My Future Classroom

Blogs are are very effective tool for learning if it is used in the right way. Blogs can also be very tedious and time consuming for everyone involved if they are not used with a specific purpose in mind. Using a blog in a classroom simply for the purpose of having one is not a good enough reason to put the time into implementing one. It can be difficult to use when the instructor is unsure of how to use the tool or effectively incorporate it into lesson plans. I could use this tool in my future classroom by having my 9th grade students research a topic and write a short summary of their findings on their blogs. I could also have my students use their blogs as a peer editing tool. They would post their rough drafts onto their blogs and their peers would respond with constructive criticism. The learners could then revise their work having listened to their peers' feedback and turn in a second draft to me. I am sure that as time goes on I could come up with several more ideas on how I could use this tool in my future classroom. As for now, I will continue to brainstorm.

Learning Styles

There are several important factors to consider when determining how the learners will learn best. First, there are many expected learning styles to think about. The students work best when they can be hands-on with the material. They also work well with technology. Many of the learners use technology daily and are quite proficient with it. The students are quite talkative at this stage of development, so even though I am a firm believer in small group work, individual work can be effective and in this case, very effective. The learners cannot remained seated for very long which is why the lesson will be split up into two parts. In between the two parts, the students will be working in small groups to brainstorm ideas and participate in a mini-game.


The learners have various information processing habits that will play an important role while constructing this lesson plan. The students work best when a new skill is explained to them, modeled to them, practiced with them, and then are observed doing the new skill or task on their own with guidance if needed. The students are used to this model of learning and it is very effective. Because of this, I will be using this model to teach the material of my lesson plan.

The best form of motivation for my target learners is through the incorporation of technology. The students will be able to learn the basics of present tense verb conjugations in an entertaining way. The students will also be able to receive instant feedback during some aspects of the lesson. This will motivate them to keep trying until they receive a correct answer.

Specific Entry Competencies

My target learners need to have preexisting abilities, prior knowledge, and prerequisite skills in order to benefit from this lesson. Specific to the content, the learners need to have some basic knowledge of the Spanish language. They should have some knowledge of a few Spanish phrases and a basic vocabulary that they would have learned while taking Spanish during their middle school career. The learners should also be able to recognize various cognates to the English language.

The learners should also have some preexisting abilities with solving equations and following formulas that they would have learned in various math and science classes during elementary and middle school. These skills will be helpful when learning to conjugate various present tense -ar, -er, and -ir verbs.

Lastly, the learners will need to have some basic technological skills and prior knowledge of how to use a computer. The students will need to be able to navigate through pages on the internet as well as enter and submit information into text boxes. Hopefully my learners will have already learned these skills prior to this lesson plan, but if not, I am prepared to spend a few minutes at the beginning of the lesson going over the basic functions of the website we will be using.

General Characteristics

When thinking about creating a technology infused lesson plan, there are many factors to take into consideration. There are many fixed and variable characteristics of the target learners that need to be thought about while constructing an effective lesson plan for our students.

There are several fixed characteristics of my target learners. Firstly, my learners are all 9th grade students who are both male and female. The race of my students is primarily Caucasian. There is a smaller percentage of students who are African American as well as Asian American. There is also a large percentage of Hispanic or Latino students.

There are several variable characteristics of my target learners as well. My target learners are between the ages of 13 and 15 years old. There attitudes towards the subject area vary greatly. The majority of my target learners are not interested in the subject area (Spanish). However, the majority of my learners apply themselves and work hard to do well in the class. The interests of my learners are more diverse than their attitudes towards the language. Many of the students are interested in school extra-curricular activities such as sports, music, theater, Science Olympiads, art, etc. I will work hard to incorporate many of my learner's interests into the lesson plan as possible. I will also use my knowledge of these characteristics to make my lesson plan more effective.