Blog #2 (FS18)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Vazquez on October 11, 2018 at 7:26pm

Hello Xochitl,
One can say that your presentation was great. You promised lots of grammar based culture. For example the video itself was a great way for students to discover the different types of linguistic language around the world. That video that you presented really helped your presentation. Talking about the different ways people agree with each other really helped your theory. Because many students come from around the world. This really help promote plenty of culture.I do believe that you should promote more grammar into your lesson and more binding which is very important for us L2 teacher candidates, but overall you and Gloria did a fascinating job.

Permalink Reply by Oscar Bustamante on October 21, 2018 at 11:43am

 Hi Xochitl, 

The lesson plan Gloria and you presented was very interesting. You fulfilled the approach of Register: formality and informality by showing the 2 videos where some native Spanish speakers of different countries show different ways to express greetings and farewells in Spanish. That shows that when talking Spanish language, there are two types of conversation: Formal and informal. I liked the activity where you asked the student what they caught from the video such as the new phrases and the countries where the speakers come from.  That is a way to catch students' interests. Since this teaching slice was just a presentation of a lesson plan and not the lesson itself, it had to be explained in English and not in Spanish. Overall, I enjoyed your presentation. Congratulations.

(128 words)

Permalink Reply by Margarita Mejia-Ramos on October 21, 2018 at 8:45pm

Hello Xiochi,

The ideas that were presented in class were incredible. As Cook states, many students learn differently and have different techniques of learning the concept differently. As it is stated, dividing the class between introverts and extroverts’ learners could have also been a great idea. However, one must keep in mind that educators want to differentiate the unit, but never compare students based on their learning. When it came to demonstrating culture in your lesson, the video that was displayed was excellent. It showed the different nationalities, dialects and different ways one says hello and goodbye. Perhaps, one could have focused on two countries, since one does not want to confuse students.

(113 words)

Permalink Reply by Maria Rodriguez on October 21, 2018 at 9:30pm

Hello Xochitl.
You and Gloria did a nice presentation. In the mini-lesson you were able to incorporate culture, contrast, communication, and community. Through the visualization of the video and the pictures you were able to differentiate the lesson. Also, the implementation of linguistic variation contributes to understand better the new input in the TL, in which students will be exposed to use formal and informal greeting in the TL. Also, students will have the opportunity to learn how to greet in different ways in the TL. Also, you were able to explain your topic. However, in the future, you and Gloria could incorporate more activities to motivate and engage students.(108)

Permalink Reply by David Vazquez on October 11, 2018 at 7:20pm

The lesson plan presented to the class consisted of a one day lesson plan, with three parts, which include production, practice, and presentation. The theory that was given was motivation and attitude. According to Cook (2008), the teacher must find different ways to motivate the students to learn and speak the L2. On the other side, their is the attitude, this tells us according to Cook, on the how the students react to it, as well as the teacher. How the teacher presents the lesson. One can say that the lesson met with the goals. The reason is because the lesson was about famous people’s jobs. This will motivate the students to work hard, and be inspired by them, telling them that they can do the same. The video that was presented also had information that made the famous people look fascinating. The work was mostly, grammar based. Students become motivated to learn this type of grammar, so that they may be able to communicate it verbally outside of the classroom, also for future jobs. The teachers attitude for this lesson must be enthusiastic, saying, “if they can do it, so can you!” What could've been done differently for a differentiated student is include more images in the “worksheets,” in other words binding. A word for word interpretation of the video could have been given to the students. Another way could be simply be promoting more group work, and implicit teaching. It was clear that the lesson was done very explicitly, which not all the time is good. One can say that culture was deeply promoted in this lesson because it evolved around the topic of Hispanic Heritage Month, and it talked about famous hispanic people from around the world. Although that is the case, a video of Selena Quintanilla singing could've been a great way to promote culture. It didn't all have to be about Hispanic personalities, it could have also been about famous people from around the community that have inspired others. Overall, the goal was meant, and culture was expressed thoroughly. One can say it did motivate the students. (350 Words)

Permalink Reply by Gloria Payne on October 14, 2018 at 6:34pm

Hi David, the lesson plan that you and Oscar created, in my opinion, was a real success. I liked that you and your partner Oscar, incorporated all the professions with the characters in a cartoon setting, it peeked my interest. In the presentation, you introduce to the students’ famous Latin figures such as Selena Quintana, Gabriel García Márquez and many others who rose to the top of their profession.  This piece introduces the cultural part that you were conveying. While doing so you were able to seamlessly incorporate the lesson plan which focuses on the use of conjugated verbs.  The practice exercises provided followed the core purpose, which was followed with the students working in pairs, which is a support mechanism that helps motivate each student. Everything was very clear and to the point. Overall, I was able to follow the lesson, of which both of you did an excellent job. (151 words)

 

Permalink Reply by Maria Sciortino on October 15, 2018 at 7:00pm

I liked the topic and it was perfect timing to talk about famous Hispanic people during Hispanic Heritage month. The microteaching was motivating, therefore one can say it reached the goal according to the concept of motivation and aptitude. (Cook, 2008) I don't think that the lesson was explicit because you and Oscar introduced the grammar in an implicit way, I can maybe be wrong but you introduced your topic through culture, not through grammar explanations. I think you did a great team job. I agree with you another video could have been added and Selena could have been the perfect example of Spanish personality to promote culture. (105)

Permalink Reply by Margarita Mejia-Ramos on October 21, 2018 at 9:04pm

Hello David,

One of the many things that is important to the students is motivation. A big question is how does one provide motivation when teaching a Second Language (L2). One must remind students of the different opportunities that one may gain from learning an L2 such as; studying abroad, when traveling, having more job opportunities, being able to understand other cultures and so on. Based on the ideas that were present, showing students famous Hispanic people who have amazing jobs was a great way to motivate students. One thing one must be careful about is the age of the students, for one does not want to show people from times that students will not be able to relate; for this can lose the students motivation. 

(126 words)

Permalink Reply by Maria Rodriguez on October 14, 2018 at 6:01pm

The mini lesson was based on ‘aptitude’. According to Krashen (1981a) suggests aptitude is important for ‘formal’ situations such as classrooms, and attitude is important for ‘informal’ real -world situations. Also, the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) implements the following main factors: Phonemic coding ability, Grammatical sensitivity, Inductive language learning ability, and Rote learning. These four factors contribute in the students’ success in the acquisition of the target language in the classroom.
At the begging of the lesson, students were introduced to adjective of personality traits by using an audio video clip. Through the visualization of the audio video clip, students were exposed to pictures related to adjectives as well as to listening to phonological sounds of the words. Then students had to identify the adjective and write it under the picture while listening to the audio video clip. This activity promotes phonemic coding in which students were able to use phonetic script to distinguish phonemes in the target language. Peter Skehan (1986,1998).
Practice, students engaged into a cooperative learning approach in which students had the opportunity to participate into interpersonal conversation and discuss about the personal traits of five Hispanic singers from the pictures. Then students engaged into writing segment in which they had to fill in the black of the sentences the personal traits of each Hispanic singer. This activity promoted Grammatical sensitivity, whether the student can pick out grammatical functions in the sentence. (Carroll, 1981).
Productivity, students had the opportunity to work in pairs and talk about their personality traits. Then they had to write a self-descriptive poem. This activity promoted Inductive language learning ability in which students had the ability to generalize patterns from one sentence to another. (Carroll, 1981).
Overall, the objective of the lesson was met because the audio video clip and the writing material were of students’ interest and learning level. However, this lesson would be differentiated by implementing individualized video clip of different Hispanic people in which they describe their personalities traits. Though the visualization of the video clips, students would have a better understanding of the new input in the target language.

Permalink Reply by David Vazquez on October 14, 2018 at 7:21pm

Hello Maria,
Your presentation was great. You did a very good job in connecting real life with class work. I like how you went outside of the school, to culturally visit the community. Showing a video really helped your presentation. It will allow for students to listen, and understand better the lexicon. The video contained sound and visuals which is great for a differentiated student. Although it was great, visuals are always necessary for any daily lesson plan. Even if it is just teaching grammar, visuals will really help the student. Overall, your presentation hit the theory, and would work well in a real life situation.

Permalink Reply by Gloria Payne on October 14, 2018 at 6:08pm

Hello All:

Xochitl and I worked at creating a lesson plan for level one students with a concentration on personality by drawing out different personality trait.  The approach was to identify whether the student displayed an introvert or extrovert personality trait and create our lesson plan that was effective to be inclusive of all students. This followed Cook position on personality and its uses with L2 students to create an open invitation for student interest. Further our purpose was to invite the student and make them feel welcome through participation.   In our video presentation, we made sure to provide the student with how various Hispanic culture greet each other.  This was to highlight the cultural portion of the lesson that displayed various Hispanic demographic, which I believe we successfully communicated.  This was followed by asking students questions about the video they had just watched.  I believe this was a success in that we were able to get student participation, as well as test their ability on what they had retained.  The coordination of the video in conjunction with our hand-outs was effective and was able to reinforce our core lesson objective on various form of greetings and farewells in the target language (TL).

As we concluded our presentation and had time to digest I determined that there were several areas for possible improvement. One way to improve our lesson plan would be to create an opportunity for students to apply what they have learned, by having them greet each other with the vernacular taught in our practice.  Additionally, we could have enhanced our overall engagement by adapting to the varied personalities of our students.  Doing so we would benefit by pinpointing the introvert and extrovert within the class.  This would benefit the lesson plan overall by allowing us to gauge student interactions.  These and other feedback received within the class were helpful and will be implemented in future lesson plans. Overall, in my opinion, the presentation went well. (Words 328)

Permalink Reply by Maria Sciortino on October 15, 2018 at 7:31pm

was perfect for two reasons, one because the video showed how people in different latino countries greet other people and then because showed the difference in formal and informal forms of greeting. Probably you could have added an activity at the end, in the production phase, such as: in pair create a  dialogue using the appropriate greeting.T his activity could have been useful to put in practice what it was learned through the lesson.
Xochti mentioned dividing the class into groups-introverted and extroverted-but I think it is better if students get mixed because they complement each other. (115)

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