module 20 post 2

I find the idea of observational learning to be very effective and I like this theory a lot. I think that in my classroom I would probably end up using this theory a lot, along with the behaviorism theory. I know that guided discovery would make sense to use (because the students will be learning new information and have no previous knowledge to relate it back to); however, I don’t think that the guided discovery would be an effective teaching method in this case. I would probably end up using the mastery learning technique in order to teach the children French. I would be able to divide up the unit into smaller sub-units and work for a bit of time on each sub-unit (and then build upon each sub-unit until the entire unit has been learned). I would need to constantly provide feedback to students about their progress so I know that they are pronouncing the word correctly or spelling it correctly. I would most likely be writing information on the board or creating some sort of active/engaging assignment that would interest the students and help them to learn the terms and concepts. These two ideas (mastery learning and observational learning) don’t really match up because in observational learning there is a lot of demonstrating an idea and then having the students repeat that idea. Observational learning relies on models and imitation in order to teach a concept. While I would be the model and at points I would have the students follow my instructions/repeat my behavior in order to complete an assignment or project, I don’t think that I could teach the students all of the lesson plans in this manner. In order to track the progress of each lesson, students will be given small assessments (either formative or summative), where I would be able to gage their understanding and see what areas need improvement.

On a weekly basis, I would provide a vocabulary quiz (perhaps give the students the words the previous Friday, and have the quiz be on Fridays). So, this would allow me to see if the students are learning the words (which we would have worked throughout the week to memorize). The quiz would be formatted in a ‘I give you the English word and you write the French word that we learned this week.’ At the end of the entire unit, I would have another vocabulary quiz that chose a few words from each of the quizzes. Throughout the unit, the quizzes would tell me what the students know (the words that they understand) and what still needs to be taught/needs improvement. We would use flashcards, watch simple French videos that contained the vocabulary words, and fill out worksheets in order to teach the children the vocabulary terms. It would be helpful to show a picture of the term so that the students could associate a picture with the French vocabulary word. I would choose this method over others because I think that it is going to be the most effective way to teach the vocabulary terms. Since they are younger and learning a new language, I cannot expect them to be able to just pick up the information on their own. They need to be helped throughout the process and I need to play a constant role in making sure that they are properly learning the information.