¿Quién Soy?

TIPC Ratings

Developing – In this lesson, students looked up words that they did not know or cannot recall in Spanish. The teacher introduced students to online resources such as www.wordreference.com and www.tomisimo.org which are information databases and online dictionaries. The teacher instructed students on how to navigate these sites and how to identify which definition listed is the correct one based on context clues. Students utilized these sites in order to improve their writing skills and expand their vocabulary. Students are prohibited from using online translators in world language classes but are allowed to use online resources like dictionaries or databases. Through this lesson the students familiarized themselves with how to appropriately and correctly look up words online using these websites.

Approaching – The overarching goal of this activity is effective communication in the Spanish language. Students utilize technology such as Audacity in order to create a recording about themselves. The goal was to express a description of one’s self and one’s interests such that others could guess who it was. Also, students collaborated throughout the peer-editing process (during the writing peer editing and the speaking peer editing). Students critiqued each other’s work and provided feedback to help improve the final product. The teacher provided the framework in which students communicated and collaborated by establishing the rubric and giving out the “Feedback Form” but students worked independently to peer edit each other’s work. Students used digital tools like Audacity to play back their work several times to help each other understand the mistakes that were being made and identify ways to improve speaking skills.

Ideal/Target – Through the peer editing process, students utilized critical thinking skills to identify and correct errors in each other’s work. The assignment required students to synthesize much of the material learned the prior year in Spanish I in order to produce an authentic, grammatically correct, fluid description of one’s self. Students had to draw on many different grammar, reading comprehension, and listening comprehension skills in order to not only understand, but also identify errors in other student’s work. Furthermore, students used problem solving skills in order to help each other correct the errors and/or research the concept/word. At the end of each peer editing phase and at the end of the overall projects, students were encouraged to reflect on their performance and the feedback given by their peers in order to set goals to work on improving specific speaking/writing skills over the course of the marking period.

Approaching – In this assignment, not only did students create a meaningful, authentic work sample in which they utilize the Spanish language to express information about themselves; students also synthesized prior knowledge, looked up unfamiliar words, and critiqued each other’s work in order to produce the best possible final product. This assignment was open-ended and is all about self-expression using the Spanish language. It is an effective “get to know you” activity for the beginning for the school year (for the teacher to get to know the students and for the students to get to know each other). The teacher modeled strategic risk taking by playing a variety of sample recordings about celebrities.