BlendKit2017 Week 4 - Blended Content and Assignments

The readings for Week 4 in #BlendKit2017 focus on Blended Content and Assignments. Although I currently only teach face-to-face, I have incorporated some tools and practices that could potentially make the transition to teaching a blended course smoother for me.

For example, after nearly 30 years of teaching and using many different books and materials, I have strong preferences about the most helpful and effective ways to teach certain course content. Since those preferences are not necessarily reflected in the textbooks and materials we use in the Department, I often provide students with my own presentation and explanation of course content. I do that in class and provide students with written copies, images, and practice activities that they can access anytime through our Learning Management System. If I transform these materials using audio-visual resources, I think students will be more likely to consult them when they have questions. I am not sure how many students actually access these materials. Knowing that would be useful information.

Among the ideas and cautions that I am taking away from the readings and my reflections on my own teaching and courses are the following:

• I need to be careful not to overwhelm students with too much information and too many activities.
• It would be helpful to be able to provide some sort of tool to determine if/how well students already know "new" content and skills in Beginning Spanish and Intermediate Spanish so that there are multiple paths within a blended or online course and not every student would have to do the skill-building and practice learning activities for what they already know. 
• When asking students to do activities in, for example, Conjuguemos, I should clarify for them that I created those activities for them specifically based on course content. In other words, whereas the iLrn or other publisher-created materials are "generic", other things that I incorporate were created by me for them.

BlendKit2017 Week 3 Blended Assessments of Learning

Over the years, I have used a variety of online tools for both formative and summative assessments, formal and informal assessments in my university-level Spanish classes. Some of these have been more successful than others. When they have not been as successful it is usually because I did one of two things (both of which are mentioned in the Week 3 readings for #BlendKit2017):

• I used a new tool or a radically different activity without having adequately prepared students for it. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but one semester I had to completely eliminate the oral final exam component of one of my Intermediate courses because I realized it was very unfair and students were so unprepared for what they were being asked to do that the assessment did not accurately reflect their abilities. 
• I failed to provide enough detail in the expectations and/or grading criteria. With changes in K-12 education and assessment, I have seen a change in my students' expectations concerning assignments. Students never used to expect a rubric, but now they want to know the details of the expectations and grading. I see this as a positive thing since it helps me ensure that I have carefully thought through all of the details and am transparent in my grading.

This semester really presented some challenges for me since the CLEAR applications are no longer available. I had used some of those for a number of years and have not found comparable applications to replace them. The CLEAR site does now have a list of websites and tools [ http://clear.msu.edu/featured/ria-alternatives/ ] that might be helpful until they can get back up and running--I just haven't had a chance to go through them.

In upper-level courses I have had a lot of success with quality participation in whole-class discussion boards (when I have been clear about expectations and grading) and in small-group discussions boards and wikis where students collaborate on a project. I will, for this posting anyway, focus instead on lower-level courses.

One of the challenges of lower-level language courses is "encouraging" students to learn the vocabulary (Spanish to English and English to Spanish) "on time." I have started using Socrative (the upgraded version) regularly for vocabulary and even some grammar points. Students log in on their phones, answer 10-20 questions, and submit their answers which are automatically graded by the site. I then enter the grades into Blackboard under "Preparation and Participation." I post them immediately. There are many of these "mini-quizzes" throughout the semester. They don't up much class time, and students prepare for class better knowing that I will be able to see if they are prepared or not. As a caution if you try this in your classes: If you do not want to have to make adjustments to the grade (giving partial credit, accepting answers the computer counted as incorrect, etc.), you have to do the following:

• Be more specific than you think you need to be in the instructions (i.e., whether they should include the definite or the indefinite article, whether or not to include punctuation and capitalization, etc.)
• Carefully think through the possible correct answers you put for each question

 In order to help them memorize the vocabulary with correct spelling (and verb conjugations), I use Conjuguemos (upgraded version) so that students are not just flipping over flash cards--an activity which really has no accountability or feedback. Instead, students can go through the vocabulary lists as flash cards and practice verb forms and tenses by typing correct answers. They can see their progress based on their percentage (accuracy) AND based on their ability to answer more questions within a certain time period (recall speed).

Of course, it doesn't end there. In class, students work with the new material in a variety of types of activities. Since they have already put in time memorizing and practicing the vocabulary and verb forms, they are able to better use the material in communicative contexts and for tasks that ask them to go beyond mechanical practice. They are better able to negotiate meaning when they have essential content already in their memory and do not need to ask their brains to focus on some of the mechanical components. This way they can focus more on content, self-expression, and effective communication.

https://conjuguemos.com/
https://socrative.com/
http://clear.msu.edu/ and http://clear.msu.edu/featured/ria-alternatives/

Starting #BlendKit2017

Ouch! It's embarrassing to see how long it's been since I last blogged here. Granted, I've been busy with teaching, doctoral studies, etc. but still...

So what got me started again? Participating in BlendKit2017! I'm particularly hoping to connect with other language instructors participating in the MOOC. To that end, I started a Group on the site. It's brand new, but I'm hoping others will join. Spread the word!

#BlendKit2017