If you’ve ever taken an online course before, you know that there can be considerable differences in the design and layout from one course to another. The same can be said of teachers who teach the same lesson, right? So, whether you’ve taken an online course before, or perhaps this is your very first one—we make no assumptions about how you’ll interpret what you see and how you experience it. To ensure a common understanding of the course layout and approach, this section includes two resources to guide your initial exploration of our learning environment as we have designed it. First, we’ll explain the layout through written text and a graphic organizer in the section labeled, “A Modular Approach.” Then, in the section labeled, “Course Layout Tour”, you’ll watch a guided video tour of the layout and navigation of the course. Our video tour also includes some tips to add to your success as a participant
Let’s go!
This course is organized by a basic structure we call a “module.” You might think of a “module” as a “unit” of study. Most modules last for three days, meaning that from 8:00 am on the first day of the module until 11:59 pm on the third day of the module, you will engage in course activities that must be completed during that module.
So, 1 module = 3 days
The modules in this course build upon one another so it is important to keep to our schedule. In addition, since much of the work in each module requires you to interact with your course colleagues, it is vital that you complete all requirements for each module at the designated times.
For each module, we provide you with content and activities that help you to develop and check your understanding of the focus for that module. The content and activities are divided into “sections”. These sections are labeled using a numerical identifier that helps you keep track of where you are in the course. Take a look at the following example:
In our Orientation Module 0, section 0.3 How to Prepare For & Join the Live Session, Saturday, June 16, the number “0” represents the Module and the number after the decimal, “3,” represents the third section of that Module.
All together, these sections are the building blocks for each module, and each module prepares you to demonstrate your ability to create and deliver meaningful online language learning experiences using Startalk principles.
The content of this course has been organized into seven modules. Each module is described below. We strongly urge you to read this table with great care to develop an understanding of the scope and the sequence of activities for the next four weeks.
How do I plan for effective teaching and learning?(June 18-20) | Through direct instruction, discussions, personal application activities and an interactive web conference, you will explore fundamental principles of best practices world language lesson development: · Backwards Design (and the entire lesson sequence)· Proficiency benchmarks, performance indicators and lesson can-do statements. | |
How do I engage students using daily performance objectives? (June 21-23) | You will make use of resources from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, STARTalk and elsewhere to purposefully design learning experiences based on performance objectives that clarify the expectations for the learner by providing the context, function and type of language students will develop and use. To deepen your understanding of backwards design and the use of performance objectives, you will also participate in an interactive webinar with a national expert on the use of backwards design in language teaching. | |
How do I best use English to support 90% comprehensible input and output (June 25-27) | In this module, you will revisit some key concepts of lesson design before exploring strategies to both maximize the use of the target language (by teacher and students) and use English strategically up to a maximum of 10% of the time. You will deepen your knowledge of the role and implementation of checks for understanding. You will view a sample asynchronous video lesson in French and reflect on the strategies used to make the language comprehensible and give the learners an opportunity to check their own understanding as they progress through the short lesson. Finally, you will participate in an interactive web conference from a recognized national expert on target-language instruction! | |
How does my planning of learning experiences prepare for student learning? (June 28-30) | In this module you will have the chance to grow as an online language teacher! You will do this by applying your knowledge of best practices language instruction to develop an asynchronous lesson that you will post for your peers to watch and provide feedback on. You will receive substantial peer feedback on your lesson and also engage in personal reflection on the lesson. You will also continue adding learning experiences to your learning plan template in preparation for additional teaching experiences in Modules 5 and 6. | |
With what I’ve learned, how can I create a meaningful learning experience? (July 2-9) | In this module, you will continue developing your lesson if you didn’t finish it already. And then, you will strengthen your online teaching practice by teaching a 10-minute synchronous learning episode to a small group of your peers. You will also serve as a student for your colleagues and provide feedback on their learning episode. You will create a video reflection of your online peer microteaching experience and the peer feedback you received on your synchronous lesson. You will continue building on strengths through discussions, reflections and observations. Additional resources will help you to identify and apply enabling activities and tools to use as you develop your 60-minute, team-taught, live, online, novice-level language lesson that you will do in Module 6. | |
How can I meaningfully apply what I’ve learned?Your Synchronous Online Co-teaching with Bayan Claremont Students (July 10-14) | This is your chance to experience co-teaching novice-level students and observing your colleagues teach as well! You will be work with a partner in the course to design, develop and deliver a 60-minute lesson to college-age students at the University of Toledo. | |
How can I meaningfully process my experiences and plan for my future? (July 16-17) | Through an interactive web conference, peer feedback, and the development of your personalized growth plan, you will have the opportunity to reflect on your growth as an online language teacher as well as purposely plan your future online teaching and continued professional development. |
Once a module has been “opened,” it will remain open for the duration of the course. The current module will always appear at the top of the Modules section. All previous modules appear directly underneath in reverse chronological order.
The following video is tour of the features and functions of this course, including suggestions for how to be successful in the course. Please carefully watch this video. You may wish to view it full screen by clicking on the full screen icon (It looks like four angle brackets in a frame.) that appears in the bottom right corner of the video player.
Click the Next button below to continue to the next section, 0.2 – Course Syllabus and Schedule.