Running head: FL 561 VIDEO REFLECTIONS 1

FL 561 Video Reflections

Rebekah Diser

University of Southern Mississippi

FL 561 VIDEO REFLECTIONS 2

FL 561 Video Reflections

The videos represent varied examples of good teaching techniques. While there were

some concepts that reappeared in more than one video, each teacher has her own interpretation

on the concept. It was helpful to see how the concepts can be applied while still allowing the

educators to have their own classroom identity.

Ms. Pettigrews lesson can be described as content based instruction. Each step leads the

students to the next. Her opener asks her students to think about their own personal experience.

This could serve a couple of purposes. It could pique their interests as it builds on their own

experiences and asks them to empathize with another person. This may also lead them to give

better information as they see the real world application of their classwork. The opener as well

as the work that builds up to the final activity put them in the position of expert. They have

completed research and they have become very knowledgeable about the topic at hand. Ms.

Pettigrew gave them control within parameters. They had some choices they could make. One

student asked for Ms. Pettigrew to give her the English for a word, and she declined. She gave

examples instead of English. Later, another student made a mistake, and instead of making an

overt correction Ms. Pettigrew reiterated in Spanish the real meaning of what the student had

uttered. The student quickly self-corrected. The students successfully meet each challenge that

Ms. Pettigrew gives them. (Annenburg Learner, n.d.)

Ms. Rodriguez presented the same information in multiple ways to ensure that all learners

were more likely to acquire the new vocabulary. After she worked with the new vocabulary in

multiple ways she used the vocabulary in content based instruction. The students had already

used their five senses to interact with the new vocabulary when Ms. Rodriguezs geography

lesson connected the students with other cultures. Since the students had already tasted the
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fruits, they were more interested, and they wanted to know where they could find the fruits that

they liked. They were surprised to find that the fruits were available at their local grocery store.

Ms. Rodriquez only spoke Spanish to the students, and most of the students used Spanish to

respond to her; however, when students worked together there was very little Spanish spoken.

(Annenburg Learner, n.d.)

In the video, the teacher and the students had shared a common experience and wrote a

story about their shared common experience in the target language. While the teacher was native

speaker of the target language some of the phrasing and vocabulary in the story sounded

unnatural. The example that stands out most is washing machine soap. It does not sound

natural. It is likely that they meant laundry soap. This is not the only case of unnatural phrasing

and vocabulary, and it really accentuates the need for authentic texts at the lower levels. While

the text had issues, the students growth was evident, and the different instructional strategies

that the teacher used really built on what had come before it. It was clear how the parts fit

together at the end and the material was salient to the students because it related directly to the

students lives. (New American Horizons Foundation [Horizons], n.d.)

In the video the teacher prepared the students for a writing assignment by demonstrating

the writing process used in the United States. The teacher noted that some countries have

different expectations in their writing. The teacher shared the examples that some cultures find it

insulting to state something obvious while others prefer a circular writing. The teacher pointed

out that one cannot assume that writing varies by culture and what one might think is obvious is

really someone viewing a practice through the lens of ones own cultural experience. While the

teacher made viewers aware of cultural differences, she also promoted an us vs. them mindset.

She refers to students former country as your country. While these students did come from
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another country, it is possible that they may be trying to make the United States their new home.

Acknowledging cultural differences without alienating those with cultural differences is

extremely difficult. Educators need to be sensitive to this dilemma. While this teacher did not

have malicious intent, that is not always the case when someone uses this sort of charged

language. The rhetoric of politicians is sometimes in this category. (New American Horizons

Foundation [American], n.d.)

In the video, the teacher used pre-listening activities in order to make an authentic oral

story comprehensible to her students. The teacher pre-taught vocabulary through content based

instruction as well as integrating technology. The content based instruction started with

geography and culture lesson where they students compared Louisiana and California. The

teacher had the students work in pairs. This allowed the students to negotiate meaning while

thinking through the similarities and differences between the two locations. The teacher then

moved on to a plant biology lesson to assure that then students had the background knowledge to

be able to analyze the story. After the teacher told the story, she used a graphic organizer as an

extension activity to facilitate the students analysis of the story. The students acted out the story

to demonstrate comprehension before the teacher moved on to discussing the significance of the

story to Cajun culture as well as other cultural knowledge to enable the students to have a greater

understanding of the Cajun culture and perspective. (Annenburg Learner [Cajun], n.d.)

It was refreshing to witness different classroom environments. Seeing the concepts from

the textbook being applied in different classrooms shows how the pieces fit together.
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References

Annenburg Learner. (n.d.). A Cajun folktale and Zydeco [Video file]. Retrieved from

http://www.learner.org/libraries/tfl/french/granville/analyze.html

Annenburg Learner. (n.d.). Creating travel advice [Video file]. Retrieved from

http://www.learner.org/libraries/tfl/spanish/pettigrew/analyze.html

Annenburg Learner. (n.d.). Fruits of the Americas [Video file]. Retrieved from

http://www.learner.org/libraries/tfl/spanish/rodriguez/analyze.html

New American Horizons Foundation. (n.d.). Building literacy with adult emergent readers

[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.newamericanhorizons.org/training-videos

New American Horizons Foundation. (n.d.). Cultivating writing skills at the intermediate level

[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.newamericanhorizons.org/training-videos