Re-thinking learning for the 21st Century
Written by Vivienne Kraus
This year, I added another element to prepare for the Harkness-inspired discussions that we had in class. As a way to build vocabulary and fluency, the students’ homework was to record their response to a given question using Flipgrid (https://www.flipgrid.com/). For example : Quelle est la place de la technologie à l’école? Use at least 10 […]
Written by Vivienne Kraus
I had first learned of this technique from a colleague who teaches English. Wanting to learn more, I invited myself to one of his classes to observe this discussion format. From what I saw, students came armed with research on various points about the text under study (Shakespeare if I recall). While seated in a […]
Written by Vivienne Kraus
A quick update on what I implemented from #cohort21 over the past year (I was a participant in 2015-2016). My action plan was based on getting students to communicate authentically. I implemented a 3-step structure for conversations, which became the routine start of almost every class: Students ask each other questions posted on a […]
Written by Vivienne Kraus
Wasn’t it just September? Wasn’t I just creating a cringe-worthy video to enter the Cohort21 lottery?? (Did I mention I won?!!) Here is my Action Plan and Reflection created using @Piktochart (as suggested by my fabulous Cohort21 colleagues @DerekDoucet1 and @CathyITRussell). You can access the cooler and much clearer online version here: https://magic.piktochart.com/output/13015371-cohort-21-action-plan.
Written by Vivienne Kraus
Faire d’un pierre deux coups. We have been working with design thinking at our school thanks to @Think_teach and of course here at Cohort 21. I felt pretty comfortable and enamored with the process, and had dabbled using it with my guinea pig class as a reflective assessment as learning tool. At a Round Square conference I […]
Written by Vivienne Kraus
…that of a teacher. And that of a French teacher trying to get her students to speak more in class! Thanks to Celeste Kirsh (@teach_tomorrow), I attempted to up the ante beyond “Talking Stick 2.0” (https://cohort21.com/viviennekraus/2015/11/21/talking-stick-2-0/). No longer was it just about using the plain popsicle sticks to determine the number of one’s contributions to […]
Written by Vivienne Kraus
My action plan My goal for this year was to provide more opportunities for my students to communicate orally in French in an authentic manner. I had heard of Harkness tables from the English Department at my school, and I have been playing with this idea over the past couple of years. I didn’t realize […]
Written by Vivienne Kraus
Here is my official Action Plan: Use co-operative structures during class to effectively build students’ oral proficiency in French in an authentic manner. In my last post, I mentioned the co-operative learning structure Talking Chips from Kagan Cooperative Learning by Dr. Spencer Kagan and Miguel Kagan (@KaganOnline). I had been eager to try new structures – RoundRobin […]
Written by Vivienne Kraus
Well I’ve gone and done it. I’ve tried the first of three co-operative structures to encourage discussion in my FSL classroom. I’ve selected these from Kagan Cooperative Learning by Dr. Spencer Kagan and Miguel Kagan. Thank you to @Think_teach for pointing me in this direction! This strategy is called “Talking chips”. I’ve referred to it as a […]
Written by Vivienne Kraus
I’ve thought about what it is I want to accomplish, and at times, it seems insurmountable. For me, it’s getting my students to use their own abilities to communicate in French. Their reality is much different than mine was at their age. With technology at their fingertips, students no longer have to spend time thumbing […]