Standard 3: Learning Environments:

The teacher works with others to create environments that support

individual and collaborative learning and that encourage positive social
interaction, active engagements in learning and self-motivation.
Artifact 1 Video of Spanish 101 class
Class: Spanish 101
National Standards for Foreign Language Learning: 1.1,1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2
For my second artifact for Standard 3 of Learning Environments, I
chose a video of myself teaching my Spanish 101 class. I had originally
decided to have the videotape made to send to a prospective employer. But
as it turns out, it also serves as one of my artifacts that demonstrate that I
use my knowledge of teaching to provide a conducive and entertaining
learning environment for my students to learn Spanish. The video is over an
hour long, however if you watch up to minute 31:33 where we take a break
from the game to enjoy a Tres Leches cake that I had made for them, you will
have seen enough of the video to understand why I believe it proves that I
understand Standard 3. This was the last class before Thanksgiving vacation
and I had promised the class that I would make this cake for them. I wanted
them to taste something from the Hispanic culture that they would surely
love. And I thought this particular day was the perfect time to bring it to
them.
As you will see when you watch the video, ultimately I have a main
activity planned but I use a power point to build up to that activity which was
having the whole class play The price is right, in Spanish of course! In order
to get to the point where they were able to play the game, I needed to
review numbers and food vocabulary as well as remind them of other
vocabulary terms, like how to say, How much does it cost? Another thing
that they had to be able to do was convert the price from American dollars
into Colombian pesos and I had to explain the rules of the game to them. All
of this was done predominantly in the TL. Keep in mind while you watch the
video that this is a Spanish 101 class. Many of the students had little to no
previous Spanish classes and yet they are able to comprehend enough of my
Spanish to complete this activity and enjoy themselves in the meantime.
According to Decosta, foreign language educators consistently need to
provide throughout the language-learning process occasions wherein the
learner expresses what he himself wants to express through the forms of
language that are available to him at his particular stage of language
development (5). I agree with Decosta. It is my view while each student
should make a valiant effort and should participate and try to get the most
out of the Spanish class, part of the responsibility lies with the teacher to
motivate her students. In this video, it is evident that I have provided such
a language-learning occasion and that my students were motivated while

playing the game. Although learning Spanish may not have been the
motivating factor to get them to participate (surely it was the extra credit
promised to the winning team), it is nevertheless the language that the
whole activity took place in.
DeCosta, E. (1987). Integrative Motivation and the Development of
Linguistic Proficiency in Second Language Education: A Dual Learning
Concept. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International
Association of Applied Linguistics. Retrieved from ERIC database.