VI. Action Plan

1. Lesson packets contain only one white, male character and all the Arabs look the same.

Over the last year and a half, I have seen this problem and have been developing more meaningful activities for my students to help facilitate their acquisition of the language and culture. After my research and observations in this class, I have shifted toward creating more authentic tasks and assessments that are related to the service members’ missions in Iraq, not just with regard to the culture and language. This is very important not only for my students’ learning, but for their well being in combat. This need is expressed by the mission statement of the Center of Advanced Operational Cultural Learning:

“…Marines are equipped with operationally relevant regional, culture, and language knowledge to allow them to plan and operate successfully in the joint and combined expeditionary environment: In any region of the world, In current and potential operating conditions and Targeting persistent and emerging threats and opportunities.” http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/caocl/ (We can add “and Sailors” to this for my class.)

2. No posters, flags, maps, signs or presentations of student work in the classroom.

This is fighting an uphill battle. We asked our supervisors last week how the progress was moving with the acquisition of permanent classrooms for our school. They promised to look into the matter again, so hopefully we shall hear an answer soon. We have done reconnaissance on what posters, maps and flags we want in our classrooms, we are just waiting on the classrooms. We will keep pushing until we get an answer of either yes or no, no matter how long it takes.

3. Faculty consists of White, Straight, Middle-Class Americans.

Unfortunately, there is not much I can do about this factor. We have no recruiting base; candidates for instruction find us, we do not find them. All we can really do is discuss our heritage and ethnicity in faculty meetings and check each other to make sure we are not letting our ethnocentrisms play too much into our instruction.

4. Student coursework is generally unauthentic in nature and does not address multiple modalities / learning styles.

I have been working on more authentic activities, such as using board games in our curriculum. The game “Guess Who?” can be played using the vocabulary I give them for Personal Descriptions. It is a search for a specific person, but you have to use the Arabic to eliminate people of various descriptions to find the right person. This is a practical usage of the vocabulary because many Marines find themselves on patrols searching for individuals. Bonus-the newer versions are multi-cultural : ) I am also creating more self assessment activities so that students can gauge their abilities on their own time, anywhere, so they do not have to wait for a “formal” assessment. They can brush up on their weaker areas before test time. I began using the websites we used in Learning Styles section to help my struggling students nail down their exact learning styles and information acquisition styles so that we could work on a study plan for them. This made my students feel more comfortable in their new found language endeavor and I think they got the idea that I was willing to help them, not out to fail them, and that boosted their confidence levels in class. Positive results so far!

5. No formal special needs assistance is available (Exceptional, Gifted & Talented, or ESL)

I am planning to meet with the Director of our Arabic Program to find a solution for our students that have special needs during our next class break (April 16-20). It is difficult for us because we are a satellite campus 15 minutes away from the college, so we are not privy to many of the resources at the college during normal working hours. I will continue to use the method of peer tutoring for my ESL students as I have in the past since we usually have several Spanish speakers within the school at any given time. I spoke with one of our Spanish teachers Tuesday and I tried to talk to her about strategies for ESL Spanish speakers, but she was not interested in discussing that topic and she excused herself from the copy room to go home. I like an idea that Douglas Garner had in our chat about Gifted and Talented students during the reading responses-create activities for them, but present them in class so that everyone benefits. I am going to try this and see how it works. For my exceptional students I will make time for more individualized instruction and try to set them up for success before moving onto a new activity. I will isolate them to review concepts and ensure that they have a real understanding of them material, before I wean them into larger and more difficult activities.