single correct answer does little to prepare students for today's world. Our goal should be to
effectively promote highly rigorous and relevant learning in which students have opportunities to tackle challenging problems, the kind they are likely to encounter in life." What they encounter in life is driven by technology, and the curriculum needs to address that fact.
From this week's readings, the time for excuses is over. I need to prepare my students for world, and it needs to start now. After previewing the NETS-T (2008), I've selected three which I believe will be the most beneficial within my classroom.
- 1-c Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes
- 2-c Customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources
- 4-c Promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information
GAME Plan
G-Goal Within a self-contained classroom, I will instruct my students with disabilities how to appropriately interact with and utilize the Internet as a reflective journaling tool. I'm aiming for them to improve their writing and communication skills with a classroom blog. In the beginning, the students could write a sentence or two which should eventually evolve into a well-structured paragraph and then a well-developed essay.
A-Action In order to accomplish this goal, I will create a classroom blog to post discussion questions. The students could post at the end of the class period or as a homework assignment. In addition to their own posts, they will respond to each others comments. In order for this to work effectively, I will need to model appropriate reactions and responses - polite, yet constructive hints.
M-Monitor These are questions I will monitor while the students are participating in the class blogs: When participating in the blogs, are the students' writings, suggestions, and collaborations improving? Are any students struggling with the content and/or technology? How do accommodate students that are technology poor?
E-Evaluate and Extend Are the students applying what they've learned from the blogs across the curriculum? Have their thought processes, organizations, writings improved?
References:
Dagget, W.R. (May 2010). Preparing students for their technological future. International Center for Leadership in Education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/Preparing%20Students%20for%20Tech%20Future%20white%20paper.pdf
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers
Julianna,
ReplyDeleteFrom reading your post what I am getting is you want to increase how your students write. I can relate to a similar problem when it comes to getting students to write. I always dislike the question of "How long does this have to be?"
I think blogging is a great way to get students to write and reflect. With blogs student's have the ability to look back on what they have done with ease and the blog becomes their own personal space. I often encourage my students to take time to make their writing space theirs, by decorating it. The same technique could be done to a blog.
"The nature of a blog is to share personal reflections, opinions, and feelings." (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2008, p.75). I think you have that idea down pat with your idea.
One thing that really stood out to me in your post was the comment of "In the beginning, the students could write a sentence or two which should eventually evolve into a well-structured paragraph and then a well-developed essay." I thought that one sentence wouldn't be much of a challenge. So I went looking for some good challenges for writing in a blog. I found this (and I book marked it seeing how I want to do blogging as well and have students do creative writing). 30 days of creative writing challenge Found (http://mycreativewritingchallenge.tumblr.com/post/16858313832/30-day-creative-writing-challenge). Reading through these I thought they could be adapted for any core class. "Blogs can help students practice and demonstrate different styles of communication, especially through writing." (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2008, p.74). I think this is just a solid goal for you to have.
Resources
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2008). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use [A Standards-Based Approach]. mASON, OH: Cengage Learning. (Original work published 2008)
Courtney,
DeleteThank you for the advice and the website for creative writing. I'm sure it will come in very handy in the future. I teach a group of the 7th grade learning disabled students throughout the day with the 8th graders thrown in here and there. Some of my students don't know the alphabet in its entirety, so writing sentences is a good place for us to start. I'm still trying to teach capitalization and punctuation in May, so I'm hoping utilizing a blog would speed up the process in the future. With my students, I can't assume they know the basics - hence the sentences. BUT I do hope, with the use of blogs, it process is expedited.
Cennamo, Ross,and Ertmer (2009) states "authentic instruction provides for, and builds on, learner autonomy." Blogging is a tool they can use in the "real-world" for personal and professional benefits. Utilizing a blog in the classroom will, hopefully, expand their technological and writing skills.
Reference
Cennamo, K. Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2008). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc. custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Julianna,
ReplyDeleteI love your idea to use a classroom blog to engage students in writing. As a language arts teacher, I think this would be a great idea for my classroom as well. In order to promote self-directed learning, educators and students need to set goals (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). It is clear that you have set goals for your students with your writing blog. Students will develop their writing skills so they can compose a well-structured paragraph and eventually, a well-developed essay.
References
Cennamo, K. Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2008). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc. custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Zachary,
ReplyDeleteAs a language arts teacher, you understand the drudgery writing is for students. I hope using a blog will pique their curiosity and provide the needed motivation to my self-contained students to become self-directed learners (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).
Julianna
Reference
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.