Standards and Visual Learning

What standard are you using as a target of focus this semester?
How can you link visual learning with digital imagery and Inspiration to this standard?

Standard as a Target of Focus
The way in which I want to focus my work in Educational Technology class does not exactly fit with any single standard that I have read thus far. For my area of concentration – Adult TESOL - I have looked at a variety of standards in order to determine a target of focus this semester. In my quest to find the perfect standard, I have reviewed the Connecticut K-12 Content Standards for Language Arts, World Languages and Social Studies, the Connecticut Department of Education’s English Language Learner (ELL) Framework and the CASAS Basic Skills Content Standards, the latter being recommended for use in Adult Education programs in Connecticut.

The CASAS Standards contain specific skills, such as “interpret contractions” or “interpret complex sentence structure.” However, I believe these standards are too narrow for what I am trying to accomplish in this class. On the other hand, the ELL Framework provides a way to think globally about K-12 TESOL education which does not fit my vision either. It contains three goals which are subdivided by content standards. For example, Goal 2 for ELL students is to “use English to read and write in all academic settings including language arts, math, science and social studies” and is subdivided by three Content Standards. Standard 2-2 is: “use English to read and write in academic settings. As helpful as these are, I think these goals and standards are too broad for my purposes.

Therefore, I have turned to the K-12 Standards for English/Language Arts for inspiration. I have chosen, “Producing Texts Content Standard 2: Students will produce written, oral and visual texts to express, develop and substantiate ideas and experiences,” as being the closest to my vision for the use of technology in the context of Adult TESOL Education. My plan is to explore how I can use technology in the classroom in order to provide, what Stephen Krashen calls, “comprehensible input” for my students so that they can meet this standard. I believe that if I can supply students with enough comprehensible input, in part through the use of technology, then they will increase their language production and create all kinds of texts. Consequently, using technology as a tool to inspire students requires that this semester I focus on my command of technology rather than on the students use and knowledge of it.

Visual Learning, Digital Imagery and Inspiration
As a visual learner, the use of digital imagery and the program Inspiration is appealing and I know that the all learners in my class will benefit if I utilize these tools in the classroom. However, I expect to have extremely limited access to technology in the classrooms in which I plan to teach and my students will have even less. In order for this Educational Technology course to be meaningful to me, I must take into account this challenge of working in an environment of scarce technological resources.

Nevertheless, I believe that it is possible to use digital imagery and Inspiration effectively in the Adult TESOL classroom to support language production with visual learning. For example, besides the obvious of employing digital pictures to illustrate a story, to build vocabulary or to explain a concept, I can also use it as a prompt for storytelling by asking students to describe the contents of a photo or to pretend they are in it. Sometimes a visual stimulus is more inspiring than a verbal one and therefore, the presentation of images in the classroom could result in the production of more language. I have learned that with the program Photoshop Elements, I can manipulate a digital image to say what I want it to say and to fit the lesson and outcome that I am trying to achieve, making digital imagery an even more effective tool.

With respect to Inspiration, it has potential for brainstorming, showing students how ideas connect, as well as for outlining. All of these activities will help the students “express, develop and substantiate their ideas and experiences” in various kinds of texts as required by the standard I have chosen but in a fresh and exciting way, translating the visual to the verbal. By using Inspiration to create a concept map to summarize an article, I have discovered firsthand that this program lives up to its name and is a powerful tool for inspiring student language production.

References
https://www.casas.org/home/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.showContent&MapID=1720
http://www.ctcurriculum.org/list_standards.asp?taskid=&dis=LA&grade=4&disname=English%2FLanguage+Arts&gradename=Grades+K-4
http://www.ctcurriculum.org/list_standards.asp?taskid=&dis=LA&grade=4&disname=English%2FLanguage+Arts&gradename=Grades+K-4