Blog #8: Video project, Part 2 (due preferably by Friday, 4/13/12 by 8 AM, latest by Sunday, 4/15/12)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jessica Richardson on April 13, 2012 at 4:27am

My video is here: http://youtu.be/CrOTU9AAglE

I will put up the reflection with it tomorrow.

Permalink Reply by Jessica Richardson on April 14, 2012 at 4:30pm

            I can definitely watch this video in comparison to the first one and say that my teaching has greatly improved and that I work much harder to be student centered. I think the kids liked this lesson much more because they got the chance to speak with one another, I asked unfamiliar things of them (but things that they could do with a fairly low level of guidance. This fell within i + 1, whereas the last activity I did in a video lesson was much too hard for them, and they got pretty frustrated.) Also, this material was more interesting because it introduced the grammar in a top down way, game them a chance to form opinions, and let them use a visual medium. I would have liked the overall class discussion to go better. This class is still fairly quiet, although they have improved. I would like to work on differentiating my instruction for my shier students. My other classes loved calling out answers, but even with the cards and prepping ahead of time, they students are so afraid to be wrong.

            The main part of this video is a jigsaw activity where kids have to use the guiding questions on the board to analyze the advertisements. After going through the steps of the jigsaw, we discussed the ads as a class, which may have run a little long. I just wanted the guide the kids into discovering the new grammar. I would have liked to include something in the jigsaw about the grammar, so that maybe they could actually discover it on their own. Then we took some written notes on it, with some practices and exercises included.

            My objectives for the lesson, at least relating to this part were “students learn about tú commands through authentic sources” and “students understand the difference in formal and informal commands.” I believe both of these objectives were accomplished since I covered all the material, they seemed to understand, and they did very well on their quiz on commands.

            This class is generally very low in the classroom management department. To keep them on task though I walked around the room, always ensuring that I am available to answer questions for the kids that particularly struggle. They stayed pretty on task, but I would have liked to give more proactive help so that they would feel prepared to participate more in the discussion.

            With all of my classes, my goal is more Spanish. I would like to require it more, like of Margaret who is capable of answering my questions in Spanish, but they class is so quiet as it is; I don’t want them to feel any further pressure of making mistakes. Also, I have noticed that my co-teacher uses a lot of English with them and that she does not require a high level of comprehension with them. When I begin as a teacher that will be an expectation in my class from day one; students will know that they will have to listen and respond in Spanish, but that it is okay to make mistakes and that I will help them along.

            Generally though I am quite pleased with this video. I am much more comfortable with the class, and I am up at the front much less that I was before. The last video was me trying to explain to them a task that was far too difficult and relied to heavily on students listening. This lesson met more student needs, although I would have liked to have them up at the board more as well. In the future, I would like students to be moving boxes, writing answers, and showing pictures on the ActivBoard, but I think that it is a step in the right direction.

Permalink Reply by Richard Barrett on April 25, 2012 at 1:25pm

"This fell within i + 1, whereas the last activity I did in a video lesson was much too hard for them, and they got pretty frustrated.)"

 

I like your incorporation of Krashen into your reflection.  I remember a number of instances in my class where my students were getting frustrated for the very same reason. 

"Also, this material was more interesting because it introduced the grammar in a top down way"

 I like the mention of the top-down approach as well.

 

"This class is still fairly quiet, although they have improved. I would like to work on differentiating my instruction for my shier students. My other classes loved calling out answers, but even with the cards and prepping ahead of time, they students are so afraid to be wrong."

I bet that is frustrating; I don't really have any problems about my students being shy; in the morning they're mostly just tired.  Your last sentence harkens back to the Damato seminar at the SCAFLTA conference.  How/why is it that we in education have taught students that making mistakes is wrong and something to be embarassed about?  I wish we could somehow get it into students' and teachers' heads that making mistakes is how we learn; trial and error.

 "With all of my classes, my goal is more Spanish."

From what I've seen from the other reflections and comments, I think it is safe to say that this is something we all want but recognize the challenges in implementing it in a classroom that is not ours.

 "The last video was me trying to explain to them a task that was far too difficult and relied to heavily on students listening. This lesson met more student needs, although I would have liked to have them up at the board more as well. In the future, I would like students to be moving boxes, writing answers, and showing pictures on the ActivBoard, but I think that it is a step in the right direction."

Yes!  A good way to get students actively involved in their learning; this way it puts some of the responsibility on them and takes some of the pressure off of you. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by Ben Campbell on April 13, 2012 at 9:05pm

here is the video link i will write the reflection either tomorrow or sunday!

http://youtu.be/3yFdtfzSlco

Permalink Reply by Ben Campbell on April 15, 2012 at 7:01pm

First let me start out by saying these videos have been very helpful in showing me my progress over the past few months.  By no means am I perfect (there is still lots to improve on) but I can see many improvements from the first video.  I felt like I utilized the class period better than last time, I felt like I had more of the students attention, and I felt like I was better prepared and more confident in what I was doing.  I think my biggest strength is connecting with the students and understanding them.  I have never felt disconnected from them and I have never felt nervous getting up in front of them.  I also feel like I do a good job with classroom management.  We rarely have any disruptions and this just may be because they are such good kids, but I feel like I do a good job of eliminating the opportunities for disruption.  One last strength is that I feel like I do a good job of getting them involved or at least getting there attention.  Even though the video didn't show a lot of student interaction between each other, the students were still engaged because I was able to use them in the lesson and I made them curious to see what was coming up next.  My understanding of the Promethean software allows me to be creative with my lessons and it keeps them wanting to see what comes up next.  However, that being said I think one of my weaknesses with this lesson was that I didn't let them interact.  I wish I would have allowed them to come up and answered the questions and done more with the board instead of everybody sitting in their seats watching me write on the board.  Getting the students to interact with one another is something I have been really trying to work on and include in the lessons and it has gotten better but I still feel like not everyone is interacting.  A lot of times they will just copy down the answers or ask the questions in English.  The importance of students interacting in the TL is something that I need to stress with my students and that I need to do a better job of.  Another big weakness in my teaching is my lack of Spanish usage.  Some days we will be doing great.  I will speak 70% in spanish and they seem to understand me, but other days they don't want to listen to it and I'd rather not fight them so I give in.  Also, a lot of times it seems like it would be easier to just explain them something in English but I know this doesn't really help them.  So something I really want to work on, especially in my future classes is to utilize the TL a lot more and begin from day one speaking it so they get use to it.  One last strength that I have noticed from watching my videos is that I think I do a good job of giving them feedback.  Whether it is saying that they did a good job or nicely asking them how they came up with that answer, I believe I do a good job of staying away from just getting snippy and saying "NO YOU ARE WRONG! WHY CAN'T YOU PAY ATTENTION AND LEARN IT!" (Yes i admit sometimes i want to say this because my students won't pay attention and ask the same questions over and over again...but I don't :) )  Overall, I feel like my teaching has improved over the semester but there is always room for improvement!

Looking at the lesson itself, I already mentioned that I felt like I did a good job of getting there attention and getting them interested but I failed to get everyone really involved and using the language.  I guess most of the class would respond to my questions but I wanted more interaction between the students.  We had been learning about the perfect tenses and this particular day we were discussing el pluscuamperfecto.  So what I did on the board was set up something similar to a story about some of the students in the class and had them doing different things in different places.  Then the students would respond to me by saying in spanish what one person had done before something else happened.  So this kept them engaged and they really had fun but I feel like I could have done more with getting them involved.  One thing that was not on the video, because the battery died was at the end of class in the last 15ish minutes we tried doing a pairs check on the class work but it really turned into me finding the students just coping down the answers of the students who actually do the work.  But I think this would have worked if I had done it earlier in the class period and stressed the importance of it.

Going into the lesson my goal was that by the end of the class period my students would be able to explain in spanish the things they have done and had done using the perfect tenses.  I wanted them to feel comfortable expressing themselves in the TL and for the most part I think they accomplished that goal.  They very quickly mastered the perfect tenses through writing and were able to write practically anything the wanted, and although it took a while for them to get comfortable actually producing it orally they were able to confidently tell me things that they have done and or had done while still understanding the difference.

Regarding classroom management I feel like I rarely have any problems and I don't know if that is because I do a good job or if they are just good students.  One thing I noticed was that I tried to have something going at all times so there was no chance for them to really get of track. The times when I have most trouble with them staying on task is in the last 5 minutes of class because at that point they like to think they are done with class...mainly because it is the last class of the day so I understand they are tired and ready to be at home.

I have already mentioned the usage of Spanish, but I will briefly comment again.  I try to use Spanish but it seems like they never attempt to speak it to me or to each other.  Even with the native students I'll speak to them in Spanish and they will respond to me in English.  In order to really change this, I think this is something I'd have to stress at the beginning of the school year because 3/4's of the way through the year it's hard to change what they are accustomed to.

In conclusion, this video and this time of reflection has been very beneficial for me.  It has forced me to think about ways I can continue to improve.  So number one, I want to improve my usage of the TL in the classroom.  Number two, I want to encourage my students to use more of the TL with me and with each other.  Number three, I want my classroom to be even more student-centered.  Lastly, I want to continue to make my class engaging and fun

Permalink Reply by Jessica Richardson on April 17, 2012 at 12:30pm

Ben, you already said in your reflection most of what I was wanting to say: more TL, more student centered, all of that. All those things you mentioned in your reflection are very important, but I do understand how difficult it can be. However, I did want to say that you rock that technology! That is the best flipchart I have ever seen and I loved that you incorporated the students into it and things were visually engaging and frequently changing. I do think that helps them stay interested and focused. I need to learn some of those tricks and would love to incorporate them into my teaching because that would be such a cool basis for games. Also, your confidence in the classroom is clear, as is your rapport with students. They clearly know you and are comfortable with you.
One thing that I would have done differently is not only give them more opportunities to interact at the board, but also give them more time to work on the exercises. Could they have done something like that in groups? That way, there could be a slight change-up in the format of the class? Or they could write it individually and then tell you, so that some of the students that need more processing time could come up with an answer before another student said an answer.
One other thing, which doesn't really relate to you teaching, is how involved your teacher still is in the class. My teacher refuses to speak or participate when I am teaching, so I wonder how that affects the class. Are they constantly looking to her as the authority? However, it didn't seem to phase you at all, and your teaching style is very calm, so it's not a big deal. I was just so surprised by that! 

Permalink Reply by Ben Campbell on April 16, 2012 at 3:46pm

Katie!  I enjoyed watching you teach!  First let me start by saying I really like the classroom arrangement!  The circle is really great and I think it would really promote learning and also eliminate some disruptions.  Also, I think it is really awesome that you sat in the circle with them! I think this is part of the reason it seems that you have a great connection with your students!  Just from 15 minutes it looks like your students really respect you and this is important for your teaching to be effective.  Along the lines of this your compliments to the students are great too.  It is important for your students to feel like they have accomplished something and that they have done something well.  

One thing I'd say and you already mentioned in your reflection and I know you know...is the usage of Spanish.  I struggle with the same exact thing.  But maybe what you can do is for some of the compliments (which i heard at some points) say them in Spanish and some of the basic instructional commands use spanish.  I struggle with the same thing so you are not alone!  Regarding the activity i thought it was great and engaging, but I felt like when they got up and presented they started in spanish and then switched to english.  Maybe be more insistent that they try to present in Spanish.  However I do like you had them all engaged and they all seemed to have done their work.

Permalink Reply by Richard Barrett on April 22, 2012 at 2:03pm

Here are the links to my videos for the second part of my video project. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77ZeEiV5nLs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fcW0vfuOts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J78mCGKW2v8       

 

I feel that my strengths in regards to my teaching style lie the domain of classroom management with my use of movement and proxemics—the use of space to convey meaning; I move around the class quite a lot; I also try to use my body language in a way so as to subtly elicit the wanted behavior by simply moving close to the student in question.  I also make use of vocal corrections when my non-vocal attempts to correct the students don’t work or are usable during a given situation.  In addition, I frequently ask students if they have questions, and when I do, I give them a considerable amount of time to think before moving on.

            Some things I could work on have mostly to do with the voicing of expectations for my students.  When initiating such activities as peer editing, I would have done better to remind them of how they were to behave during the activity as well as what they were to be doing.  I would also greatly benefit from reminding the students to stay on task throughout the assigned activity and giving them benchmarks for where they should be at a certain given time.  Although I have made a dramatic improvement in terms of making my classroom more student centered since my first video, I still fell I have a ways to go.

           One of the instructional techniques used in this segment is a guided review; the student and I go through a paragraph together and determine whether the use of the preterite or imperfect would make more sense.  I feel that this was pretty successful because this way the students were doing most of the work themselves without them floundering on their own.  Another instructional technique that I use later is to have the students work on their own with writing their memory-stories and using peer editing.  I feel in theory that this technique should have worked, but in execution it didn't quite live up to my expectations because many of the students were not on task.

           In regards to my use of Spanish, it is minimal.  I'm going to attribute this to the nature of the content that I was teaching.  In the future, I would like to be able to use more Spanish with my students, but I feel that given the students' background in Spanish, they weren't ready to have instruction entirely in Spanish.

          Some things I would like to keep working on is my use of Spanish in the classroom as well as my use of student-centered teaching techniques.