[Holly]

Assignment 3.6.1
• How can I modify content, process, and product to accommodate different learning styles and abilities?

Depending on students’ learning styles, I can assign dancing or drama assignments to kinesthetic-tactile learning style students, a singing or sound recording assignments to the audio learning style students, however, integrate listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities into my teaching for all my students are my daily challenges.

• What strategies can I use to manage classroom logistics effectively while implementing differentiated instruction?

I set up different stations in the classroom for my students to visit in small groups. I invite Chinese student teachers/guest speakers to be my class helpers. One effective strategy I use in my class is technology & AI

• How can I continuously assess and adjust my teaching strategies to meet the evolving needs of my students?
Some online gamification are very helpful, e.g. Gimkit, Blooket, and Quizlet, etc. Edpuzzle is also very helpful.
An interesting website called “Little Fox Chinese” has lots of stories for my students to explore, which many of my students are attracted to.

[Holly]

Assignment 3.5.1
What are some challenges and barriers to integrating technology into language education? How can these be addressed?
Challenges & barriers:
Not all the areas in where the students/schools are could provide quality internet connection and computer equipment for the language learners.
Not all teachers and students are taught to utilize the technology/tools correctly and ethically. The cost of the technology could be a burden to the teachers and learners as well.
– Can technology effectively simulate cultural immersion, which is vital for language learning? What are the limitations and advantages compared to traditional immersion methods
Yes, technology can effectively simulate cultural immersion, e.g. authentic audio and visual learning aids from software and websites. However, the traditional immersion methods can be more interactive and spontaneous, instead of robotic ways, traditional immersion methods are real human interactions that can never be replaced by AI.

[Holly]

Goal Statement(s) Demonstrating Performance on Ohio Standards for the Teaching Profession
Ohio Standards #1

Teachers understand student learning and development and respect the diversity of the students they teach.

Ohio Standards #3 Teachers understand and use varied assessments to inform instruction, evaluate, and ensure student learning.

Beginning immediately and continuing through the end of the 2023/2024 school year, I will be using high-quality student data measures from a variety of sources which are mentioned in “Action Steps & Resources to Achieve Goal(s)” below. I will use data collected to plan lessons, units, and activities that will demonstrate an age-appropriate, accommodate students’ level, sustained upward trend in proficiency according to the ESC curriculum and the ACTFL proficiency indicators. The target language goal is by the end of the school year, Chinese level one students will make progress from Novice Low to Novice Mid per ACTFL guidelines.

District & Building Goal Alignment
The ECOESC provides staff who are tasked with helping schools help children. Through effective, high-quality Chinese language instruction, I will help language-learning students meet building goals of promoting world language and culture learning, and support students’ increased awareness of social and emotional well-being.

Action Steps & Resources to Achieve Goal(s)
Beginning immediately and continuing through the end of the 2023/2024 school year, my action steps are:

1. Weekly I will use formative assessments to monitor student proficiency: “Whiteboard.fi” to keep a record of students’ vocab and sentence writing, “Vocaroo.com” to keep a record of students’ speaking, “Google doc” to keep a record of students’ character typing, occasionally, use “Google slides” to keep a record of students’ culture learning.

2. Assessments will be developed that demonstrate increased and sustained proficiency at the Novice level in 3 modes of Communication: Interpersonal (e.g., Vocaroo.com), Interpretive (e.g., Whiteboard.fi, Google doc, & Quizlet), and presentational (e.g., Google slides, flip).

3. Assessment data collected will craft unit designs to maintain and increase fluency and proficiency at the Novice-Mid level through May 1 (End of course).

4. I am in contact with the building administrators, paraprofessionals, and counselors, as well as some parents to keep them informed of some students’ behaviors and learning progress. Reynoldsburg schools also provide behaviorists to support teachers.

5. I use Zoom, emails, phone calls, also LINE/WeChat to collaborate with world language educators

Qualitative or Quantitative Measurable Indicators (Evidence Indicating Progress on the Goal)
With increased frequency and fluency, students will demonstrate progress through formative and summative assessments evidence of further correctness when listening and speaking, and an increased ability to conduct conversations with added vocabulary. ACTFL Novice-Mid skills and abilities will be the learning and proficiency targets.

[Holly]

Holly Branch
What are the most significant lessons you have learned during Phase 2 training? How do you plan to apply them in your future teaching practice?

The most significant lesson I have learned during Phase 2 training is Ms. Jin Ying’s teaching of culture 3 Ps: products, practices, and perspectives. It’s important to accept and understand different cultures, to engage ourselves in another culture appropriately, and to expose culture to build inclusion. Ms. Jin also talked about The IMAGE Model, which is eye-opening for me, the images presented to the learners, making observations about the products, analyzing additional information, generating hypotheses about perspectives, exploring perspectives, and reflecting further. All these are great guidance for me to apply in my future teaching. Currently, I teach at a school district that has many ethnic groups, often I need to embed cultural awareness in my lessons, I appreciate all the training from this program to equip me for the multicultural challenges in my school district.

What are your plans for continued professional growth and development? How will you stay updated on best practices, educational research, and advancements in your subject area?

I’m signing up for the STARTALK program 2023-24, I’m excited about what I have learned from this program, I’ll review the materials from Phase 2 and modify my teaching methods for this coming school year. I also have the teachers’ WeChat numbers to stay in contact for collaboration, I signed up to be an ACTFL member in order to access and receive more updated practices and educational research.

[Holly]

1) Write an activity summary and include the following:
– Name of the activity: Who are I?
– Activity steps:
**Students are divided into small groups or pair up
**Everyone gets a piece of paper and a different color pen if possible
**Students ask each other personal questions and get to know each other
**Students draw a star chart to describe their own identities
**Students can find out similarities and differences between each other
**On the star chart students can put their classmates’ names on to debrief and show how similar and different they are

– What modifications or changes do you want to make, and why?
The entire activity is well-designed and nicely presented, students definitely benefit from applying this activity in their world language classroom.
I understand the author’s intention to get people’s attention by naming this activity “Who are I”, which is puzzling to the participants. However, personally speaking, I don’t agree with this title, the intention of puzzling people is not necessary in my opinion, I’d rather name this activity “7 Ws of ME” (what, which, where, when, how, who, why), which clearly describes the lesson plan and content, helping students understand the task and dive into the activity quickly.
The star chart file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DUnyVvUnxN3S8a23XEZRjrY4LPs3CLdz/view?usp=sharing

[Holly]

Hi Sherene, I agree with your insights on the OPI test. I also went through the interview as an examinee and was impressed by the assessor’s ways to evaluate my language abilities. Myself as an HS WL teacher, I believe the OPI test promotes “i + 1” hypothesis by Stephen Krashen.
1. Currently I am assessing the oral proficiency of my 9-12 grade students who are non-heritage. Most of them are at the novice low level and I focus on listening and speaking more than reading and writing at this level.
2. I really like this quote from the OPI video: “What and how you test has ramifications for what instructors do in the classroom, what learners expect instructors to do in the classroom, and what learners do outside the classroom.”
3. Through my organization I also helped food service and nursing home employees to prepare for various tests that focus on speaking abilities. I feel OPI applies my teaching and assessment philosophies in real life.

[Holly]

After taking a close look at the five assessment platforms, I would recommend “Oral Proficiency Interview” to my organization, ECOESC, which stands for East Central Ohio Educational Service Center. My organization (https://www.ecoesc.org/) aims to provide services for impactful student learning, which involves educational (K-12 on-site & remote), fiscal, professional development, technical services, etc. Due to the nature of my organization, which is not limited to K-12 education, but also serves adults from all kinds of varieties of backgrounds, I believe OPI can fulfill my organization’s purpose of assessing the oral proficiency of students of multi ages, backgrounds, and languages.
OPI uniquely meets my organization’s language assessment needs because it is:
1. An assessment of language performance in real-life situations
2. Curriculum free and focuses exclusively on language competence without regard to the place and length of time
3. Assessing speech production equivalent to that of an educated native speaker of the language
4. Helping the assessor acquire the best language sample to evaluate the aim of the oral proficiency

[Author]

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