A Reflection

This is how my lesson on exploring non-fiction went...

Re-Purposing Technology Lesson Plan – Final Refleciton

CEP 800: Teaching School Subject Matter with Technology

Exploring Non-Fiction and Other Informational Media Sources

Teacher: Erika Rochow

Content Area: English Language Arts

Technology: Time for Kids Online Interactive Issues

Grade Level: 2^nd

Length of Lesson: 30 Minutes

Description:

My lesson was an exploratory lesson on non-fiction texts using the Time for Kids Online, interactive editions. The purpose was to show students how to find information on a topic using multiple forms of media. I did not make changes to the lesson since posting it in module 5.

Implementation:

I implemented this lesson during an intervention period that I run with my teaching partners. We mix the students up from the 3 classrooms and pull them into different groups. Half of the students go into the computer lab and half of the students stay back in different groups to do close readings of non-fiction texts in small groups. After 30 minutes we switch, the students in the computer lab go to small group close readings the other half go into the computer lab.

The students are second graders from 3 different classrooms. The students have a wide range of reading levels and there are many who struggle. The lesson itself went really well. The students were highly engaged and they seemed eager to explore the different forms of media within the article I chose for them. They worked through the article with little difficulty because of the tools that the technology offers.

This was the first time the students had been in the computer lab this year so the main difficulties were getting logged onto the website. Their computer skills are limited and they have a hard time following multiple directions. Once they were logged in and working through the article, it was easier to help them with the icons and tools that they were using because the issues came up at different times.

Reflection

The students met my learning goals for this particular lesson quite well. I'm still wondering if they will be able to apply what they have learned to other experiences with non-fiction, but for this lesson, they did well demonstrating their mastery of the goals that were set for them. For this lesson, I had three learning goals related to non-fiction reading. One goal was that students will be able to identify the main topic and retells key details in a non-fiction text. Students will also be able to connect and describe individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text. Finally, students will be able to determine meaning of vocabulary phrases relative to topics or subjects. I was confident in my assumptions about their knowledge. I thought the lesson would engage and support this group of students in a meaningful way.

During my lesson, the technology that was used allowed students to independently access more complex content than they otherwise would have been able to on their own. Videos, Audio, Pop Up Screens help them gather and understand information. A constraint of this technology is that it can only be viewed using certain web browsers. Learning took place through exploration. The students could navigate the article and the media as they wished with minimal direction from me besides teaching them how to use the different tools. Constructivism was present in this lesson because the students were integrating new knowledge with their existing knowledge. The lesson was hands on and experiential, allowing the students to develop the knowledge that was presented on their own and make connections. There was not evidence of behaviorism in this lesson but I'm hoping they develop and condition their skills in order to apply them to other experiences with non-fiction.

Non-fiction reading is being pushed in curriculum across the district. This lesson works as a partner to support the 6 shifts of the common core. Hence, the lesson supplements the ELA curriculum for my district and because it is non-fiction at a second grade level, it also supplements the science and social studies curriculum. In terms of non-fiction reading; the lesson also enhances a student's ability to navigate text with the features that the technology offers. The main difference among the learners involved in this lesson is reading ability. Many of these students are at risk readers and this lesson supported them fully by offering the content in different reading levels and also by providing different media forms and audio as sources of information. Teachers who are interested in this lesson and in using technology like this need to be aware that the technology offered by Time for Kids is only supported on the Google Chrome and Safari browsers. This particular piece of the puzzle caused some issues when preparing to teach the lesson because I had to go to administration to see if I could download the browser software. It can serve as an independent, a small group, or a whole class teaching experience if the supported browsers are available.

The students had guiding questions to think about as they explored the article online. At the end of their active engagement we has a class discussion that focused on those questions. Before we switched groups during the block, the students applied what they learned on a non-fiction blurb. They were to search for the main topic and mark it as well as other main ideas in the non-fiction piece.

Technology plays a huge role in this lesson. The advantages of the Time for Kids technology are that it offers learning experiences on many topics that all learners can access. The audio piece is very helpful for students who struggle or who are just below grade level in reading. Another advantage is that the technology offers non-fiction experiences at different grade levels. I expected students to understand that they can gather information about a topic from more than just one source. I also wanted them to use it in order to understand that they have access to content that is more complex than what they are used to. The students were really excited about using this technology. They were excited to explore. This was their first time in the school's brand new computer lab, no one had to share a computer, and they all got their very own set of headphones which made the experience all the more real and fun for them to jump into. Students were making sense of the content because they were having fun with the technology. Allowing students this young to explore content the way that the Time for Kids website allows is engaging and meaningful for them. They were able to explore and collect new information on their own terms and make sense of it with guiding questions and they liked it. The technology made reading fun for students who usually view reading as hard and impossible. They were able to make sense of the content with the technology because the technology made the content make sense.

Lessons in Technology

This is a lesson plan I created in order to incorporate non-fiction reading with technology:

Lesson Plan:

Exploring Non-Fiction and Other Informational Media Sources

Connection: (1 minute)

We’ve been learning all about fiction in reading workshop but today we are going to switch gears into non-fiction reading.

Teaching Point: (5 minutes)

Today I want you to explore non-fiction texts on the internet.

The Hoop Dreams article will already be loaded for them.  I will teach them about each of the icons.

We know that non-fiction is made up of facts.  This website lets us explore these facts in a better way.  The triangle/play icon means that there is a video that you can view that will give you more information you won’t find in the actual article.  The button with the microphone on it will read the text to you.  The question mark will cause a question to pop up to make you think more about what you are learning.

Let’s try to use one of these icons.  Everyone click on the triangle button at the bottom of the screen.  Watch the video. What did we learn from watching this?

Active Engagement: (20 minutes)

Now it’s your turn to explore this article on your own.  As you explore, make notes on your organizer and think about the questions and what this article is teaching you.

Link: (4 minutes)

What are some of the things that you learned from this article?

What did you write down?

Discuss the organizer and the questions.

Assessment: (20 minutes)

Back in the classroom, I will distribute the piece on Sacajawea.  I will read it to the students to account for reading difficulty but allow them to complete the instructions on their own.

Background Information
Content: What is the content you are teaching and what are the big ideas? What are the challenging concepts that students struggle with or are difficult to teach? Consider your state standards (GLCEs or HSCEs) as you develop the essential questions you are trying to address.	Standards: Students will be able to identify the main topic and retells key details in a text. Students will be able to connect and describe individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text. Students will be able to determine meaning of vocabulary phrases relative to topics or subjects. ISTE-3: Research and Information Fluency-Students will be able to apply digital tools to gather, evaluate and use information. Essential Questions: What is the main idea of this non-fiction article? What does the word tradition mean? What are some traditions that your family has? How do you think R.J. Lopez feels during his performances? Why do you think that? Predicted Difficulties: This will be one of the first teaching moments with non-fiction this year.  They are allowed to shop for non-fiction books in their bedside table book bags but they have not yet examined non-fiction closely.  This will be difficult for some of them because they are not used to evaluating the structure of non-fiction texts. Some students will also have trouble with the reading because they struggle with the English language.
Pedagogy: What pedagogical strategies are you using and why? What theories of learning inform your strategies? What learner characteristics did you take into consideration?	My lesson uses inquiry based learning because the kids are exploring non-fiction while simultaneously learning to use technology for academic research.  I am using constructivist theories of learning so that the students can learn at their own pace while I am monitoring and controlling the content they have access to. I took reading difficulty into consideration for this lesson.  This includes English language learners.
Content & Pedagogy: How do these particular strategies help you teach the content mentioned above? Why choose these strategies over other approaches? Are there any technical or physical constraints that figured significantly into your choices?	The technology that I am using allows for a large amount of differentiation among readers of varying levels.  There is audio available for the non-fiction and students have the entire time to learn at a pace that is right for them. I chose this strategy because it is easier to differentiate, it is grade level appropriate and it works for the very wide range of abilities in my lesson.
Technology: What technology will you be using and why? Is the use of this technology absolutely necessary to achieve your objective? That is, would be impossible to teach the lesson without it? Remember that content specific technology (e.g., probes, graphing calculators, Geometer’s Sketchpad, United Streaming videos) are used to teach a content-specific concepts, whereas content-general technologies (e.g., Flash animation, Web 2.0 technologies) may facilitate deeper understanding by allowing students to manipulate information, explore a “network of ideas,” and investigate multiple representations of material.	I’m going to be using Time for Kids Online.  This technology combines digital issues of TFK as well as other media and audio to supplement the stories the magazine is featuring. It is not absolutely necessary to use this technology in order to achieve my goal but it will allow the students to hopefully come to a deeper understanding of how they can evaluate and gather information. It will also make it easier for those students with reading deficiencies to understand the text itself.
Technology & Pedagogy: How does the technology you have chosen fit with your pedagogical strategies and theories about learning? What types of learning strategies are employed by the technology?	The technology fits perfectly with my pedagogical approach.  Students are encouraged to do more than just read about a certain topic but they are also provided with other media sources such as video, picture, vocabulary, and further higher level questioning that goes beyond the text.
Technology & Content: How does your choice of technology help you teach the "big ideas" and address the essential questions underlying the concept your lesson addresses?	The technology is very helpful with the content because it offers audio for each piece of text including the vocabulary blurbs.  It also offers additional pieces of media to supplement the big ideas of the featured story.  These elements will allow the students deeper knowledge and resources to answer the essential questions.
Assessment: What do you want your students to know, and how will you know when they know it?  How will you assess what students have learned?  What role does technology play in these assessments?	The article comes with a worksheet that relates to the topic of the feature article.  I am planning on giving this to the students to see if they can apply what they’ve learned while researching the actual Time for Kids article. They will also be filling out an organizer during their research that follows the essential questions.

Digital Story: Reversible & Irreversible Changes in Matter

I used the art of talking to help my students through misconceptions about changes in matter.  Check out how they did:

Checking for Understanding

Check out my podcast with my students about the states of matter:

Students' Understanding of Matter

PQ + CQ > IQ

Make Something, With Something...Be Creative.

Creativity and passion go hand in hand with education.  If a teacher is not passionate...teaching with be difficult.  If a teacher is not creative...teaching will be difficult.  Technology opens up an endless world of creativity and passion.  I use both every day in my job as a second grade teacher...take a look...

Wordle

Communities of Practice

After creating and sending out a survey asking about how teachers utilize technology I learned that technology in my building and district is being used but not to its fullest ability.  Many teachers use SMART boards but when making that statement in the survey they followed up with something vague, like I use mine for EVERYTHING.  What is everything?  How does it help you in getting your students to their learning goals?  Many teachers use their computers for personal use when it comes to their teaching jobs for things like attendance, lesson plans, grading, etc.  Some use laptops and internet to help their students go deeper with their learning.  But teachers who don't have a full class such as reading interventionists and resource room teachers seemed a little lost when it comes to ways of integrating technology into their work.
A trend that I saw was that many teachers were unsure of what to ask when it comes to what they want to learn or what they want to know more about.  It seemed that educators are unaware of what is out there in terms of what could help them with their students involving technology.  One comment was that a teacher was curious about how a SMART board can be used as more than just a fancy white board - I think it's unfair that some teachers know all the tips and tricks to having something like a SMART board and some teachers don't know how to turn one on. I was kind of shocked that more teachers were not curious about the iPad.  This technology would be PERFECT for teachers who work one on one with students. The truth seems to be that their just isn't enough education for teachers involving educational technology.  Also, the wealth isn't being shared.  Teachers need this kind of learning to be successful and it is so uneven within buildings and districts.  How are we supposed to ensure that all students are getting the same quality education when it is so different from district to district or even building to building within the same district?

Getting a Balanced Diet of Information

I will be the first to admit that my infodiet is very imbalanced.  For quite some time I have been told to read a newspaper or look up articles online so that I know what's happening in the world.  As an educator I have fought this with excuses like "I don't have time to sit down and read," or "It's not interesting to me," or "I just don't want to."  With this being said, understanding current events IS important for educators.  I also have a hard time hearing things and sorting through important vs. not.  Take what happened at Sandy Hook for instance, I was completely captivated by those horrible events, but because I don't listen to the news, I believed EVERYTHING I was told and much of the information surrounding that tragedy was incorrect on the first day.  To fix this problem of hearing and passing along information that may or may not be true I used this assignment to "get in the know."  I began following @CNN on Twitter.  This way I'm finding out news and understanding real world issues around me and I'm not sifting through the viewpoints of others.  Due to the fact that news stations are biased based on politics, I began following @FoxNews as well to get multiple viewpoints.

Politics is another topic that is crucial to education that puts me out of my comfort zone.  I vote democrat based on my career and I'm not a fan of Michigan's current governor.  I'm not saying I'm eager to get into any political debates but it would be nice to be able to defend myself on issues related to education.  For this reason, I chose to also follow @CSPAN to keep myself updated on politics and information.  Something else that can help me stay informed and give me some things to talk about and understand is the Michigan Department of Education, @mieducation.  I think that this is a good decision for my infodiet because I don't pay attention to things that are probably really useful pieces of information.  For example, I had absolutely no idea that Common Core Standards were being questioned and put on hold in the state of Michigan. What? Why?  I have been working so hard to understand them and teach them and gain success for my students with these standards and now and the end of the first year...we're reconsidering.  It was shocking but interesting information that I did not know because I've been too busy using my free time to figure out what's going on, on Facebook.

I also wanted to use this assignment to find out more about technology in order to take it to my students.  I'm constantly worried about what I'm teaching, how I'm teaching, should I have done it this way or tried it that way, what's going to happen next year with my students, are they ready for 3rd grade, the MEAP is happening to them next year...  It's always on my mind, how can I make them more prepared?  I found this page on Twitter called Next Generation Learning Challenges, @NextGenLC.  This page has a wealth of information that I am excited to sift through.  I appreciated the research I got to do with this assignment and it helped me realize that if anything, I at least WANT to be interested.