There is such a variety of ideas with the NETS-T indicators
that at first I found it difficult to select what direction I wanted to
go. After some thought, these are the
two that stood out the most for me at this moment in my career:
1b. engage students in exploring real-world issues and
solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources
1d. model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging
in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments
My seniors are getting ready to begin working with Lord of the Flies. Through this piece, we will be discussing the
utopian/dystopian concept, social constructs, and the novels relationship to
the real world through its symbolism.
The Goal I
have in place for this unit is rooted in maintaining individual responsibility
while providing collaborative opportunities to learn and create. Creating work for individual students is
fine in and of itself, but collaborative skills are extremely important to the
development of understanding within the material we are covering. The challenge here is to make both individual
and group work meaningful without setting some students up for failure or
creating a situation where only certain students are contributing.
The Action
plan I have in place involves the use of three technologies: blogs, wikis, and video. Through blogging, students will be able to
offer their individual perspectives on the novel and real world stories we
encounter over the course of the unit.
They will be able to share perspectives and pose questions. Classmates will be able to read, evaluate,
and engage each other within the blogs.
Wikis and video will be used for collaborative pieces throughout the
unit, most especially when students are presented with a scenario and required
to develop a plan to accomplish certain tasks.
Monitoring
student work will be managed through the various tools. As students will be posting their individual
work on their blogs, I will be able to evaluate that work, as well as their
classmates’ responses, whether those are questions, add-ons, or critiques. We will be using Wikispaces.com to develop
our wiki projects, and the greatest part about this tool is that it logs who
contributes to the wikis, when they contributed, and shows each revision over
time. This provides insight into some of
the thought process behind the creation of the wiki and holds each member
accountable for completing his or her piece of the project. In addition to the accountability piece,
Wikispaces also has a communication tool for students to leave notes for each
other and does not require students to be together to complete the
project. I will have access to this as
well and will be able to get a clearer vision of what groups are trying to
accomplish. As the video component will
be partnered with the wiki project, monitoring this should be simple too.
Evaluating
the students and the effectiveness of this plan will be just as easy as
monitoring student progress. Using the
rubric(s) created for each component, I will be able to see how students have
progressed, and if things go well, I will be able to incorporate collaborative
pieces that go beyond our classroom walls.
References
ISTE, I.S. (2012). Nets for Teachers. Retrieved September 12, 2012 from:
http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-t-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2
References
ISTE, I.S. (2012). Nets for Teachers. Retrieved September 12, 2012 from:
http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-t-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2
I hated "Lord of the Flies." Hated it. It might have had something to do with the fact that my classmates dubbed me "Piggy" and treated me the same way they did the character on the island. Talk about internalizing a lesson.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I like your plan. For the action part, what specifically are you going to have them do a wiki about? Characters? Make their own "Cliff Notes?" (Because that could be cool.) If kids are trying to water it down for others, they are retaining, synthesizing and summarizing.
As for blogs, maybe they could do an island diary? Or I was thinking it would be cool to do a Survivor activity as a class. Something easy to do is get a bunch of old newspapers from your media center. Then, tell them whatever team can build a tower the highest with the materials given will win. Technology is not just computers. If you need to, show them some challenges from Survivor.
Could be cool. It might have even made me like that book. But probably not.
Our Common Core standards for this unit require students to work with theme and figurative language. Lord of the Flies, which I admit was not one of my favorites as a student, is full of symbolism, and through our blogs and wikis, we will be creating a product that relates the themes of the novel to the world today. I love working with dystopian material, and there are so many things happening now that a relatable to those young boys on the island. I know that there will be some students that will feel the same way you felt. My goal, however, is to bring in as many different pieces as possible to appeal to most of my students.
DeleteI have an activity that requires students to work with the concept of survival. But I had not even thought of what you suggested. Team building activities would be of great benefit within this unit.
Their blogs will function as diaries for this book, and I cannot tell you how happy I was that you made the suggestion. Another teacher suggesting it makes me believe it is a good idea. As we read the book, I am going to present students with scenarios related to what occurs in the story. This will apply to our standard for writing, and I believe it will help students get into the minds of the characters.
I have never taught high school before, and I am learning a lot. If you have any more suggestions, I would be glad to hear them.
I just try to think about things I would like to do as a kid. You know, I could have written a whole book from Piggy's perspective. I still should. I think it could be good for other kids who were fat, nerdy and picked on. I guess we have a lot of teen fiction like that, but if I linked it to LOTF, then maybe it could have credibility?
DeleteI found a game at a yard sale that is the Survivor board game. It has some cool group activities/challenges. In my speech class, we form Survivor "tribes" (about three) and do challenges against each other. Rewards are things like 10 extra points on a speech for the group. My theory is that it is hard enough to speak in front of people. But if you have a group of three or four people that are rooting for you, then it is a little easier. I also have them create tribe flags, a tribe cheer they do after a tribemate gives a speech. I justify this because we have a standard about group communication. They don't even realize they are fulfilling requirements. They do have fun, though.
Excellent GAME plan. Being a math teacher you can imagine my feelings on Lord of the Flies. I rally like your ideas to use blogs and wikis. I actually got our math department head to start using a wiki for all of our math department issues and meetings. It has worked pretty well. I have tried to start a blog for my Math II classes to help give students a place to chat or post questions for me to answer and to find other resources for their homework. The problem I have had is that about 20% of my students do not have internet access at home. I know what you are thinking. This is 2012, right? I was amazed myself but it is true. Do you have a plan for students that have no internet access at home? Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteI admit that I have to remind myself that not everyone has access to the Internet outside of school. What is great about where I live, however, is how much free WiFi is available around Evansville, Indiana. Aside from schools and the city libraries, many businesses provide free WiFi within a short range around their property. I have considered the fact that many students may not have the means to leave the house for an extended period of time for homework due to other responsibilities or simply will not want to do it. This is what is great about the school I am teaching at this year. We are on a block schedule, and this allows for students to have an enrichment period that is about 90 minutes every other day. When I was first hired, it sounded like study hall, and study hall when I was in high school meant just staring blankly at the wall for 40 minutes. That is not the case where I teach. Teachers can send enrichment passes to students for various reasons, from making up tests to allowing students to work on projects. The key is going to be making the work something the students want to do. During our first unit, my students created commercials for our rhetoric unit. It took a little longer than I expected,but many students eventually bought in to it and had a lot of fun while creating their piece. In fact, a few groups that clearly put forth no effort asked if we would get another chance for a video project because they had seen what their classmates had accomplished. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) said that exemplars can clarify expectations for projects, and it seems sort of obvious when you think about it. However, I was so caught up in creating a rubric, I never considered showing them a final product. The attitude change occurred when students saw what was possible.
DeleteIt has a lot of potential. I just have to work out the kinks.
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: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
I thought it would be important to mention that I used wikis with my middle school students last year. That is how I learned about the timestamping and communication tools. What I did not consider is what Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) suggest with differentiation. They say that teachers can control which digital content, such as dictionaries and spell-checking tools, is available for student groups. I need to do more investigating, but this sounds promising.
ReplyDeleteReferences
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
What a great GAME plan! I actuall really liked Lord of the Flies, and we did not even do anything all that exciting with it in class. I currently have students write journals once or twice a week in an Interpersonal Relationships class that I teach, and I have found that students enjoy this form of writing. While I give them a writing prompt or idea to elaborate on, the students often times go above and beyond the minimum expectations because they know that I take the time to read them and comment. It is no surprise that students greatly appreciate feedback on their entries, so istead of grading on grammar and punctuation, for their journals, I simply comment on what they told me. The benefits of students being able to blog on their own time, and you being able to respond when it is most convenient for you makes technoloy a great tool. Perhaps it would be an interesting journal if you had them write about the character they identify with most in the beginning and see if they still identify with that same character at the end of the story. Perhaps this is not the best method in case any of the students had situations like Ryan's above, but I know that I always enjoyed comparing and/or contrasting in school. Good luck with you unit/lesson. I wish I was taking this class!
ReplyDelete