Chapter 8: The role and design of instructional materials
This chapter covered different types of material used in the classroom.
It is all up to me, as a classroom educator, to use, adapt material for my language learners. I don’t use textbooks. What I usually do is adapt the material to my students’ needs. I translate material and seek material that would fit the students’ needs for my Yugtun language learners.
Most of the materials we use in the classroom are written in English. Teachers, district office personnel, or we have to translate the material we choose to use in teaching to our language learners.
When I translate material, I usually ask local “Yugtun” speakers, when I can’t find the correct translation word. The Yup’ik Dictionary usually helps. My aid is younger than I am. When I’m translating material, I usually ask her for the “correct” Yup’ik word. At least half the time, she does not know the exact translation Yup’ik word, so I usually go around (in the school) and ask other Yup’ik speakers for their help.
After eight years of teaching Yugtun, you’d think that I would become an expert in Yugtun translations. Wrong! I’m always learning. There’s no end to learning new Yugtun words. It’s a never-ending process of learning Yugtun, even at my adult age. So, when we teach Yugtun to our children, they will most likely be in the same boat as myself – it’s a never-ending language learning process. The cycle will keep on going. With the cycle that will keep on going, the materials development will be the same. The materials development will keep on going, even after we’ve all retired. This is what I just realized as I was typing about “my experience” as a Yugtun teacher.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Chapter Nine: Approaches to evaluation
Chapter Nine: Evaluation
1. Last year in November. There were eight community members in the meeting. The meeting took place in the community hall. This meeting was an official ASB meeting with three ASB members present and five community members, four of which were school staff members and one elder.
All members attending the meeting discussed Yugtun/English language use within the community. The ASB chairperson extensively discussed the fear of losing our Yugtun language. He strongly supported the Yugtun Immersion program in our community. Following his strong Yugtun Immersion support, other members agreed with him, including the school staff.
There was no change for the language program.
2. Formative evaluation works well for our program. We are constantly changing and adding teaching material for teaching in our language program. I think it is the administrator’s call as well, to do formative evaluations on our language program teaching style. The parents would agree with what we do in the school with their children. They usually put their full trust to us educators for the best education for their children. They usually leave their trust to us educators to teach their children to the best of our ability. The same is for to community members. They trust the educators to teach the children to the best of our ability. Whatever the parents, administrator, and the community members suggest to change in education of the children, we, educators, usually follow through with their suggestions, but it is very rare.
3. Formative evaluation: we are constantly changing our material for the best teaching to our children in the program. We constantly assess the material and teaching style and if there needs to be adjustments, we make them accordingly. Or, we make additional material to supplement the teaching material. For example, we make supplemental material by translating material in addition to what material we already have.
In addition to formative evaluation, we also do Illuminative evaluation. The same as formative, we do what needs to be done in the teaching and make adjustments accordingly. The main materials we rarely use are textbooks.
Advantages are that we, educators, know where the students are as far as their academic and language use abilities are. We make adjustments according to the students’ needs academically and language-use wise.
Limitations are that we have limited materials. We have limited access to materials and we make up material as we go in each unit in Upingaurluta.
1. Last year in November. There were eight community members in the meeting. The meeting took place in the community hall. This meeting was an official ASB meeting with three ASB members present and five community members, four of which were school staff members and one elder.
All members attending the meeting discussed Yugtun/English language use within the community. The ASB chairperson extensively discussed the fear of losing our Yugtun language. He strongly supported the Yugtun Immersion program in our community. Following his strong Yugtun Immersion support, other members agreed with him, including the school staff.
There was no change for the language program.
2. Formative evaluation works well for our program. We are constantly changing and adding teaching material for teaching in our language program. I think it is the administrator’s call as well, to do formative evaluations on our language program teaching style. The parents would agree with what we do in the school with their children. They usually put their full trust to us educators for the best education for their children. They usually leave their trust to us educators to teach their children to the best of our ability. The same is for to community members. They trust the educators to teach the children to the best of our ability. Whatever the parents, administrator, and the community members suggest to change in education of the children, we, educators, usually follow through with their suggestions, but it is very rare.
3. Formative evaluation: we are constantly changing our material for the best teaching to our children in the program. We constantly assess the material and teaching style and if there needs to be adjustments, we make them accordingly. Or, we make additional material to supplement the teaching material. For example, we make supplemental material by translating material in addition to what material we already have.
In addition to formative evaluation, we also do Illuminative evaluation. The same as formative, we do what needs to be done in the teaching and make adjustments accordingly. The main materials we rarely use are textbooks.
Advantages are that we, educators, know where the students are as far as their academic and language use abilities are. We make adjustments according to the students’ needs academically and language-use wise.
Limitations are that we have limited materials. We have limited access to materials and we make up material as we go in each unit in Upingaurluta.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Chapter Six: Course Planning and Syllabus Design
This chapter is the planning stages of a language program.
The ten different syllabuses offer ideas for teachers in the language program.
I could not identify with some of the syllabuses listed because they are aimed at teaching in the university and high school levels. In the Text-Based syllabus, the material follows or uses the textbooks as guides and/or sole material. I cannot see myself teaching using only a textbook. My class might seem so dry. I remember some of the classes I took in the past when we used only the textbooks. That class, I dreaded the most because it was so dry. There were no other “fun” activities involved in them. The other syllabus I couldn’t understand is the Integrated Syllabus. There were only two paragraphs describing the syllabus.
The one syllabus I liked was the competency-based syllabus. This syllabus would be helpful for language learners in Yugtun. It’s practical and not so dry. The activities would not be so dry and there would be a variety of activities that would help my students to learn the Yugtun Language. Also, the Task-Based syllabus would be really good for our language learners because there are a lot of hands-on activities for the students. Hands-on activities help learners to learn the most because they learn by doing. Yup’ik people are a hands-on culture. We learn by doing things. This syllabus would work best of our Yup’ik Language learners.
The ten different syllabuses offer ideas for teachers in the language program.
I could not identify with some of the syllabuses listed because they are aimed at teaching in the university and high school levels. In the Text-Based syllabus, the material follows or uses the textbooks as guides and/or sole material. I cannot see myself teaching using only a textbook. My class might seem so dry. I remember some of the classes I took in the past when we used only the textbooks. That class, I dreaded the most because it was so dry. There were no other “fun” activities involved in them. The other syllabus I couldn’t understand is the Integrated Syllabus. There were only two paragraphs describing the syllabus.
The one syllabus I liked was the competency-based syllabus. This syllabus would be helpful for language learners in Yugtun. It’s practical and not so dry. The activities would not be so dry and there would be a variety of activities that would help my students to learn the Yugtun Language. Also, the Task-Based syllabus would be really good for our language learners because there are a lot of hands-on activities for the students. Hands-on activities help learners to learn the most because they learn by doing. Yup’ik people are a hands-on culture. We learn by doing things. This syllabus would work best of our Yup’ik Language learners.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Chapter 5: Planning Goals and Learning Outcomes
Goal planning seems to be a big step in setting up a language program.
There are so many issues to consider. It seems to me that it would be hard to set up a language program.
The reason I'm saying this is because we DO NOT HAVE LANGUAGE PROGRAM GOALS, OUTCOMES, and/or Mission Statement for our school.
I've also asked my administrator for our school's mission statement. The only one we have is an out-dated "vague" mission statement. It's only one paragraph.
In the ideology of a curriculum, there are five subcatogories to consider for goal planning. The beliefs and values for the community would have to be considered.
After these categories are considered, then there are aims and objectives to look at.
Competencies are also considered after aims and objectives.
All of these catagories have to be considered for program planning and learning outcomes.
These categories have detailed items that have to be considered.
If we were to make a mission statement for our school, (because we have an out-dated one) we would have to consider all of the detailed steps.
That's why I said that this step is a big one.
There are so many issues to consider. It seems to me that it would be hard to set up a language program.
The reason I'm saying this is because we DO NOT HAVE LANGUAGE PROGRAM GOALS, OUTCOMES, and/or Mission Statement for our school.
I've also asked my administrator for our school's mission statement. The only one we have is an out-dated "vague" mission statement. It's only one paragraph.
In the ideology of a curriculum, there are five subcatogories to consider for goal planning. The beliefs and values for the community would have to be considered.
After these categories are considered, then there are aims and objectives to look at.
Competencies are also considered after aims and objectives.
All of these catagories have to be considered for program planning and learning outcomes.
These categories have detailed items that have to be considered.
If we were to make a mission statement for our school, (because we have an out-dated one) we would have to consider all of the detailed steps.
That's why I said that this step is a big one.
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