July - 2021

My Three 'Aha' Moments from University of the People's Curriculum Design Course

I took a course on Curriculum Design for two reasons. First, I am a sign language teacher who finds the current ASL curriculum options to be lacking. Second, in founding InterSign University in 2015, I created a platform and curriculum to support Deaf teachers around the world as they teach their language online (such as Nepali, Korean, Russian, Ghanaian, and Vietnamese Sign Languages). What I hope to take away from this course is all that I have learned regarding how to crea

3 Reform Recommendations for ASL Curricula

A common concern among American Sign Language (ASL) teachers in the United States is that students are reluctant to interact and use what they have learned in class with the Deaf community. This section addresses limitations in the current curriculum, the exploratory research conducted, and reform recommendations specific to the ASL curriculum. Exploratory Research Steps To better understand the limitations of current ASL curricula, the following exploratory research steps ar

6 Reform Recommendations for Language Learning Curricula

A good foundation for addressing language curriculum reform is to explore points of concern such as: Does the language curriculum effectively prepare students to function in the target language? Does the language curriculum match the needs and opportunities of language students in both rural and urban areas? Do stakeholders have similar aims for the language curriculum? Are these priorities effectively communicated in the curriculum and the classroom? The following six recomm

Why We Need NEWform not REform in the United States Educational System

"To move our school structures into more open, fluid, and correspondingly inventive forms, we need new forms, not reform” (Jacobs, 2010). I have to admit that I am quite pessimistic when it comes to massive newform and not reform at the national level in the United States. I agree with Jacobs (2010) that many “reforms have merely taken an existing practice, bent it a bit, and tinkered with it, thus ending up with the same basic form (para. 2). Educational goals are, more than

Should There Be Standardized Testing in the Language Learning Classroom? (+ A Paralympics Analogy)

Standardized Testing is a trending topic in academic and political circles. To participate in this debate, I will define Standardized Testing, discuss potential positives and negatives to this approach, and address this type of testing in the milieu of American Sign Language classrooms. The Definition of Standardized Testing A Standardized Test is an examination in which students are given the same questions and scored in a similar manner to allow comparison of performance be

Multiple Intelligence Theory in the Language Classroom: Authentic ASL Assessment Practices

With “the majority of language classroom delivery still based on unilateral ways of teaching” (Silva & Duarte, 2011), there is an increase of research on “authentic” language learning activities in order to “bridge the gap between real world and classroom tasks” (Ozverir & Herrington, 2011). I believe that part of bringing authenticity to the language classroom is providing “authentic measures of assessment” (Armstrong, 2018, p.129). As I explored in a recent post this last w

What Are the Intents Behind Your Curriculum? Wood's (1988) Models for Curriculum Evaluation

Wood (1988) presented three models for curriculum evaluation. We were asked to identify one that would be beneficial for our teaching milieu. I chose Stake's Countenance Model. In the language learning community, I believe that Stake’s countenance model is a legitimate method for the evaluation of language curriculum. Identify the Intents of a Curriculum First, Stake (1967) recommends starting with the “intents” of a curriculum. What is expected to “transpire as the curriculu

Is Technology Beneficial in the Language Learning Classroom?

Does technology help or hinder in the classroom? To take part in this global debate, I will address three pros and three cons to integrating technology into curriculum, specifically in the context of minority language classrooms. Pro #1: Technology Can Support and Enhance a Teacher’s Efforts The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) called technology “a tool” that can “support and enhance classroom-based language instruction” (p. 1). Ideally, a languag

Conscientização and Curriculum Reform: Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Paulo Freire’s groundbreaking work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, identified how education can either entrench or elevate societal views regarding oppression. He sounds a clarion call for educators to not only “reflect upon their previous state of silence,” but to break this “culture of silence” by addressing these uncomfortable realities in education (Shore, 1993, p.24; Lucio-Villegas, 2009, p. 1). Definition of Conscientização One of the key terms used by Freire in Pedagogy of