InTASC STANDARD One: Learner Development: The teacher understands how learners grow

and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and

across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and

implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.

Name of Artifact: Nouvelles choses au sujet de Marie Antoinette

Course: FRE 537 Topics in French Culture Marie Antoinette

Date: 28 June 2016

ACTFL Standards Addressed: Communities: Lifelong Learning: Learners set goals and reflect

on their progress in using languages for enjoyment, enrichment, and advancement.

Rationale:

Marie Antoinette was woefully ill-prepared for her future. She did not learn to read and

write at the level required of a person who would govern a country. This led to her inadequately

reacting to the situations which caused the French Revolution and cost her her life. While the

consequences my students will face are unlikely to be as severe as those suffered by Marie

Antoinette and her family, identifying Marie Antoinettes academic difficulties and how they

may have been alleviated may assist me in my endeavor to identify potential difficulties for my

own students and devise a plan to assure that my students can overcome these difficulties should

they arise.

The first issue with Marie Antoinettes education was she did not learn how to pay

attention. Detection is the major component and is what drives learning (Gass, Behney, &

Plonsky, 2013, p. 265). Students must pay attention if they are to notice and attend to the content

that I teach (Gass et al., 2013). If students are not paying attention to the content, they will not

learn it just as Marie Antoinette did not learn the material that her teachers presented. I can do
comprehension checks to make sure that my students understand and are paying attention since

they cannot learn if they are not paying attention. This alone does not ensure that they will learn;

it is only the first step.

Marie Antoinettes first teacher did not teach her. Her first teacher spoiled her and had

her copy work when her mother asked to see her work. When her second teacher tried to teach

more content quickly, Marie Antoinette became afraid of reading. This caused the affective filter

to raise, and she continued not to learn. The affective filter is when someone becomes anxious in

response to stimuli (Shrum & Glisan, 2015). Marie Antoinette was unable to learn from her

second teacher because of her experience with her first teacher. As a result, the second teacher

became even more severe with her. This caused her to withdraw even more. This caused Marie

Antoinette to have low self-esteem in an educational setting (Brown, 2014). Her third teacher

recognized this and worked to gain Marie Antoinettes trust before he started to teach her

content. Because he gained her trust, Marie Antoinette worked diligently. Students will often

complete tasks for one teacher and not another because of the relationship the student has with

that teacher (Fay & Funk, 1995). In my endeavor to impart knowledge to my students, I must

remember to build relationships first. When the affective filter is low and students have high

self-esteem in the target language, they will either succeed or keep trying when they falter.

When they are less sure of their abilities, if I have developed a positive relationship with my

students, they will continue to make an effort until they gain confidence and achieve success.

References

Brown, H. D. (2014). Principles of language learning and teaching A course in second language

acquisition (6th ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson.

Fay, J., & Funk, D. (1995). Teaching with love and logic Taking control of the classroom (1st

ed.). Golden, CO: The Love and Logic Press.

Gass, S. M., Behney, J., & Plonsky, L. (2013). Second language acquisition An introductory

course (4th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Shrum, J. L., & Glisan, E. W. (2015). Teachers handbook (5th ed.). United States of America:

Cengage Learning.