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Mrs. Portnoy’s Classroom Edit display name

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Mastering a foreign language can be challenging, but when the language is visual, students need to be able to assess their progress with their eyes, rather than with their ears. My students need to have access to tablets so that they can videotape their projects and presentations, as well as have the ability to create individual video portfolios of their progress. This allows us to go back and analyze their work, correlate it with a rubric and and save their work on SeeSaw, a video portfolio platform. Using the tablets, I will be able to begin to create an ASL language lab in my classroom. We do not have a lab in our school, nor do we have the availability of tablets to use for these portfolios. I have tried using cell phones to record, but this presents many problems, as not all of my students have phones, the required data plans, and none have access to SeeSaw ( a subscription service). By providing them with an in-class language lab, I am not only giving them the opportunity to archive their work, but also providing an equitable environment where student who do not have resources readily available to them will feel be able to empowered to learn and succeed. Foreign Language learning requires reading, writing, listening and speaking. ASL students face obstacles that students of spoken language do not face. American Sign Language learners cannot speak into a tape recorder to practice their fluency and grammar, nor can they listen to an audio clip to practice translations. They require a video component. Having these tablets available would allow my students to gain that missing piece of the language assessment puzzle.

About my class

Mastering a foreign language can be challenging, but when the language is visual, students need to be able to assess their progress with their eyes, rather than with their ears. My students need to have access to tablets so that they can videotape their projects and presentations, as well as have the ability to create individual video portfolios of their progress. This allows us to go back and analyze their work, correlate it with a rubric and and save their work on SeeSaw, a video portfolio platform. Using the tablets, I will be able to begin to create an ASL language lab in my classroom. We do not have a lab in our school, nor do we have the availability of tablets to use for these portfolios. I have tried using cell phones to record, but this presents many problems, as not all of my students have phones, the required data plans, and none have access to SeeSaw ( a subscription service). By providing them with an in-class language lab, I am not only giving them the opportunity to archive their work, but also providing an equitable environment where student who do not have resources readily available to them will feel be able to empowered to learn and succeed. Foreign Language learning requires reading, writing, listening and speaking. ASL students face obstacles that students of spoken language do not face. American Sign Language learners cannot speak into a tape recorder to practice their fluency and grammar, nor can they listen to an audio clip to practice translations. They require a video component. Having these tablets available would allow my students to gain that missing piece of the language assessment puzzle.

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