Student as Tutorial Designer WAP #3 Rosa Alberto

 Student Instructors

This blog is inspired by Allen November's " The Student as Tutorial Designers".

As mentioned in "The Student as Tutorial Designer", I like the idea of letting students take the lead in learning and teaching others. This year I thought I would take this idea and make it a reality. Letting students become "mini" teachers empowers them to not only teach others but learn the material really well. This allows for meaningful learning rather that memorization and being told. In a language classroom, this concept isn't ideal nor easy. Imagine asking students to teach others something they don't understand nor is in a language they understand. In Spanish, as in many languages, there are many grammatical adjustments that have to take place in order to properly speak/write. The first and might be the most important is conjugation of verbs, noun and verb agreement, and adjectives (to mention a few). For example "¿Cómo estás? meaning How are you? is refereeing to feelings and there is also "¿Cómo eres? How are you?  referring to a persons personality.

 ¡Carambas! This can be very confusing. Once grammar has been explained, is up to the student to practice day and night. 

As is the case for may teachers, every school year we teach the same target area changing slightly according to students needs.  Since I teach the same three levels of Spanish (SP I, SPII, SPIII) I am able to reuse materials and ideas as needed.  Keeping the concept of student as tutorial designers I am letting my level III students become "Tutorial Designers".  

As a final project Students are going to create video tutorials introducing basic conversation in Spanish to beginners in Spanish I.  Students will be given a set of sites like screen capture, google slides, and screencastify to create their "lessons". These sites will empower students to be creative all while learning.