Outcome Two

Articulates, applies, and adapts theoretical constructs of effective learning, technology integration, and assessment. Show understanding of multiple intelligence, learning theories, and learning styles.

Project Description:

My Instructional Design Module details a project where students worked in groups to research and prepare a presentation about one of the authors studied in our Transcendentalist unit and their legacy and impact on modern society. Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emmerson, Amos Bronson Alcott, Sarah Margaret Fuller, and Luisa May Alcott have all had a hand in shaping modern society and inspiring others to change our country. This project tasked students with conducting research to find out how each author contributed to American literature and how that contribution has left a lasting legacy and impact on modern society. Working in groups, students used a combination of digital and print sources to answer specific essential questions about their author. They used the information they found to create a presentation on Google Slides that would communicate this information to the rest of the students in their class. Through careful planning, the groups were able to design a quality presentation and communicate the essential information, which was then assessed through an online quiz. Though a difficult undertaking, it resulted in quality presentations that clearly communicated the importance of the authors we studied.

Demonstrates Mastery:

The Instructional Design Module takes a constructivist approach to the teaching of the author’s background through project based learning. Students are guided to the necessary information through a series of essential questions. Each step, from planning to completion, is guided and scaffolded to help them build this information into a working presentation. Each group would become experts together, collaborating with each other based on the plan that they developed to utilize each group members' skill set to their advantage. Students were encouraged to go above and beyond the essential information and include other information they found relevant to their presentation and could better introduce their author and their legacy. Every piece of this project was carefully thought out and constructed to take advantage of the students in my class, their prior learning, and their individual backgrounds.

Reflection:

My Instructional Design Module was a new experience in many ways by forcing me to work backwards from the goals and objectives to the actual lessons and materials. This process ensured that every piece of the project would build toward the end goals and meet all objectives. This process was different, but turned out to be more effective at meetings goals than a more traditional method of beginning with the lesson, then matching it to goals. Since everything began with goals and objectives, it was easy to see how each piece related and made the process of editing easier and more productive. In the end, this process produced a project that has been a great enhancement to my teaching of the Transcendentalist movement.

Project Title: Instructional Design Module

Class: DMET 530

Project Title: EDpuzzle Professional Development Project

Class: DMET 526

Project Description:

EDpuzzle is a service that is underused by teachers currently. As part of my work for the Organization & Administration course, I planned a three hour in-service session that would show other teachers what EDpuzzle can do and get them started on creating their own interactive videos. The session begins with me showing how much more effective a video with questions on EDpuzzle can be more effective than a traditional video. This is followed by a guided practice session where I would lead the group through the process of choosing a video to use with EDpuzzle, cropping it, and adding audio tracks, audio notes, and questions to specific locations within the video. Once the EDpuzzle was complete, I would show them how to add it to a class and have them view it from a student’s perspective to see how everything we just added worked. From there I would demonstrate the instructor's viewing of students’ progress and answers to the questions, and how to extrapolate that data into something usable as a formative assessment. The rest of the session would be independent practice where teachers could begin finding videos of their own and turning them into EDpuzzles with my help available whenever they needed it.

Demonstrates Mastery:

This project was intended to be a professional development session geared towards other teachers in my district who haven’t used EDpuzzle yet. Through the planning process, I demonstrate my knowledge of the technology, and how to strategically design a scaffolded session so that my colleagues could correctly create and implement an EDpuzzle successfully in a classroom.

Reflection:

I have led a few professional development sessions in the past. One of the things I found to be most important and effective for teachers during these sessions is to incorporate time for them to independently work with the technology I introduced, allowing me there answer any of their questions. That was something I definitely wanted to plan into this session, but to achieve the lesson objectives I set for myself it was important to have a productive instructional session beforehand. I found that as I planned this session I could create an environment where the example that the group worked on together could then become a useful component of the group’s achievement of the next goal. By having them create an EDpuzzle together, and then use that to show them how students would see it, how to assign it to a class, and how to view the data of student completion ended up being a sound method of keeping everything relevant. After designing this into my professional development session, and liking how well it brought everything together I looked for ways to do similar things in my classroom with my students to add relevance in the same way.

Instructional Design Module

EDpuzzle Professional Development Plan

EDpuzzle Professional Development Agenda

EDpuzzle Professional Development Interactive Presentation

EDpuzzle Professional Development Advertisement