TASK 1: Critical Incident Analysis Task

Think back on your experiences as a pre-service teacher in the first semester. Did anything outstanding happen? Analyze an event of your choice critically and reflect on it. Post this to your blog. After that, visit your classmates’ blogs; choose 2 peers’ posts related to this task and comment on them.

Details of the task: 

Choose a critical episode: for example, students continually arriving late, students talking during class discussions.
• Describe the incident:
when and where it happened (time of day, location and social context)
 what actually happened (who said or did what)
what you were thinking and feeling at the time and just after the incident.

• Interrogate your description as follows.
Why did this incident stand out?
What was going on? Were there different levels of behavior or activity? or Did I bring personal bias or a particular mindset to the event? Could I have interpreted this event differently from another point of view? What can I learn from this episode? What can I do to progress a resolution of the problem(s) it suggests?

• Find a friend or teacher to: share your account of the episode, to discuss your interpretation

 Modify your analysis, where necessary, in the light of peer suggestion, advice, and perspective.

• Where appropriate, you may want to compare your analysis with the views of other key people involved in the episode (students, your cooperating teacher or other pre-service teachers)

• Don't mention any school names or teacher full names. 

In addition to these points, you are welcome to elaborate on the points which are not listed above. 

Before you write your analysis, please read the detailed information and examples about critical incident analysis here.

DON'T FORGET TO LABEL YOUR POST AS "TASK 1"!

WRITE YOUR POST TITLE AS "CRITICAL INCIDENT ANALYSIS".

Due: March 7

Scoring guide for your posts

1.       promptness: Do you make your required postings on time? 

Are you careful about due dates? 

2.       reflective quality: Do you reflect on your teaching practices, 

teaching theories critically? 

3.       content: Do your postings deal the assigned task from many aspects?

 Dou you address all the issues about the subject? 

4.       depth: Do you postings and comments deal with issues in depth or superficially? 

5.       originality: Do you have your own ideas, voice or style in your postings? 

6.       clarity: Do you make your point clear in your postings? 

7.       use of images, graphics and multimedia: Do you use alternative forms 

in your postings? Do you use them appropriately? 

How high are their quality (sound quality, visual quality etc.)? 

8.       rules: Do you follow the blog rules, comment rules and 

task requirements when making your posts? 

9.       overall: Is it easy to navigate on your blog? 

Does it look like a professional teacher candidate’s blog?

 Do you organize your titles, labels, and captions regularly? 

Guidelines for Blogging and Commenting

1-      Use only your first name on your blog. Don’t use any last names, school names (never mention your training school’s name), or personal information. You can use pseudonyms if you want.

2-      If you own another blog, don’t link that blog to this one.

3-      Check for spelling and grammar before making a post.

4-      You are free to post any links, media, information, etc. about foreign language education to your blog. However, this is a class project; keep your posts within the allowances and requirements of this class.

5-      It will be highly appreciated if you enrich your posts via using different forms of multimedia.

6-      Try to be constructive rather than offensive in your comments and posts.

7-      Edit your official presentation videos before uploading to your blog. Never post any videos longer than 10-15 minutes.

8-      Label your required postings as “required”.

9-      Use captions for images or multimedia posts and acknowledge the sources.

Optional posts in FLED 412-416 Blog

You are the owner of your blog. It is a personal professional space where you can share your own voice in teaching. Besides the required posts, you can personalize your blog with your own choice of posts related to being a prospective English language teacher. For example you can share photos of your teaching experiences or news about upcoming events, conferences about foreign language teaching. You are free to choose the media form of the posts (written, audial or visual). It’s highly appreciated if you visit as many as your friends’ blogs and share your thoughts with them in order to experience the advantages of being part of a learning community.

Required tasks and posts

1-      Critical incident analysis task + 2 peer comments

2-      Video-critique task + 2 peer comments

3-      Classroom Management Task+ 2 peer comments

4-      Uploading 2 official presentation videos.

5-      Reflection on the designed activity Task + 2 peer comments

6-    Peer feedback on two peers’ official presentation videos + 2 follow ups & Self        evaluations of two official presentations of yours.

7-      Posting 2 journal entries 

Introduction

This semester, you are invited to develop your own professional blog as part of a blog study where you will be asked to fulfill 75% of your Fled 412-416 course requirements online. This professional blog of yours is intended to be an individual space where you will be able to share your teaching experiences with your classmates, think back on them together and understand our strengths and weaknesses better among many other contributions.  You may question your teaching beliefs and you may rebuild them. 

Good luck with your new blogs!