Tuesday 8 January 2013

Reflections on What's Working (Junior French)


Some teaching practices ("traditional" and "non-traditional") I have found to be effective this year:

Relationship building: I haven't followed the 2 x 10 strategy as much this year, but I make sure I check in with students every class. Students often show up early or stay after class so this provides me an opportunity to get to know the students and I try to spend some time talking with (not necessarily helping) quiet students or struggling  students throughout the class.

Daily Quiz to start class. The quiz focuses students and provides students with an opportunity to review previous learning.

Choice on projects: By allowing students to choose what types of projects they do (and how they are marked to a certain extent) I am hoping that it increases engagement in the assignment and builds academic confidence by allowing students choose projects that cater to their strengths and interests.

Tests and Re-tests: Offering re-tests and splitting my tests into sections so students can choose which sections to re-do eases student anxiety and allows students to re-learn sections that they may not have understood the first time.

Reflections: I have had students write short reflections in English on their learning and on different aspects of the course throughout the term. I think it brings awareness to students about their abilities and will hopefully increase self-confidence while allowing students to realize what aspects of the course they need to improve on. I would like to implement more reflection pieces within my classes.

Games: It seems that this aspect of the course gets talked a lot about during Collaboration. It's a great way to spend more time with vocab/verbs in a manner that is enjoyable and engaging. When I asked students during a reflections time about their favourite activities in French many chose games such as pictionary, charades, fly swatter, verb relays, counting games, and card games as their favourite activities in French (especially when done outside).

Post Courtesy of Marcus Krieger

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