3.7a – asynchronous language lesson sample – French

This assignment was locked Jul 17, 2018 at 11:59pm.

The following video is from a lesson Nicole Naditz designed for her French 1 class.  It was NOT created specifically for this course, but it is an example of an asynchronous language lesson. This is intended to provide you with an example of a what an asynchronous lesson might look like. But it’s not perfect and you will find some opportunities for improvement in this lesson. We hope that the example, and your reflections on what could be improved, may help you as you develop, record and share your own short learning episode (15 minutes maximum). 

Activity details

Part 1 – Asynchronous Teaching Demonstration

Background information about the lesson: Normally, these students received their lesson in person, in class in a traditional, 55-minute class period at a public high school. This particular lesson was sequenced to occur after students had approximately 20 hours of instruction in French (not just focused on this lesson topic, of course!). As a result, they already knew about the French numbering system from 0-59, and they also already could understand many key phrases used in instruction, such as “look,” “listen,” “observe,” “note,” “repeat,” and “pronounce.” And they also had a lot of experience with cognates, or words that are largely the same in French and English, so that allowed for some additional cultural information to be added to certain slides, along with the numbers that were the target of the lesson. Because of all of this prior knowledge, this topic was an ideal topic for an asynchronous lesson–it was very concrete and easy for students to grasp without needing to be in a classroom with the instructor and Nicole made a specific choice to deliver this lesson asynchronously, even though the class met in person every day. 

As you watch the video below,  use the attached feedback form (Links to an external site.) to note your observations on the elements below, as well as other information presented in the form. You can print out the form, write on it, take a picture of it and upload it here as your submission. Here is what you are watching for:  

• The use of authentic cultural images to support the vocabulary
• The occasional use of gestures by the teacher (in the inset video in the lower right corner)
• Use of the target language during Comprehensible Input
• Checks for Understanding–and how the learner knows if he or she is on track
• Use of animations in the slides (so that information doesn’t always appear all at once) to direct the learners’ attention

Note that you first have to click the grey video box below to load the preview. Then you can press “play.” You may want to “expand” the screen to make the video larger and easier to see: look in the upper right corner for a share arrow (it is curved and pointing to the right). Click on that to open this in YouTube so that you can expand the screen.

Minimize Video

When you have finished watching the video above, take some time to reflect on what you observed, what you didn’t observe, and what you think you might have done to enhance the lesson.  

Part 2 – Prepare to create your own asynchronous lesson (due in Module 4)

In Module 4, you will create and share an asynchronous lesson. You should make use of the STARTALK Learning Plan Template that you have been working on to develop your  learning episode (lesson). Remember that you will only focus on one teaching episode from the template, Episode 1.  To see how Nicole could have used it in the development of her sample asynchronous lesson, view it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UL_lwIS6p9EXEBTkc-VzosmJiHGzwvd5rwcu0JgpjBU/edit?usp=sharing (Links to an external site.)  

To continue

If you have watched and reflected on at least two of the asynchronous language lesson samples, please continue below. If not, return to Module 3 and watch and reflect on another asynchronous language lesson sample.

For those finished with the asynchronous language lesson samples:

Modules 1-3 were designed to provide both theoretical and practical instruction to assist you as you prepare for your own teaching programs. Now, the real work begins: as mentioned above, in Module 4, you will actually develop, record and share an asynchonrous lesson! In fact, you should start working on that lesson NOW, because the modules are short, and you will need to have it uploaded by June 29 so that you can all watch someof the lessons and give and receive feedback on June 30, the final day of Module 4.