Blog Post 10 - Round 1: Setting the Bar High

It is so motivating to be in a class with so many bright and innovative future educators. I loved seeing all the creative ways that everyone this week shared for administering their lessons. Even though the grade levels and subjects varied, they all had one thing in common - the drive to engage their students in fun and valuable lessons. 

I loved Rebecca's read aloud lesson, being able to retell a story as you heard it is a great way to start learning how to interpret what you are reading. I seriously wanted some Oreo's as Rylee explained the different moon phases in her lesson plan; such a fun a delicious lesson! Debbie, I especially liked her innovative way of implementing a goofy video of Weird Al to help get her students get excited about the lesson; what a great way to get their attention. Tiff's personal finance class should be a requirement for all students, that is just very important information that I wish I would have learned early on in life. Kris, history can be a class that can either be very interesting or kind of boring depending on the teacher and I think he'd be a teacher that gets his students excited about learning all about history. Last but definitely not least, Samantha and her Pythagorean Theorem; I didn't even know what that was before Tuesday night, so needless to say she had me engaged and taught me something new. Everyone did such an amazing job and truly set the bar high for the rest of us. 

Blog Post 9 - Identifying Desired Results

The theme for my unit revolves around comprehending and interpreting texts (approaching texts as a reader). My goal is for students to be able to analyze what they are reading. When looking at a text analytically we are breaking it apart not only to understand what the writer has provided but to take it further by interpreting what the writer wanted us to learn beyond the text. This skill is useful in all aspects of life, no matter what profession one decides to pursue; being able to understand what we are reading is the first key to being successful.

When I was working as a Title I Reading Para, students would often fuss about having to be in our reading groups. The number one complaint was that they didn't like to read, it was not for them. When faced with these situations, I would always ask them what their favorite subject in school was. Some would respond with Math or Science, to which I would remind them that in order to complete a word problem in Math, we needed to decipher how we need to solve it and that took comprehension in reading; or with Science we need to be able to read and understand the steps we need to follow in order to complete an experiment. If we do not understand what we are reading then we cannot fully apply ourselves in the subjects that we do enjoy. Of course there was always a couple that would respond that they didn't even like school and just wanted to stay home and play video games. I actually loved that response since majority of them enjoyed RPG's which require reading of the story line and mission; to which I would ask: isn't it a lot better to be able to understand what your mission is when you are playing your game? How much longer would it take you to get to the next level if you are not clear on the directions? This always got their attention and made them receptive to wanting to work on their reading skills. 

In looking ahead, I want my students to be able to read a contract as an adult and fully understand what they are signing; looking beyond what is written and what can be interpreted differently so that they do not sign something they will later regret. Of course, considering the grade level I will be teaching, my students will have quite a ways before they reach that stage in their lives. So my overall goal is to prepare them for their higher education by providing them with the skills to interpret a text, whether it is in an educational setting or personal life. 

Blog Post 8: Technology in the Classroom

When reflecting on the past 8 weeks, the most refreshing idea for spicing up engagement and our lessons has been the encouragement to implement technology in the classroom. Having worked in the computer lab at our school, I loved all the ways that technology could be integrated into the lessons; and wondered why more teachers were not using it to their advantage. There are so many tools available to help enhance our lessons with technology. Although I will admit, as we started delving further into it yesterday, it can be a little overwhelming with all the different apps and websites that are available. Where do you start? Which app or website will benefit the subject you are teaching?

One vantage point we have as students, is that we are still learning the ropes and can make it a habit to implement technology in our lessons. As we create our lesson plans for this class, we are researching those sources that will help enhance our lessons. And what's best, we have the opportunity to share these with Dr. Steffes and our fellow classmates to see if in fact it was a good tool to add. 

We have to remember that we are not just teaching our students about a particular subject, we want them to learn important life skills as well, and what better way than utilizing the many resources we have available to assist in this journey. I am so excited to continue my research into the apps I would like to use in my classroom. I was already familiar with a couple of apps that our media specialist at school raves about, like Flipgrid and WeVideo. I'm looking forward to playing with some of the other apps we learned about yesterday to see how they can help enhance my lessons. I definitely know that I will find a way to use Great Big Story, as those videos can be great companions to many lessons, and as Dr. Steffes put it, they can also serve as great "hooks". 

Blog Post 7 - Engagement Strategies

Keeping students engaged in a lesson can be challenging at times, but there are several strategies that can be implemented into our lesson plans that will help us keep our students engaged. One of the most interesting methods discussed in our text is including some sort of physical activity as this stimulates the flow of oxygen to the brain, keeping students awake and engaged (Marzano, R., 2007). Other strategies include implementing games in the lesson; including a little competition will help students remain engaged as well. Another method is to make the lessons relatable for students; if they find common ground in the material that is a great tool for them to become interested in what they are learning. 

One way that I can think of to add physical activity to my lessons would be to have work stations that require students to move around the room after a certain amount of time. I also thought of implementing kinesthetics into some of the lessons, which will require students to use body movement in order to show what they are learning. In one of the classes I observed the teacher had students use kinesthetics to show their understanding of the different elements in a story. This activity can actually be turned into a game of charades, the rest of the class can try to guess which part of the story students are trying to interpret with their body movement. For example, to portray falling action, a student could be running in place and quickly fall to the ground. 

It would also be important to stay current with events pertaining to our students so that we can find ways to relate to them. This will help them make connections with the material and find it interesting. While teaching about click bait in my computer class, I used Fortnite as an example for students to understand how advertisers will use things to grab their attention. This got majority of students excited and participating in the lesson. 

All in all, keeping students engaged is all about taking the material we want them to learn and putting a twist to it that will make it exciting. 


Marzano, R. J. The Art and Science of Teaching: A Comprehensive Framework for Effective Instruction. [Columbia College]. Retrieved from https://ccis.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781416614975/

Blog Post 6 - Assessments

My unit is based around reading comprehension and learning to interpret texts. There are various opportunities throughout the different lessons to assess the students' understanding of the material. Below are some of the formative assessments I was planning to implement in my unit plan: 

1. Analyzing Student Work - Reviewing students' work after an assignment is a great way to see if students understand the lesson and this can be performed throughout the whole unit. It also allows us to help with the areas that students need additional support in.  

2. Strategic Questioning - this can be done during class discussions, teacher poses a higher-order question and students answer. I was planning of doing this using a tool called Flipgrid, this tool allows students to respond to the questions from their computers and displays the top answers on the Smartboard. This is a great way to allow more students to participate and see which students need further instruction without them feeling embarrassed for answering incorrectly. 

3. 3-Way Summaries - this works really well with the lesson as students will need to be able to summarize parts of a story in order to identify the main points. 

4. Creative Extension Projects - For one of the lessons, I was planning to have students work on their own graphic organizers to show if they understand the order of elements throughout a story. Another idea, was to have students use kinesthetic movements to show how the different aspects of the story work. As a final project I was thinking of having students create a book trailer based on their favorite book, the trailer will need to include all the main elements that make up a story. It would summarize the book enough that the person looking at the trailer would know what happens in the story without reading it. For this project, students would use WeVideo as it allows them to use pictures, music, slides, and more to create their every own video. 

I'm still working on my unit plan and some of these may change, but so far I thought these would be great methods to use for formative assessment. Even though I am planning on teaching ELA, I really want to incorporate the use of technology in my classroom, as I feel that is an important skill for our students to possess. 

Blog Post 5 - Bloom's Taxonomy

When doing research about Bloom's Taxonomy, the model below resonated well with me. I found the model on a blog post created by Lynn Lease, PhD. Along with the model she included some interesting details on Bloom's Taxonomy and ways to implement this model when writing learning objectives. This was also another resource that covers "beginning with the end in mind". Like anything we encounter when we visualize the end result we want to accomplish, we can draw up the necessary steps to get to the finish line. And that is an important element to remember when writing learning objectives - what do we want our students to be able to accomplish at the end of the lesson? What are they going to learn? How are we going to teach them? What materials and resources are we going to provide them with? By applying the Bloom's Taxonomy method when writing our learning objectives we are assigning one word that will meet the level of expertise we want our students to reach after the lesson. From there we know the degree of resources and materials we want to provide to teach the lesson. Maybe at the beginning of a Unit Plan we are aiming for students simply to understand certain concepts but by the end of the Unit Plan they should be at a level were they are able to create a project or assignment based on what they have learned throughout the entire lesson. 

My favorite part of the model below is that it provides us with those keywords that we want to include when writing learning objectives, based on the level of mastery we want our students to be at by the end of the lesson. 



Reference

Lease, L. (2016, June 20). Bloom's Taxonomy – Teaching, Learning ... - Lynn Lease, PhD. Retrieved February 13, 2019, from https://lynnleasephd.com/2016/06/20/blooms-taxonomy/

Blog Post 4 - Madeline Hunter Lesson Plan Design

The Madeline Hunter lesson plan design puts together all the pieces needed to create an engaging and successful lesson for students. Each piece of the plan design revolves around the lesson objective, all fitting perfectly together like puzzle pieces to make up the lesson. 

1. Anticipatory Set: This serves as the "hook" that will be used to draw students in. 
2. Objective & Purpose: What will be provided for students so that may learn a specific lesson and be able to perform it at a specific level. 
3. Input: How the lesson will be presented to students. This can be done by various methods. 
4. Model: We demonstrate how we perform a specific task, so that students may see how they will do it. 
5. Check for Understanding: Asking students questions about the material learned. To see whether we need to provide further insight or move on. 
6. Guided Practice: We have students perform a specific task while we monitor to ensure they are doing it correctly. 
7. Independent Practice: Students work independently. 
8. Closure: This serves as a final check for understanding, where we see if students meet the objective successfully. 

I think all parts of the plan design are important as they all work together towards providing a complete and in depth lesson to help in teaching students what they need to learn. It is a very thorough way to ensure that we, as teachers, are hitting all the areas necessary to engage students in the material and ensure they are understanding what is being taught.

As far as what might be difficult for me, goes back to the same task discussed when talking about unit planning - which is the input part of the lesson plan. Determining what the best source to present the material to students would be the most difficult for me. As I would like to ensure that it is something that students will find interesting and engaging. Although the material itself is important for them to learn, it is also important that they develop the skills to learn. And this can only be done with inspiration; if students are inspired then they are more likely to retain the material.