Teaching Philosophy
Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we?
- Henry David Thoreau
- Henry David Thoreau
Certainly Thoreau was not thinking about learning French when he wrote the above words in The Maine Woods. Despite this, the message makes sense in a language classroom: experience the real world, know who you are, and know where you are. These three principles align with the Emergent Curriculum (EC) approach that fosters a thirst for real-world knowledge, a secure sense of personal strengths, and a participatory connection to local and global communities. In EC, “teachers plan in response to the group’s interests and concerns, and curriculum expands into genuine inquiry, as children and teachers together become participatory colearners who attempt to understand some aspect of real life” (Wien 1). As students at university traverse a threshold from known communities and self-understandings to a larger world, they require opportunities to acquire broad knowledge, discover their individual talents, and recognize their ability to impact the broader world. I create these situations in my classroom by making two important concessions: allowing students’ interests to direct course content within the needs of the course and being comfortable enough with my teaching skills and knowledge to invite experts in other areas, including the students themselves, to co-teach my courses.
Experience the real world. Over the last two decades, language learning has become more active with the Communicative Approach to language teaching. In addition, with modern technology, a flipped classroom in which students self-teach at home and then practice with teacher guidance and feedback in class has become possible. To keep the classroom atmosphere fresh and relevant to each individual class, I seek out real-world materials that appeal to students’ personal interests expressed in early-semester student surveys. Students directly engage with these written, audio, visual, or live human “texts” as they look for familiar grammar, vocabulary, or literary forms, evaluate the their use, and then produce their own forms. For example, in 3rd-semester French classes, environmental enthusiasts evaluate their environmental impact using a French on-line carbon footprint calculator, observe vocabulary related to daily energy-consuming activities, and employ it to advise peers on energy efficiency. In upper-level classes, such as 20th-Century France, history buffs read Charles de Gaulle’s appel du 18 juin and listen to a recording of l’appel du 22 juin. After reading testimonials at home, students imagine what it would feel like to be a French citizen called to the Résistance and then debate its pros and cons in class. These unit-long projects employ authentic materials in a guided framework whose overall goal could have real-world applications. These interdisciplinary, active learning methods engage students through their own interests and on their level, but ask them to work outside the bounds of the textbook, pushing them to higher levels of comprehension and competency.
Know who you are. Promoting self-awareness builds confidence for everyone, including students learning a language. How do students become aware of their competencies, strengths, and weaknesses? In class, they need well-designed assessment and feedback. Meaningful assessment allows students to demonstrate their knowledge, but also learn something in the process. I create assessments that give students a chance to express themselves and activate their learning in imaginative ways. My favorite assessment that works on any level is the activité de conversation in which students have a chance to communicate with me or each other in small groups. Within a predetermined framework, they use language skills to express meaningful information about themselves, their opinions, and their experiences, and to make contact with their peers. I give thorough feedback using detailed rubrics and personalized comments based on my observation of student participation strategies in class and their academic strong points. For example, if someone struggles with an oral activity, I remind them of their strengths in written work and give suggestions on how to draw on that in future oral assessments. I also request feedback from students about my performance using anonymous, on-line mid-semester evaluations. Just as I encourage students to make adjustments to achieve more, they do the same for me. My openness to student input and willingness to make changes contribute to my consistently high end-of-semester ratings.
Know where you are. Encouraging perspective in the classroom teaches students where they stand in local and global communities. Basic language classes may be the only chance some of my students will have to contact another culture. Cross-cultural comparisons during activities allow students to learn more not only about Francophone cultures but about their relationships to them. With pertinent internet activities, I can give students access to the latest Francophone information sources about everything from entertainment to medical advice. For example, a project-based activity on écotourisme in French 002 allows students to learn about and imagine visiting various Francophone countries with a diverse array of historical, political, and linguistic heritages. For a higher level of perspective, International Studies 493 students post and comment on articles they find in their second language related to food and oil challenges. This encourages engagement with relevant, real-time events and invites students to consider their viewpoints and biases as American readers of texts with a foreign perspective. These activities require students to place themselves in the global community. The internet, however, sometimes still makes French seem like a distant reality in virtual space. As such, I invite local Francophones to create human connections for my students that extend outside the classroom. For example, in just one semester last fall, the following invited speakers made connections with my students in French Language, Culture, and Technology: an anthropologist helped an undergrad apply to grad school, a molecular chemist became a mentor for an organic chemistry major, a licensed mediator helped a mechanical engineer with a project for his public speaking course, and a local baker allowed a business student’s aspiring baker friend to tour his bakery. This principle of community connectedness from the Reggio Emilia philosophy has deeply enhanced both my own satisfaction as a co-learner from these experts and my students’ satisfaction with their education.
Contact. Through contact with authentic materials, students see the significance of French in the real world. Through contact with each other and me, students learn more about themselves. Through contact with the Francophone world, students engage with local and global communities. At the beginning of a semester, the French language and culture may be a faraway mystery to my students; however, after personally-tailored guided explorations, my students have the motivation, tools, and human connections to build their knowledge of French, themselves, and the world around them.
Wien, Carol Anne (ed.). Emergent curriculum in the primary classroom: interpreting the Reggio Emilia approach in schools. New York: Teachers College Press, 2008. Print.
Experience the real world. Over the last two decades, language learning has become more active with the Communicative Approach to language teaching. In addition, with modern technology, a flipped classroom in which students self-teach at home and then practice with teacher guidance and feedback in class has become possible. To keep the classroom atmosphere fresh and relevant to each individual class, I seek out real-world materials that appeal to students’ personal interests expressed in early-semester student surveys. Students directly engage with these written, audio, visual, or live human “texts” as they look for familiar grammar, vocabulary, or literary forms, evaluate the their use, and then produce their own forms. For example, in 3rd-semester French classes, environmental enthusiasts evaluate their environmental impact using a French on-line carbon footprint calculator, observe vocabulary related to daily energy-consuming activities, and employ it to advise peers on energy efficiency. In upper-level classes, such as 20th-Century France, history buffs read Charles de Gaulle’s appel du 18 juin and listen to a recording of l’appel du 22 juin. After reading testimonials at home, students imagine what it would feel like to be a French citizen called to the Résistance and then debate its pros and cons in class. These unit-long projects employ authentic materials in a guided framework whose overall goal could have real-world applications. These interdisciplinary, active learning methods engage students through their own interests and on their level, but ask them to work outside the bounds of the textbook, pushing them to higher levels of comprehension and competency.
Know who you are. Promoting self-awareness builds confidence for everyone, including students learning a language. How do students become aware of their competencies, strengths, and weaknesses? In class, they need well-designed assessment and feedback. Meaningful assessment allows students to demonstrate their knowledge, but also learn something in the process. I create assessments that give students a chance to express themselves and activate their learning in imaginative ways. My favorite assessment that works on any level is the activité de conversation in which students have a chance to communicate with me or each other in small groups. Within a predetermined framework, they use language skills to express meaningful information about themselves, their opinions, and their experiences, and to make contact with their peers. I give thorough feedback using detailed rubrics and personalized comments based on my observation of student participation strategies in class and their academic strong points. For example, if someone struggles with an oral activity, I remind them of their strengths in written work and give suggestions on how to draw on that in future oral assessments. I also request feedback from students about my performance using anonymous, on-line mid-semester evaluations. Just as I encourage students to make adjustments to achieve more, they do the same for me. My openness to student input and willingness to make changes contribute to my consistently high end-of-semester ratings.
Know where you are. Encouraging perspective in the classroom teaches students where they stand in local and global communities. Basic language classes may be the only chance some of my students will have to contact another culture. Cross-cultural comparisons during activities allow students to learn more not only about Francophone cultures but about their relationships to them. With pertinent internet activities, I can give students access to the latest Francophone information sources about everything from entertainment to medical advice. For example, a project-based activity on écotourisme in French 002 allows students to learn about and imagine visiting various Francophone countries with a diverse array of historical, political, and linguistic heritages. For a higher level of perspective, International Studies 493 students post and comment on articles they find in their second language related to food and oil challenges. This encourages engagement with relevant, real-time events and invites students to consider their viewpoints and biases as American readers of texts with a foreign perspective. These activities require students to place themselves in the global community. The internet, however, sometimes still makes French seem like a distant reality in virtual space. As such, I invite local Francophones to create human connections for my students that extend outside the classroom. For example, in just one semester last fall, the following invited speakers made connections with my students in French Language, Culture, and Technology: an anthropologist helped an undergrad apply to grad school, a molecular chemist became a mentor for an organic chemistry major, a licensed mediator helped a mechanical engineer with a project for his public speaking course, and a local baker allowed a business student’s aspiring baker friend to tour his bakery. This principle of community connectedness from the Reggio Emilia philosophy has deeply enhanced both my own satisfaction as a co-learner from these experts and my students’ satisfaction with their education.
Contact. Through contact with authentic materials, students see the significance of French in the real world. Through contact with each other and me, students learn more about themselves. Through contact with the Francophone world, students engage with local and global communities. At the beginning of a semester, the French language and culture may be a faraway mystery to my students; however, after personally-tailored guided explorations, my students have the motivation, tools, and human connections to build their knowledge of French, themselves, and the world around them.
Wien, Carol Anne (ed.). Emergent curriculum in the primary classroom: interpreting the Reggio Emilia approach in schools. New York: Teachers College Press, 2008. Print.