Filing the gap….Standards…… Lesson Plan
In Kentucky, we must use the Kentucky World Language Association’s set Standards, “Kentucky Framework for World Language Learning”. These are based on the National Standards and what they refer to as the C s, which are Communincation-1, Cultures/communities-2, Connections- 3, and Comparisons- 4.
We must incorporate as many of these standards as possible into each lesson. The texbook I use, “Expresate” has set lesson plans that incorporate those standards in each daily plan. The have 50 minute plans and 90 minute block plans. I don’t use their plan, however I do use it as a guide to plan my week according to the vocabulary and grammar that is presented. I then incorporate many different activities to keep students engaged and interested. We do several interactive and communicative activities every week I try to use at the very least, one per day.
As we all know, each class has it’s own personality and moves at it’s own pace. Therefore, I must adjust the plan on a daily basis. Some classes need more time on certain concepts and others are able to move right along. Another deterrent is all the interruptions that classrooms have to endure such as intercome announcements, student meetings with colleges, last minute pep rallies and last but not least, all that test prep which used to be done mainly in the Spring.
Even as recently as last year, we could get much of our teaching and learning done in the Fall because we knew that in the Spring, along with weather related closings, we had to deal with test prep and testing. With the recent changes in the CATS test scheduling and the PLAN test for sophmores, we now have no block of uninterrupted time to focus solely on our own content without giving up time to incorporate prep for the test.
Foreign Language is not tested as an area in itself, nevertheless, I contribute to the prep by incorporating music, dance and art of the Spanish speaking culture. We also learn about celebrations in the target countries along with study of these topics. We compare them not only to one another but also to the American counterparts. Additionally, we study the movement, history and growth of these topics over time.
I try to incorporate the culture atleast once a week within my planned area of study. As part of the “Expresate” there is a different country presented in each chapter to tie in the culture. At times I use that country as a starting point to the study of the above topics.
There will always be a gap to bridge between not only the plan and the standard but also between the plan and what is actually done. However, as teachers, we continue to strive toward our goals of student learning and retaining of information through student engagement by making it interesting for the learner.
