Phase III: Reflection Experience (Emily)

I read over Phase I and Phase II I realized that for some reason, we skipped a lot of the activities.

I did not go into teacher mode, but rather I explained the assignment.
When planning the assignment, I would have liked to be more involved with the lesson plan. My partner and I took parts of the lesson planning/evaluation and molded it to fit the other's input, but I wish I had been more involved in the planning and writing of the assignment.

I thought that our assessments for self evaluation and the students presenting on their own PowerPoint to be helpful, and I personally did not like the rubric. I find rubrics to be too much of a “put the student in a box” mentality. If I use a rubric in the future, I will be sure to personalize it as much as possible. I would have liked my assessment to be done based on my own grading and my own understanding of each individual students. Next time I will use assessments that better fit the individual students instead.

Next time, I will also need to be more involved and be more present for my students. I will walk around the classroom, and really get involved with my students. I think the lesson plan was great, and the assessments were wonderful. I just should have been more involved with my students and should have been more interactive in my teaching. Overall, I felt the lesson plan was beneficial to students.

I want to make the best of technology use in my classroom, and I will be sure to make investing in technology a priority. I want my students to be as well trained in the area of technology. I will use it as much as I possibly can in my classroom, and I will train my students to the best of the availability of technology.

-Emily

Phase II- Assessment of Learning (Emily)

Describe the evidence you have that indicates your students' level of success in achieving the lessons goals:

After the lesson plan was taught, the evidence that we have that indicates the students’ success level in achieving the goals are from the following:

Observation: By watching the students' conduct within the group and their productivity level, we determined whether or not they were demonstrating effective group behaviors that were beneficial to the learning process and productivity of the group.

Smiley Face Observation: By analyzing the individual evaluations from individual students and their classmates and by adding our own observations, we can determine how well certain individuals worked with others. We are then able to keep that in mind, and consider it when choosing group members next time there is group work.

PowerPoint: The Rubric, the PowerPoint, and the information that is within the PowerPoint will determine and show us whether or not the students followed the directions correctly and thoroughly.

All of these combined will be used to determine how well the students were at achieving the lesson’s goals.

Describe the evidence you have that indicates the level of success you had in teaching the lesson:

The PowerPoint and the Rubric will play a large role in determining the success rate of our lesson plan. If a larger percentage of students did not do well, then it will be helpful for us to really reflect and review the lesson plan to determine what when wrong.

Another assessment is how the students graded us. By reviewing their insight and experiences while being taught, it is helpful to show us where we went wrong and how to improve it in the future.

-Emily

Phase III - Reflection of Experience - Lauren

After rereading both Phase I and Phase II items a lot of realizations came to me. When doing the actual simulation I noticed that I forgot to actually do a lot of the activities for the pre-assessment such as the K-W-L chart and the habitat slides. I realized that I needed to cover this better and I will make that change when doing the lesson again.

I also felt that I was in NAU student mode as pointed out by a few of my classmates. I did not teach the lesson so much as present it and have them do a small portion of the activity. I would change this if I were to do the assignment again and actually teach the material rather than breeze over it because I know that college students already know animal adaptations and where to find certain animals.

When planning the assessment I focused very heavily on the use of a rubric and the concept of self evaluation. One change that I would make is that I would pass out a hard copy of the rubric to all students in the class so that they were aware of what they were being graded on. I would also hand out a copy of the self evaluation form so that they knew what to look for when grading themselves.

A modification that I needed to make that I did not was that I needed to demonstrate how to pull up Powerpoint and a brief example of how to insert pictures, text, and modify a slide for the students that were not already familiar with the program. I also needed to walk around the classroom during the activity so that students could ask for help, or even those that were too shy to ask for help. I would be able to monitor their progress better and get better informal assessments.


I felt that the lesson itself was solid but the actual teaching of it is what required modification. Adding modifications of walking around the classroom (which should be done anyway) and demonstrating what is expected or how to do the activity will help students that are ESL, Special Needs, and At Risk. I also wanted to add the Ease of Access options to the lesson plan under Special Needs.

In my future teaching I think that these modifications, such as the Ease of Access, will be very important. I will be able to modify lessons for students without requiring them to use special education teachers. This way those students are not removed from the classroom and able to partake in normal activities despite any disabilities that they have.

I also realized how important technology is in our classroom and how important it is to stay on top of it. I would have never known that there were technology requirements in the Arizona State Standards or that 3rd graders are responsible for knowing how to make a Powerpoint presentation or multimedia presentation. Now I know that I can incorporate technology into my lessons and it is actually interdisciplinary because it is teaching more than one standard at the same time. It is very useful for teachers since they get very little time to do any actual teaching. It saves time and increases student learning and productivity.

Phase II - Instructional Decisions/ Teaching

For this lesson we had several modifications written into the original lesson plan that handled students with disabilities, ESL students, special education students, and gifted students. Our modifications were:

 

I found out that there are other modifications I could have used to help my students with special needs. It turns out that the screen magnifier mentioned is old technology. Windows 7 and even Windows Vista has a program that is about ease of access. It makes changes for the individual needs of the user. It can slow down the mouse and make it easier for students with mobility issues to use. It also has a built in screen magnifier and contrast controller. I think I would like to add this technology to the revised lesson plan. 

Old Technology

 

New Technology

During the actual lesson I did notice that it appealed to students by giving them choice. This modified the lesson for different types of learners. It worked well with visual/spatial learners, logical/mathematical, and even verbal/linguistic and interpersonal learners. It could also appeal to naturalist learners because they are learning about nature. This lesson hit five of the eight multiple intelligences in Gardner's theory. During the lesson itself it gave students a lot of freedom to express themselves through their powerpoints. One such instance came in Sarah and John's group. They chose the Rhino and explained its adaptations such as poor eyesight and then compared it to John's poor eyesight claiming that John and a Rhino were very similar. This gave the students a way to become more interested in the material and make outside connections. 

I also noticed that during the lesson I did make a modification for one group of students. While the rest of the class had finished their powerpoints this particular group was still working. In order to let them finish I started on the other side of the room and allowed them more time. When I did come back to that group I noticed that they were finished and that their presentation followed all of the criteria presented. The extra time modification was successful in keeping them on task and able to accomplish the goal.

Phase I - Designing Instruction (Emily)

Discuss how your instructional design is contextually and logically organized:
The instructional design for our lesson plan is contextually and logically organized because

• It starts off the lesson with an overview of the content that is involved within the lesson plan.
  
• It discusses the reasons for the lesson plan, the objectives that will be met, key vocabulary, and other information that is helpful for somebody to understand the purpose and flow of the lesson plan.
  
• The lesson plan communicates that it is prepared to accommodate those students who may not be able to meet its standards without some form of help (AD/HD Students, ESL students, Blind students).

• It is then presented in chronological order that the activities will be done:

1. What will need to be taught before technology can be used in the lesson (animals, environments, adaptation, meanings of the vocab words).
2. What will be done during the use of technology, and what will be expected of the students during this time (research, PowerPoint, behavior expectations, etc).
3. What the expected outcomes of the lesson will be (information present in the PowerPoint, the presentation of PowerPoint) and how they will be assessed (Rubric, Self Evaluation).

This is logically organized because it first addresses the knowledge that will need to/should be known before, during, and after the lesson. It helps us to identify where in the lesson we are teaching about technology, allowing our students to use technology, and discussing what we discovered while using technology.

The different/various methods that the lesson plan uses to vary instructional methods that meet individual student needs and target higher order thinking skills are:

Varied Instructional Methods/Individual Needs:
Differentiated Instruction:

Modifications for English language learners: Modifications for English Language Learners include the use of pictures and various sheltered instruction techniques such as working in groups and gesturing.
Modifications for special education: For students that are visually impaired a screen magnifier that goes over the computer screen will be available. For students that are AD/HD they are already placed in groups and will be assigned specific tasks to complete in order to help keep them on track. For students that are deaf reading materials will be available. For the presentations an interpreter that uses sign language can be supplied through the special education department.
Modifications for gifted students: Gifted students are encouraged to go above and beyond the minimum requirements of the project. Higher Order Thinking Questions are also used for these students, and other students, to help them think critically about the topic and more in depth.
Modifications for at-risk students: Students that are at-risk have the opportunity to work in groups which can give support for them to complete assignments and feel more comfortable.

Higher Order Thinking Skills:

A few of the higher order thinking skills that are involved in this assignment are:

Asking students to find a specific website, search the website and find an animal, an adaptation for that animal, and how that adaptation helps the animal survive in its environment.

Asking students to use their prior knowledge of PowerPoint, their knowledge about animals, and their knowledge about their environments/adaptations to create a PowerPoint with the following criteria:

• A title page with the name of the habitat, animal, and the name of the groups members

• A picture of the animal in its habitat

• 1 fact about the habitat and 1 adaptation the animal has developed in order to survive in its habitat

-Emily

Phase I: Plans Instruction (Emily)

Discuss how your goals, objectives, and outcomes are clearly stated and are appropriate for students:

The lesson plan objectives are stated in the lesson plan and PowerPoint as followed:

Lesson Objectives:

1. The students will explore facts about animals in different habitats and the adaptations that help them to survive.
2. The students will work in collaborative groups in order to research an animal.
3. The students will create a Power point presentation with their research.

Using words and terms that have been discussed beforehand, the lesson plan's goals, objectives, and outcomes have been written so that 3rd grade students reading them will understand them. Students will also be able to understand what will be involved with the lesson and what will be expected of them as students.

Discuss how your goals, objectives, and outcomes are aligned to state standards:
The goals, objectives, and outcomes are aligned to the state standards because they were developed from the following standards found in the Arizona State Standards for 3rd grade science and 3rd grade technology:

Science:
S03-S4C4-PO1 - Identify adaptations of plants and animals that allow them to live in specific environments.

For the science standards, we developed a lesson plan in which students are asked to choose an animal to research and to find the specific adaptations that their animal has developed to help them survive in a specific environment.

Technology:
ET03-S2C2-PO1 -Contribute to a cooperative learning project and demonstrate effective group behaviors while using digital collaborative resources.

ET03-S6C2-PO 5: Plan, create, and edit multimedia presentation.

For these technology standards, we have taken the science standard's objective and have incorporated it into a cooperative learning group in which students are using a computer to research their information about animals and adaptations. In order for the groups to be successful, they must demonstrate groups behaviors that are productive for group work. The students are then asked to create a PowerPoint to present their multimedia presentation to the rest of their classmates.

These objectives, goals, and standards are appropriate for the 3rd graders because the state of Arizona expects them to be able to perform and learn these standards. Nothing has been asked that is too advanced for the students, and all expectations are within the Arizona State Standard's guidelines.

-Emily

Phase I - Planning Assessment

At the end of the lesson is a summative assessment. In this lesson plan our summative assessment is a mix of a performance assessment with the use of a rubric and a student's self evaluation. With the use of the rubric the overall presentation that the students, in their groups, will present is being graded. They will not be graded individually except through their self evaluation forms. This group presentation is not graded on speaking ability but rather their ability to follow the prompt and present their ideas. The rubric that will be used can be found here.


The self evaluation is a chance for the students to reflect on their own ability to participate in a group. It allows them to reflect on what they did well and what they might need improvement on. A space at the bottom will be added so that students can add comments about the project. This can range from Person A did not do any of the work to I felt I did a good job as the leader to I really liked learning about sharks. The self evaluation form looks like this.

An informal assessment will be used to gauge student's ability to use higher order thinking skills by having a class discussion on higher order thinking skill questions. These questions will be available on the board or overhead projector while the students are doing their projects so that they have direction and a chance to think about their answers.