This module has helped me think about self-directed learners and the role of differentiation in the following ways:
Before completing this module, I had not really thought about how learning preferences should play in the process of making educational accommodations for a student. I understood the basic means by which to accommodate a student based on disability (such as with content, process, products, and learning environment), but I had never thought about considering whether a student preferred (and performed more successfully with) visual-auditory-kinesthetic, left brain/right brain, or multiple intelligences learning styles. Basically, I'm glad that a student's preferred learning style is can be taken into consideration for accommodations in addition to what a student needs because of his or her disability.
I had also not considered how beneficial individualized computers can be for differentiating student learning before completing this module. Computers provide the necessary technology for students with disabilities, the resources necessary for English language learners, and extended resources for gifted and talented students. Before I had really only thought about computer use in the sense of projects, but I see how technology could be used for differentiation throughout instructional units.
I have already had self-direction in my mind, though, as I have been creating my instructional unit for this course. The steps for enhancing self-direction through assessments that are listed in the module, for instance, are steps that I am incorporating in unit. My students will have a clear picture of what they will be learning, they will receive continuous feedback about their progress, they will self-assess their own progress, and they will be provided with instruction for the specific steps they will be taking over the course of the unit.
I also have implemented some of the pedagogical practices for supporting the diverse needs of learners in my instructional unit. My students will be offered an example to imitate, they will have structures to monitor their own progress, and they will have a limited amount of options for the project.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Monday, March 9, 2015
Module 5 Reflection
This module has helped me think about student-centered assessment in the following ways:
The part of this module that really got me thinking was Step 2 of Activity 1. In particular, I found the questions that the module provided for readers to think about while they create their student assessments very helpful. I have always viewed rubrics as assessment tools that always follow the same formula (in an English Language Arts classroom at least). The sections that are nearly always included are mechanics, organization, and style. Rubrics show students exactly what is expected of them, but they always look so similar from what I usually see. The questions in this module, though, really got me thinking about the ways to really cater a rubric to a project one is creating.
Here are the questions:
Which of these assessments would be most important to you and your students?
What kind of information would you and your students gain by using the assessments?
How would the assessments help students become self-directed, collaborative learners?
How do the assessments assess higher-order thinking, 21st century skills, and a student’s ability to answer
the Curriculum-Framing Questions?
What instruction would your students need to use the assessments effectively?
These questions did one thing in particular for me: they helped me really think about what I needed to assess in my rubrics. I think that a lot of people are going about the rubric thing all wrong. I'm not saying that including mechanics and organization sections is wrong. Those things are important to, but I think teachers need to be thinking more about the skills that the students are learning and using as they do their project while creating a rubric. This may be harder to do for a rubric for a finished project. My rubric for the publication my students will be making, for instance, focuses on the information provided in the publication, sources, citations, and mechanics. I'm primarily looking to see if the students followed directions and if they produced quality information. I think, though, that during the middle of a project teachers could have some sort of assessment in which the 21st century skills that the students are learning are addressed. It would be an interesting to try because it's something I don't feel like I've really seen. Like I've said, most of the rubrics that I've seen in English Language Arts classrooms look very similar.
I feel like this blog has included a lot of rambling, but the point I'm trying to make here is that this module has really got me thinking about what exactly I should be assessing in my rubrics.
The part of this module that really got me thinking was Step 2 of Activity 1. In particular, I found the questions that the module provided for readers to think about while they create their student assessments very helpful. I have always viewed rubrics as assessment tools that always follow the same formula (in an English Language Arts classroom at least). The sections that are nearly always included are mechanics, organization, and style. Rubrics show students exactly what is expected of them, but they always look so similar from what I usually see. The questions in this module, though, really got me thinking about the ways to really cater a rubric to a project one is creating.
Here are the questions:
Which of these assessments would be most important to you and your students?
What kind of information would you and your students gain by using the assessments?
How would the assessments help students become self-directed, collaborative learners?
How do the assessments assess higher-order thinking, 21st century skills, and a student’s ability to answer
the Curriculum-Framing Questions?
What instruction would your students need to use the assessments effectively?
These questions did one thing in particular for me: they helped me really think about what I needed to assess in my rubrics. I think that a lot of people are going about the rubric thing all wrong. I'm not saying that including mechanics and organization sections is wrong. Those things are important to, but I think teachers need to be thinking more about the skills that the students are learning and using as they do their project while creating a rubric. This may be harder to do for a rubric for a finished project. My rubric for the publication my students will be making, for instance, focuses on the information provided in the publication, sources, citations, and mechanics. I'm primarily looking to see if the students followed directions and if they produced quality information. I think, though, that during the middle of a project teachers could have some sort of assessment in which the 21st century skills that the students are learning are addressed. It would be an interesting to try because it's something I don't feel like I've really seen. Like I've said, most of the rubrics that I've seen in English Language Arts classrooms look very similar.
I feel like this blog has included a lot of rambling, but the point I'm trying to make here is that this module has really got me thinking about what exactly I should be assessing in my rubrics.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Module 4 Reflection
How can technology be used most effectively to support and assess student learning?
The work I have started for Module 4 has assisted me a great deal in understanding the best ways to use technology to support and assess student learning in the classroom. My plan was always to have my students create some sort of publication online as part of the unit project, but creating a student sample myself has really helped me in narrowing down on exactly what I want to expect from my students as they work on the project themselves. The module has also gotten me thinking about ways that my students can enhance their publications through sounds, images, etc.
The section about helping students in project-based classrooms was also particularly helpful for me. I realized that in order for me to ensure that my students have made the progress that would satisfy me during and at the end of the unit, I would need to have manageable goals, a clear timeline, a place where the students could generate questions about their work, a way or them to work productively with others, and a way for them to reflect on their work. I will be incorporating all of these things into the project for my unit.
Planning the student sample itself has really helped me in thinking about how to most effectively use technology as well. I've been able to see where my students may run into trouble, as well as how easy it is for me to find the types of information I would expect them to incorporate into their publications. I've also been able to see how much time I should expect my students to need on each aspect of the unit based on how long it took me to do the project. It also has helped me in reevaluating the prerequisite skills that my students would need to have before starting this project and the skills that I would want to make sure they have at the end of the instructional unit. The student sample has also helped me in making sure that my curriculum framing questions are questions that my unit can address, as well as if I need to add new questions to that list.
All in all, this module has really helped me in the planning process for my instructional unit, especially where the use of technology is concerned.
The work I have started for Module 4 has assisted me a great deal in understanding the best ways to use technology to support and assess student learning in the classroom. My plan was always to have my students create some sort of publication online as part of the unit project, but creating a student sample myself has really helped me in narrowing down on exactly what I want to expect from my students as they work on the project themselves. The module has also gotten me thinking about ways that my students can enhance their publications through sounds, images, etc.
The section about helping students in project-based classrooms was also particularly helpful for me. I realized that in order for me to ensure that my students have made the progress that would satisfy me during and at the end of the unit, I would need to have manageable goals, a clear timeline, a place where the students could generate questions about their work, a way or them to work productively with others, and a way for them to reflect on their work. I will be incorporating all of these things into the project for my unit.
Planning the student sample itself has really helped me in thinking about how to most effectively use technology as well. I've been able to see where my students may run into trouble, as well as how easy it is for me to find the types of information I would expect them to incorporate into their publications. I've also been able to see how much time I should expect my students to need on each aspect of the unit based on how long it took me to do the project. It also has helped me in reevaluating the prerequisite skills that my students would need to have before starting this project and the skills that I would want to make sure they have at the end of the instructional unit. The student sample has also helped me in making sure that my curriculum framing questions are questions that my unit can address, as well as if I need to add new questions to that list.
All in all, this module has really helped me in the planning process for my instructional unit, especially where the use of technology is concerned.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Module 2 Reflection
This module has helped me think about using standards, CFQs, or formative assessment in the following ways:
I'm going to latch onto the CFQs part of the prompt for the beginning of my reflection. This module has really helped me understand how much thought needs to go into creating the curriculum framing questions, as well as how much harder it is to write CFQs than I initially thought it was going to be. I don't know if I am the only one who feels like this, but I panicked a little when I first started trying to create an essential question that was broad enough that it could cover my entire school year, yet focused enough that it made sense being used in my classroom. I am pretty confident now, though, that "Why do we read and write?" fits into that space I was trying to work with. As for my unit and content questions, I think I'll probably do a little revising. I just want to make sure that they fit appropriately with the project, as well as with what types of answers they are supposed to encourage. I guess I'm getting a little stress from trying to create my curriculum framing questions because there are so many specific things that the questions are supposed to accomplish, and I want to make sure that I am successful in creating questions that spark my students' minds like they should.
As for using standards, I never really have a problem finding standards I can use; my problem stems from wondering if I'm using too many or too few when creating my unit plan. I want to make sure that I use a variety of reading, writing, and speaking standards for English Language Arts, but I also want to make sure that the standards that I use are the most appropriate. I'm thinking I really need to just do some research on how many standards are appropriate to use in a unit.
I am actually excited about creating the formative assessment of my unit. This is the part where I get to be creative and think of ways other than tests and papers that I can assess my students (although I still think I may have a paper be part of my unit plan because I feel that papers are really important). I know I'm wanting to use project rubrics and checkpoints, as well as some sort of student refection. I'm thinking that maybe my class could have a blog where everyone puts down their thoughts based on a prompt like we're doing in this course. I also want to implement some sort of creative writing assignment, as well. The trick is fitting this all into my unit without worrying that I'd overwhelm students or drag the unit on longer than it should be.
I'm going to latch onto the CFQs part of the prompt for the beginning of my reflection. This module has really helped me understand how much thought needs to go into creating the curriculum framing questions, as well as how much harder it is to write CFQs than I initially thought it was going to be. I don't know if I am the only one who feels like this, but I panicked a little when I first started trying to create an essential question that was broad enough that it could cover my entire school year, yet focused enough that it made sense being used in my classroom. I am pretty confident now, though, that "Why do we read and write?" fits into that space I was trying to work with. As for my unit and content questions, I think I'll probably do a little revising. I just want to make sure that they fit appropriately with the project, as well as with what types of answers they are supposed to encourage. I guess I'm getting a little stress from trying to create my curriculum framing questions because there are so many specific things that the questions are supposed to accomplish, and I want to make sure that I am successful in creating questions that spark my students' minds like they should.
As for using standards, I never really have a problem finding standards I can use; my problem stems from wondering if I'm using too many or too few when creating my unit plan. I want to make sure that I use a variety of reading, writing, and speaking standards for English Language Arts, but I also want to make sure that the standards that I use are the most appropriate. I'm thinking I really need to just do some research on how many standards are appropriate to use in a unit.
I am actually excited about creating the formative assessment of my unit. This is the part where I get to be creative and think of ways other than tests and papers that I can assess my students (although I still think I may have a paper be part of my unit plan because I feel that papers are really important). I know I'm wanting to use project rubrics and checkpoints, as well as some sort of student refection. I'm thinking that maybe my class could have a blog where everyone puts down their thoughts based on a prompt like we're doing in this course. I also want to implement some sort of creative writing assignment, as well. The trick is fitting this all into my unit without worrying that I'd overwhelm students or drag the unit on longer than it should be.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Module 1 Reflection
This module has had me think of my role as an instructional designer in the following ways:
When I consider this prompt, the first aspect of the Module 1 that comes to my mind is what it said about my role as a curriculum designer in the first place. The simple statement that "the decisions [I] make impact the curriculum [my] students experience" is the perfect reminder that I should be delivering material to my students in the most effective manner possible; and although I feel that implementing project-based instruction in an English Language Arts classroom is going to be particularly challenging, I can see from the information that has been provided to me that the approach works. Despite whatever challenges I may face in the construction of my project-based unit, it will be beneficial for my students in the long run to have that kind of learning experience.
Before I get to the aspects of the module that I was particularly struck with, I feel the need to address my concern I briefly mentioned in the previous paragraph: the challenge of implementing project-based instruction in an English Language Arts classroom. I know my concern comes from simple inexperience, but I do feel I am going to be challenged in trying to create a project that is rooted in a literary work and simultaneously has "real world" applications. There was one sample project from the module that came very close to what I would like to accomplish. The students in that project learned how the time period in which a novel was written affected the novel's contents. They also created their own fictional characters for that time period. I want, however, to go further than that, to make the students REALLY connect the novel with their own lives. I would also still like to implement some aspects of critical theory into the unit, as well, because I know theory will be very useful in helping students see the different ways that they can look at Of Mice and Men (which is definitely the literary work I'm going to do my unit on). I know my worry here is just me wanting to be as successful as possible, and I have the tendency to worry a lot about projects before I begin them anyway. I'm just not going to pretend like the worry doesn't exist. Ok! Now that's going to be the end of my worrisome rambling!
I'd like to mention a couple of aspects of the module that I really agreed with while reading. The first is the section about how good instructional design includes in-depth coverage of important subject matter instead of superficial coverage of a wider range of topics in a subject area. This is an idea I completely agree with, and I would much rather design units that help students completely understand a few aspects of a subject than units that left the students with very little understanding of the subject in entirety. I also believe that if I deliver a unit successfully enough, my students will have the necessary skills to pursue other aspects of the subject on their own. It's the cliche (but true) feeding a man vs. teaching him how to fish mentality. The other aspect of the module that I really agreed with was the section that included the comment about how the tasks that the students complete need to be purposeful. I would hate to create a project that included tasks without a real purpose; I would feel like I was wasting my students and my own time.
So to sum up what I've discussed in these few paragraphs, this module has made me think about the challenges I'm going to face as an instructional designer, as well as what I want to accomplish as an instructional designer thus far. I want my project-based unit to be successful and really engage my students, and this first module has really helped me understand what standards I am going to hold myself to as I design my unit.
When I consider this prompt, the first aspect of the Module 1 that comes to my mind is what it said about my role as a curriculum designer in the first place. The simple statement that "the decisions [I] make impact the curriculum [my] students experience" is the perfect reminder that I should be delivering material to my students in the most effective manner possible; and although I feel that implementing project-based instruction in an English Language Arts classroom is going to be particularly challenging, I can see from the information that has been provided to me that the approach works. Despite whatever challenges I may face in the construction of my project-based unit, it will be beneficial for my students in the long run to have that kind of learning experience.
Before I get to the aspects of the module that I was particularly struck with, I feel the need to address my concern I briefly mentioned in the previous paragraph: the challenge of implementing project-based instruction in an English Language Arts classroom. I know my concern comes from simple inexperience, but I do feel I am going to be challenged in trying to create a project that is rooted in a literary work and simultaneously has "real world" applications. There was one sample project from the module that came very close to what I would like to accomplish. The students in that project learned how the time period in which a novel was written affected the novel's contents. They also created their own fictional characters for that time period. I want, however, to go further than that, to make the students REALLY connect the novel with their own lives. I would also still like to implement some aspects of critical theory into the unit, as well, because I know theory will be very useful in helping students see the different ways that they can look at Of Mice and Men (which is definitely the literary work I'm going to do my unit on). I know my worry here is just me wanting to be as successful as possible, and I have the tendency to worry a lot about projects before I begin them anyway. I'm just not going to pretend like the worry doesn't exist. Ok! Now that's going to be the end of my worrisome rambling!
I'd like to mention a couple of aspects of the module that I really agreed with while reading. The first is the section about how good instructional design includes in-depth coverage of important subject matter instead of superficial coverage of a wider range of topics in a subject area. This is an idea I completely agree with, and I would much rather design units that help students completely understand a few aspects of a subject than units that left the students with very little understanding of the subject in entirety. I also believe that if I deliver a unit successfully enough, my students will have the necessary skills to pursue other aspects of the subject on their own. It's the cliche (but true) feeding a man vs. teaching him how to fish mentality. The other aspect of the module that I really agreed with was the section that included the comment about how the tasks that the students complete need to be purposeful. I would hate to create a project that included tasks without a real purpose; I would feel like I was wasting my students and my own time.
So to sum up what I've discussed in these few paragraphs, this module has made me think about the challenges I'm going to face as an instructional designer, as well as what I want to accomplish as an instructional designer thus far. I want my project-based unit to be successful and really engage my students, and this first module has really helped me understand what standards I am going to hold myself to as I design my unit.
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