TASK #4

Important Note: Dr. Clarke you will notice many similarities between my answers for this task and those of Carmen, and the reason in not that I am copying her work but we both went through the option7 Program for World language teachers at NKU, and we both work with JCPS, and also we are both part of a team of world language elementary teachers designing a framework that is language neutral. So we have the same goals and we are working on improving same areas.

What was that domain? Why did you choose this domain?

I chose this domain because as I stated I am part of group of teachers in JCPS designing a framework. A knowledgeable and well prepared teacher can contribute the success of the students. And also because I see that I have much room for improvement in this area.

Which component from this domain are you most comfortable with?

The component that I feel the most comfortable with is in demonstrating knowledge of content and pedagogy. Even though French is my first language teaching it and passing the knowledge on to my students was not and still not an easy task. Knowing the language doesn’t guarantee that a person can teach it and that’s why I had to become certified. I went trough a range of pedagogy courses to gain delivery skills. Now that I have gained more classroom management skills and had learned more about the children’s cognitive development, and the different factors that affect the teaching/learning. Teaching French to English speaker had helped me reflect even deeper on the structure of the French language, and helped me find similarities between the two languages and therefore finding way to tie both of them together and demonstrate to my students that they can learn it.

Which component from this domain do you believe most strongly ties to instruction?

I believe that setting instructional outcomes is the strongest tie to instruction. When designing a unit of study in general and each lesson in particular, the outcomes and the goals should be clearly set. The backward design is the best example that supports the importance of setting the instructional outcomes and its positive impact on the learning. In the past world language teachers used to teach so many things without asking themselves why do I teach what I teach? For example for so long world language teachers had taught the Alphabet as a start and in isolation, they don’t have a solid argument for teaching the alphabet in isolation. The students memorize the alphabet at the end, but what are they going to do with it is the question that the teacher should ask him/herself.

Which component from this domain would you like to zero in on in your own instruction?

As I stated before I have made progress in managing my class and delivering lessons. But a big part of teaching is assessing, and if the assessment is not done the way it should, the teachers will not know how to proceed or even end up with conflicting data. Therefore I chose to focus on designing student assessments.

Question to my group.
How do you go about touching down on the multiple intelligences when designing a lesson?