MEGE+Journal+2


 * JOURNAL 2: INTERVIEW WITH COOPERATING TEACHER **

In my opinion, the classroom is poorly managed. Students are allowed to sit where they want. As a result, they all sit by their friends and the majority of them talk the whole hour and do not pay attention. On occasion, Mrs. Palmer will usually try talking over them but occasionally will tell them to be quiet; and that’s the extent of it. It’s very distracting to the students. She should be assigning seats since she has this problem in multiple hours. Students work with a partner almost daily in a flashcard review game in which they spread out vocabulary words on their desks and race to find the translation. This seems to go well for the most part, but the set up process (spreading cards out on their desks) easily takes five minutes because they see this as an opportunity to talk with their partner instead of setting up for the game. Once the ball starts rolling, most of them do well, but there is still that problem of students talking en lieu of playing.

Inquiry teaching is not used. Everything is presented in an English/French translation.

At the end of each theme students are expected to do a project that pulls together everything they have learned that unit. This could be presented orally, as a video or dissertation. The French 2 class is coming to an end of their theme (reflexive verbs) and is going to write a paper about how they get ready in the morning. This acts as a summative assessment. She occasionally gives quizzes or uses “magic boards” (little white boards students can write their answer on) as formative assessments.

She takes participation points on a daily basis. Occasionally she collects homework. The performance tasks at the end of the theme are graded on content, comprehensibility, fluency and effort