The Purpose of the CSUSB Teaching Experience

The following are important reminders to help you keep the upcoming CSUSB Teaching Experience in context. 

Don’t expect perfection 

The CSUSB teaching was integrated into this program to provide you with additional practice in planning and then co-teaching a synchronous online lesson, this time with students of your language. The peer microteaching and peer feedback activities served as precursors to this culminating activity.  Both were designed to provide you with an initial experience upon which you can then improve. This CSUSB experience will provide you with an additional online experience that will then inform your personal growth plan for the coming year.

Factor in time for technology 

You should create a lesson that will not require a lot of technology skills on your part or the part of your students. Remember that you can engage your students from within the Adobe Connect environment. Your students are also new to you and to the online environment. Some tasks will take longer in a web conference environment, so it is important to factor in time for students to react to prompts when they must use technology  For example, asking students to raise their hands in a face-to-face setting as a “check for understanding” happens in less time than the analogous activity in a web conference. You should always have an extra activity just in case you do have extra time but you probably won’t need it.

Teach for success 

Remember to teach at a level at which your students can be successful. So if we are dealing with novice level students, target novice mid and be ready to do a novice high extension if your activity seems too easy for them. For the Chinese intermediates, target novice high. 

We’ve been told not to expect the beginning level students in either language to be able to type in the language. It may be better to assume the same for the Intermediate Chinese level as well.