Breakout Session Template: As a way to provide a common experience for all conference attendees, we are suggesting that you use the STARTALK Theme PowerPoint template • Consider STARTALK ppt template for your presentation.

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New York University Hindi / Urdu Startalk

Tasha Darbes, PhD

MAKING THE MOST OF MICROTEACHING: BEST PRACTICES

SESSION OUTCOMES

• I can identify key components for designing effective microteaching experiences

• I can … help teachers transfer what they learn to their teaching practice

• I can … give effective feedback to encourage reflective practice

Do what I say…?

?

WHY THIS SESSION? • Accepting the Challenge

• How do we build

a better teacher?

How do you learn to teach?

• Teachers come to the program with experiences of learning in schools and classrooms

• These experiences inform their unconscious expectations of what the role of a teacher is and what a classroom should look like

• Teachers may also have acquired teaching habits

• How can a teacher training program create a change in actual teaching practice?

Microteaching: Teachers learn by doing

• NYU Startalk has trained Hindi and Urdu teachers since 2008

• We began to include a microteaching component after 2 years of unit plan presentations to make the program more hands-on and interactive

• Over the years, the microteaching component has developed into a central experience of our training program

Microteaching over the years

• Phase 1: Microteaching lessons to other teachers (Hindi / Urdu teachers and Arabic / Persian teachers) –  Had a ‘teach’ / ‘reteach’ component-literacy focus

• Phase 2: Microteaching lessons to ‘zero beginners’ –  Included reflection and oral emphasis but no models

or rubric

• Phase 3: ‘Zero beginner’ or heritage –  Included models, reflection, rubric, and rewrite

My Story Illustrates . . .

• How to effectively structure microteaching experiences

• Let’s brainstorm some!

Sample Rubric Strategy I:

Emerging/Exploring

II:Applying/Integrating

III:Integrating/Innovating

UseofTargetLanguage

StayintargetlanguagemostofthetimeUseofvocabulary/grammarmaynotbeappropriateattimes

MaintaintargetlanguageatalltimesUseappropriatelevelofgrammar/vocabularywhenspeaking

Structurelessontoincreasestudents’abilitiesgraduallyRespondtostudentscomprehensionandadjustlevelofdifAicultyinresponse

Sample Rubric Student-Centered

ParticipantsdominatetalktimeduringactivitiesStudentsonlyparrotlanguage,donotproduce

BalancebetweenteachertalkandstudenttalkStudentsproducelanguageindependently

Teachertalkisminimal–studentstalkmoreStudentsdirectactivityanduselanguagespontaneouslyduringinterpersonalpractice

EnsureMeaningfulInteraction

Theme/topicischosentoteachgrammatical/vocabularywithoutreferencetoreal-world,meaningfulcommunication

Theme/topicischosentoteachreal-world,meaningfulcommunication

Theme/topiciscloselyalignedwithstudentneedsforreallifecommunicationCreative

IntegrateLanguage,Culture&Content

Lessondoesnotintegrateculture/content

Lessonhassomereferenceto‘surface’culture

Lessonencouragesdeeperunderstandingofculture

How can we give effective feedback?

• Let’s watch some samples of microteaching

• Using the categories of the rubric, let’s think about what kind of feedback we can give these teachers on their lessons

• Use of target language

• Student Centered

• Ensured Meaningful Language

• Integrated Language, Culture and Content

CHALLENGES

• How do we develop the process of transferring lessons learned in microteaching to changing teaching habits?

• REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

Gibbs Reflective Model

Lessons Learned?

• One key component of microteaching is effective feedback after the lesson

• Effective feedback first guides the teacher through the reflective process through open-ended questions before offering evaluation

Generate questions: What can you ask to guide reflective practice after microteaching? • Description:

• Feelings:

• Evaluation:

• Analysis:

• Conclusion:

• Action Plan:

BENEFITS of your Story FOR PARTICIPANTS

• This is what worked in our program.

• What works in yours? How could you use what we discussed today to improve your teachers’ performance?

CONCLUSION

• Thank you!

• Tasha Darbes, PhD

• Lead Instructor, NYU Startalk

• http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/mideast/hindi/startalk.html

• My email: tdarbes@pace.edu