Week 13 and 14 Reflection

This week I partnered with a classmate to practice facilitating my lesson online. Together we were a tad confused about the expectations for the course's final assignment. After collaborating and discussing the instructions posted we concluded that for the final assignment we must create a mock environment where we demonstrate our abilities to effectively navigate our lesson. For me, this will come in the form of intervention. I intend to have a student of mine log on to Google hangouts and ask potential questions about the assignment. At that point I will demonstrate my abilities to communicate and guide a student in an online environment.

Originally, my partner and I wanted to use Yugma. However, between my Mac and her PC we struggled to get the device to work. As a result, we both decided to experiment with Google hangouts. We realized that neither of us had truly spent time learning how to navigate this communication device before. We had been exposed to Google Plus in 501, but this gave us an opportunity to share our screens and practice facilitating the engagement of our lessons. I appreciate the opportunity to practice because it exposed areas that I need to improve upon when troubleshooting and presenting a lesson to a student. It also gave me confidence in my ability to effectively teach in an online environment.

Week 12 Reflection

It is hard to classify myself as teacher-centered or student-centered as I feel I tend to dabble in both equally. I believe that good teaching maintains a healthy balance of the two. Some items require direct instruction and there is no other way around it. Other times content could be better taught and affirmed through more engaging lessons and activities.

That said, this course and others in the EDTECH program have really challenged me to consider how I will go about creating a more student-centered learning environment online. Below is a list of lesson activities that pertain to the English content area and would be suitable for live meetings:

1. Interviews- Students could conduct interviews with peers to practice for jobs, help build class culture, etc.
2. Peer Review- Students can collaborate to review one another’s work using various tools that would allow them to teach each other.
3. Role Playing- Students could engage in drama or demonstrate understanding of things like dialect by acting them out and practicing creating the elements highlighted by the teacher.
4. Collaborative Concept Mapping- Students can use various digital tools to develop visual representations of their understanding of content.
5. Digital Presentations- Students could take all of their researched information and build group presentations through things such as Prezi or Google Slides.
6. Guest Speakers- In a video conference format, the teacher could invite a guest speaker to share with the class.
7. Discussion- This can be formal or informal, but students could have a live debate, seminar, question-answer time, etc. to facilitate academic conversation.

These are just a few activities that could be employed during live meetings. I believe there are an abundance of options, but these seven lay some foundation for future discussion.

Week 11 Reflection

In reviewing my lesson I believe that I meet all the requirements for an asynchronous lesson. Initially I was a little confused as to how to incorporate a screen castor video that logically aided student engagement in the lesson; however, once I decided to incorporate a video that gave an overview of the lesson I felt more confident in my finished product.  

The primary objective in this lesson is for students to collect information in order to build a synthesized, educated opinion of the modern American dream. Doing so requires analyzing, evaluating, researching, and many other components aligned with the ELA Common Core Standards. The digital tools used (i.e. Google Docs, Prezi, Google Plus, and mind mapping devices) all act as a means of helping students build digital literacy while simultaneously teaching the targeted skills for mastery in ninth grade English.

This lesson could be classified as a jigsaw activity, thus organizing student participation takes serious planning.  The focus standards I selected are addressed in following ways:

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.2- Students determine central ideas and supporting evidence in their initial analysis of a decade article and using the annotation sheet. This also takes place with their viewing of other groups’ Prezis.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.8- Students must evaluate the arguments of others when they collaborate on their Prezi and discuss their understanding with group members. They also delineate an argument when they view group Prezis to help create their mind map.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2- Students practice informative writing by developing their Prezi presentations and demonstrating their understanding of information.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.9- Via the Prezi and the mind map students are required to analyze, reflect, and research in order to develop an educated opinion and understanding of the material.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1- Students are given multiple opportunities to engage in collaborative discussion in an online community in order to refine their perspectives, practice clear expression, and engage in appropriate communication skills. This takes place in their use of Google Plus and their collaborative group Prezis.

While much effort was put into ensuring this lesson met the desired standards, I also put a lot of thought into how to create my lesson so that it would meet the needs of the various learning styles. The problem with this is that, at times, I focus so much on meeting ALL needs that I can complicate the lesson. In many ways I am my own worst critic when it comes to this. While the goal is to meet all learning needs, in some lessons it simply isn’t possible. Thus, I believe it is about finding the healthy balance of learning activities throughout the scope of the entire course. In this lesson students can watch videos, read information, or listen to resources in order to engage in the lesson.

I also feel that my assessments all accurately assess the standards I am trying to address in this lesson. The assessments offer students an outlet for creativity and some give them choices so they can select a means of expressing their knowledge in a manner that aligns with their specific learning style. The activities building up to each assessment are manageable for all students.

There is always room for improvement however. I believe that one of the ways I can do this is by offering more diverse choices for ALL of the activities used to build student understanding. In addition, it would be nice to create even more of a range for offering instruction.