Philosophy

I have been teaching for 7 years and so many moments have shaped me to become the teacher I am today. Many colleagues, hundreds of students, and this ever-changing profession challenge and excite me. I did my Master's thesis on SBL at the same time that my whole district was adopting SBL. While I have taught in many ways, Standards Based Learning in the World Language classroom quickly became my favorite, allowing student to demonstrate mastery in each area of the language in their own way. Because World Languages do not have standardized testing learning standards, I took creative license in creating my own standards and rubrics that were later refined by the WL department members and was adopted by the district.

A student can be proficient in the areas of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. While these are all intertwined, the input areas of reading and listening usually come before the output skills of writing and speaking. Starting from more structured/concrete learning to more open/creative options allows students to learn at their own pace and build on a strong foundation. Through differentiated activities, i.e. choice boards and student centers, manipulatives, and short stories in Spanish, students work on each skill. Frequent informal and formal check ins help me understand when (and to whom) to re-teach, and when we can advance. My preferred style of formal assessment is on individual skills. Open ended writing and speaking prompts lead to students' creativity with the language and mimics a real world situations. On reading and listening tests, I create questions that increase in difficulty to challenge students' understanding of the content of the written passage or audio clip.

After two years of teaching and assessing with SBL, I saw wonderful improvements in my students’ proficiency at every learning level. Having open-ended writing and speaking assessments made it easier to differentiate throughout the unit and helped all learners progress at their individual level. I used a feedback checklist for writing and speaking practices as well as the assessments which provided praise as well as constructive notes that allowed students a clear direction for improvement. SBL created a supportive environment which encouraged students take risks with the language and not be afraid to write and speak more. At the end of unit, I saw struggling students be able to write a short paragraph (with errors) and advanced students write a few paragraphs using lots of creative language. Because skills are isolated, it is easy to see if a student deviated from his or her trend and to track their progress throughout the year. My students have gone on to the next level of Spanish with confidence and preparedness.