Systematic Vocabulary Instruction
The important educational need I am seeking to address with my Wicked Problem Project is how to effectively teach academic (content specific) vocabulary. Educational researchers have concluded that "systematic vocabulary instruction is one of the most important instructional interventions that teachers can use." (Classroom Instruction that Works, Marzano, et al. 2001) For my own students, I have identified 50 technology specific vocabulary words they need to recognize and understand in order to perform proficiently on our 8th grade county-wide technology assessment. Additionally, our Reading School Improvement (SI) Team has identified teaching content specific vocabulary as an across the curriculum goal for our school. I think the strategies I am proposing for using technology to address this problem in my own curricular area will be transferable to other content specific situations and therefore will help in our school's quest for overall improvement.
Our Language Arts Department Head indicates that the way teaching content specific vocabulary is currently handled in our school is that: "1) it is ignored, or 2) students define words and draw a picture to go with the definitions and that’s it." While the second solution is better than ignoring the problem, we feel we can and should do better. I propose using technology to address this educational issue by utilizing Web tools and interactive games that make learning vocabulary fun and interactive for students and offers teachers tools for designing and implementing "a comprehensive approach to teaching academic vocabulary." (Building Academic Vocabulary, Marzano and Pickering, 2005).
The first step in addressing this educational issue for the different curricular areas involves identifying crucial academic vocabulary for subject areas and grade levels. I have done this in regards to technology vocabulary for 8th graders. I've heard that there is an initiative taking place in our county at the ISD level to identify the crucial vocabulary for all core subject areas. This identification would be helpful in getting school-wide or even district-wide participation in implementation of a comprehensive approach to teaching academic vocabulary. In the meantime, I plan to ask two four-person teams of 8th grade teachers to join me in implementing technology infused instructional processes for teaching vocabulary in their subject areas. These teachers represent science, social studies, math, and language arts curricular areas. According to the research, students will benefit in significant and lasting ways from this instruction. In Building Academic Vocabulary, Marzano and Pickering identify a six-step process for teaching new terms:
Steps 2 and 3 of the process require the students to restate in their own words a description, explanation, or example of the term. The method suggested for this step is for students to keep an Academic Vocabulary Notebook where they record the term, it's meaning in their own words, and a picture to represent the term or concept. In the case of my one-computer-per-student classroom, it makes much more sense for them to create an electronic academic vocabulary notebook. I will try using the format shown at the following link (http://www.jonesapr.com/techterms/sample_app_pages/) as a model for students to create their own entries. Students could use Prezi, SlideShare, PowerPoint, or Google Docs for this on-going project.
To engage students periodically in activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms (Step 4), I will have them add to the slide they've created for each term. Options for this additional clarification of the word would be to add a list of synonyms or antonyms, list related vocabulary, add an additional picture or graphic, or create analogies or metaphors with the term. On-line dictionaries and thesauruses would be useful references in this activity. In Step 5, students revisit the terms and discuss them with each other. This could be accomplished with a classroom think-pair-share activity where students pair with a partner to view and discuss each others slides. I also think a threaded discussion would be an effective tool to get students collaborating on the word meanings.
The 6th and last step, involving students periodically in games that allow them to play with the terms is easily and effectively impacted by the use of technology. PowerPoint templates for
Jeopardy, Hollywood Squares, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Wheel of Fortune, Bingo, The $25,000 Pyramid, and Password are available specifically for this purpose at http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab/ppt-vocab.html.
Other games and websites customized with technology (or other academic) vocabulary will give students choice in practicing these concepts. Examples of sites include: http://quizlet.com, www.zooburst.com, www.onelook.com, and http://www.eduplace.com/kids/sv/. The following table organizes the technology suggestions with the steps of the process.
Indicators of a successful project will be:
The closest effort I can find to what I am trying to accomplish with my project can be seen at http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab/TN.html . Schools in Tennessee are taking a state-wide approach to using Marzano’s six-step process for teaching academic vocabulary.
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Thursday, March 24, 2011
Wicked Problem Project Part A - Description of Need or Opportunity
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Group Leadership Project - Part A Brainstorm Session
On Sunday, March 13th Jenni, Heather, Kevin, and I met "on-line" for our group brainstorming session. The web conferencing tool we chose to use for this meeting was tinychat and Kevin set up the online meeting place for the group. Tinychat is a live video communication platform that allows users to communicate via instant messaging, voice, and video chat. The only requirement to use it is to have Macromedia Flash enabled. Kevin recorded the tinychat session then used VisualHub to convert the file so he could upload it to YouTube and share the recording with the group.
In tinychat, we were able to see each other via webcams and Jenni, Kevin, and Heather were able to speak to each other. I was unable to get my newly purchased microphone set to work so I had to participate by listening and contributing via the chat room. This was a little frustrating because I can't type as fast as I can talk, and those who know me know I usually have something to say! Even so, I am satisfied with the direction our brainstorming session went.
We are planning to do a professional development session where we teach educators how to use the online resource Edmodo. Plans for what we will teach educators to do with Edmodo include:
We are using the collaborative feature in Google Docs to work on the script and storyboard for this assignment and plan to meet again online in the same tinychat room to decide who will be narrating the screencast. I forgot to confirm with the group what program we would be using to create our screencast. At this point, I'm assuming we are using Jing but will bring this up at our next online meeting.
In the meantime, I returned my defective mic/headphone set (it had a "short" in a wire) and replaced it with a working one! If anyone asks for my advice on purchasing this piece of equipment, I will recommend they spend the extra money to get a USB connection. The recording of our online meeting can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCLo2WqudCw.
The advantages to using the web conferencing tool tinychat were that we could see and talk to each other as if we were in class together collaborating. Next time, I think our online meeting would be more organized and productive if we had a written agenda at the start of our meeting. This would assure that we were hitting all the assignment requirements like making sure the work was distributed among group members, that we concluded the meeting with a firmer timeline, and that we were clear about what technology we would be using for our final product. Using tinychat as a web conferencing tool was far superior to what I've used previously for group work. Both in CEP 810 and CEP 811 my groups solely used GoogleDocs as our collaborative tool. The problem with GoogleDocs used in this way is that the "typing to talk" gets cumbersome and sometimes confusing. It is slower and more difficult to get clarification about another group members meaning using GoogleDocs. Tinychat gives you almost all of the benefits of face-to-face communication. You can instantly clarify meaning through conversation.
A disadvantage to using the web conferencing tool tinychat is that there were some voice delays and audio cutting in and out which made us miss whole pieces of a conversation. This was improved when the group member relocated to an area closer to his wireless router. Another disadvantage of using tinychat is that one person sets up the account and has to notify others in the group about how and when to get into the chat area. If people are not checking their email that day, they miss the notification of the meeting time and URL. Luckily, I had the cell phone number of the group member who was unaware of the meeting and notified them to check their email. Also, because one person does the whole set-up and the others just "attend" the session, the actual process of setting up, recording, and converting the file is still unknown to me. When it comes to using new technology, I'm definitely fit into the "learn by doing" constructivist learning style.
Group Leadership Project - Part A Brainstorm Session Follow-up Meeting
On 3-30-11, Kevin, Heather, Jenni, and I met again on-line to discuss our Group Leadership Project. We used Tinychat for this meeting, like we did the first time. I used the chat room feature in tinychat to type in an agenda for the meeting before we got started. This was very helpful because it kept our group focused on the specifics of the project that we need to have a plan for. We decided that the technology we will be using to make our screencast is Jing but also agreed to check out alternative programs we could use that are listed at the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screencasting_software. We have a storyboard/script for the project started in Google Docs so we can all collaborate on it. The document can be found at the following link: Script/Storyboard for Group Leadership Project. We have agreed to have contributions to this document completed by April 2nd. We also still agreed that it would be best to have one voice narrating throughout and Jenn volunteered to be our voice. Kevin plans to edit and revise the screencast.
Tinychat again worked well for our meeting. Jenn had the "technical difficulties" this time. We were able to hear her voice, but not see her on video. We had some problems with voices cutting out and some echoing. The recording of this 2nd online meeting can be seen at: http://vimeo.com/21732807.
.
In tinychat, we were able to see each other via webcams and Jenni, Kevin, and Heather were able to speak to each other. I was unable to get my newly purchased microphone set to work so I had to participate by listening and contributing via the chat room. This was a little frustrating because I can't type as fast as I can talk, and those who know me know I usually have something to say! Even so, I am satisfied with the direction our brainstorming session went.
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| Screenshot in Edmodo |
We are planning to do a professional development session where we teach educators how to use the online resource Edmodo. Plans for what we will teach educators to do with Edmodo include:
- Creating a teacher account
- Creating a class group
- Creating student accounts
- Retrieving student information
We are using the collaborative feature in Google Docs to work on the script and storyboard for this assignment and plan to meet again online in the same tinychat room to decide who will be narrating the screencast. I forgot to confirm with the group what program we would be using to create our screencast. At this point, I'm assuming we are using Jing but will bring this up at our next online meeting.
In the meantime, I returned my defective mic/headphone set (it had a "short" in a wire) and replaced it with a working one! If anyone asks for my advice on purchasing this piece of equipment, I will recommend they spend the extra money to get a USB connection. The recording of our online meeting can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCLo2WqudCw.
The advantages to using the web conferencing tool tinychat were that we could see and talk to each other as if we were in class together collaborating. Next time, I think our online meeting would be more organized and productive if we had a written agenda at the start of our meeting. This would assure that we were hitting all the assignment requirements like making sure the work was distributed among group members, that we concluded the meeting with a firmer timeline, and that we were clear about what technology we would be using for our final product. Using tinychat as a web conferencing tool was far superior to what I've used previously for group work. Both in CEP 810 and CEP 811 my groups solely used GoogleDocs as our collaborative tool. The problem with GoogleDocs used in this way is that the "typing to talk" gets cumbersome and sometimes confusing. It is slower and more difficult to get clarification about another group members meaning using GoogleDocs. Tinychat gives you almost all of the benefits of face-to-face communication. You can instantly clarify meaning through conversation.
A disadvantage to using the web conferencing tool tinychat is that there were some voice delays and audio cutting in and out which made us miss whole pieces of a conversation. This was improved when the group member relocated to an area closer to his wireless router. Another disadvantage of using tinychat is that one person sets up the account and has to notify others in the group about how and when to get into the chat area. If people are not checking their email that day, they miss the notification of the meeting time and URL. Luckily, I had the cell phone number of the group member who was unaware of the meeting and notified them to check their email. Also, because one person does the whole set-up and the others just "attend" the session, the actual process of setting up, recording, and converting the file is still unknown to me. When it comes to using new technology, I'm definitely fit into the "learn by doing" constructivist learning style.
Group Leadership Project - Part A Brainstorm Session Follow-up Meeting
On 3-30-11, Kevin, Heather, Jenni, and I met again on-line to discuss our Group Leadership Project. We used Tinychat for this meeting, like we did the first time. I used the chat room feature in tinychat to type in an agenda for the meeting before we got started. This was very helpful because it kept our group focused on the specifics of the project that we need to have a plan for. We decided that the technology we will be using to make our screencast is Jing but also agreed to check out alternative programs we could use that are listed at the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screencasting_software. We have a storyboard/script for the project started in Google Docs so we can all collaborate on it. The document can be found at the following link: Script/Storyboard for Group Leadership Project. We have agreed to have contributions to this document completed by April 2nd. We also still agreed that it would be best to have one voice narrating throughout and Jenn volunteered to be our voice. Kevin plans to edit and revise the screencast.
Tinychat again worked well for our meeting. Jenn had the "technical difficulties" this time. We were able to hear her voice, but not see her on video. We had some problems with voices cutting out and some echoing. The recording of this 2nd online meeting can be seen at: http://vimeo.com/21732807.
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Friday, March 11, 2011
Reflections: CEP 811
The quality of assignments in CEP 811 was exceptional and had a big impact on the amount of growth I feel I achieved in this course. I learned to use Goal Directed Instructional Lesson Plan Design and apply it to my own lesson plan, but I also feel I was experiencing Goal Directed Instructional Lesson Plan Design from the perspective of the learner throughout the duration of the class!
This was my first on-line course and that in itself was another big learning curve for me. I think one of the really wonderful things about an online course is the possibility of interacting with students from distant locations, and that was definitely something I got to experience in this course.
I was also introduced to the MERLOT on-line resource for educators. I was able to publish two of my works on this site and also wrote a critical analysis of classmates work which was published on MERLOT.
I feel the work on application of UDL principles was the most important thing I learned. The UDL checklist is something I will keep utilizing to make sure I am doing a thorough job of optimizing learning for ALL students. I was introduced to some assistive technologies I had not been aware of like free text-to-speech features available online that you could incorporate in your lessons to accommodate students who face challenges interacting with written material.This was my first on-line course and that in itself was another big learning curve for me. I think one of the really wonderful things about an online course is the possibility of interacting with students from distant locations, and that was definitely something I got to experience in this course.
I was also introduced to the MERLOT on-line resource for educators. I was able to publish two of my works on this site and also wrote a critical analysis of classmates work which was published on MERLOT.
In addition to this blog that I created in CEP 810, I now have a classroom website, a coach's website, and a wiki that I want to start using in my day-to-day interactions with students, their parents, and my colleagues. I am enrolled in CEP 812 and look forward to completing MSU's Educational Technology Certificate Program in about 8 weeks. I plan to apply for admission to the Master's Program and continue this journey through the summer and next school year. I would like to take the remaining courses I need to get the State of Michigan Educational Technology Endorsement and then finish the rest of the Master's Program. I have always felt that education opens your eyes to "what you don't know." My eyes are wide open now to many more things I would like to learn and be able to share with my students!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Online Learning in My Classroom
One type of technology I use with my students that qualifies as an online learning experience is a web-based career planning tool. Career Cruising is a program that incorporates interest inventories, career exploration, and portfolio compilation. Using Career Cruising, students create an Educational Development Plan (EDP) and an online portfolio which helps document the career development process they go in our school district from 8th - 12th grade.
Another type of technology that qualifies as an online learning experience I can use with my students is the Blackboard Learning Management System. I have begun to use this software and would say my classes fit into the Web-enhanced category. An online course called Using Technology in Career Exploration is available for my students use. I have been selectively choosing parts of this online course to meet curriculum requirements for my 8th grade and 6th grade students. I find using this online course easiest for delivering content and in some instances to assess student performance. So far, I have not found that monitoring student progress is an easy thing to do in Blackboard.
Using Blackboard and the online course Using Technology in Career Exploration can help me meet curriculum requirements because the course contains an Internet safety oriented Web Quest, rubrics for several assignments, and a threaded discussion board. I evaluated the Web Quest for one of my assignments in CEP 812, identified it's strengths and (most importantly) shortcomings, and made a plan to supplement what is missing. I have not used the threaded discussion feature yet (I guess I just need to take the plunge), but plan to in the future.
Following is a list of content standards these technologies help me teach:
Career Planning Tools - Career CruisingStudents develop an EDP and a career portfolio.METS 6-8 2c-1, 2c-2
Learning Management System - Blackboard
Interactive discussions and use of rubrics for assessment are helpful here.METS 6-8 1b-6, 2a-1, 2b-1, 2b-2, 2c-3, 3a-2, 3a-3, 3b-1, 4a-1, 4b-1
WebQuest - Be Web Wise and Safe On-line
This WebQuest involves online research and collaboration among team members. METS 6-8 2b-1,2c-2, 3a-2,5a-1,2,3,6b-1
- Identifying similarities and differences- In career exploration, students identify how similarities between school subjects and careers.
- Summarizing and note taking - Students do a project that involves online research, summarizing and note taking, and using technology to synthesize this into a presentation.
- Setting objectives and providing feedback- Students set SMART goals for themselves and reflect on whether the process they identified is working to help them achieve these goals.
- Utilizing questions, cues, and advance organizers - Students use advance organizers to organize information about themselves regarding personality traits, likes and dislikes, lifestyle preferences, and hopes and dreams and use this information to analyze career choices.
Technologies I think would be harder to use with students are wikis, educational blogs, and RSS feeds. The reasons I think these technologies would be harder to use are twofold: 1) Our schools filter blocks these technologies and 2) Even though we have learned about these technologies in this certificate program, I still am having a hard time coming up with a "focus" for student use of these technologies! This is one of my goals for the future. I am a "work-in-progress." but at least I am in progress! Dr. Plair's assertion that: "There is some rational thought to the saying – Rome was not built in a day. And nor does an online learning experience have to be built in a day." really gives me hope!
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