Topic: National Standards and Learning Scenarios

Module 02 (July 06 - July 08)


Reading
 

Topic Questions:

  • How do we put the National Standards into practice through the design of learning scenarios?
  • How can teachers use learners' needs to plan for instruction?
  • How can learning scenarios be incorporated into the curriculum?

Textbook readings:

  • Shrum/Glisan
    • Chapter 3, pp. 66-94
    • Chapter 4, pp. 95-126
  • Lee/Van Patten National Standards Project (for reference)

As You Read:

  1. Consider the new paradigm for instructional planning which assumes the use of a variety of materials beyond the textbook and ongoing performance assessments of student progress toward meeting the National Standards.
  2. Be able to discuss and explain, Oller's Episode Hypothesis, the use of authentic texts, content-based instruction, the Atlas Complex, advance and graphic organizers, learning centers, and cooperative learning.
  3. Consider how these elements contribute to the formulation of a new, Standards-based, instructional model for teaching foreign languages K-12.


Assignments

Discussion:
  • Respond (written) to the following two "Pause to Consider" Wimba Discussion Board questions adopted from the Lee/Van Patten text by July 7, 5 PM
  • Also, respond (written) to at least ONE posting of another student by July 8, 10 PM
  • Your responses should be between five and ten sentences per question.
  • Each response is worth 10 points; total of 30 points
  • The Wimba Discussion Board (written and voice) is accessible from the FL505 Wimba page. Use your Unity email address (Unity ID@ncsu.edu) for both your Login AND Password. (You can change your password after you login for the first time.) If you have used Wimba before, and you changed your password, then use that password. If you have forgotten the password, let me know and I can reset it.
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    Pause To Consider:

    1) How conscious we are of our skills and strategies. Reread Rost's lists of skills and strategic responses (pp. 200-201 of Lee/Van Patten). Do you think we engage these skills and strategies consciously or unconsciously? In other words, are these things we just do or are they things we have to think about and then do? Are you able to engage these skills and strategies equally in your first and second languages?

    2) The relevance of classroom listening to non classroom listening. Think back to the first time you listened to the second language in a non classroom setting. What were the characteristics of that listening situation? Did your classroom experiences prepare you for the non classroom experience?
    Written:
  • Prepare and submit 3 of the 4 assignments below via email, based on the Shrum & Glisan reading assignment; #1 and #3 are required
  • Each writing assignment is worth 20 points; total of 60 points
  • (Although the taped mini-lesson that you teach will be submitted as part of your portfolio at the end of the semester, complete the taping by July 8, and indicate that you have done so as part of your written response to #3.
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    Written assignments ( All 3 questions, due by July 8, 10 PM, via email):

    1. Write out your response to Episode One on p. 87 of the Handbook. Instead of the Nebraska Foreign Language Frameworks, you may wish to use the North Carolina Second Language Studies Curriculum on which to base your lesson plans.
    2. Prepare and write out the "To prepare for class discussion" items for Case Study One on pp. 88-92 of the Handbook. Be sure to read the necessary research articles listed for this case in the book by using the NCSU Libraries eReserves for this course.
    3. Prepare and send either Episode One or Episode Two in the Teach and Reflect section on pp. 120-121 of The Handbook. Next, using a Digital Video camera (or other video recording device), record at least five minutes of you teaching the lesson you prepared. (You may or may not have access to actual language students for this recording. It may be family, friends, cardboard cutouts or ghost students! Do your best regardless.) Save this video file on your computer using a free program such as Windows Movie Maker or iMovie. The basic steps are: 1) Use a digital video camera to record you teaching your mini-lesson; 2) Connect the digital video camera to your computer; 3) Use a free program such as Windows Movie Maker or iMovie to import your video; 4) Save your movie onto your hard drive or onto a CD-ROM, following the directions that accompany the program you use. This and two more recordings will become part of your portfolio. You can either upload the video to YouTube.com and send me the links, or you can save all three on the same CD-Rom and send it to the following address: Scott Despain, Campus Box 8106, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8106. Three recordings must arrive before August 4.
    4. Prepare and reflect upon Case Study Two on pp. 122-123 of the Handbook. Write out your response to the case study being sure to base it upon your readings of the cited articles (available through the NCSU Libraries eReserves for this course) and the questions listed on p. 123.


    Looking Ahead

    ARP:

    You may want to consider using the idea in the section entitled "Getting a Closer Look: Research Activities" on p. 216 of Lee/Van Patten as the basis for your Action Research Project, due at the end of the session.