Module+1

Brandon Comstock

Breaking down an entire course is a bit tricky to do, particularly when the terms of the book are still a little new in my mind. Instead I choose to look at a small section, just a few principles, and break them down. Since I teach Seminary, and am preparing to teach the Old Testament/ Pearl of Great Price next year, I choose Moses Chapter 1 to examine.

The principle being taught was “Knowing we are children of God can give us self-respect and motivation to face the problems of life.” The manual gave what I thought was good activation at the beginning, by asking what the answer to the question “Who am I?” was, and then giving the statement “Man is Nothing” and asking if that statement came from God, or from Satan. Hopefully this will get the students thinking about their relationship with God.

In regards to having a demonstration, I’m not entirely sure if analogies qualify as demonstrations or not, but assuming they do, the manual gave an example of brining a seed from a large tree to class, and speaking of the potential that is held in that seed to become something great, then likening it to our potential. I thought it was a pretty good demonstration of the idea that even if we are little; knowing what/who we are can give us what we need to move forward.

Probably a better example however, is that the manual takes students to the scripture block, and talks about the impact understanding who he was had on Moses, and how it helped him overcome Satan. Overall, the demonstration portion was well covered.

Unfortunately, the application was not as good. There was an attempt, but it was not well put. After the seed analogy, there was one question “How are we like the seed?” This might yield a good discussion, but the lesson would have been helped with a question that guided students better, such as “How might understanding what/who you are help you endure through trials today?” This way, the question is sure to yield answers that are actually related to the principle being taught, and hopefully helps to build the framework for the students.

I also felt that integration was a little weak. The manual walks through the story of Moses being tempted, but never does take time to have students make the connection to their life. I would have like to see a few question like “In what ways does the world tell you that you are simply a “son of man”, not a “son of God?” Rather than the questions asked by the manual, which simply asked the student to identify what was said by Satan, and how Moses responded, never really allowing the student to do any serious reflecting.

Lastly I have problem centered learning. I think that the suggestions I listed for application would work well to implement this factor, although I’m not entirely sure what the difference is, particularly in my setting of seminary.

Overall, I was a little surprised to see that the teaching was probably Level 1 and could us a lot of work.

Leslie Preface:

At the beginning of the school year I found that I had seven new students in addition to the ones from last year. Three were profoundly deaf and three more were non-verbal, as well. These parents used limited signing with them at home to facilitate communication. One child had learned approx.80 signs. Another student had learned more than 30 baby signs. This was more than I knew.

I was at a loss as to what to do and decided to learn to sign. I took a signing class at USU in 2003, but it was only one class and really I have not used it all since the class and I realized that I couldn't even remember how to sign the alphabet. I had purchased an expensive book with a CDROM where the student (me) could type in a word and a picture of a person would come on and sign the word. The student could click on slow or normal speed, but other than that one option, it was one word at a time. I next purchased some "Signing Time" tapes as seen on PBS which teaches signing to children. I started playing these tapes for the children right after lunch while staff member went to lunch. I rarely saw the tapes myself because I was doing paperwork, eating lunch or servicing students in the bathroom. I wasn't learning to sign at all at a sufficient speed to teach the students to communicate. I then found a site www.aslpro.org that seemed to be better than the CDROM and I referred to that, but with little progress. I then discovered a free online course to teach sign language to beginners which is www.lifeprint.org.

I decided to use this course to refer to in Module 1 and probably Module 2. In order to understand what I will comment on in the forthcoming weeks please refer to this site. It has really helped me to learn more signing, fingerspelling, phrases, etc. There is no way that I can comment on the whole course. I know that the book, "First Principles" suggested to start into the course (and not on the beginning chapters as they are just introduction for the most part), but in learning a foreign language, if you will, it is a ladder, rung after rung. I wouldn't be able to skip to the middle and know what is going on. So I would like to comment on Lesson 1 for the Module I comment.

The online course www.lifeprint.org was developed to teach beginning sign language to novice students. The course features Dr. Bill Vicars, a deaf person who does the signing. As far as I can see, this course incorporates the First Principles of Instruction and the Instructional Strategy at a 2-3. Dr. Vicars demonstrates each word or letter of the alphabet. The student can move at his/her own pace in Lesson 1. There are many options to read about Deaf Culture, questions that other students have asked and he has answered and words to learn to sign. I like the way the professor calculated that most frequently used signs to be taught first. Also there is section of the most common Baby Signs with different division as to topic: animals, food, etc. There are examples galore of the material being presented that the student can click on and view many times over. Each lesson introduces a select amount of words to learn, each demonstrated with variations, too, if needed. Many questions ask about how the hand is turned and still pictures demonstrate how each turn is used. This is particularly helpful to me because I am left-handed and I'm always turned around. I have not seen any games, yet, but the whole program is a game in a way because it is so much fun. There are opportunities to practice fingerspelling that can be used over and over. This is the hardest concept for a hearing person to learn and always needs repetition and improvement. But it is easily activated and the student (me) can practice the same word over and over. The student can decide to ask for the next word. I believe that the Lesson 1 has a superb instructional architecture format. It features a direct method with the new words to be learned and committed to memory. It offers many chances for tutorial methods, experiential methods and untold exploratory opportunities. I did not notice that the program tried to use prior knowledge. It just assumed that the student didn't know anything. But the student could just take the test and progress himself/herself to the next Lesson 2. There was tons of demonstration and the student could integrate or generalize into the real world by using the information gained in fingerspelling in the mirror or use with a deaf person or to another person learning ASL. I didn't notice so much Application, yet, as far as the book defined application. But this is only Lesson 1.

It will be interesting to see how this course stacks up against the concepts of First Principles. Obviously this is a basic skill, learning a new language, and probably does not involve problem solving, at least at the early stages.

D.Ryan Huff  Similarly to Brandon, I have chosen to evaluate a portion of next year’s seminary curriculum. My area of focus will be coming from the book of Exodus in the Old Testament. Hopefully they will be beneficial to both Brandon and Leslie.  There is a very clear and concise principle that is being taught in the first few chapters of Exodus. This principle is stated as: “**The Exodus can be seen as a symbol of mankind’s journey through mortality and back into the presence of God.” ****As the class learns about and discusses the events of the Exodus of the Israelites, hopefully they will see the metaphor of Israelites exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land and their own exodus from the presence of God to this life and back again. **  ** The first issue I have is the lack of activation this unit provides in order to reach the principle. The manual suggests asking the students what the word “Exodus” means and then having them look up the definition in the Bible Dictionary. Asking students a basic knowledge question or having the students “look something up” doesn’t promote a desire for learning within most teenage students. I would personally start by asking students to think about the longest journey they had ever been on. This journey could include a hike, a campout, a youth conference or something along similar lines. **  Your activation activity is much better :-) dm <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0.5in;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">The manual is also lacking a proper demonstration of a skill that the students could learn and implement. Granted, it may be difficult to demonstrate skills in a seminary setting, but I think in this lesson there is a great place for teaching a “scripture study skill” that the students could not only learn, but practice several times over throughout the lesson. The study skill that could be implemented is that of “likening.” In the Book of Mormon, Nephi, a prophet, encourages us to “liken the scriptures” unto us or in other words to find similarities of how events in the scriptures are applicable to the events of our own lives. At one point in the lesson, the manual invites the students to read and find out how the Israelites were in bondage, how they were delivered from bondage, how they handled their journey through the wilderness and what lead them to the Promised Land. It would be very simple to take a few moments to have the students practice likening these events to their own journey throughout life and demonstrate this skill in the process. ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0.5in;"> Likening is a great, and difficult, problem solving skill. This could certainly be the focus of your course with the content of the Old Testament as a context in which to learn this skill. I'll be interested in seeing how you proceed. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0.5in;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Application for this lesson is also lacking, but once again, simply remedied. As we discuss as a class about the journey of the Israelites from bondage to the Promised Land, I can share stories of how I have seen the hand of the Lord lead me to the “Promised Land” and solicit personal experiences from my students as well. I won’t be able to ensure that each student is applying the principle in their own life, but I could definitely leave my students with a challenge of some kind and then follow up on that challenge the next time we meet. ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0.5in;"> The biggest challenge for scripture study is focus. There are so many principles and examples that we can get lost in the forest and lose track of why we entered the forest in the first place (hopefully not just to please my parents). dm