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.
I definitely see where you are coming from with some if not all the material not applying to certain content areas. Being the only p.e. major in the class I found myself in that situation a lot. I found myself resorting to my minor (English) often when giving examples etc. However, I was able to still relate pretty much everything back to p.e. just in the sense of how to teach in general. Maybe not so much the methods of doing so, but just the ideas of how to teach vocabulary, the importance of reading etc etc.
ReplyDeleteI actually think that critical literacy does relate to physical education. I know of many people who have gotten injuries because they accepted somebody else's recommendations without critically evaluated it. I think that, if you don't have critical literacy in PE, you could actually end up with injuries because you do not know how to make a judicious and research-based exercise plan for yourself.
ReplyDeleteAs a music educator I would have to agree with you on the point that this course can't be used as a blanket approach. Although all of the teaching styles taught throughout the semester are useful in their own right, much of the application can be very difficult. That is why I think most of the time a lot of the concepts were so broad in scope. Part of thinking critically with this class, I believe, is to find ways of using these techniques within the curriculum and content of our own area. It doesn't mean we have to use every technique we learned. I currently have a private instructor for my primary instrument who is always telling the bass studio that he doesn't have the answer to every problem. It is his job to help us find solutions to our own problems because everyone will learn a concept differently. Much of what we learned in this class will find application in our careers through trial and error. We will hold on to the things that work with our students and the things that don't work so well, we may have a student some day who needs to be taught that way.
ReplyDeleteSorry--I realized my typo in my last posting after reading Thomas's posting. What I said still holds true, though: If students don't learn how to critically evaluate health information, including various recommendations for work-outs, then this lack of critical literacy could lead to physical injuries. I know of two men who needed shoulder surgeries because they pushed their bodies too hard based on "advice" they had gotten on how to get more muscular. PE teachers can help students avoid these injuries through teaching them to be critical about all of the health claims that are out there.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you Clark, I think that the English majors did have an advantage to this course. It seemed like everything directly applied to them, as the other majors like you and myself, had to try harder to find the applicable elements.
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