Assessing Student Learning - Coursework Example

The unit aims to equip students with the right Spanish vocabulary to describe their bodies, health, and when something hurts. This unit also aims to train students on how to use direct object pronouns when describing their bodies, their health, or even when something hurts. This unit is designed to allow students to practice and use singular and plural direct object pronouns when describing their bodies and health. Learning about our bodies is generally a very crucial aspect of our lives, and that’s why this unit is very significant in helping students to learn how to use both singular and plural direct object pronouns and how to describe their bodies and their health altogether with the correct form of verbs required.

The goals of this topic include:

• Equipping students with the right Spanish vocabulary to describe their bodies, their health, and even when something hurts.
• It trains students to use direct object pronouns when describing their bodies, their health, or even when something hurts.

This unit was designed for the Spanish level three classes at Brandywine high school located in Wilmington, Delaware. The items in this project include worksheets, sample drawings, and assessment tests.

This class consists of sixty students. Two of the students have IEPs(Individualized Education Plans). This section was delivered to one part of Spanish three-level students. This class meets every day of the week for 90 minutes.  When introducing the unit, I divided my class into three sections, 30 minutes each. In the first 30minutes, I asked the students about their prior knowledge regarding any direct object pronouns they may know of and then asked my students to attempt describing their health and their bodies in Spanish and finally requested them to mention some of the direct object pronouns known to them. I introduced the lesson within the first 30 minutes. Within the next thirty minutes, I issued my students with the learning worksheets I had carried with me and engaged them in a class discussion based on what they see on the diagrams on the sheets provided. 

Learning Objectives and National Standards targeted

The theme of this unit of instruction focuses on the body and the health as titled “ El Cuerpo y la Salud." During every class, students are taught crucial aspects that comprise of new vocabulary that relate to health and the body and direct object pronouns. The students are also provided with sample pictures that show parts of the body in the Spanish language. The students are offered multiple opportunities to describe parts of their body and their health while incorporating direct object pronouns.

The Learning objectives of this topic include:

• By the end of this unit, the students will be able to describe their bodies, their health, and when something hurts.
• By the end of this unit, the students will be able to master the use of both singular and plural direct object pronouns to describe when something hurts.

The above objectives reflect on the Spanish highschool curriculum of Brandywine high school, with the target audience being high school students. Throughout this unit, learners should be able to use Spanish to describe their bodies and their health, and when something hurts.

The learning objectives in this section are meant for me as the teacher, and the learning targets are meant for my students. I began dealing with goals that focus on a single unit of instruction. I then went ahead to break the purposes of the lesson into a learning progression. In this case, a learning progression seeks to explain the levels of understanding that result in overly developed objectives. For example, in this particular scenario, I broke down the goals that focus on a single unit for the following learning progression;

• Generally, name parts of their bodies in Spanish.
• Describe parts of their bodies and their health in Spanish.
• Mention some direct object pronouns and learn direct object pronouns
• Describe when something hurts using direct object pronouns.

After establishing a learning progression, I then used the learning progression to initiate daily learning goals. For example, I may use the first lesson to allow students to attempt naming parts of their bodies and their health. I may then use my second lesson to teach them about direct object pronouns and then use the third lesson to teach the students how to describe when something hurts.

The final step after I initiated my everyday goals was to translate daily goals into a language that the students can easily understand. I advocated for the use of "I can" to achieve daily targets set. The major setback I experienced with this statement is that the statement was different for every student. For example, some used the statement "I can" in the format, e.g., 'I can hardly tackle the assessment test.' Therefore the statement "I can" was not productive in helping the students achieve their daily targets. I also gave my students enough revision time, and during the assessment, I also offered students enough time to prevent them from rushing through the paper, which could lead to failure.

National standards

Except form aiming at all objectives stated above, this unit and its assessments cohere to many of the goal areas outlined in ACTFL's World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages. Foreign language national standards are generally grouped into five levels, namely; communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and community. ...Download file to see next pages Read More