CEP 800 - Lesson Plan Implementation Reflection

Lesson Reflection

CEP 800

Spring 2013

Description:

My lesson was designed for high school students in the first trimester of Spanish 2.  In this lesson, students learned how to use Movie Maker in order to produce a commercial to market a tour to the Spanish-speaking country of their choice. This lesson was designed to be a small part of a larger project.  

Narrative:

I have only three students in the first trimester of Spanish 2.  I started the lesson by showing the students an example of what a finished commercial could look like.   We then created a movie on Movie Maker together as a class.  The students helped choose photos, music, and created a narration as I walked them through the creation of a Movie Maker project.

During the creation of our class movie, we discussed different reasons why we should respect copyrights that individuals have placed on their work.  When I gave the students time to explore Creative Commons, we ran into some minor problems as the site was blocked by our school’s sonic wall for the student accounts.  I had to log each student onto the school’s network using my username and password, something I wouldn’t necessarily do with a larger group of students.  

My students quickly grasped the idea of how to use Movie Maker.  In fact, it took much less time than I had anticipated.  However, it took them much longer than I had anticipated to choose the sites of interest in their countries and write the commercial script.   In fact, though all of my students have adequately learned the functions of Movie Maker, they have still not started to create their commercials as they are still working on developing their scripts.  The pictures and the music that they choose will be based on the script they write, so the project really hinges on developing a good script first.

Reflection:

I designed this lesson to enhance the existing curriculum.  Though there are many opportunities for students to receive snapshots of different Hispanic cultures throughout the school year, I wanted my students to have an opportunity to become even more familiar with a country of their choosing.  Since I have only a few students, I was able to mentor each student as he or she worked on the project and monitor their progress each day.  Although none of my students have used Movie Maker before, the program is fairly self-explanatory for students with basic computer knowledge.  Though their projects are not yet finished, I do not anticipate that they will have major problems with Movie Maker.  However, finding and properly using royalty-free pictures and music may be more of a challenge as most students are accustomed to using copyrighted music and photos without any consequences.  

I don’t think the Movie Maker program was absolutely necessary to achieve my objectives.   However, I think that by creating commercials using Movie Maker the students can produce projects that demonstrate their knowledge of the countries they choose and their ability to use specific Spanish vocabulary, while at the same time allowing them to apply the principles of digital citizenship that they learned in the lesson.  Hopefully by “doing,” the students will be able to remember these things much better.  

It has been interesting to see the projects start to come together.  The students seem excited about what they are able to produce using Movie Maker and other technology for other parts of the project.  I am looking forward to seeing the finished products.

CEP 800 - TPACK Lesson Plan

Click HERE to view my lesson plan.

A Digital Story - CEP 800

In this story, I share a personal experience about learning another language.  Enjoy!

 

*If you have trouble viewing the above video, you may also access the video HERE.

**Disclaimer - I mention in the video that being director of a mission project is more dependent upon relationships than correct grammar, and that dealing with the personnel in the district office is aided by proper use of professional language. It is not my intention to state that a director can be unprofessional in his speech, nor that professional interactions must always be done using formal language. I also don't mean to imply that creating a positive work relationship is not an important factor in the professional world. However, in Bolivia, a country in which Americans are somewhat mistrusted and disliked, it was important for me to demonstrate competency in my role as principal of a Bolivian school. The ability to discuss educational topics in formal language was key to earning their trust and, over time, we were able to build a positive relationship between the government and the "school run by Americans."

CEP 800 - Module 2 Podcast

Understanding Student Understanding

In the following interview I asked a few people what they think about communication and second language acquisition. Listen to their responses by clicking on the media player below.

What Did You Mean By That? - The Nuances of Communication

WICKED PROBLEM PROJECT

Students learning English as a Foreign Language often have little exposure to English outside of their time in class. In order to build fluency, they must have frequent opportunities to interact with the language. However teachers can have several large classes and fluency building print materials are limited.

Working with CBA, an EFL school in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, we decided to use the platform Quia.com to give students the opportunity to access additional materials, resources, and activities outside of class time. These materials are designed to build fluency in the English language learners.

Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK)
At CBA, in addition to the level tests, each student will be required to complete a certain number of timed readings successfully in order to advance to the next level of English at the institution. By using the Quia platform, students will be able to easily access a variety of timed reading materials which will help them to build fluency. Because the reading materials will be available online, the students will have access to them anytime they have access to the internet, not like a book or other material that must be used only in the classroom during school hours and shared with other students. This will allow them to complete the necessary number of timed readings to build their fluency and advance to the next level of English.

Technological Content Knowledge (TCK)
Students learning a foreign language need frequent exposure to that language outside of the classroom setting. In Bolivia, students learning English at CBA have little exposure to English apart from the 1.5 hours they spend in English class each day. By using the Quia platform, students will be able to access English reading materials at appropriate levels of difficulty any time they have access to the internet.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)
When students read L2 materials word by word, the larger meaning is often lost or forgotten as students decode each word. By using timed readings, students are “forced” to read at a more rapid pace. This pace allows the reader to read for better overall comprehension even if he is unable to decode each and every word. The readings available on the Quia platform have a timer built into the webpage. Students are able to see the timer and pace themselves accordingly. They are also given multiple opportunities to read each text combining the extensive reading (ER) and repeated reading (RR) methods for building fluency in L2 learners.

For more detailed information, please feel free to click on the following links:


DESCRIPTION OF NEED OR OPPORTUNITY
APPLICATION OF TPACK
IMPLEMENTATION
FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS

CEP 812 - Group Project

For our PD tutorial, we decided to teach others how to create a Mathcast using VoiceThread.  In order to create the final product, each of us recorded a screen cast of our part of the tutorial.  Rachel then used iMovie to mesh the parts into one video.  The additional slides were created using Keynote and added in iMovie.  We were originally planning to use Jing, but the free version did not allow us to save the video files in format compatible with iMovie.  Instead of Jing, we chose to use Screencast-O-Matic. 

I had never used Screencast-O-Matic, but I learned that it is an easy-to-use tool that opens up a world of possibilities in and out of the classroom.  If I ever do online teaching, I imagine it is something that will come in very handy.  That said, I also found that it was difficult to look at notes and manipulate what was happening on the screen at the same time.  I will need some more practice before it looks, sounds, and feels more natural.  I am also very thankful that my friend allowed me to use his desktop computer.  It would have been particularly difficult to record a screen cast on my little laptop.   

If I ever needed to do a project like this again, I would consider having just one person actually record the screencast to create a smoother final product.  It might also be useful to have more finished examples.  Another thing that could be included would be a link to written instructions that could be followed after watching the video.

CEP 812 - Professional Learning Plan

I chose to create my Professional Learning Plan using Prezi.  This is my first Prezi creation.  You can view my Prezi by clicking on the following link.

Tara's Prezi