CEP 800 Reflection

Description:

I taught 6^th grade students the names of the planets and ordinal numbers. They previously learned about the verb Estar, so I am integrating it into the lesson as well.  The day before I look pictures of the students so I could “put them” on the planets. The lesson begins by watching a short YouTube video, in Spanish, that is of a dog in a rocket ship and he travels through the universe to the different planets, in order. He gives random information about the planets and I stop the video to ask the students which planet he was at and the ordinal number. We then watch it the whole was through. Then I pass out a worksheet that has each planet and a line for who is on the planet and a line for which planet it is. I have visuals of planets with the students on it. I model sentences using the verb Estar and the ordinal numbers. The students complete the worksheet and write which planet they are on and its ordinal number. To end the lesson, we go over the worksheet and learn a mnemonic device. Originally I was going to have the students create their own video that was similar to the YouTube video that they saw. I decided against this because it would take a lot of time, they already learned names of the planets and the ordinal number very well and I wasn’t going to take time to complete everything.

Narrative:

I taught this lesson to one of the sections of 6^th grade students that I have at the new LTS substitute job I am at. The district starts Spanish in Kindergarten, so much of the students have had Spanish since then.  The lesson went very well and I was able to teach it completely in Spanish.  I asked one of the other Spanish teachers if she could observe me lesson and give me feedback.  The students really enjoyed the video and they weren’t distracted by any of the “fun facts”, but the native speaker did speak fast, so I think they were paying more attention to the information that they knew. The students really enjoyed seeing the pictures of themselves on the planets. Some of the students were getting distracted by this, so I went through and said who was on each planet quickly, in Spanish. I did most of the first planet for the students; modeling the correct sentence structure and having the students repeat me. I asked the students for help for the second planet and they did the rest of the planets on their own. Some pictures have only one student, so I could have them use a different subject pronoun. They also had to write which planet they were on and its ordinal number, so they were able to use multiple subject pronouns.  We went over the worksheet and then I taught the students a mnemonic device, in Spanish, to remember the order of the planets. The mnemonic device was Mi Vecino Educa Muchos Jóvenes Sobre Un Nuevo Planeto. The teacher that observed me really liked the lesson. She liked that I incorporated the video and visuals of the planets and the students. She was impressed that I was able to teach the lesson completely in Spanish. The only criticism that she had was that I could have students come up to the board and write their answers, instead of them telling me their answers while I wrote them on the board. Overall, I think the lesson went very well.  Here are two pictures that I took:

Reflection:

The students learned the names of the planets, in Spanish, how to use Estar with different subject pronouns to describe someone’s physical location and the ordinal numbers. The assumption was that the students remembered the conjugations for the different subject pronouns, which they did, and that they would be able to understand a lesson entirely in Spanish.  The affordance of the information is that it went together very well for this specific lesson. Another affordance was that the content is not difficult, so I could teach the lesson in Spanish. The constraint about this information is that the curriculum is content-based so there are not too many activities that you can do, while incorporating the different grammar and vocabulary concepts of the unit. Another constraint is that they do not have a very extensive vocabulary, so they missed a lot of the information in the video. Learning takes place through modeling and direct instruction. The students were able to receive the presentation, structured practice, guided practice, independent practice and assessment/conclusion.

My lesson was intended to supplement the existing curriculum. Different learners were taken into account because they received input through video, speaking (auditory learners) as well as through the many visuals (visual learners). Students were also working with partners, the class and independently.  In order for the students and the lesson to be successful, the students needed to know the names of the planets in Spanish, the conjugations of Estar and the ordinal numbers, in Spanish. The demands placed on the teacher was to deliver a lesson, in Spanish, at a level that they would understand and I would be able to use circumlocution to get around words that they may not know.  I assessed the students by having them tell me their answers and I wrote them on the board. I also collected the work.

Technology played the role of opening up my lesson. I selected an engaging video, in Spanish, for the students to watch that was age appropriate. The advantages of the technology were that the students were engaged from the beginning, they were excited for the lesson and they enjoyed watching a video, in Spanish, and seeing how much they understood. The disadvantages were that the students did not understand all of the video. The technology helped to show the students what they would be learning as well as grabbed their attention.  The students did not use technology during the lesson because I decided that they were not going to make their own videos. The students were able to watch the YouTube video and connect that video to content of learning the planets. They were also able to understand supplemental information, like Marte es el planeta rojo (Mars is the red planet). 

CEP 800 Lesson Plan

Lesson: Who is on the planets?                                                     Theme: Los planetas

Objectives:             SWBAT recall the names of the planets in Spanish            SWBAT define the ordinal numbers of the planets in Spanish            SWBAT identify which classmate is on the planet using Estar Standards: Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions. Standard 5.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting Standard 5.2: Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment.

Materials/Resources: 1.      writing utensil 2.      youtube video 3.      visual pictures 4.      student pictures 5.      worksheet 6.      windows movie maker

Activities/Procedure. Warm-up: ¿Tienes un planeta favorito? ¿Cuál planeta is tu favorito? I will ask the students what number their favorite planet is. Introduction:  Teacher will tell students that we work more with the planets. The students will watch a video on YouTube about the planets (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUPi8pLb9Dw). The teacher will stop the video to ask the students which planet it is. Providing Input/ Engaging the Learners:  The planet pictures will be on the board. The teacher will ask the students to take their notes out from yesterday. The teacher will say the name of the planet and the students will repeat. After the teacher will ask the students to repeat the order of the planets. For example, “Mercuario es el primer planeta”. Assessment: The teacher will pass out a worksheet. The teacher will have taken pictures of students the day before and will have them printed and on the board. The teacher will put student pictures on the planets. Teacher will ask students who is on what planet and then what planet it is. The teacher and students will do two examples together and the teacher will write the answer on the board. The students will write the responses on the worksheet using the proper form of estar.  The students will do who is on Mercury, Venus, and Earth together. The students will then do the other planets on their own, talking with their groups. The class will then go over the answers. The students will then have to write which planet they are on and its ordinal number. Closure/Conclusion/Summary: The students will identify the names of the planets in Spanish when the teacher points to the planet and says the ordinal number. The students will then repeat the mnemonic device: Mi Vecino Educa Muchos Jóvenes Sobre Un Nuevo Planeto. Assignment/Homework: The students, in groups of 4, will create their own movie with the planets on windows movie maker.  The only things that they need to include are the names of the planets, the verb estar and the ordinal numbers. The students are given total creative control.

Content: ·         The content that I am teaching is the names of the planets, the ordinal numbers and the use of Estar for physical location. ·         The challenging concept in this lesson is the use of Estar and having the conjugation match the subject that is being used. ·         There are no state standards in PA for world language, So I am using these ACTFL Standards: Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions, Standard 5.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting and Standard 5.2: Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment. ·         The essential questions are: What are the names of the planets in Spanish? How does the verb Estar change when conjugated for different subjects? What is the order of the planets? Pedagogy: ·         The pedagogical strategies I am using are modeling and scaffolding. I am using scaffolding because the students already learned the conjugations for Estar in the previous unit.  I am modeling the correct sentences structure with examples because the students are still not experts in sentence structure in Spanish. I am also incorporating pictures of the students and visuals of the planets so they can learn in a meaningful way. Many of my students are visual learners and they also like watching videos and listening to songs, so I included a video. Some of the students do not know the order of the planets in English, so I included a mnemonic device. Content & Pedagogy: ·         I chose these strategies for various reasons. I chose scaffolding because in Spanish, the concepts build upon eachother. Estar is a verb that is used in other verb tenses and is a very common verb in Spanish, so I did not want the students to forget it. I chose modeling because it helps the students who cannot come up with the sentence and sentence structure on their own.  The students are in 6th grade so they need a lot of modeling and structure. Technology: ·         I will be using a YouTube because it has the names of the planets, in Spanish, and it goes in order. The lesson is not impossible to teach without the video, it is just a nice introduction into the lesson. The video has a dog on a rocket ship, traveling to the different planets. I told the students that they will have to say who is on what planet, in order to save their classmates from being stranded. The learning is deepened because they see an actual use for know the names of the planets and they enjoy watching videos. It is another way for the students to see the content being represented. ·         I am also having the students create their own movies on windows movie maker, using the names of the planets, ordinal numbers and the verb estar. The assignment would be impossible without windows movie maker because the students need a means of editing and producing their video. The students will have a deeper understanding of the material if they create their own videos. Technology & Pedagogy: ·         The YouTube fits into my pedagogical strategies and theories because the students are able to hear the pronunciation of the planet and they are able to hear “fun facts”, in Spanish, about the planets. The pronunciation is modeled for the students by a native speaker and they already learned the names of the planets. The students who are visual learners are engaged by watching it and the auditory learners are engaging by hearing the video. ·         The student-created video fits into my pedagogical strategies because the students are able to create their own videos and they have the ultimate creative control.  They are able to use all the tools that they learned to create the video. They have a model video and models for sentence structure through the worksheet activity, but they can use whatever means to meet the requirements of the videos. Technology & Content: ·         The technology of the window movie maker helps the students to address the essential questions. What are the names of the planets in Spanish? How does the verb Estar change when conjugated for different subjects? What is the order of the planets? The names of the planets in Spanish will be learned because most students will use visuals. Many of the students will give put the planets in order in their video, using the ordinal numbers.  The students will be able to use the verb Estar in multiple conjugations by changing the subjects. They can talk about themselves, themselves as a group and different people or things that are on the planets. Assessment:  ·         I want the students to know the ordinal numbers, the names of the planets and the conjugations for the verb Estar. I will assess their learning through the formative assessment of the worksheet and the summative assessment of the student-created video.  Technology plays a large role in the summative assessment of the videos because the students need to be able to edit and produce their videos. The students will change their minds and/or make mistakes that they will have to edit out. They will probably ad special effects and transitions. The technology plays the role of the means for delivering their knowledge in a meaningful way.

800 Digital Story

My digital story:

CEP 800 Audio Production

Here is my podcast for the audio production assignment:

https://www.msu.edu/~slifersa/audioproduction.mp3

Wicked Problem Project Final

Here is the link to my Presentation!: wicked_problem_project

As a world language teacher, many teachers face the problem of the most important component of language acquisition also being the weakest for their students. This component that I am talking about is speaking. In research from Georgia State University, 2/3 of students thought that speaking was the most important component of language acquisition, but only ½ felt comfortable to do so. The problem that teachers face is that students are not comfortable speaking in the target language with an authentic accent in front of their classmates.  Students cannot become fluent the language unless they are proficient at all components of language acquisition: speaking, reading writing and listening. The other problem is that the teacher does not have enough time in a 40 minute class period to individually ask each student to have a meaningful conversation that can be graded.

In order to solve this problem and maximize instruction time as well as increase oral proficiency, I have researched tools and found tools that allow teachers to create web-based assignments as well as submissions that students can make in the comfort of their own home. These tools allows for teachers to re-create conversation as well as give students an opportunity to speak more in the target language since many students only speak in the target language during class time. 

In order to implement this plan, I created a wikispace that served as a resource for teachers. I was able to share my wikispace with friends who went to school to become a language teacher as well as current world language teachers. On my wikispace, I identified the 7 resources that I used : Voicethread, Audio Dropbox, Conversations, Lingt Language, Vocaroo, Voki and Blabberize. I was able to create separate pages for each tool. I gave the teachers a brief description about the resource, how it could be used effectively in the world language classroom, provided an example of the tool being used as well as a start-up sheet on how to use the resource.  

I created a survey on survey monkey to infer about the success of my project. I asked teachers to answer questions about language acquisition, the resources that I shared with them and the components of my wikispace. All the teachers strongly agreed that the tools would make the students more comfortable speaking, which was one of the main goals of my project.

In regards to the TPACK model, I believe that the interaction of technology, pedagogy and content makes the solution to my problem promising because the technology is enhancing the content as well as creating a safe environment for students to be successful in. Students will better succeed in an environment that allows for them to feel safe to express themselves and think openly.  In relation to technology and pedagogy, the resources allow teachers to create authentic and meaningful speaking situations for the students that allow for personalized responses. In regards to the technology and pedagogy in my implementation, I was able to model for the teachers how to effectively create an assignment for students using the technology.  In relation to technology and content, the tools allow for the resources to increase the rigor by having students speak outside of the classroom, giving them a deeper understanding of the content. In regards to the teachers, the content becomes more accessible and the teachers can better understand more about selecting the proper technology for each goal by reading about the resource and viewing the start-up sheet.  In regards to pedagogy and content, students have multiple ways and tools to represent their knowledge and teachers have multiple meanings to give a speaking assignment. Through the tools students can take part in a simulated conversation with the teacher, create an avatar or photo that speaks using the students’ voices, submit an online assignment that uses oral responses or submit a recording of themselves. Teachers are able to select the resource that they would like to use based on the goals that they have.

If I were to complete this project again under the same circumstances, I would have asked the teachers to complete a Google doc as well. I would want the teachers to be able to give me opinions about each resource as well as ideas for how they would use it in their classrooms. I would also want to have the project be extended longer so that I could ask teachers to implement it into their lesson plans and help them to do so effectively. Overall, I think that my wikispace is a worthwhile resource to look into. The tools that I have found allow for teachers to grade each student on their oral proficiency, increase oral proficiency, create a safe environment for students to speak in, allow teachers and students to reflect on their oral progress, extend language use beyond the school setting and provide opportunity for personalization. The start-up sheets are a convenient resource that allow for all teachers to learn how to use each tool. In regards to what this project did for me for me, the wikispace helped to build a foundation of resources that I can share with my colleagues at my new long term sub job.

Professional Learning Plan

I took 810 earlier in the semester along with 811. My major goals of my personal growth plan were to: implement technology 3 times a week in my future classroom, learn more about cutting-edge strategies such as flipping the classroom, learning more about web 2.0 tools and share these tools via blogging or a website. 

I was not able to meet the goal of implementing technology 3 times a week because I still do not have a teaching job. I have a few interviews next week for long-term sub positions, so hopefully something can come of that. I am also applying to an area high school to be a technology integration specialist! I have learning more about flipping the classroom through my group leadership project and web 2.0 tools through my SIG project from 810 and my WPP from 812.  I have been able to blog a lot in 812 and I also created a website resource for 812. I have also been updating my online portfolio from 811.

Here is the link to my Prezi: My Professional Learning Plan 

Professional Learning Plan on Prezi

Group Leadership Project

Our group's specialty was flipping the classroom. We used the resource WatchKnowLearn.org as the resource that we would create our professional development tutorial. To create our tutorial, we used the resource Adobe Presenter. We used this resource because it allowed us to easily add voice narration over a pre-existing powerpoint. It is very user-friendly for the creator and those who are watching the presentation.

Through working on this project I learned about two new technology tools. I learned about Adobe Presenter as well as Popplet. Popplet is a great mind-mapping tool and it is something that I would use with students. It allows users to easily organize and color coordinate different popples as well as connect the popples. It reminds me of Prezi, except you are able to see everything at once. We used Google Docs to create our script and this was an easy tool to use to collaborate and share the script.

Overall, the project was great for learning and I think that our presentation came together really well. My group worked so well today, it was such a pleasure to work with Heidi and Jamin. We were able to meet all of our deadlines, meet online and communicate effectively. In regards to the presentation  Heidi did all of the editing and she was the leader in organizing everything and giving our individual deadlines. I created the powerpoint presentation and Jamin put it into Adobe Presenter and did the voice narration as well as the final production. Working with Heidi and Jamin gave me the feel of the Personal Learning Community that I am missing by not having a teaching job. We were so supportive and helpful to each other, it was fantastic!

During the project, I learned more about working with a group. This was the first time that I worked with classmates, that I had never met face-to-face in real life, online and that were not in my content area. We were all at different points in our teaching careers, but we were all able to make it work. I learned that it was very important to have an overall idea of what we would like to accomplish as a group in a reasonable time frame. It really helped by having a group timeline so that we could give each other enough time to complete our parts. I also learned that it is important to keep in close contact via text, email and google hangout. We texted Heidi and Jamin almost daily and I would talk to Jamin on the phone a lot. I have never met my group members but I had to trust them and support them to effectively and collaboratively meet our goals.

If I had to do a similar project again, I would not change much if I were working with the same people because we worked so well together. By having the timeline, it really pushed me not to procrastinate because I had to finish my part so my group members could finish theirs. I would like the project to not be as long because I felt as though it was longer that it needed to be, but I am only in 812 during this session and I do not have a teaching job. I felt that Part A and Part B and all the work leading up to the final presentation was very spread out and then the presentation creation was not as long. Aside from that, I do not have any complaints about the project. We were able to learn about a great resource, WatchKnowLearn, that is in an area of Educational Technology that interests us. It was a great project!


Here is the link to our presentation, using adobe presenter: Group 4 Project