In my last post, I reflected upon the first week, and plans for the second one. In this post, I’m reflecting upon week 2 and describing planning for week 3.
WEEK 2 REVIEW
Week 2 involved texts focused on the following tasks and the students carrying out versions of these tasks in class: reserving a room, ordering food, planning decorations, deciding on appropriate dress, and writing invitations. Overall, this went fairly well. The texts were challenging for the students, but they were able to follow enough to do the task in class, which of course was the goal. There were also technical difficulties, where for example the video explaining how to order food uses a different version of the website than the current one. Overall, I’d probably also spend more than one day on each activity in the future.
WEEK 3 PLAN
The plan for week 3 is to have one day related to tasks, and then start planning the party. As we also have a day focused on a TalkAbroad assignment (a telecollaboration program sponsored by our language lab) and I’ll be at a conference one day, that’s actually only two days for planning. So, the schedule goes as follows:
Monday:
I can write a program for the party (text is the very beginning of this document)
I can introduce a speaker (text is the introduction of this lecture)
Tuesday
TalkAbroad Reflections
Wednesday
I can write a plan for the party and carry out the necessary tasks
Thursday
No class, conference
Friday
I can carry out my tasks for planning the party
For Wednesday, I wrote todo lists for three committees (Food and Decorations, Entertainment, and Logistics) in coordination with the Arabic Club, and these are the text for Wednesday’s lesson. In class, they’ll sign up for the committee they want to belong to, and start planning their next steps. Each committee also has order sheets for various items (food, decorations, sound systems, room reservations, etc.) that I made based on what is actually available. They then have to email the president of the Arabic Club (since the club has the money for the event) to make the necessary arrangements. At the end of class, they students will give a report on what they plan to accomplish before the next class. Their homework is to fill out a sheet describing what they talked about in class, what each person on their committee needs to do, and what they need to do for the next class (and of course do it!).
In terms of my lesson planning, the big question of course is how long will carrying out these plans take? In addition to language skills, this part will also require planning and coordination skills, which the students may also need to develop. So, it should be an interesting week, with lots of potential revisions for next time!
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