Here is some follow up information from Michele. Finally, a university person coming to the aid of a high school teacher who does TPRS. How often does that happen?
Ben,
You might enjoy the letter the Startalk grant leader (Russian prof at U Iowa) sent my district coordinator and principal (after I told her that they tried to take away my level 5 and AP kids this year; the immersion teacher told them I don’t speak Russian well enough to teach the upper levels and that my AP kids only get 4’s). She was horrified. She’s the one who convinced me I must present in Russian. In the end, it was parents who camped out until their kids got put back into my schedule, but meanwhile, here’s the letter:
Dear Mr. Locke,
On August 6, Michele Whaley shared a video of a Russian lesson with the 2014 STARTALK Russian Program for teachers “Bridging the Gap through Standards and Technology” at the University of Iowa.
As you may be aware, STARTALK Teacher Programs are intended to help teachers of critical languages such as Russian, Chinese, and Arabic refine their own practices of high-yield teaching strategies.
In 2012, Ms. Whaley created several distance-education lessons for our STARTALK program as a teacher participant. This year we asked her to help us with her further support for training by filming and discussing lessons.
Ms. Whaley provided an excellent example of effective teaching in several areas including the following STARTALK-endorsed principles:
· Students learn vocabulary from input and using it in language-rich contexts;
· The teacher provides frequent, varied classroom opportunities for students to interpret and express meaning;
· The teacher uses the target language at least 90 percent of the time;
· The teacher uses a variety of strategies to make language comprehensible, monitors student comprehension, and makes appropriate adjustments;
· The teacher uses authentic materials and designs tasks appropriate to learners.
Ms. Whaley’s videotaped lesson reached a variety of different levels present in her class. She spoke in Russian for an hour, discussing methods and explaining her choices for technology with high school and university participants. She offered them the chance to continue online discussion and invited them to join a nation-wide group of Russian teachers who are sharing materials and ideas.
I have been leading STARTALK programs for Russian teachers for three years now. While there are many dedicated Russian teachers, those like Michele are rare, and we must cherish and support them.
We are planning to invite Ms. Whaley to work with us during our next STARTALK. She promotes your district and school wonderfully.
We congratulate your school and district on offering the support that teachers need to continue to grow and contribute to their profession.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Irina Kostina
Russian Language Program
Division of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures
634 PH
University of Iowa