Independent Study: The Beginning (Week 2)

When I first began this semester, I thought for sure I knew exactly what I was going to complete for my independent study. I planned to complete two unit portfolios that would visually display my understanding of educating students at the middle and high school levels of the Spanish language. As I got outlining my lesson plans, I thought to myself, this would be way more useful for others, and myself (in the future) if I just completed my entire independent study using a Wiki Space. In my first semester here at the University of Maine at Farmington I was introduced to the wonderful world of wiki's. When first presented with them I thought they were extremely confusing and useless because I had no experience using them, and no background knowledge on how to utilize them!

At this point in my educational path, I have become very fond of using a wiki space. Through multiple education courses, I have been kind of forced in to using them. Because technology is becoming more integrated in to the classroom, many teachers of mine have posted all material for their courses through a wiki site. When I say all material, this includes the entire syllabus, including work that we are required to complete for class, what we are going to be completing in class time, and even all of our work we completed is uploaded on to the wiki to share with class mates and our professor. Not only can they be created in an extremely organized fashion, but more importantly, my work can be shared with other educators that are interested in teaching Spanish to their best ability. All of my work is saved in one area, and by using proper tools on the Wiki I have designed my site in a step-by-step order making it easy to navigate through all of the information I have provided.

For my first unit on the wiki, I am specifically targeting the middle level grades (6-8), focusing on informal and formal introductions. Through the Spanish classes completed in high school, and the Spanish courses taken here at the University of Maine at Farmington I am able to confidently state that having the ability to introduce yourself, and begin a conversation is the first step in mastering the Spanish language. By using "introductions" as the underlying topic, there are many opportunities to introduce the most commonly used verbs and present-tense conjugations. Comprehending present-tense conjugations is the first step in successfully introducing yourself, or beginning any conversation in general.

I will utilize this blog to explain why I chose to include each lesson plan. On my Wiki Space I have provided two units that target Spanish education in general, one for middle level, and one for high school level. Once explanations have been provided for the middle level lesson plans incorporated in to that unit, I will begin to reflect and explain the information that will be provided in the second unit for the high school level.

Explore My Wiki