speaking in front of the whole classroom, steps must be taken to more slowly ease the anxiety of publicly speaking in the target language for that individual. If steps are not taken, a teacher would run the serious risk of losing that student altogether. This would be an example of someone's weakness in the classroom. Given the high dynamicness of language, foreign language teachers need to be highly aware of the many different departments that students can excel in or fall short in. This includes, but is not limited to, speaking, pronunciation, interpretive listening, interpretive reading, etc. Teachers must be able to collaborate with their students on what activities are suitable to their needs and what activities are more geared to practicing something that they may already excel in. This can be done through varying the types of resources offered for the students during a given activity. For example, if some students are struggling with interpretive listening, a video with native audio can be played with spanish subtitles for the classes that seem to be struggling more in this department.
This InTASC is extremely important in the foreign language classroom because of just how high the stakes are if students feel that they are getting behind or that they are not good enough. Learning a new language can be very difficult and it can put you on the spot, because at some point in time teachers will need to assess the students on their speaking ability. Measures can be taken to reduce anxiety but eventually, they need to speak. I can relate to this on a personal level. When I was in an intensive Kaqchikel language course in Guatemala during the summer of 2018, I felt first hand how awful it is to be overwhelmed in a language classroom. I was constantly not ready to speak and the expectations were set way too high for me and my classmates. What I learned was an abrupt reminder that students are going to pick up different aspects of the language at different times and at different paces. In that class I picked up the phonetics long before I began to understand patterns of grammar. I only wish the proper instructional strategies were used in Guatemala and maybe then I would be more inclined to continue studying Kaqchikel on my own.
Artifact: Lesson - Instructional Strategy
Please click the button to the right to learn about the artifact that accompanies this InTASC.
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