ENGL 570: Practicum in TESOL
Department of English
University of Washington
Spring 2021
Dr. Suhanthie Motha
She/her/hers
Fridays 10:30AM-12:20PM
Su’s Groovy Zoom Room
https://washington.zoom.us/j/9160118208
smotha@u.washington.edu (preferred contact)
Office hours: By appointment
Ravine Walks (optional), by Zoom or in-person in the Ravenna Ravine, weekly, meet at the sundial in Cowan Park, time TBD by When2Meet on the first day
In this course we acknowledge that the University of Washington, like all of our institutions, businesses, and our lives, is located on Indigenous land. We are on land that touches the shared waters of other Coast Salish people, including the Suquamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot nations. This recognition is important as we consider our role in the promotion of English, a language that has played an important role in settler colonial legacies and that is therefore inextricably entangled with such histories as land theft, genocide, and enslavement. In considering the teaching of English, we will also therefore engage with questions about the centrality of settler colonialism, race, nation, language, class, gender, sexuality, religion, ability, and other intersecting identities in teaching.
We are all entering our second year of this strange and challenging pandemic-life, surrounded by ever-increasing political and racial strife, and living lives of screen saturation and frequently isolation. This quarter, I am concerned about our hearts and our wellness and am designing my syllabus accordingly.
This is a credit/noncredit course, and it is deeply embedded in community, so I will try to lean heavily on our relationships with each other to keep us grounded and connected and healthy over the next 10 weeks. The class typically aims to support your reflection of the interconnected political, social, personal, and practical layers involved in conscious, ethical, and responsible language teaching by bringing together multiple pieces, and this intention will continue. These include regular classroom practice scaffolded by a cooperating teacher, observations of other experienced teachers, journaling, observations of peers, reflective inquiry, discussion, group support in regular seminars, videotaped microteaching, and analytical lesson reports. While our MATESOL classes are a cornerstone of our well-crafted teaching practice, some facets of teaching can emerge only through the experience of being a teacher in an actual classroom context and having the opportunity to reflect on these experiences in a supportive context. This is an opportunity for you to learn and further develop your own style and philosophy of language teaching—a place in which you refine your vision of yourself as a teacher.
Course Schedule
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Week |
Date |
Topic |
Activity |
|
1 |
April 2 |
Introduction Goal setting |
Introduce yourself to your classmates on this Flipgrid: https://admin.flipgrid.com/manage/groups/10525112 E-Mail Su your Language Learning Autobiography from 571. You are welcome to revise it. Post your goals on the discussion board. |
|
2 |
April 9 |
Who are you as a teacher? Community Agreements |
Start weekly observations. Discussion Board Post: Whose footsteps do you walk in? Trace around your foot and write inside it your influences for the ways you come to know and how you construct knowledge (keeping in mind that these shape who you are and how you teach). What ideas and values have you inherited from ancestors, grandparents and other family, mentors, long-ago teachers, elders. See Su’s example on website. Watch this video first: View: Prof. Josephine Walwema on Ubuntu Ethics and Technical Writinghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mMFRgmvItE Prof. Walwema draws on epistemologies and ontologies particular to her history. What epistemologies and ontologies do you draw on? |
|
3 |
April 16 |
Goal setting Land as Interlocutor |
Discussion Board Post: How does who you are shape how you teach? Land as interlocutor: https://carla.umn.edu/presentations/recordings.html#mckenzie_hermes Goals |
|
4 |
April 23 |
Optional Class |
Optional Class - Su's talk is postponed to the Fall Discussion Board Post: You posted last week your ideas about the connections between your identity and your pedagogies. How do our ideas about identity and pedagogy connect to community? To antiracism and anticolonialism?
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5 |
April 30 |
NOTE: Class will begin at 11:00 Video Demo Maricel
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Class will begin at 11:00 Continue Last Week’s Discussion Board Post: How do our ideas about identity and pedagogy connect to community? To antiracism and anticolonialism? Submit your journals for Su to respond to.
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6 |
May 7 |
Video Demo Ian
|
Discussion Board Post: What are your dreams for your students? What can you say about your students’ desires around English? What can you say about your desires for your students around English? What can you say about the space between these two?
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7 |
May 14
|
Revisiting Goals Video Demo Anastasiia
|
Discussion Board Post: What are your beliefs about assessment? How do these shape the type of teacher you are? We usually revisit goals around now, but let’s see how we’re doing. Reflect upon your goals from the first day of class. Are you meeting them? Have your goals changed?
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8 |
May 21 |
Video Demo Stephen Video Demo Christina |
Discussion Board Post: What adjectives would you like people to use to describe your classes or you as a teacher? Draft Statement of Teaching Philosophy due to a peer. You will receive peer feedback from a classmate.
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9
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May 28 |
Philosophy Statements |
Discussion Board Post: Send feedback on Statement of Teaching Philosophy to your peer.
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10 |
June 4 |
Closing Discussion Surprise!
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No weekly observation this week. Gratitude: Sign thank you notes for those who facilitated our learning this year (Elinor Westfold, Caroline Socha, Wendy, Candice, etc.) Statement of Teaching Philosophy and Reflective Journals due.
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