OL 880: Building Successful Readers in All Content Areas
Module 3 Assignments
Tricia Becker
Module 3 Assignments
1. Tell us about yourself!
My name is Tricia Becker and I am a Spanish and English as a
Second Language teacher to grades 9-12.
2. Application: Collaborate
Restaurant Dialogue: In this activity, students will work in groups of
2-3 to write a script for a restaurant dialogue using the recent
vocabulary and grammar concepts learned in class. They will
collaborate and choose between the 3 scenarios listed below.
Students must discuss and agree upon the appropriate language
usage and how to form the conjugations of the verbs in the present
tense. When they complete the writing of the script, students will
assign roles within the group, and read their script to the class.
Drama 6.2
Con compañero, escoge (choose) una situación y escribe un diálogo que
ustedes van a dramatizar (dramatize/act out) delante de la clase. Los diálogos
deben (must) tener 5-8 líneas. Utiliza p. 209 y 211 para ayudarte.
Situación #1
You are a mom preparing breakfast and packing a lunch for your elementary
aged child. Your child does not want to eat the breakfast that you have
prepared for him/her.
Situación #2
You and a friend are trying to agree on which restaurant you will go to today
and what each of you will eat once you get there.
Situación #3
You are preparing food for a party that you are hosting at your house and your
annoying little sister wants to help. Tell her how she can help.
3. Application: The Choice is Yours!
Course Concept: Tools for Thinking: Reading Strategies
Learning Vocabulary
See attached lesson plan.
4. Application: Challenge the Status Quo
Option 1: Intrinsic Look
5 Things I will start doing:
1. I will apply for a grant to purchase books for a classroom library.
2. I will seek out a diverse set of authentic materials to use in the
Spanish classroom.
3. I will activate prior knowledge by asking students to draw upon the
reading strategies they learned as a child and apply them to
learning to read in a new language.
4. I will pre teach vocabulary for all texts that will be read.
5. I will use choice within assignments whenever possible to increase
engagement.
5 Things I will stop doing:
1. I will stop relying on the textbook for daily instruction.
2. I will no longer give a common text for the entire classroom to
read.
3. I will stop moving on to new topics when students aren’t ready.
4. I will stop giving students the ‘why?’ questions that drive learning
and start to use inquiry learning for them to come to the driving
question.
5. I will stop keeping my thoughts and ideas to myself out of fear
that they are not good and instead, will begin to share what I’ve
learned in this course with colleagues.
5. Reflection
Evaluation of Learning Goals
As I go back and reflect upon what I have gained from this
course, I reread my statement of intention and learning goals that
were given in module 1. I feel that every time I reflect, I am a new
person and almost always have changed by what I have learned
through professional development and experience in the classroom. I
agree with my original statement that literacy is the foundation of any
content course. I have gained new reading strategies that will help me
reach the goal of targeted instruction and fill in the learning gaps that I
see in students while they are reading in Spanish. These include
diversifying my library and activating reading strategies used in L1
when reading in L2. Overall, I feel this course has improved my
knowledge as a teacher and I look forward to implementing the
strategies with students.
Detailed Connections to Course Applications
This course has provided me with a plethora of strategies to use in the
classroom. One that I have always heard about, but never fully
understood was Book Clubs. I plan to use Book Clubs in the Spanish
classroom once I am able to accumulate and build my class library.
Another application that I will do on a daily basis is explicitly teaching
vocabulary and repeating it on a daily basis at the beginning of class.
As many exposures to the vocabulary as possible to help students to
remember the terms. Finally, I will activate prior knowledge, but having
students highlight cognates in text and discussing root word
meanings. ALl of these strategies will help my students become better
Spanish students.
Ideas for Professional Practice
I hope to bring my learning to the other Spanish teachers in my
department at my school. We have a wide variety of teaching methods
used within our department that range from relying on the textbook
daily to never using it. The result is a different student experience
based on the teacher and inconsistencies in learning outcomes by
students. I hope to discuss some of the points from the text and see if
teachers will be open to implementing more opportunities for choice
for students. We have 2 professional development days at the
beginning of the year and I will ask for department time on one of
these days to discuss plans for the year.
Future Learning Goal
I have always been inquisitive and a lifelong learner, but one future
learning goal that I have my eyes set on is to find engaging texts at a
variety of levels for students to read in the classroom. It has been a
challenge to find texts mature enough for high school students, but at
lower reading levels. This will require me to research and read a
variety of texts and seek funding to purchase the texts. I hope this
learning will help me help students become better readers.