Week One

This has been an interesting week of class for me, as much of what we have read and discussed pertains to my job as literacy coordinator. I think something that still stands out in my mind was looking at the assumptions about teaching language that were made in the 60's--things like language is all about learning vocabulary and grammar, all learners have the same needs, and the process of learning language is determined by the textbook. As educators we know these assumptions are not true, yet even now curriculum and instruction sometimes falls into these categories. It really opened my eyes, and made we want to take a closer look at the curriculum we are implementing in Kuspuk. The chapters on materials and evaluation were also very interesting to me, and I felt that both would be good resources. I'm really interested in designing my syllabus for my course this year using an integrated method and really thinking about the things we read in Chapter 6 before I just base my year on content/topics. I guess the questions emerging for me, is how do I address some of the needs and challenges we have been discussing. What can I do at Kuspuk to begin to change some of the "problems" we have identified in our discussions? How can I share what I've learned about course planning with my colleagues?