September 8th, 2015
WEEK 1: SYLLABUS AND TOPIC 1 SYLLABUS: During the first hour of the first class, we went through the whole syllabus. It was only the first day and I was already stressing out about all the assignments we have for this course. Planning, teaching experience, Service Learning, presentations... It was definitely a stressing hour, but since that moment I was pretty sure I was going to nail this course.
TOPIC 1: After going through the whole syllabus, we started the first topic of the course: The Child as a Language Learner. To start this topic, the teacher introduced a very important sub-title to this topic: Developmentally Appropriate Instruction. It was about providing all the necessary factors (environment, materials, content‌) according to the child’s level. The teacher explained three important dimensions that must be considered to provide the right factors: 1. Age appropriateness 2. Individual appropriateness
September 8th, 2015
3. Appropriateness for the cultural and social context of the child We also went a little bit deeper and learned about preschoolers’ aspects according to this topic. Thrive when they can experience new materials, roles, ideas, and activities-especially in pretend play Take great interest in feelings and become able to express their emotions and identify those of others Make important cognitive gains that invite them to represent their world in pretend play, symbols, objects, drawings, and words Show astonishing gains in language skills Last but not least, we learned four more important facts that we as teachers need to know the appropriate way of implementing them: Learning about children’s development and interests Children’s language learning and acquisition Making input meaningful to learners Supporting children’s language acquisition and learning