In our last training class on Saturday, Denise mentioned how Padlet can be used to share the written version of a tableau in Phase 1 of the Star. Then Karin shared that the teacher using Padlet can also record her voice to add to the written version. Why is this important?
It is because if a child is a struggling reader, they can just listen to the story and get better at reading precisely because they “know” the story by sound first. This is a powerful fact when you think about the real goal of our work as language teachers – equity.
Yes, language gains are a goal, but in my own CI world they are a secondary goal. I would die a thousand deaths if it meant that we could finally do something about the equity piece in the world. And guess what? We, more than many others in other professions, by directly addressing the equity piece, can make a difference in the world.
Think of how many students there must be in the U.S. who are currently studying a language in their schools. Our profession, long the red-headed stepsister of education, is now appearing more and more to be in the process of becoming a strong player in building a stronger democracy. It didn’t always used to be that way….
(If you want to see the video of what I describe above, it is on the Class 2, Book 1 UCI training video, at 1:03:17 into the video.)