Volume 1 presents an approach to teacher education and professional development that emphasizes carefully deconstructing fundamental instructional practices that are complex and often not visible through observation, definition, or brief explanation. Its goal is to assist teachers in learning how to enact specific practices, referred to as high-leverage teaching practices, deemed essential to foreign language teaching and situated in theory and research.
Six practices are presented in Volume 1: Facilitating Target Language ComprehensibilityBuilding a Classroom Discourse CommunityGuiding Learners to Interpret and Discuss Authentic TextsFocusing on Form in a Dialogic Context Through PACEFocusing on Cultural Products, Practices, and Perspectives in a Dialogic ContextProviding Oral Corrective Feedback to Improve Learner Performance
Unique features of the book include deconstruction of each practice, activities for rehearsing the practices, rubrics for assessing performance, tools to assist teachers in enacting the practices, and discussion of how each practice relates to larger educational issues.
Volume 2 continues the discussion of HLTPs begun in Volume 1 by deconstructing an additional four practices that are complex and often not visible through observation or brief explanation: - Establishing a Meaningful and Purposeful Context for Language Instruction- Planning for Instruction Using an Iterative Process for Backward Design- Engaging Learners in Purposeful Written Communication- Developing Contextualized Performance Assessments
Features of the book include deconstruction of each practice, activities for rehearsing the practices, rubrics for assessing performance, tools to assist teachers in enacting the practices, and discussion of how each practice relates to larger educational issues. This volume explains how teachers can move from deconstructing the practices to enacting them, and ultimately to using greater creativity in adapting the practices.