Increasing Rigor in the Foreign Language/LOTE Classroom

Course Available
2 Units
Online Self-Paced

Course Description

Strengthen Your Language Teaching to Enhance Student Fluency

In this course, you will learn how to make Foreign Language/LOTE (Language Other than English) instruction more interactive, communicative and rigorous through a variety of teaching techniques and data-supported learning/teaching strategies.  You will examine your current assessments and evaluate their effectiveness in terms of depth of knowledge and cognitive challenge.  You will have an opportunity to create lessons, activities, and assessments which increase student understanding and communication. Finally, you will learn how to apply these techniques to a variety of levels of language learning.

Course Details

Number of Units: 2.0 graduate level extension credit(s) in semester hours

Who Should Attend: This course provides continuing education for teachers (K-12) who currently teach foreign language at the secondary or elementary level, that are interested in constructing lessons that increase students' oral production (or signed for ASL) and improving students' fluency and communicative skills.

Course Materials:  Text, A Collection of Performance Tasks and Rubrics: Foreign Languages by Deborah Blaz, available at Amazon.com or your local bookstore.

Technical Requirements

Course Options

Course Date Units Price
EDU-X771L – 010 Start now, you have 180 days to complete this course once enrolled 2 $317

Increasing Rigor in the Foreign Language/LOTE Classroom

Start now, you have 180 days to complete this course once enrolled
2
$317
Online Self-Paced
Amy Triba

Once you have enrolled in your course, log in to your account to access the course Welcome Letter, which includes directions on how to access the Online Orientation and your online course.

What You Will Learn

  • Examine your current FL teaching practice and underlying pedagogical strategies
  • Identify what makes a FL lesson, activity, assessment cognitively rigorous and truly communicative
  • Examine the rigor of FL curriculum and how that rigor is expressed through formative and summative assessments
  • Design formative and summative assessments that test students' synthesis of FL learning and balance fluency and accuracy appropriately
  • Design performance-based projects that model a communicative approach to FL instruction
  • Develop a backwards planning model using the assessments and projects
  • Reflect upon the changes made to your curriculum and how these changes could apply to another level of FL teaching

Instructors

Professional development courses offered by the University of San Diego’s Division of Professional & Continuing Education are taught by faculty that possess a depth and breadth of academic and real-world professional experience.

Why USD?

The Professional and Continuing Education program nurtures key partnerships on the local, national, and international level. The goal is to better serve working professionals who seek to enhance or build their careers and help achieve their highest value and potential. Contact us today to learn more.

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Courses offer a convenient, yet rigorous style of learning that allows you to structure your education to suit your schedule while keeping you on pace toward achieving your educational.

Online Self-Paced

Our online self-paced courses are similar to online fixed-date courses, but are designed to give you a six-month period from time of enrollment to complete all assignments. Your instructor will provide feedback via written responses on your assignments and exams. Grades are based on completed projects, assignments and exams.

How is the self-paced course structured? Like fixed-date courses, online self-paced courses are asynchronous meaning that you can work on your assignments anytime; the difference being there are no assigned due dates in self-paced courses. The content is divided into learning modules. Each module will cover one or more topics. Within each of the learning modules, you can expect the following components:

  • Module introduction that outlines what you can expect to learn in the module.
  • Required readings (textbook, articles, journals, websites, etc.) and presentations (audio and/or video).
  • Assignments (which may include: written assignments, quizzes, blogs, etc.) based on the readings and presentations.
  • Module conclusion to review the topics and what you should have learned.
  • Typically, there is a final project, paper, or exam due in the last module that culminates all of the topics covered in each of the learning modules. You’ll find that the design of the learning modules has a rhythm to help you manage your time in the course.

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