Monitoring Progress with my GAME Plan

Two professional goals I have for implementing this GAME plan concern Iste.Nets standards. The first goal is Teacher 2. Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments whereby teachers design, develop and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge skills and attitudes identified in the NETS.S. (International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE.t), 2008).The second goal is Student 3. Research and information fluency whereby students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate and use information (International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE.S), 2007). 

A third professional goal for this plan is to incorporate Common Core Writing Standard 8 into my 7th grade curriculum. This standard states: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following standard format for citation (Ohio Dept. Education., 2012.)

Progress this week, toward these goals in my GAME plan came about mainly because I modified my approach in teaching the CHOMP method to avoid plagiarism. I noticed students were as frustrated as I over the lack of success we were experiencing. After assessing the second attempt students made at creating an original work from Internet data, I realized many of them were copying way too much information, pasting it on a document, then making only feeble attempts at chomping out the little words.

I used these too zealous of attempts to discover and copy Internet data as examples of what not to do. Then I showed them a paper with one substantial paragraph of data. I had a student volunteer eliminate the three letter or less words from the paragraph. This demonstration set the stage for our lesson plan that day. Students were instructed to find one paragraph of data online that stated the birthday and birth place of the famous person they were researching.

After finding the information, they copied and pasted the selected data on a document. I told them not to copy more data than they were willing to read. I think they were under the misconception that the more they copied the better they had completed the assignment. I apologized to the students for not recognizing this misconception sooner, and could they please try to find online, just the birth place and birthday of the famous person. The students did this, mostly with ease, and they actually chomped out the little words in the text. I had the students save this CHOMP attempt and had them drop the assignment in my dropbox. 

The next day, after assessing their paragraphs,  I instructed them how to verify the data they selected with two more websites. This too had a better result because the students understood the instructions and knew they were only having to confirm two facts; the birth place and the birth date of their famous person. As Dr. Peggy Ertmer states, successful teachers need to plan their work and then work their plan (Laureate Education, Inc.., Producer., 2010).

What I learned from this lesson plan experience was that the goals and the action of my plan were clear to me, but not to my students. As I monitored the student learning I noticed the resistance to the task and lack of success in completing the task I described in the lesson plan. As I evaluated the work samples, I realized that the students were overwhelming themselves with data, and to chomp through everything they pasted from the Internet was going to be a monumental task. I learned I needed to rephrase and repeat with clarity my goals for the avoid plagiarism unit. I also learned that re-approaching the students was not a bad idea at all. By accepting the blame of not defining my goal clearly, I removed negativity associated with their first two attempts at chomping. 

New questions I have regarding my GAME plan is how often will I need to revise it and how can I make it universal in design? Do the majority of my students understand my directions? I believe monitoring my actions and evaluating my next set of results from the students documents will guide my future actions. 

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Enriching content area learning with technology, part 1 [Webcast]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (Nets.t). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

International Society for Technology in Education. (2007). National education standards for students (Nets.s). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries?PDFs/NETS_for_Students_2007_EN.sflb.ashx 

Ohio Department of Education., 2012., National Technology Standards., Department of Accountability., Retrieved on September 20, 2012 from http://www.ode.state.oh.us/

Carrying out your GAME Plan

This week in my 7th grade classes, I tried to introduce my GAME plan to reduce plagiarism in student's report writing by introducing the second attempt at CHOMP website information in order to produce original work.  After 3 days of instructing and encouraging and editing students work, plus answering the same question over and over, several items became very clear to me. First of all, the students expect miraculous results after putting in very little work, my students are not listening, a few students have developed a helplessness attitude, plus I need to remain calm and consistent throughout all the complaining. My reflection on my GAME plan to introduce The Website Data CHOMP Unit indicated to me that students need to understand what plagiarism 'looks' like before they can identify it; then avoid it. My reflection also revealed that students were doing better on this second assignment then they did on the first one. 

      I shared my GAME plan with my tech coordinator. She approved of this because Common Core Writing Standard 8 states "Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation (Ohio Department of Education., 2011). This standard is very relevant to 21st century learners and is packed with significance. I realize covering all the components in this standard will take time and need to be thoroughly organized. 

      Bothersome for me this week, was the resistance my students had to learning this method. They complained it was too hard, why should they do this, wasn't copy and pasting plagiarism anyway? One girl even said, "What does this have to do with computer?" I realized they don't like it because it does take effort, but it is the best avoid plagiarism method I have been introduce to, and it makes sense. The 21st century students need to learn Internet research methods because that is their choice when seeking information (Dana, N. & Yendol-Hoppey., 2009.) 

       The resources and information I will need to carry out my GAME plan are computers with Internet connection, document making software, projector and screen. I will need to supplement my lecturing, with videos from Common Craft by Lee Lefevore, and show samples of previous reports and reference pages. I need to have samples showing the proper formatting of a simple reference page. I realized I need to teach some remedial computer skills such as copy, paste as opposed to cut, paste. Students were not sure what double spacing a document meant, or looked like, much less how to select the text and then click the correct tool for double space. I will need a vast supply of patience because teaching the new techniques, and students learning the new techniques are too far apart in my class of 7th graders.  

References:

Dana, N. F. & Yendol-Hoppey, D., The reflective educators guide to classroom research., (2009) Corwin Press., Thousand Oaks, CA.

Ohio Department of Education., 2012., National Technology Standards., Department of Accountability., Retrieved on September 20, 2012 from http://www.ode.state.oh.us/

Game Plan to Integrate Technology

       I teach computer applications in a middle school and need to adhere to common core technology standards by school year 2113-2114. I have decided to begin implementing common core standards this year so I can be ready for the change. My tech coordinator has identified common core standards from reading, writing, speaking, listening and language for sixth and seventh grade students. In order for me to meet these standards I need a plan. In addition to a plan, I would like to strengthen my confidence in the following NETS-T indicators. 

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

   Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.

1. Design and Develop digital age learning experiences and assessments.

    I desire to design, develop and evaluate authentic learning experinces and assessmnet incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS-S. (International Society for Technology in Education, (2008).

  Key components of a GAME plan are identifying goals, taking action to reach those goals, monitoring progress toward achieving goals and evaluating whether the goals were achieved and willingness to extend your learning to new situations” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009 ). For standard one, I will continue to have my students explore different cultures by researching countries from the website www.cia.gov. Instead of just collecting facts about the countries, I will ask for recipes, pop culture topics and a short video clip depicting their country to be included in the final presentation. By watchig a video of students from a school in India, my students will hear the language spoken, see the clothing worn by India teenagers, and see a foreign school. These real world artifacts about the countries will expand the facts from the CIA website. My goal is to expand my foreign country project to include virtual field trips, educational video clips, and video conferencing. When students engage in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments; I will be attaining Stanard 1. 

Ms. Laufenberg (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010) revised her teaching strategy on election day results to include cell phone interviews, short videos and photos taken at voting stations. This innovative idea enriched her students’ learning and enthusiasm for this unit. She even shared her results with schools from other states which made her students proud of their involvement. I am hoping to expand my foreign country project by mirroring components from her game plan. 

           I am hoping to meet the performance indicators of standard two, by using our MacBook laptop applications to allow students to either make a Keynote presentation, an iMovie or a traditional research paper when they summarize their foreign country research data. I have been instructing studnets in how to use the CHOMP method when taking verbatim data from websites in order to minimize the chances of plagiarism. Some of my students loved the CHOMP method right from the start. Other students still found it difficult to construct good sentences on their own, but they are learning. 

I want to encourage my students’ creativity, therefore, I have to be willing to let students use these applicaiotns on their own and teach things like movie editing to me. I need to be confident enough to relax control of the classroom and begin using the MacBook applications even if I am not totally in command of the applications myself.

As I begin to transform my computer lab, I am wondering if anyone has any advice for me about rules to employ when running a movie studio theme in a computer classroom. I am particularly interested in noise control, improving audio quality, and interesting scripts for 6th and 7th grade students.

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: Cengage Learning.

International Society for Technology in Education (2008). National education standards for teachers (nets-t). Retrieved 09/10/2012 from  

http://www.iste.org/Libraries?PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Enriching content area learning experiences with technology- Part 2. Integrating technology across the content areas [DVD]. United States