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Peer Review

Every Teacher is a Language Teacher

Reviewed:

Nov 3, 2021 by Teacher Education
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 5.0 stars
Content Quality: 5.0 stars
Effectiveness: 5.0 stars
Ease of Use: 5.0 stars
Overview:

This book disseminates practices shared at the annual event Every Teacher is a Language Teacher held at the Faculty of Education (University of Ottawa) for all first-year Bachelor of Education teacher candidates. This resource responds directly to calls from attendees for a resource that synthesizes the content shared at each workshop, enabling them to access and implement the rich pedagogical knowledge shared. The book is meant to serve as a textbook for Teacher Education courses, graduate courses, as well as an ongoing promotion of research-based practices created by Faculty of Education partners (faculty and graduate students alike) that should be shared more widely with Canadian language educators, teachers and consultants, particularly in its bilingual format. This publication is unique and particularly useful to both pre- and in-service teachers, as it offers modes of practice based on both research and theory. This means it is neither exclusively a lesson plan nor a theoretical analysis; but rather a synthesis that aims to show how the two domains inform one another. We see it as being immediately valuable for teacher and teacher educators, while also filling a gap in the field of language education more widely -- one that embodies anti-racist, ethical paradigms within current interdisciplinary practice in its responsiveness to challenges of modern technology and globalization.

Type of Material:

Collection

Recommended Uses:

The authors see this book "as being immediately valuable for teacher and teacher educators, while also filling a gap in the field of language education more widely -- one that embodies anti-racist, ethical paradigms within current interdisciplinary practice in its responsiveness to challenges of modern technology and globalization."

Probably useful for discussion and reflection in any classroom setting or as current reading for teachers in service.

The material can be used in graduate school or as main topics in a professional development program. The instructor may choose to use as in class analysis material. It will perfectly suit homework assingments and participants can either process it in groups or individually. 

Technical Requirements:

Every Teacher is a Language Teacher is available in PDF format for download, so any browser and Internet connected computer is sufficient.  The book can be saved on user's computer.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

The book is meant to serve as a textbook for Teacher Education courses, graduate courses, as well as an ongoing promotion of research-based practices created by Faculty of Education partners (faculty and graduate students alike) that should be shared more widely with Canadian language educators, teachers and consultants, particularly in its bilingual format. 

This publication is unique and particularly useful to both pre- and in-service teachers, as it offers modes of practice based on both research and theory. This means it is neither exclusively a lesson plan nor a theoretical analysis; but rather a synthesis that aims to show how the two domains inform one another. Users will be able to apply different language teaching techniques when working with multilingual students.

Target Student Population:

College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate School, Professional

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Users may need basic computer skills. The document is in PDF format so it is very intuitive to download. Users of this material should be familiar with the teaching of a language in a multilingual setting. 

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

The content of this book was created by teachers conducting a workshop for teachers and the concepts, models, and skills presented throughout are not only current but content is supported by teacher reflections and also presenter reflections. Reading these reflections will help all teachers to get a broader perspective when incorportating the materials, concepts and skills in their classrooms. 

The authors provide lesson plans which typically include:

  • Activating Prior Knowledge.
  • Modelling the Process. 
  • Write (the Poem.)
  • Present (the Poem)
  • Summary
  • Homework

This book has 87 pages of resources, ideas, research, thoughts, suggestions, theory, and reflections that would be a benefit to any teacher.

The objective of the book is to examplify different ideas and concepts on how language teachers can tap into procedures they can follow to tackle students learning needs. Each article develops concepts of multilingualism and how they can be used in practical ideas to guide students in their learning process. By reading each article, one can find out that readers need solid knowledge on teaching a language in a multilingual dimension. The majority of users can be teacher candidates or teachers who want to become more knowledgeable in the field of multinlingualism. 

 

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

The learning objectives are as follows:

  1. analyze the different perceptions of language teachers as they develop their teaching profiles. 
  2. evaluate which teaching procedures fits their personality
  3. investigate different approaches of how teaching is understood and analyzed by different experts. 

Users of this material should be teacher candidates or in service teachers interested in extend their professional development practices. 

The material completely impacts the participants' views on teaching since it provides thorough evaluation of teaching ideas. The material can be easily integrated to the curriculum of a graduate program or a professional development program. The material can be used as class discussion, formal presentations, implementation of demo classes or as the instructor finds it suitable to use. 

Concerns:

Not exactly a concern but since the book is a collection of articles addressing different topics, it is hard to come up with homogenous objectives. 

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

This textbook is easily downloaded as a PDF but the authors also make it available in Word XML format. The book is laid out in typical format including the Table of Contents, Introduction, Chapters (with overview, workshop description, and references), Conclusion and References.

Other Issues and Comments:

This textbook is based upon the Ontario Curriculum for Language; information is provided in the appendix.

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