Module+II

Module 2-Leslie The ELF Program uses a series of portrayals which show a specific event or person doing a particular thing in a one case scenario when presenting each word in a lesson,e.g. push, wagon. The teacher signs the word "push" and the student reads the word "push". Then the teachers signs the word "wagon and push" and the student sees a wagon being pushed by a little girl. The student can click on just the word "push" or he can click on the sentence "Push wagon" and see the little girl push the wagon as many times as he wants. This method demonstrates both Part-of and also What happens. The part-of shows the word as it is placed in the greater sentence using the word and it shows what happens when the sentence is used with the word. I'm not sure if I understand all the definitions, yet. I've read them over and viewed the figures, but maybe I'm not able to see how ELF generalizes to this assignment. The program also uses Simon-Says. The teacher signs the word and the students tries to sign the word and then reads the word ( in his mind). The program uses all four instructional strategies: Tell, Ask, Show, and Do. The teacher signs the word and then shows the word in English and also shows a demonstration of the word. The teacher signs "sleep" and closes her eyes. She then signs" alseep in bed " and the screen shows a little girl laying her head down on a bed and closing her eyes. The student reads "Asleep in bed". In the quiz the teacher asks the student to identify sleep as she signs "sleep". If the student selects the correct word the little girl appears and goes to sleep in her bed. The student must recall the word in his mind and recognize the word, "sleep".If the student cannot recall the word as the students signs, he can click on "click" and see the little girl in bed that could perhaps help him to recall the word. The program uses both matching guidance and divergent guidance by using similar words like "write or wash" or dissimilar words like " eat and climb". the program uses corrective feedback by using a BIG RED X when the response is incorrect, but it does not explain why. The range of difficulty is gradual. The first two units are relatively easy, but sentences get harder and harder as the students progresses forward learning more words and signs. ( Actually the student is supposed to know how to sign all the signs, but the teacher ( me) does not and it gets more difficult as my student progresses, if I don't recognize the sign. Of course, I can read the words. My student is sometimes learning both, signing and reading and we give extra time and repetitions for that.

Leslie -- consider that this course is not just language but actually teaching concepts. It is applying new labels to events in the world. Consider //push//-//wagon//. The sign is a label for a whole class of events. The picture in the course is one instance of this class of events. To really learn this sign the learner needs to see additional examples of this event //push wagon// or merely //push.// The learner also needs to see events that resemble push but involve a different content like //pull.// The challenge is to then present a new situation that involves this concept (word or words) and see if the learner can use the vocabulary (sign) to identify the new situation. This is learning a language from referents (the events in the real world) rather than from another language. That is what we all did at first. For young children, especially those that are handicapped, this learning from the world is far more likely to be successful than learning from another language. dm

D. Ryan Huff Module 2  Concerning this course, it seems that there are several instructional strategies that can be found. Whether these examples perfectly fit the prescribed criteria or not I am not positive, but some of the basic components are definitely there.  First of all, the “information about” strategy is demonstrated by having the students look up specific verses within the first few chapters of the book of Exodus. These verses help provide an overview of the Israelites journey from bondage to the Promised Land. I think I would add some extra steps within this portion of the lesson so that the students also get a basic understanding of who the Israelites were, what they were supposed to become and how they found themselves in their current position of bondage in the first place.  The “part-of” and the “kind-of” strategies, at least in my opinion, are linked together within this course. The “part-of” portion is found in how the manual breaks up the entire journey of the Israelites into four categories: bondage, deliverance, wondering in the wilderness and entrance to the Promised Land. Each of these components together makes up their entire journey of the Israelites. The “kind-of” strategy, relating to the “part-of” categories, are implemented as the manual asks the students to compare these events to latter-day examples of “spiritual” bondage, deliverance, wanderings, and entrance. The tasks are similar put transferred in such a way that the information and verses have to interpreted on a more applicable and personal level.  I do think that this lesson is missing an element of the “what-happens” strategy. This however could easily be fixed by asking students to explore possible outcomes of the trials, the plaques and other surprising twists in the Israelites journey to the Promised Land. In conjunction, they could make possible predictions about their own lives and the unexpected situations that they might find themselves in. This would be a great opportunity for reflection and meditation about their own lives and the outcomes that they may or may not receive based on their current choices and actions. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #00ff00; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"> The trickiest strategy that is hard to implement in this course is the “how-to” strategy. While I am not teaching specific math equations or chemistry questions where the students actually carry out a procedure to obtain a certain result, I am however, still striving to teach so that my students will “act” upon the information that they learned. If while I am teaching, can somehow teach a principle that has an action verb within it, then using the “how-to” strategy might be feasible. One idea that I have is creating a “how to be successful in the wilderness chart.” This chart could include all of the things we should “do,” (based on the examples of the Israelites), in order to get through this journey of life with the help of the Lord and with as few self-inflicted trials as possible. The difficult part, once again, will be the assurance that my students actually carry out the things that could be included on the chart.