My two goals of my GAME plan are to first meet the National Standards by improving to collaborate with parents, students, peers and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation. The second goal is to increase participation in local and global learning communities and to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning.
I am finding the resources needed to be successful by reading my colleagues comments to my last post about my GAME plan. I have been able to take their suggestions and slightly modify my plan. This week’s learning resources introduced me to four methods of assessment; forced- choice, open-ended, performance based and project-based (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009, p. 142). As for my first goal, creating a newsletter to increase parent involvement my colleagues have suggested I have the students help in the creation of the newsletter. Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer said it best when they said learning to teach generally, and to teach with technology specifically, are lifelong journeys (Cennamo et. al, 2009, p.1). I can take my idea of the newsletter and turn it into an authentic assessment for my students. The project based assessment will help my students create their own portfolio and work sample. Not only will they be doing this but they will help me reach my goal of parent involvement because the parent now will see what their students are learning not only from me but from the writing skills of their children.
As for my second goal I have taken the suggestion of a colleague again that I may want my students to work in small groups and create a wiki. The wiki can be a great tool to teach the students to understand the importance of team work and completing tasks while being physically active. The students can use the wiki to create a new game and then share it with the rest of the school or other schools if I am able to create a global learning environment. I think it is an excellent idea. I am taking physical education and creating an assessment that is not only physically challenging but also mentally challenging all while using a newer form of technology.
It is very interesting to me to see the value of a global learning environment. One of my goals here was to continue to open up opportunities for my students to become active learners. Just by participating in this class discussion and learning from my colleagues I have seen the value of others opinions and their ideas. Technology is not a tool that will only help my students learn but a tool that will also help me learn.
My remaining questions revolve around how to score these types of authentic assessments. Authentic assessments are terrific but much more difficult to grade than a forced choice assessment. “But assessments are useless unless you score them to evaluate students’ progress and determine whether your students learned what they set out to learn” (Cennamo et. al, 2009, p. 153). I have created rubrics before but sometimes feel they are too difficult for the students to succeed with or to easy and do not challenge the students. Does anyone have any suggestions or sites that are useful tools to help create rubrics that are challenging but fair to all students?
Resources:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Kennie,
ReplyDeleteI really do like the manner in which you have used the ideas of your colleagues to modify your GAME plan because I do believe that involving your students in the creation of the newsletter is such an authentic lesson for them and having students create wikis and develop a game for your second indicator is really as Dr. Cennamo (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009)supporting student self-directed learning and allowing them to choose how they want to learn. They will be able to work together, make decisions, think critically and make a finished product to share with others.
As far as a place to locate rubrics the rubistar 4teachers is a place to create, customize and save a rubric (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p. 157). I see this particular method to assess students as the best way to assess what your students have learned.
You are so correct a force-choice assessment will probably not be the correct type of assessment for the project based learning assignment you are involving your students in.
Reference
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Tonya
Kennie,
ReplyDeleteYou are making excellent progress with your GAME Plan. You stated your remaining issue is how to assess your students. I feel that the use of a rubric will be highly beneficial for scoring your students’ wikis. As you are creating your wiki assignment and the expectations for the assignment, you can use online rubric tools. Rubistar and www.rubrics4teachers.com/ are two great sites for you to use. Both offer already made rubrics and the opportunity to revise them to meet you specific needs. As you develop the students’ expectations to set up the assignment, you could plug in the same criteria on your rubric. The online tools have sample scales “that clearly describe or define the different levels of quality” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 155), that you could revise as necessary to meet your needs.
As I revisited your initial GAME Plan and reflected on your responses to this week’s class discussion, I thought about your specific goal to participate in local and global communities. Specifically, I thought about how you integrate technology for authentic instruction with you students. You mentioned an activity in which you teach the students about the dangers of smoking and the technology you use to demonstrate this. It occurred to me that you could encourage your students to become actively involved in a health-awareness activity. For example, students could be encouraged to participate in a marathon to raise an awareness of a cause and describe the organization and their experience on your classroom blog or wiki. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) state that SDL activities allow “students to spend more time exploring topics of interest and creating innovative products that demonstrate their knowledge” (p. 28). This type of activity will meet your goal to be involved with global communities while meeting your physical education standards and will be meaningful for your students.
Reference
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Kennie,
ReplyDeleteYour student created newsletter sounds like a great idea. When the students know that their writing will be open to wider audience than the teacher, the students tend to make more of an effort in their writing. With the power of technology, you can make your newsletters so much more than writing articles. They could add videos and podcasts. Your newsletter can also function as a community service. Perhaps some of your assessment could be made through a checklist to "score the observation or demonstration of a skill" (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p. 154).
You mentioned about the students creating a game and then sharing it in a wiki. How about giving the students the option of creating a dance instead of a game? The students would be physically and mentally challenged. They could video tape the dance and write the steps out. Some students will be more willing to move when they mix music and physical activity.
Cennamo, K. Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009) Technology integration for meaningful classroom use.
Moran, OH: Cengage Learning.
Rhonda
You are making great progress in your GAME plan. I really enjoyed reading about your ideas of how to include students in the creation of your newsletter. I really like your implementation of wikis as a learning resource and your authentic newsletter activity as an assessment. "Any technology that supports text entry can be used to incorporate open-ended text responses" (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 145)
ReplyDeleteI often start my class with a creative writing journal prompt that students complete on a blog. "Many studies have found that the use of blogs in student-centred learning strategies provided students with useful practice in developing their critical thinking skills" (Tse-Kian & Mai, 2010, p. 1) After students have responded to the creative prompt, students respond to one another, often like we do in our class discussion boards. These responses are usually advice, positive feedback, and constructive criticism. Assessment can be tricky with blogs and wikis but I use a writing rubric that assesses students based on their initial post and a separate rubric to assess their comments to peers.
The sites I use to create rubrics are RubiStar and iRubric. "iRubric is a comprehensive rubric development, assessment, and sharing tool. Designed from the ground up, iRubric supports a variety of applications in an easy-to-use package. Best of all, iRubric is free to individual faculty and students. iRubric School-Edition empowers schools with an easy-to-use system for monitoring student learning outcomes and aligning with standards" (iRubric, 2012). The use of this website is not only efficient as you are developing rubrics but it assists you in aligning them with your learning outcomes and state or national standards. I have found this site to be very beneficial. Remember however, one of the most valuable resources you have at your disposal are your colleagues. Ask your fellow teachers if they already have created rubrics that you can modify or adapt!
I enjoyed reading your post! Keep up the great work!
-Jenn Schreiner
Resources:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA:Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Rubric: Home of free rubric tools: RCampus . (n.d.). A Collaborative Learning Community.: RCampus Open Tools for Open Minds . Retrieved July 24, 2012, from http://www.rcampus.com/indexrubric.cfm
Tse-Kian, N., & Mai, N. (2010). A Study using Web-logs or Blogs as a Tool for Student-centred Learning in a Computer Graphics Course: A Malaysian Perspective. International Journal Of Learning, 17(9), 77-86.