I think a lot of us had a difficult time with this class, especially those in disciplines like music, art or physical education. I think the people who had the easiest time with assignments and applying these strategies were English majors. As a French teacher I had a difficult time trying to see how I can truly apply the teachings and strategies that we learned throughout the semester. That said, I DID learn some valuable information and things that I can implement or modify to help students learn in my classroom.
I think one of the major contributors to my teaching practices was learning more about digital literacy and critical literacy. I want my students to explore the vast amount of information that there is in French and francophone culture. I won't be able to take students to see these cultures firsthand, but with the internet I can show them up-to-date information from around the globe. I remember when I was in high school, we just took the out-dated textbook, and the teacher's view for face value and never questioned any of it. I want my students to know about other subcultures within the broad culture.
As far as learning vocabulary, I am going to be teaching very specific, very simple vocabulary in French. It is the "learn-as-you-go" method to teaching. Just as we learned English by hearing others speak and people speaking slowly to us, my students will learn vocabulary and verbal skills as they need them.
Conversation and communication are the most important elements in my teaching philosophy. After every section the students will have the opportunity to speak and use the vocabulary and knowledge that they just learned. This reinforces the grammatical rules and helps the students remember words.
I want to critically reflect on this class, because that is what I was taught to do and what I am supposed to teach my students. I will be honest, but not rude: I don't think this class should be for every discipline. I don't believe that there is a "cookie-cutter" course that blankets all subject matters. I don't believe that every single item that we covered applies to every classroom. For example, I can not see how critical literacy applies to physical education. I never once read text for P.E. classes growing up. The point is to get physical activity, but I understand that you will learn new "vocabulary" if you are learning things like "run a route." I also don't think this applies to music much at all. You go to music class to learn how to play an instrument. I played the trombone in middle school. If I had to read texts, study vocabulary, and write reports on the trombone, I would have dropped band in a heartbeat.
I did enjoy this class though, not because of the subject matter but because of the people in the class. I liked seeing how other people can apply these teachings in their own discipline I know some students did not like this class because they didn't know how it applied to them. I did learn things that I want to adapt to be able to work in my classroom, but everything that was covered (in my opinion) does not apply to me.
