Carrying out my GAME plan- Kayla Shandra
Week #3
January 18, 2012
There are still a few things that I need to accomplish before I start my GAME plan. I need to consult with a few colleagues and collect some more data on my students. Once I have this information then I can start moving towards my two goals of learning along with my students and altering my lessons to better meet the needs of my students.
In order to carry out my GAME plan I will need support from the technology/computer teacher and librarian, who also works in our media center. These teachers are very good with computers and troubleshooting any technology problems that I may come across. I will also need to access to different presentation software that my students can use at the end of their project.
Some additional information that I will need is initial observations of my students regarding their strengths and weaknesses. One of my goals is to alter my lessons to best meet the needs of my students, so I need to get more information on my students and try the find the key to motivation. In order to do this, I plan on observing my students over the next few days while I give them a variety of different activities. I may even do a trial run where I have the students split up into groups and have the students assign jobs to each other while they complete a mini-activity. I will watch for how they split themselves up, and how they work together as a group. I will be able to see the group dynamics, and any problem areas I will need to address. This will serve as a type of formative assessment, so I can see what types of problems may arise or if there will be anything that needs to be adjusted (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). I will also be able to observe the groups dynamic. I will be able to see which students work best together and which students I need to keep separate.
I also plan on completing a few labs using new Vernier Lab software and equipment that I have never used before. I plan on having the students work with the equipment during a basic lab experiment to learn how to use the equipment. Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer (2009) stated that observing students during activities is a way to monitor the effectiveness of a lesson. I will be walking around to each lab group and monitoring their progress and I will have students report how they are using the equipment in their experiment. The students and I will be working together and giving each other feedback on the lab equipment. This will help me accomplish my second goal which is to work more with my students to learn new programs, technology, and strategies that can be useful in my classroom.
It is important for teachers to know the learning preference and the needs before they design a lesson (Naimia, Siraj, Abuzaid, & Shagholi, 2010). So far I worked with our librarian who made a wiki with all different resources for students to use. She showed me a link on the wiki that takes the students to a survey where they can see what type of learner they are. I had the students take the survey at home and bring their results to me a few days later. As I suspected, almost of the students were visual learners. I knew that many of my students were visual learners already, just from what they told me in class, but I never thought that almost all of them were. I know now that I need to start adding more visual activities in my lessons to appeal to the majority of my students. Knowing what types of learners are present in a class is also important when you have to decide what type of technology will be useful in your lessons (Naimie et. al, 2010). This information gave me a good jumping off point to start planning my lessons and accomplishing my goals.Kayla Shandra
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
Naimie, Z., Siraj, S., Ahmed Abuzaid, R., & Shagholi, R. (2010). Hypothesized Learners' Technology Preferences Based on Learning Style Dimensions. Turkish Online Journal Of Educational Technology - TOJET, 9(4), 83-93.
Kayla,
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you have a great GAME plan and you are very organized in order to complete the task. I think once you get to know your students well, you will be able to make some wonderful lessons that meet their needs and provide them with engaging and authentic tasks.
I also think that your strategy of observing your students will serve as a valuable experience. It is certainly a great way to determine the effectiveness of your lesson (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009). You will be able to see exactly how the lab will function for the students and determine where they will struggle. This will then allow you to make adjustments as you see fit. Also, since your students are writing down their steps and directions on how to use the equipment, you can determine where more prior knowledge is needed and scaffold the instruction as needed. Overall, I think you have some very valuable work ahead of you that should lead to some worthwhile information.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
When you divy up your students into groups and are informally observing them I think that you will be able to see more than just group dynamics; You have allowed student's to select their own role and perhaps will gain an insight to their learning style, creativity, and hopefully uncover some instructional techniques that foster high student motivation. I know that I too often assign very direct roles for each member which shackles their freedom in the project. I always thought that giving clear roles and a clearly laid out and linear project was best, but UDL's philosophy of flexibility for the students in terms of projects and assessments has struck a chord with me.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could have learners take their results from your survey (awesome idea by the way) and have that dictate which type of project they complete. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) claim, "any medium used for assessment will have inherent properties that either support or conflict with students' abilities, preferences, and interests" and I believe that giving students the to control over how they are assessed not only gives them a more empowering form of assessment, but it gives them valuable insight on their own abilities and learning preferences. (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p. 125).
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
Maggie to Kayla
ReplyDeleteI love what you said about learning along with your students! What a great attitude, and one, I think, that many teachers could learn from you. You mentioned that you will have to coordinate with your media librarian – so much of technology requires a group effort. We are no longer autonomous, isolated classrooms, but we are part of a team or group which requires that we all work together for the good of our students. Together we create an experience for our students that enables them to be successful (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).
I use collaborative learning and groups in my class, and so far they have been very successful (Markham, Larmer, & Ravitz, 2003). You are exactly right in that by observing the dynamics, you can learn so much about the individual students. By having them in groups, you will be able to ascertain a great deal of information which will allow you to assess what they need. I’m sure you already know this, and I’d be interest in hearing about what you learn from your observations.
I was particularly interested in the wiki that your librarian created. A wiki that would allow students to see and understand their learning preference seems like a wonderful tool. What a great activity for your students. As you mention, understanding the types of learners you have in your class is vital to success (Naimia, Siraj, Abuzaid, & Shagholi, 2010).
Your plan to observe your students as you use new technology, Vernier lab software, will be very beneficial (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). This will provide you with invaluable information and, as you mention, allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of your lesson. I am certain you will be very successful in your endeavors.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom
use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Markham, T., Larmer, J., & Ravitz, J. (2003). Project Based Learning Handbook. Novato, CA: Buck Institute for Education.
Naimie, Z., Siraj, S., Ahmed Abuzaid, R., & Shagholi, R. (2010). Hypothesized Learners’ Technology Preferences Based on Learning Style Dimensions. Turkish Online Journal Of Educational Technology – TOJECDT 9(4), 83-93.
Heidi to Kayla,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about all the different techniques and ways you were going to assess your students on how they learn this week. This is something that I try to do with my students each year; I get a general idea with a paper survey they take and then it ends up being put to the side because of all of the work we as teachers need to do. You have shown me that it is truly important to use a child's learning style in class and that yes it truly will make a difference in your lesson and how they perceive the information you provide to them. It is great to see that a majority of your students are visual learners, especially when using technology.
To accommodate your students you should use online animations that they will be able to view more than once, (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p 125). My students had to look up different types of resources about fractions last week and just watching my students view their findings it was amazing how in-tuned they were to the videos and animations. I also saw a huge gain toward fractions on their unit test a few days later. My suggestion to you is to maybe look into sites like www.brainpop.com or Discovery Education. I know that with Discovery Education you can upload and save the video to a file that the students can access on their own. I have also used the exploration section of National Teachers of Mathematics website's lessons. This is a very hands on piece and very visual for the students. It also has hand outs that the students can use and fill in when working on the explorations. This will provide you with data as to how effective the exploration was.
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
Kayla to Maggie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the resource suggestions! I actually use Discovery Education all the time, but I never used Brainpop. I am always looking for new resources to use in my classroom.
Kayla Shandra