Week 7: 3/23/2021
Lesson Plan Overview
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The lesson plan is our most difficult assignment. It requires all the skills we've practiced so far to work in unison. As such, we start with a "big picture" view of the lesson plan assignment. This week, we'll overview the lesson plan assignment and look at how assistive technology can be used to differentiate material for students.
The materials to the right are the information you need to know before starting to write your lesson plan. The first is a list of considerations to take before planning. It has been compiled over years based on the strengths and weaknesses of your predecessor's lessons. The second material is the EdTPA lesson plan format that we'll use for our lesson plan project. |
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Jamboard Lesson Plan Alignment
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Last semester, a staggering number of students literally wrote "my lesson plan does not address any learning standards," instead of creating a standards-based lesson. Just check out our rubric, and make a tally of how many score points you CANNOT score without learning standards. For that matter, a staggering number of students left notes in one of the other nine boxes the EdTPA asks you to submit indicating that their lesson just didn't meet the requirements. Spoiler alert: literally writing down that you didn't do the assignment doesn't score additional points for confidence. Furthermore, you'll be laughed out of an interview, or removed from a job you land as a non-tenured teacher when you write, "I'm not interested in learning standards, they like, feel like they get in the way, so I didn't use them, and I made up this lesson because I feel like it's important." I'm not kidding, about the job, or the assignment. Lesson plan alignment between standards, Central Focus, Essential Strategies, Instructional Activities, and Assessment is called teaching. You need them all to fit.
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Lesson Plan and Commentary Explanations [Independent Work]
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Students last semester massively messed up the quality of writing on their lesson plans and commentary. I'm not sure if it was the distance learning format, or apathy come late semester, or misunderstanding, but I want to make sure that no group of students ever makes the same mistakes. Watch both these videos, and answer on Google Classroom: What do you need to do to succeed on your lesson plan and commentary?
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Lesson Plan and Commentary Template
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Lesson Plan Recommendations |
Commentary Recommendations |
Break!
Close Read Tools
We're going to do a close read of 100% lesson plans and commentaries. We'll use a variety of the close read strategies that I use with my 8th graders, and discuss how each can be used with different grade levels and subject areas. Will you be graded? Kinda, but on participation. Give each method an attempt. As long as you're in the ball park, you've landed the 5/5 for this activity.
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Our final activity today will involve discussing with a partner or group (if you choose to work with someone) and share a brief overview of your ideas for a lesson plan with me through Padlet.
At the very least, share:
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Homework
Due at 3:59 (before class starts) on 3/30/2021
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Today's homework assignment is to continue working on your Technology Reflection project by adding two slides: one for Peardeck and one for Nearpod. In a post-pandemic, distance learning classroom, traditionally walking around the room and observing to check if students are on task is no longer a possibility, and these two technologies are hitting their stride.
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These images aren't linked because both are Chrome add-ons and links would not work without having downloaded the add-on.
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Watch four digital field trip presentations of your choosing. Afterwards, record a Flipgrid response including the following:
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Week 8: 3/30/2021
A Survey of Lesson Plan Software
Choosing the right software, and finding the most efficient way to share that software with your students, is the crux of the difference between classrooms that use technology to revolutionize instruction, and classrooms that refuse technology because it "never works." Today, we'll examine some software we haven't looked at before that could be useful to creating a technology lesson plan, and we'll create our very own Google Classrooms as a means by which to share that software with our students.
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Midterm Assessment Results
The best way you have, as a teacher, to show students you care about their input, is to care about their input. To genuinely value it. To ask for it, to share it, and to reflect, and share your reflections to make meaningful, noticeable change in your practice to reflect student needs.
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Inquiry-Based Research and Webquests
Inquiry-based research is the most powerful technology tool at the aspiring educator's disposal. It is infinitely differentiate-able. It is infinitely scalable. It harnesses all the power of the internet without the limitations of infinite prep work. We'll look at two forms of inquiry-based learning today: research, and web-quests (web-quests being a supported form of research.)
Overview of IBR and WebQuestsWe'll begin today's class with a look at answering BASICALLY what inquiry-based research entails in a school setting. It is a great passion of mine, but there are definitely some advantages and disadvantages to consider before employing an inquiry-based lesson or unit in a classroom.
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Next up, mind mapping some inquiry-based research quotes. Instead of spending hours reading two incredibly dense articles, we'll read a series of quote and organize them into a mind map, thereby creating schema, and increasing the likelihood we'll remember them, Depending on the status of our COVID safety, we might explore Google's JamBoard software to augment our mind maps.
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Break!
"Touching Tables" Survey of Software:
After break today, we'll do a quick look (about 15 minutes each) for three useful technology software listed below. No formal work will be attached to our in-class time, but efficient students might use class time to start creating the Slides you know you'll need to add to your Technology Reflection!
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Quizlet is a software that helps students to study and learn vocabulary. There are some cool, competitive features, flashcards, and other questioning options. It is very popular in schools with both teachers and students alike. Quizlet Live even allows students to compete against each other from the safety of their own homes.
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Wait... I don't have any kids' books in my apartment. All bookstores are closed! Even if I bought kids' books on Amazon, how do I share them with kids, even if I get the digital version? Is copyright infringement my only option for sharing meaningful text with elementary and early middle school kids?
Copyright infringement isn't the only option. All the cool kids use Epic for elementary and early middle school students. |
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Padlet is a simple software whose applications are limited only by your creativity. Students can post writing, images, links, etc, and it allows collaboration between multiple people, even under the constraints of distance learning. While good for simple CFU's and planning, Padlet would not be ideal for an important, final assessment.
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Homework
Due at 3:59 (before class starts) on 4/6/2021
Today's homework assignment is to continue working on your Technology Reflection project by adding three slides: one each for Quizlet, Epic, and Padlet. In terms of your future lesson planning, Epic would provide texts your students could read, Quizlet would offer a chance for them to practice and demonstrate comprehension, and then Padlet would serve as a ticket out the door.
Week 9: 4/6/2021
EdPuzzle! Independent Engagement through Youtube:
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Today's software is called EdPuzzle. It's a favorite for sub plans, but in the current era of distance learning, it's becoming progressively more ubiquitous. EdPuzzle allows you to embed questions within a video. Basically, students put on headphones and watch a video on their own, individual computer, and at certain, designated points, the video stops and students are prompted to answer one of a variety of questions. It's a great way to "chunk" a video and also an effective way to build in accountability.
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Sharing Option 1:
Traditional Hyperlink If you're old school, or your school uses Microsoft Teams instead of the far superior Google Classroom, you can share your EdPuzzle video with a traditional hyperlink. As with all hyperlinks, the educational technology professional does not simply paste a long-form link into the text of an email or website, but instead she attaches the link to text (as I did above) or to an image, (as I did to the right.)
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Sharing Option 2:
Assign Through Google Classroom If you're Googly, as we should all aspire to be, EdPuzzle allows you to upload your Google Classroom class into it's software, and the two work in beautiful harmony, as all educational technology should. I recommend consistent grading throughout - if your grades always live in Google Classroom, don't have an additional gradebook in EdPuzzle itself.
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If there is one move that makes you look like the technology master, it is embedded features on a well-designed website. It's something most educators don't have, and cannot do. Websites require no usernames or passwords. Websites are available across Mac and PC platforms, they're compatible with smartphones, and accessible anywhere in the world with internet (which these days, means pretty much anywhere in the world.)
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Spend 10-15 minutes clicking around and playing with EdPuzzle, then be prepared to discuss!
Break!
Lesson Plan Writers Workshop
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The quality of the writing on the lesson plan itself is immensely important for the score students receive on the plan. Tragically, in the last three years, the quality of the writing is exactly the location that has been the most wanting. Students think that they can come into class and "rip it" for a fifteen-minute lesson, and then just sit back and collect an A. This could not be farther from the truth. For the first time that I've taught this course, we'll run a traditional "writers workshop" to refine the quality of students writing itself before continuing on to "rip it" for the lessons themselves next week. We will spend the entirety of today's lesson working in our groups to produce fantastically-written lesson plans, create fantastically-designed digital tools, and write thoughtful and well-crafted commentaries.
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Week 10: 4/13/2021
Lesson Plan Presentations
Today's lesson is devoted to presenting, and watching our classmates' lesson plan presentations. While you need to be prepared to present your lesson plan during our class, you will not need to turn in all the materials to Google Classroom until midnight after class (in case something goes horribly wrong during your lesson.)
Click the image above to sign up for a slot to teach your lesson plan.
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Click the link above (or just look at the picture if you have good eyes, and a big screen) to see what time you'll be presenting!
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Don't forget, we're using GOOGLE MEETS this week! Watch the video above if you can't get in.
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Homework
Complete your written lesson plan and commentary before class starts on 4/20/2021.