Technology Integration Plan: Stereotypes (French)

             For my Spreadsheet matrix, I believe that the lesson plan I have, aligns perfectly with the Core Curriculum Standards/ NET-S Standards, the teaching strategies and the supporting technologies used.   My lesson plan from last semester now incorporates technology to be used in class. My lesson plan deals with the idea of stereotypes. In this lesson plan, my students will be asked to brainstorm some ideas about what comes to their mind when they think of France, and discuss their ideas in a group. Then, as a class, we will watch 20 different French commercials from YouTube, and have the students then discuss in their groups, if and how their views of France changed after watching the commercials. They will record the comparisons and contrasts between their views on France, before and after viewing the commericals, on Microsoft Word. Finally, the students will be asked to think about some American stereotypes, and then compare and contrast their previous stereotypes about France with the common stereotypes people have about the United States. The students will be noting their comparisons and contrasts again on a Microsoft Word document. After they have discussed and typed up their answers in their groups, we will come together on a class and discuss what comparisons and contrasts we have made about the two. 

Since my students are going to be discussing their views on France both before and after watching the French commercials, this aligns perfectly with the Core Curriculum Standard CCSS 7.1.NH.A.3 which is “Recognize some common gestures and cultural practices associated with target culture(s).” This also aligns with the NET-S standard of “Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making” because the students will be forced to analyze their views on France and any French stereotypes, which involves critical thinking. The teaching strategies incorporated for this part of the lesson plan are both for the students, and they are to analyze and to listen and view. The reason I chose these are because the students will have to listen and view the French commercials, and then analyze them to figure out how, if at all, their view of France and the French have changed from before watching the commercials, to now. The supporting technologies implemented for this part of the lesson would be, a computer, the Internet and YouTube in order to be access the videos that I will be showing my student. I will also be using an overhead projector and a SmartBoard in order to project the videos for the students to watch.

In the next step of my lesson plan, since the students will have by now watched the 20 French commercials, they will then be asked to go on Microsoft Word in their groups and make a list of the comparisons and contrasts between their views on France prior to, and after viewing the commercials. This part of the lesson aligns with the Core Curriculum Standard CCSS 7.1.IM.A.1 which is to “Compare and contrast information contained in culturally authentic materials using electronic information sources related to targeted themes.” This part of the lesson also will align with the NET-S standard “Communicate and Collaborate” and also with the standard “Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making.” Since my students will be going in their groups to discuss the comparisons and contrasts between their views before and after the videos, this will involve communication and collaboration. Again since they will have to reflect upon their own views on France, it will again involve critical thinking. The teaching strategies implemented for this part of the lesson are again all student based, and are, group discussions, for the group work on Microsoft Word, listening and viewing, since they will have watched the videos, and student collaboration again with the group work. The supporting technologies for this part of my lesson are a computer, and Microsoft Word, for both watching the videos and typing up the comparisons and contrasts, and overhead projector, again for showing the videos, and a SmartBoard for having the videos projected on to.

            The final part of my lesson plan involves the students working in their groups to come up with some popular American stereotypes, and then using Microsoft Word once again to make a comparison and contrast between the stereotypes of France and the stereotypes of the United States. We will then discuss this part of the lesson in one large class group, and I will record all their answers on the SmartBoard for later discussion to end the lesson. This part of the lesson aligns perfectly with the Core Curriculum Standard CCSS 7.1.IL.A.3, which is “Compare and contrast the use of verbal and non-verbal etiquette (i.e., the use of gestures, intonation, and cultural practices) in the target culture(s) and in one’s own culture.” The NET-S standards that align with this part of my lesson are to “Communicate and Collaborate,” and also “Critical Thinking, Decision Making and Problem Solving.” The teaching  strategies for this final part of the lesson are “Listening and Viewing,” and “Student Collaboration,” which are both student based, however their will also be “Large Group Discussion” which will be not only student based but teacher based as well since I will be recording their answers, and leading this final group discussion as a class. The supporting technologies used for this final part are, again a computer and Word Document for the students to make their comparisons and contrasts, and also a Smart Board for me to record all their comparisons and contrasts on when we have the class discussion.

To conclude, I think that this Spreadsheet matrix includes a lesson plan with integrated technology that aligns perfectly with the Core Curriculum, and NET-S standards that I have mentioned above. I think that the supporting technologies and teaching strategies that I have also mentioned above are a great way to integrate technology into the lesson plan, and make the experience more worthwhile for the students. 

Technology Integration Plan

Skype for Education?

                      Across the nation a number of schools have begun to use the computer program Skype in and out of their foreign language classrooms. The use of Skype for foreign language education was used in the form of video chatting with a pen pal. When I first heard about schools doing this, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. The first thing that came to my mind was, will the student really benefit from this? Will the student find an online predator?, etc. After some reflection and further reading about different schools that use Skype for their foreign language education, I began to see its positives. To answer my previous question about "Will the student find an online predator?" I noticed that for the schools that do use Skype for these purposes, the teachers go about finding good pen pals to pair the students up with, to prevent the student from finding a pen pal themselves which could be dangerous. I also learned that some schools even partner up with schools abroad so that there is learning on both ends of the webcam! An example of this kind of school partnership is the liaison between Montclair State and the University of Nice, in France. Like Montclair and the University of Nice, some schools have a back and forth relationship between the schools, and for the purpose of finding a pen pal, this is very useful! The schools that do have a relationship like this, with a school abroad, could use ask that school to find students who wouldn't mind Skyping with a student from the United States, to practice the target language. (On both ends!) I think that this is a great idea, because not only are both students benefiting language wise, but this also allows for both students to learn a little about each others' cultures as well! By talking with an online pen pal through Skype, the students will be able to practice all that they know in the language and also learn so much from their pen pal about life in another country! I wish that in high school I had a Skype pen pal to chat with because I think that would have made my experience not only more fun and interesting, but also it would have given me the opportunity to learn more about these foreign cultures, and people. Although I was skeptical at first, I do think that Skype could be a great tool for students to use, however I do think that it should be monitored. Some of the schools that do use Skype for this purpose set up a specific time with the foreign school to go to a computer lab, and have the students go on and interact. I think that this is the best idea, that way the students can be monitored, to reduce the risk of online dangers. Do you think that Skype would have helped you in your previous/current foreign language classes?

A Simple, but Useful Technology

                        The idea of integrating technology in the classroom does not mean that it has to be the newest, most extremely complicated and state of the art technology that is being used. Simple technologies can be used to aid in the learning such as a video camera. The technological use of video making can be a very useful and fun tool to create projects with in any subject area! For the use of the video camera for foreign language, I know from personal experiences in high school, often times our final projects for the end of the year would require us to make a movie (about ten to fifteen minutes in length) about anything, but made in the target language. A project like this is a great supplementary way to assess how much your students have learned throughout the semester such as vocabulary, use of grammar, pronunciation, etc. A project like this also allow students to be able to work in groups with their peers for peer interaction and practice using the language. The simple technology of the video camera and movie making allows us teachers to give a more interesting project to our students while still giving them a productive project to do! To better assess students at the end of the unit/year/etc, the movie can be part of a final assessment that is supplementary to a traditional test to better assess what the students have learned. By using two different ways to assess the student, you give the students who may not be strong in test taking, multiple opportunities to prove and show what they have learned, which as teachers I think is imperative to do for our students. Do you think that students should have more than one form of assessment at the end of a unit, semester, year, etc?

Language Labs vs. Teachers for Foreign Language Learning

                      In this blog post, I would like to talk about the use of language labs to teach Foreign Language. In my opinion, Language Labs are a great tool to be used for foreign language learning because not only are there so many different activities that one can work on from a variety of topics, levels, skills, etc. but also, some websites are self-grading like Quia. From my own personal experiences in high school, once a week our Spanish class would go to the language lab to use different websites/programs like Quia, etc. Personally I liked going to the lab a lot, along with many of the other students, however I do think that language labs only work good as a supplementary source to be combined with traditional teaching from a teacher. Many people and even articles have talked about language labs possibly being able to replace foreign language educators, and I do not think this is a good idea. Apart from the loss of jobs, websites like Quia, and different language programs are great as I said, however they are unable to connect with the student on a more personal level. How can a program or a website properly determine what specific problems the students are having, if they cannot fully interact with the student? Programs like these can give simple explanations to a wrong answer, and explain why the correct answer is correct, however if a student has a specific question about a lesson, how can they possibly go about asking the website and finding an answer? Technological resources like language labs need to be COMBINED with the teaching from educators in the classroom. These resources can be used as great practice and review to a lesson already introduced by the educator, however by just relying solely on the programs to do all the teaching, would be far less efficient than using both traditional AND technological teaching strategies together. What do you guys think?

A creative use of PowerPoint!

            I was continuing to research how as a future French teacher I can use different technological resources in my classroom to aid in my teaching. I found a little article written by a French teacher herself and game that she created using Microsoft PowerPoint. In this PowerPoint presentation, the teacher had made different boxes all with numbers on them. The students will then pick a number, and when the teacher clicks on a number, it will lead the PowerPoint to a question slide. Here, there will be a question that can either be multiple choice or just a short response question, depending what the teacher prefers. An example could even be having the question just be a picture of a cake for example. The slide can literally just be a picture of a cake and say "Le ..........." This question would then be asking for students to come up with the word for cake by then saying "Le gâteau." This PowerPoint game resembles closely to Jeopardy which many of us have even played a Jeopardy-like game in our past classes when we were younger. I think that this game that this teacher invented is an excellent idea to take a more simple and user-friendly technology like PowerPoint and make something more creative out of it! This incorporates the technology in the classroom, aids in the lessons being taught, AND is even more fun and exciting for the students as you can even divide the classroom up into little teams and have them play against each other. I think I may use this idea in one of my future classes to give my students a more fun and engaging way to learn French rather than just lecturing them and doing all the work up front all by myself. What do you guys think of this creative game?

YouTube for Foreign Language Education? Good or Bad?

                When you think of YouTube, I am sure most of you wouldn't think, "Oh! A great educational source!" however why can't it be? On YouTube, one can find videos about almost anything. I realized while doing the canvas inter-activities that YouTube can be a great technology to use in the classroom. In my own canvas I posted a YouTube video that briefly shows different travel places in Switzerland, to show my students that France is not the only French speaking country in the world, and to learn about different cultures. YouTube however can be used to find videos that would help my students with a whole variety of different aspects in my subject area. For example, besides the most common use we may see, which is using YouTube to show a movie to our students (which can definitely be helpful to our students,) YouTube can also be used to show videos that might better explain verb conjugation for example. I have used YouTube tutorial-like videos in the past to help me with my homework in a bunch of different content areas, so why not use YouTube as a teacher too? YouTube could also be used to listen to different pronunciations for students to work on, such as showing the students a YouTube video on how to properly pronounce the French "nasal vowels" which could be difficult for my students as these sounds do not exist in the English language. I think that YouTube CAN and SHOULD be used in the classroom as it can help in not only foreign language classes, but all different classes for a multitude of different lessons. Would you consider using YouTube in your classrooms?

Wordle

               While doing some research on different technologies I can use in my future French classes, I came across a program that I have never heard of called "Wordle." Wordle is a free technological tool where it will take a text, and then form a "word cloud" of the most common words and arranges them in the cloud by size and frequency. With this cloud, students can do a number of things! The first idea that the article talked about is a word association activity. A teacher can give the students a Wordle word cloud and ask them to brainstorm about what the text could possibly be about by looking at these most common seen words in the text. This will force the students to really think about these words they are seeing in the cloud and put them to use. Another activity students can do with Wordle is to give your students Wordle cloud in the target language, and also a Wordle cloud made by the teacher in English. The students can then do a vocabulary matching activity and work on matching the target language word with its English translation. This is a great exercise to work on the students' vocabulary. Other activities with the Wordle cloud generator are things such as word grouping where you can have the students group the words by noun gender, or by different groups such as nouns, verbs, etc. I think Wordle seems like a great simple technology that can be a springboard for so many activities! With a simple Wordle cloud, a teacher can have the students in their class do numerous activities either in a group or by themselves! I definitely want to try this technique in my future classes just as a way for my students to reinforce their vocabulary in a different way than usual.