Posts
Monitoring
My GAME Plan
Being an
effective teacher means monitoring and evaluating our lessons and units of
instruction to make adaptations to ensure student success. We also try to teach
our students these strategies so they can become self-sufficient learners as
they continue on in their educational careers. We can also employ these
strategies when setting our own goals in our personal and professional lives.
This week, I have continued to monitor and evaluate my GAME plan to see what
adjustments need to be made to make sure goals are achieved.
Let us
revisit the goals that were established in Week 2 of this course and dig a
little deeper to see what has been accomplished thus far.
Goal #1:
To
utilize technology to track student progress on summative assessments to help
students pinpoint areas of mastery and improvement.
NETS-T #1
2d. Provide students with multiple and varied
formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology
standards, and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.
Finding Information/Resources Needed:
At this point, Google accounts have been created for all new
and returning students so they can track their progress on paragraph
assignments. The spreadsheet that I have created has also been shared with
students so they can monitor their progress. Thus far, students have not
entered any data because they are currently working on a paragraph writing unit
and have yet to complete an assignment.
Changes/Modifications:
While this goal is centered around using technology to track
progress, I have always found it is best practice to have a back-up plan. You
never know when servers will be down or access to technology will be limited,
so I would print out a copy of the spreadsheet for each student to keep in
their writing folders.
What I have learned:
One of the aspects of this goal that I wanted to explore was
to see if there was a better online tool, such as a gradebook or other tracking
software that I could utilize to track progress rather than a Google Docs
spreadsheet. After much exploration and reflection, I determined it was best to
use the Google Docs account for several reasons. First, students use it for all
school related projects, so they are familiar with the tools and applications.
Second, all of our students already have Google Docs accounts so rather than
adding another username and password (and website) for them to remember, I am
going to stick with what works. Last, I wanted to explore the option of having
parents access this spreadsheet. While parents do not have their own Google
Docs account through our district, students can access their school accounts at
home and share information with parents. The spreadsheets can also be printed
out and shared with parents at conferences or IEP meetings.
New Questions:
After reviewing my plan, a
new question I have is should I add information to the spreadsheet to address
essay criteria? For now, the spreadsheet is set up to log progress on paragraph
writing, which is an IEP goal for all of my students. We complete a paragraph
writing activity at least once a month, so feedback and data would occur more
often than essay feedback. (We complete 5 essays in a school year.) Further
discussion with colleagues needs to occur to determine how to best address
this.
Goal #2:
To model
appropriate use of citing references on the Internet, and hold students
accountable for using text, graphics, videos, and other media from the Internet
by adding a “Citing References” section to their assignment rubrics.
NETS-T #2
4a. Advocate, model, and teach safe,
legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect
for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of
sources.
Finding Information/Resources Needed:
In week 2’s blog, Thomas Rozborski gave a suggestion for a
lesson plan to use to teach students how to cite references (Mandy Derfler’s
Blog, 2014). The ReadWriteThink.org lesson (n.d.) would be a great lesson to
start the year to stress the importance of citing references. It would address
one of the actions I outlined in my original GAME Plan to create a lesson that
teachers students how to cite references.
Changes/Modifications:
One of the first things I did to stress the importance of
citing references is model the behavior in my own work. When I return to
teaching, my first unit will be on writing an argumentative essay. I have
already created two presentations for the unit through the Nearpod application
and a Think Aloud activity. I went back and included citations for all images
that I included in the presentations. In the past, my students would just take
images from the Internet and not provide a link to that image, so I feel that
is a very important adjustment to make.
What I have learned:
So far I have obtained five different rubrics that contain
information about citing references when conducting research papers and using
graphics/images from the Internet.
New Questions:
Now that I have a few rubrics to review, I need to
synthesize the information to create a new category on our class rubrics. A new
question I have from this information is should I make a separate category for
citing text references and one for image references? Again, I will need to
consult my special education colleagues as well as my school librarian for
guidance.
So far I
believe my GAME plan is making progress in the right direction even though I am
not in the school environment on a daily basis to make more of an impact.
Suggestions are welcome!
References
International Society for Technology in
Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T).
Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers
Mandy Derfler’s
Blog. (2014, September 8). EDUC 6713 – My personal game plan. Retrieved from http://mandyderfler4.blogspot.com/2014/09/educ-6713-my-personal-game-plan.html.
ReadWriteThink.org. (n.d.). Exploring
plagiarism, copyright, and paraphrasing. Retrieved from http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/exploring-plagiarism-copyright-paraphrasing-1062.html?tab=4#tabs
Image References
Image 1 - Binoculars: http://contentd.fundsforngos.org/wp-content/uploads/monitoring-for-ngos.jpg
Image 2 - Plan A/B: http://thumbs.gograph.com/gg61818216.jpg
Image 3 - Rubric: http://vsmarinebioproject.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/8/1/11817317/27934_orig.jpg
Mandy
ReplyDeleteHaving a back-up plan is smart! As you stated you never know when the servers will go down or maybe the technology just isn’t working like you need it to. Even though it may be time consuming it will pay off in the long run. You are making great progress on your GAME Plan. As a self-directed learner you have set your goals, taken action and then reflected on how to best integrate technology and its tools in your classroom. The collaboration with your colleagues in order to provide meaningful learning experiences for your students will help them to expand their horizons and professional growth. This reflective and collaborative process will help you to decide if your GAME Plan matches what the students are actually doing and learning.
Karen
Karen,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback. Yes, back-up plans are essential, especially when incorporating technology. I have had lessons planned and then something happens with the iPad or computer, and I have actually spent an entire class period trying to correct the problem. It was a complete waste of time. When you deal with something like that, you learn to be prepared for anything.
Mandy
Mandy,
ReplyDeleteYou have worked very hard on your GAME plan. Awesome Job! Citing is very important for students to learn and apply to their research papers, research projects, and media projects. My experience with citing is students forget or ignore doing it, even when it is part of the grading rubric. They prefer to get the points taken off. I am thinking of borrowing your idea of using a rubric specifically for citing. I could take use this as a separate grade.
I have not used Google Docs, but I have been hearing of many teachers within our Walden program and in my district who apply it in their classroom. I use Edmodo but thinking of changing due to all the technical difficulties I have encountered. I agree that Google Docs is the best online tool to share and organize students' work and grades.
I have enjoyed your blog because you have some great ideas I can apply in my classroom as well.
Yvette
Mandy:
ReplyDeleteYour question asking if you should add information to the spreadsheet to address essay criteria caught my attention. My first thought was that it depends on what you are trying to achieve with your students. Are you focusing on paragraphs as an independent writing activity unto itself where students are simply learning to express their thoughts or the content in an organized manner or are you focusing on paragraphs as a stepping stone to more complex forms of writing such as essays or research papers?
My thought would be to include essay criteria on the spreadsheet so students can see and make the connections that their paragraphs are building blocks for other types of writing.
Good luck – your GAME plan is well-conceived!
Tanis,
ReplyDeleteThat is a very good question. My students have an IEP goal that focuses on paragraph writing as a stand alone skill, but my goal IS to use it as a stepping stone for more complex forms of writing.
I thought about making two different spreadsheets, but it is simple enough to just add the essay criteria at the bottom of the original spreadsheet so I believe that is something I will do. And, yes, that could help students make the connections from simple paragraphs to complex essays.
Thanks for your input!
Mandy