Welcome to the portal page for participants of the first week of the 2016 NOVASTARTALK Summer Institute. We will use this page to communicate assignments, updates and announcements. Please use the comment area at the bottom of this page to discuss with your fellow participants. Get started by looking through the announcements below.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Before we meet at the Alexandria Campus (Bisdorf Building Room 334A) on Monday, June 13 for our first day, we have three short tasks that we ask you to complete.
One: Introduce Yourself!
We have created a digital wall for you to introduce yourself to the other participants using a program called Padlet.
- Go to the Padlet page at https://padlet.com/agunder/ns2016
- Click on a blank part of the map to open a text box.
- Write your name in the title line.
- Introduce yourself, telling us where you teach, what language you teach and something about you. Feel free to write in the target language.
- (Optional) Attach an image of yourself using one of the icons on the bottom of the text box.
If you need help with Padlet or want a demo of how to post, watch this quick video:
Two: Review and Discuss This Video
As an icebreaker, please watch this video posted below. After watching, scroll to the bottom of this page and write a discussion post using the comment area that says Leave a reply. List three things that you learned from the video.
Make sure to complete these tasks before you come on the first day, as there will be a special announcement made for those that finish beforehand!
GETTING TO THE INSTITUTE
NOVASTARTALK will start on Monday morning at 9:00 am in room 334A of the Bisdorf building of NOVA Alexandria. Please park your car on the top outdoor parking deck across from the Bisdorf Building. If you come in from Leesburg Pike, there is a stop sign right before the Parking deck on Dawes Avenue. You’ll go to the right and up to the designated area in the top deck. Do not park anywhere else on campus to avoid a ticket. Our instructional aids (Imad and Cody) will be on the corner to direct you to the spot. Do not arrive before 8:30 am or if you do, please visit cafeteria on ground floor.
If you are coming from the Ballston or the King Street metro on the NOVA shuttle, be sure to use NOVA Shuttle Route B which goes directly to the Alexandria Campus. The shuttle will stop at the Bisdorf building. Go up to Room 334A where our class will meet. Please leave early enough to arrive by 9:00. Leave plenty of time for transportation to be able to gauge just how much time you’ll need each day. We want everyone to start learning at 9:00 sharp each day.
http://www.nvcc.edu/shuttle/
Interesting things from the video: I suspected that “individual moves” of a teacher may not be readily visible to an observer, but it was nice to hear this affirmed by the video. Similarly, the video said that each core practice must be broken down and taught to teachers in detail, and that the teachers would not be able to reproduce the core practices simply by observing them. And the video suggested that core practices need to be rehearsed and coached by an experienced teacher. It can be hard to come by this coaching, so I am glad there is Startalk! Core practices tell you not so much what to do, but how to do it–an important distinction.
Core practices promote teaching for understanding with Virtual Learning Module (VLM) created by ACTFL. The pedagogy on how to teach requires much learning process and hand-on practices with the coaching of experienced teachers. The video inspires me to reflect on the following:
1. All teachers and students are committed to learning
2. Actively engaged in planning, assessing, learning
3. The classroom is a lively, dynamic, reflective and intelligent place
4. Teachers familiar with child development, learning, aware of students’ needs
5. Students are valued and respected
6. Teachers facilitates the process of students to becoming initiators
7. Integrate with technology, iPads, Smartboards to enhance authentic learning
8. Increasing collaboration, student-learning outcomes, planning that builds upon students’ prior knowledge
9. Increasing a range of balance of teaching strategies, grouping and regrouping students for a variety of learning situations
10. Viewing students as thinkers by empowering them
11. Using a range and balance of assessment strategies and tools
Very educational video.. It reminds me and makes me respect a teachers job more. The level of intricacies and work put in is commendable.
Perspective plays an important role as to how best we can view the children as the ones empowering also the right range of balance in the planning involved are only the tip of the iceberg.
Making it interactive fun and engaging lessons with maximum learning makes for a successful session.
Let’s reflect together – based on Dr. Esa’s presentation, how will you integrate the World Readiness Standards into your teaching practice?
I liked the chart on the pathway to success and would like to show it to my students on the first day of class as well, because many of my students feel some anxiety about progressing to higher levels of the language. Via the NYU Hindi teacher training, I am familiar with the five C’s already as well as the three forms of communication, and since I have received some training at B.U., many of my class activities already do address these standards. However, I need to focus more on backward design as I haven’t always planned every lesson thinking explicitly that way. Also, I generally teach Heritage students, so teaching culture is sometimes a challenge at the first-year level. The students are generally very familiar with basic culture, and it can be hard to address more subtle cultural issues with novice-level language. Once the students get to second semester, it gets a bit easier to address culture in a meaningful way, but I would like to learn more strategies to address relatively complex concepts that would interest Heritage students during first semester.
I have created extensive syllabi for every course I teach. I always list my learning objectives based on the World Readiness Standards and also a list of way how these objectives will be met (assessment). I also give the students rubrics for how I will evaluate their writing and speaking assignments, but also the films they will create or stories/ poems/ books they will write. They know ahead of time what I expect them and what they will be able to do at the end of each week, each module and the semester.
It is great to see the tried and tested rubric and models that..
1.are readily available online
2.Now that I am exposed to it, I cant wait to use them in the class room.
I have been trying to use only Hindi in the class while teaching and know that it works wonders I will be using the journey and talk about it to convey to students, that there is a foolproof method which will yield desired results.
I can’t wait to learn more and apply the 5 C’s and agree with Dr.Esa “Culture’s” place is in the middle and that is what binds it all together.
A Mudra ArtsCenter we take into consideration the American culture the children are brought up in and club it through apps and games making it more interactive and fun filled educational sessions for all the levels.
World-readiness standards definitely helps to set a framework for teachers to organize and assess the learning opportunities that he or she designs for the students. I highly agree with the standpoint that the target language should be used 90% of time, if not all the time, however, in practice, I feel the Culture part is a little bit challenge, especially for the novice level. On one hand, there is rich culture behind a simple product or practice that students are supposed to learn about, on the other hand, the students are constrained by their proficiency level to use the language when investigating, explaining or reflecting on the relationship between the practice and perspective or products and perspective. I guess imply put, how do we set appropriate standard/expectation for culture learning at novice level ?
I think I was asking the same question! I like how you phrased it.
The World Readiness standards for learning languages is very important to the central role in developing competence to communicate effectively and interact with cultural competence. It makes the classes come alive to experience authentic comprehensible input and output. Creating sample learning scenarios, role plays and learning experiences help address the standards.
This video gives a new perspective of language teaching in a classroom. It is interesting to the know the concept of core teaching practices and their impact on effective learning experiences. Each core practice is a complex detailed process of teaching that focuses on multiple moves of providing information including discussion, reading, interpreting questions,webinars and many other activities in the class room.
Core practices help powerful learning and advance student learning by providing coaching, rehearsals and direct interaction.
To learn a new language is an understanding combination of communication, cultures, connections, comparisons and communities. Every student is unique with different background and learning motivation. We need to find customized teaching methods to help them become successful on the path to learn the new language. I have a student who studies at a medical school. I usually ask him about what he learned in the past week. We do the role play as a doctor and a patient. We also talk about the differences to be a doctor between in China and in the USA. Learning is fun. Keep in mind to use 5 “C”!
yes communication is the key to bring people closer to learn from each other talk in any need, share their good and bad days.language is the bridge in human relationship,through this path we can bring world closer people can understand better other cultures,values,holidays and will find world mor beautiful and worth living.