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.
- 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.
- 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
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Enriching content area learning experiences with technology- Part 2. Integrating technology across the content areas [DVD]. United States
Chris,
ReplyDeleteYou have some wonderful and creative ideas for meeting the standards you have chosen to set goals for. The learning experiences you are designing promote creative thinking and engage students in self-directed learning as they explore resources. The CHoMP strategy is a great way for students to learn how to write information they find in their own words. Check the links I have shared at the end of my comment, you might find them helpful when teaching students how to paraphrase and summarize information.
Could you tell me a little more about how you will monitor your progress toward your goals and evaluate and extend your learning and that of your students? It might be helpful to obtain student feedback on how they perceive their own progress toward learning both technology and content. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) suggested that both student and teacher should reflect on their learning and that teachers will make “ongoing modifications to instructional strategies” as students make “modification to their learning strategies,” (p. 85). I think you will have great success with the learning experiences you are planning.
Lauri
Links:
Paraphrase Craze:
http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/weblessons/paraphrasecraze/default.htm
Paraphrasing Tutorial: http://caspian.switchinc.org/~tutorials/mod6/04b-para.html
Summarizing: http://www.tv411.org/reading/understanding-what-you-read/summarizing
A wiki dedicated to how to teach students to correctly cite work:
http://whhhsmediacenter.wikispaces.com/Copyright%2C+Plagiarism%2C+Paraphrasing
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Lauri, thank you so much for the excellent resources. I bookmarked every one of them so I can retrieve and review them. How will I assess my students success with CHOMP?
DeleteWell, first, I gave them a Rachel's Challenge document they had all been introduced to last year at an assembly. Then I asked them to cross out any word with 3 letters or less. This they did with gusto. Then I asked they to combine the key words to recreate ideas and sentences of their own. This they fell apart on. They won't/couldn't understand why they should come up with their own rendition of Rachel's life plan. They didn't want to move to the create level on Bloom's Taxonomy. They were very comfortable to remain at the understand level. I am going to return to the CHOMP method of reducing plagiarism next week. I am going to choose a shorter, more generic document to see if their do better at recreating sentences after removing the small words.
Engaging your students in learning about different cultures is a fun and creative way to open their minds to other cultures. I have not had the chance to use a virtual field trip in my classroom this year, but I am looking forward to discovering when I can incorporate this. It could be interesting for your students to create their own videos of our cultures to other students in India (or whichever country you choose). Perhaps you could even use http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/ to help you set up a collaboration-type project with students from other schools and/or countries. Good luck with your GAME plan!
ReplyDeleteI would like to try the 'flat classroom project' Emily. Our district has done some video conferencing, but it seems to be in the development stages. A teacher at the elementary school, who is a former Walden grad by the way, has been successful with video chats in a few instances. This year she is trying to set up repeating conferences with the same school over the course of the year. I am very interested to hear how her project proceeds. Her third graders were able to follow Sheila's 18 year old nephew as he traveled in Thailand. The students and Tim, the nephew, both enjoyed the exchange.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading your post, I also choose something very similar with having my students use virtual field trips and communicating with students from different schools. I think to enhance student learning while creating a culture video is to have them reflect on some of the differences in their culture and with their own. Then summarize why these differences occur. I think not only are they learning about new cultures, but they are going to start to learn to appreciate different cultures around the world.
ReplyDeleteAlso, having them reflect, draw conclusion and compare and contrast will have the student increase their 21st century literacy.
Great post and ideas!
-Jen