Teaching with Technology Plan

This is my teaching technology plan where I plan to incorporate different technologies into a 4th grade language arts curriculum.

For my fourth grade class, I chose to use a variety of technologies during my unit.  First, I will be using a class wiki with my students to represent a type of syllabus in order for them to have direct and immediate access to the content of the lesson (including the objects and specific tasks).  I chose to use a wiki because it is important for students to have access and participate in the unit from any location where they have Internet access.  It provides instruction that is more engaging to the students’ learning.  I will also be using PowerPoint as a collaborative activity where students will be working together in groups to create group presentations.  I am using this technology because I think it is a great introduction on how to teach students to integrate technology into their learning.  It is very beneficial because it is very visual, and students can use their own creativity and knowledge when making their slides.  Lastly, I will be incorporating digital stories into my unit.  I am using digital stories because it offers students more opportunities than standard storytelling.  Since digital stories can use a combination of text, images, recorded audio narration, video clips, and music, students are able to express themselves in a variety of ways.  All of these technologies allow more meaningful connections to my students in regards to their learning and their own experiences.  Each of these technologies differentiate learning, use creative expression, enhance communication skills by sharing ideas, and all of them are fun! Therefore, the classroom community will grow and learn together once students demonstrate their abilities by working as a whole and in small groups, individually, and outside the classroom.

The specific content that students will be learning is a language arts curriculum, specifically dealing with different genres of literature (fantasy, historical, realistic, science fiction, biography, reference, reporting, folk tales, plays, and poetry).  Students will learn about the different genres of literature through the technologies and are expected to work during and outside of classroom time.  There will be times for students to work independently on their own, and also work together in their groups as a way to learn from one another and others’ experiences. 

The pedagogical goals that I would like to achieve are that my students will be able to use their new knowledge about the genre they are researching about and demonstrate their understandings through PowerPoint and Digital Story.  Although learning about the technologies are also a component in my goals, I believe that the technologies themselves are secondary to the students’ storytelling.

            The GLCES that I will be using include:

 

1.     Use basic telecommunication tools (e.g., e-mail, WebQuests, IM, blogs, chat rooms, web conferencing) for collaborative projects with other students.

2.     Use a variety of media and formats to create and edit products (e.g., presentations, newsletters, brochures, web pages) to communicate information and ideas to various audiences.

3.     Know how to insert various objects (e.g., photos, graphics, sound, video) into word processing documents, presentations, or web documents.

4.     Use a variety of technology tools and applications to promote creativity.

  Students will be working in small groups to complete their first major project using PowerPoint.  Each group will have a different literacy genre to learn more about.  To make it fair, I will ask my students to email me their top 3 choices of what genres they want to learn more about.  Then I will be able to group students accordingly, hoping they will be able to work in their top first or second choice.  These groups are also the ones we will be using for the literature circles. Once students have their groups, they will need to research more about their genre (informal activity).  Students will be using the wiki during this time in order for them to better understand their roles in their literature circles and to post their research findings.  Students will be working outside the classroom to complete this task.  Then, during class time once the individual research is completed, the groups will come together and share their ideas about their genre.   Afterwards, each group will find a book at the school library that is associated with the genre they are researching.

  After they are familiar with their books, we will be using literature circles to learn about all of the other stories students read.  Students will need to complete their individual assignments/responses according to the roles they were assigned for this part of the project before the discussion. I will provide them an example of a story board in PowerPoint.  After the groups have completed their literature circle book, I will use the PowerPoint reports as a culminating activity.  Students will create a title slide, characters, plot, cause & effect, theme, genre, and their recommendation of the book.  They will also have to include 1 or 2 slides that state why the book is categorized in their genre.  During writing time, students will begin to write their presentations out on paper first, so when it comes time to create the PowerPoint presentation, they will already have a good start. 

During the presentations, students will be expected to listen carefully and thoughtfully because their next project will include new knowledge about one of their classmates' genre.  Students will then be able to create their own stories through digital stories.  Since they learned about other genres through their classmates’ presentations, they will choose a different genre for this part of the unit.  This will help students appreciate literature of different genres.  I will ask them to point out the characteristic of the genre and create a list that will guide them through the process of writing their story that includes the elements of the genre.  Since digital stories offer many creative opportunities to express their stories differently, some may act out a story that they are reading as well.  Dramatization is very effective for younger students to think more critically about the characters and the actions of the story.  Then their interpretation and comprehension of the story will be more meaningful to their knowledge and thinking.

Podcast

I used a podcast for a second grade class, teaching them about the basic concepts of water and weather. The GLCE I used for this lesson is: Water- Water is a natural resource and is found under the ground, on the surface of the earth, and in the sky.  It exists in three states (liquid, solid, gas) and can go back and forth from one form to another.  Although water is the main component of my lesson, I also discuss weather in terms of humidity and how the sun is the main source of energy.  In order for students to understand weather however, they need to have enough knowledge about water and how it exists in three different states.

Because of complications, I had to upload my podcasts onto my google site.  Please click on the link to check out my podcasts!

Podcasts can be used for students to listen to if they were absent in class one day, or students can listen to the lesson again if they missed key concepts during class time.  They are a great resource to use for virtual assignments as well as for mini lesson plans.  Depending on the grade level, students could use them to express themselves and share their ideas, especially if they are uncomfortable discussing their opinion and thoughts in the classroom.  It is a great way for students to gather together as well, and they can learn how to communicate with one another through podcasting. 

Podcasts are also beneficial for teachers because it allows us to understand how we teach our students, and create learning communities that offer our students many opportunities to gain more knowledge through new technologies.  Podcasts are teaching tools that allow students to have a classroom outside of school and into their own homes.

I actually found this project to be very time consuming, confusing, and frustrating.  I have been working on it for hours, I finished the audio and video podcasting on my macbook using garage band.  This program is really easy to use, but the rest of the process to upload the podcast online is a difficult one.  I have it saved on iTunes, I subscribed to feed burner, but I have had no successes uploading the podcasts to my blog.  I am concerned having my students use this technology because of its complications, and I would also have to get more familiar with it in order to use it in my teaching.

Digital Image

"Unwearing their masks to the last notes of summer"

Photo Attribution:

http://static.flickr.com/2280/1954120087_10434b6843_m.jpg
By: Peter Shanks
This site is created and run under a creative commons attribution 2.5 license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

Before this weeks lesson with my students, I would have told them to use a search engine such as yahoo or google to find certain images they were looking for. In order to give the author credit for their image, I would tell them to cite the website. Since I have always used google when searching for images, I have learned that any picture can come up, so it is important to tell my students beforehand about this.

After this lesson, I would tell my students to use either Flickr or creative commons. I feel like these images are more reliable, and are more appropriate as well, at least for younger children. For my picture above, I used FlickrCC. I searched for "fall leaves" because I was planning a lesson to teach my students about the changes in colors of leaves during this season. With this image, I also found that the author created a poem about it, so I could also incorporate this aspect of literacy into a language arts lesson. After students search for an image that they are most interested in, I would ask them to create a poem about the picture they found. I would also stress to my students about the importance of citing their images. Since all of the information is on the page, it should not be difficult to find for my young learners. I believe that students should understand that in order for them to use the images they found, it must contain a license that shoes the attritubution of the picture that the author provides. I've learned that Flickr is the best way to search for the best, most professional and reliable images, so students should be sure to give the author credit.

Teaching About First Aid

For my digital story, I created a story that informs or instructs educators on how to provide their students with first aid care. At first, it took me a while to pick what type of digital story I wanted to create, because I originally wanted to create a personal narrative story. Even though it was easier to find images dealing with my own life, I found it difficult to come up with a voice recorded story that I liked that went along with my pictures. I decided that I didn't want to focus the digital story on me personally, but I would rather make it more educational instead. I also decided to make a story that would be useful to other adults including teachers or parents that want to learn more about first aid care. I feel like I had more confidence speaking about this subject over other ones such as social studies or science. When I was creating the story for first aid, the most difficult part for me was figuring out how I wanted to approach my audience with the information I was giving them. As future educators, it is important for us to learn about children and first aid care in order to apply it successfully to the students in our classrooms. I decided to structure my story through giving instructions because this topic deals with specific issues.

Depending on how teachers present them, I think digital stories can provide great learning opportunities for students. It allows students to be more engaged in lessons being taught, by providing them a variety of interesting images, texts, and voices. Digital stories can also be used to inform or instruct students on certain things, like the digital story I created. Students can also be part of the digital stories themselves, which could really give students a chance to learn more about themselves and their classmates. Especially with the personal narratives, student could create stories about their own lives like an autobiography, or about their vacations and different places they have been to, where they have been or what they want to go. These stories could also allow them to imagine themselves in the future by asking them what they want to be when they grow up and why. It is important to make these stories as meaningful to the students as possible. Digital stories should not be used for educational purposes only, but should also provide students to express themselves creatively, and learn how to connect with people through the web.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

View Larger Map

I created a google map for 3rd grade students who live in the Detroit area. This google map focuses on social studies content, specifically about Michigan's history and culture. I think it is important for students to learn about the important places of their hometown, as well as the surrounding areas, in order to grasp a better understanding of the history and culture of Michigan. In order to meet a variety of students' interests and needs, I decided to incorporate Comerica Park, the Detroit Zoo, Museum of African American History, Fox Theater, Henry Ford Museum, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. That way, students learn how to open their minds to new places and things by accepting diversity through leisure activities, popular culture, people of different races, ethnicities, and backgrounds, animals and the different environments they live in, as well seeing how and why Detroit is known as the automotive industry. In a social studies lesson, I would ask the students to explore the places on the map, and then ask them to write a short personal narrative on how at least 2 of those places have affected their lives in some way. I think I could also take field trips to these places, and then have the students write responses afterwards, explaining what they learned how it is an aspect of Michigan's history or culture.

Delicious

I created a language arts unit for a second grade classroom. Since my major is language arts and my field placement is currently in a second grade classroom, I thought that I could really benefit from using the social network del.icio.us. My unit specifically deals with writing in the language arts curriculum, focusing on personal narratives. Here are the standards and GLCES that I thought would be most appropriate for my unit. Here are the GLCES specifically for writing: one from the Writing Genre section, W.GN.02.01 write a narrative piece such as realistic fiction, fantasy, or personal narrative depicting major story events, using illustrations to match mood, and containing setting, problem/solution, and sequenced events, another from Grammar & Usage W.GR.02.01 in the context of writing, correctly use more complex complete sentences, nouns and verbs, commas (in a series, in a letter, and with dates), contractions, colons to denote time, and capitalization of proper nouns, and lastly, Spelling W.SP.02.01 in the context of writing, correctly spell frequently encountered words (e.g., two-syllable words including common prefixes and suffixes); for less frequently encountered words use structural cues (e.g., letter/sound, rimes) and environmental sources (e.g., word walls, word lists). From the METS, I expect second graders to: proofread and edit their writing using appropriate resources including dictionaries and a class developed checklist both individually and as a group, as well as use various age-appropriate technologies for gathering information (e.g., dictionaries, encyclopedias, audio/video players,phones, web resources.

The tag I used to identify the 6 websites I bookmarked on my delicious account was writing, since all of the sites deal with writing in some way.

Here is the weekly agenda for the personal narrative unit:

Monday: We will start the unit by developing the students' stories through writing workshop and they will write their first personal narrative drafts. Students will use their writer’s notebooks to think and write about their favorite moment so far as a second grader. The writer's workshop website I found is a very useful website for both teachers and parents. It gives you an idea about how the writer's workshop works. Students will be encouraged to think back to their moments and have a vision about how this experience was for them using their senses. Tell them to use their senses, such as their emotions and how they felt, what they saw, heard, felt, etc. Their ideas can be in a list form, and then they should make a draft of their story with pictures.

On Tuesday, students will be revising their work. Revising is the process of working to clarify meaning and add details to a piece of writing. Students will reread their drafts to see if their stories make sense, and then share it with a partner and have them help them with their mistakes or add other ideas.

On Wednesday, students will be editing their stories and finishing the final draft. Editing is the process of attending to the conventions of writing, such as, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. They will use a checklist and guideline to help them. Students should also use dictionaries and thesauruses as sources to improve their writing. The 2nd grade writing rubic/narrative writing that is posted on my delicious account, offers some great guidelines for teachers, students, and parents alike to use throughout the writing process to help with the personal narrative stories.

On Thursday, we will be publishing the students work by showing off everyone's personal stories. This will be a day to celebrate all of the students hard work by sharing every story with the rest of the class. The article, "Inviting Personal Narratives Into the Classroom," is a great article for students, teachers, and parents to use. It helps all of them understand the importance of personal narratives in their lives by: 1. Connect their home lives to their school lives, blurring the distinction between home and school, and affirm the value and importance that the individual child had in the classroom, 2. Find ways of getting to know each other and build their community, and 3. Offer ideas for the reading and writing they did in the classroom. Since personal narratives are more like personal storytelling, this will help children see their own experiences and stories as valuable work, and can help build students' confidence and competence. Not only in writing, but also in reading and thinking as well, and these are all needed in order to be successful with the higher level literacy skills.

On Friday, students will be reflecting about the stories they've created. "A Students Perspective" is a great article for students to help them understand how they can reflect on what they learned throughout the writing process, as well as what they learned about themselves as learners. This websites gives real life examples that students gave about how to become better organizers as writers. One of the students used a hamburger as an example of how to organize information that is going into the writing: the topping on the hamburger is the introduction, topic sentence, or introductory paragraph, the filling of the hamburger represents the details and supportive ideas, and the bottom bun represents the ending or the conclusion or summary in a story. I think students really need to think critically about the work they've created, and look at their accomplished, but also find ways in which they can improve on as well.

Lastly, I used a sixth article called "Help Your Child With Writing," that can provide parents some great suggestion on how to engage their child in the writing process. Even though this is not part of my lesson plan, I want to make sure that students are still getting the necessary education outside of school and into their homes.

RSS & Language Arts

Since I am an elementary education and language arts major, I decided to search for RSS pages dealing specifically in those departments, focusing on literature and writing materials. I found 3 very interesting pages that benefit teachers, students, and parents, in order to have the most successful learning experience with technology inside and outside the classroom. I decided to focus on Language Arts because I think it is important for students to use their reading and writing skills with technology both inside and outside the classroom because it is a different learning strategy that will benefit their education. However, it is not only important for students, but it is also important for teachers to use RSS sources that offer different curriculums. I also think that the parents can utilize RSS in Language Arts when they are having a difficult time finding books for their children to read at home. Even though I am focusing on one subject alone, I plan to use RSS pages in my future classroom for all subjects because it allows students to not only become better reader and writers, but they will learn how to search websites more easily and proficiently.

I first found a website that could be used inside and outside the classroom where students can play educational games. There are different games, puzzles, etc. for different criterias in the classroom, such as social studies, science, math, and language arts. Since I am focusing on language arts, I found a game called "word cube" where students click on letters to form their own words, and then they can create their own word list. I think this type of site could be used in the classroom during center time with language arts, where students can search games on their own that are fun but also educational.

Children's literature is also important to every students' education, so both parents and teachers alike need to make it meaningful for their children or students. It is also important for students to read a diverse set of books, as well as different genres in order to challenge their reading and comprehensive skills. This site is a great tool for teachers and students to use when searching for the perfect book for their children. Instead of being overwhelmed at a public or school library, this site makes it easier for you to search by author, key words, title, etc. and also offers you great recommendations for books, as well as the most popular authors used.

The last important aspect of the language arts curriculum is writing, so I found a page that gives great tips using a writing workshop. There are endless examples of lessons and curriculums for the elementary level, which is a great tool for teachers, especially for new ones like me. There are unit ideas in the lower elementary level that mention the different seasons, and other writing projects that will benefit all learners, regardless of their abilities. This page also has a section titled "Helping Children Lean to Read" and "Developing Oral Language in Primary Classrooms." These type of activities can help teachers with their students because they encourage listening and speaking, as well as reading. This is my favorite page that I found because it has such a variety of things in the language arts curriculum, and my favorite one would be publishing my students books in order to show my students that their work is valued and shared.