Assignments

1. Essay on Reflective Practice. (Individual Assignment)

Reflective teacher-practitioners understand both what they do in their classrooms, and why they do it. The rationale that informs teaching practice is based upon theory, professional and content knowledge, and intuitive knowledge drawn from personal experience.

A primary goal of reflection is to better understand one's self and to impact positive change in one's teaching behaviors. Writing a reflective essay will allow you to organize your thinking about your past and present language teaching and language learning experiences and to incorporate into your thinking new insights and information that you have acquired about ESL issues and pedagogy during the past several months.

As you begin this course, you will explore, in writing, your reflections upon topics and issues in ESL that impact your teaching and/or that we have explored in the program thus far. This opportunity for reflection will also help you begin to draft your own rationale for many of the current teaching and learning strategies critical in the field of ESL which you may be called upon to share with your administrators and colleagues, as well as with your students and their parents.

2. Share Fair Presentation (Individual or partner assignment)

We teachers attribute "lack of time" as a definite barrier to effective collaboration with our peers. Because of this, we may be unaware of our colleague's outstanding teaching ideas, and we many often find ourselves 'reinventing the wheel,' in our efforts to come up with creative ways to present course material or to engage students in learning.

One way to share and acquire quality teaching ideas from our colleagues is through an interactive "Share Fair," during which participants present successful teaching ideas from their classrooms. During the "Share Fair," each of us will have the opportunity to gain a variety of new ideas which we may take and adapt to our own specific teaching contexts.

3. Inquiry: Our Own Questions (Individual or partner assignment)

We teachers also attribute "lack of time" as a barrier to exploring questions we have about our teaching and our profession. The school year is often too busy with planning, grading, testing, and being involved with our kids to allow us the luxury of reading and reflecting on our own questions. In addition to the issues we examine in class together, you have the opportunity to design your own assignment.

Many of you have sent us topics and questions that you would like to know more about but which can't all be covered within the time constraints of our summer course. Choose one of your own questions to research, and share what you find out with us. You choose the question and the way you will present it. (Scary, huh?)

Your rubric will include your rationale for choosing this topic, your research journey, and a description of how this information and the process you engaged in will be useful for you and other teachers of ELL students.

4. Thematic Unit + Lesson Plans (Unit Collaborative/Lesson Plans Individual)

The Thematic Unit will allow you and your partner(s) to develop a plan for an integrated thematic study in several content areas which are relevant in your teaching situation. This project should clearly incorporate the theories and concepts you have learned throughout the program and should also demonstrate your abilities to appropriately adapt this unit of study to the learning needs of your ELL students. Your grade will depend, in part, upon your successful integration of ESL theory and practice into your plans.

In addition to your collaborative efforts in designing the overview for the unit, each member of your team will develop three lesson plans for the unit appropriately modified for use with the ESL students that you anticipate working with during the upcoming school year.

Because our actual class time is so brief, a physical, hard copy of the thematic unit may be turned in at the SLTI (on July 8th or 9th), but it is due no later than Friday, July 29, 2005. To back up the hard copy, please also post an electronic copy of the unit in the Oncourse drop box.

C. Grading & Rubrics

Last updated: August 12, 2005
Interdisciplinary Collaborative Program
Comments: lasincla@indiana.edu