Don't forget the lesson objective

In the lesson planning process teachers develop learning objectives. These objectives may be established as part of the curriculum, curriculum map, or unit plan. A lesson objective is not what the instructor or students will be doing. It is the skills, knowledge, or attitudes that the students will achieve.  An objective is a clear statement that describes what the students will be able to do or know at the end of a specific lesson.  The components of an effective objective are:

1. What do you expect the students to perform.

2. Under what conditions will they achieve this knowledge or skill.

3. What criteria will be used to evaluate achievement.

While the development of objectives are a vital component of a written unit or lesson plan they are equally as important to be communicated at the start of  a lesson. When you begin each lesson by stating the learning objective you provide students with a framework for the period. When students are aware of the knowledge and skills that they are expected to achieve at the end of a lesson they can self-assess their progress towards the objective. Students may also activate prior knowledge or previous connections that will help them successfully achieve the goal.

Writing the objective on the board or smartboard is a great start, but a short conversation about the learning goal will help ensure student awareness regarding the goal.

Free Mind Mapping Site that Saves to Google Drive

MindMup - http://www.mindmup.com, is a web-based and free mind mapping software. MindMup links to your Google Apps account allowing users to save mind maps in your Google Drive account. Once saved in Google drive users can share their Mindmaps.  

Mind Maps have a number of uses such as planning or organizing your thoughts prior to writing or making connections between topics or events. An extensive list of graphic organizers that serve a similar purpose can be found here.  Having the ability to share your maps within Google Drive allows students or teachers to collaborate on the development of ideas.

Teachers may collaborate with students on Mind Maps or review student progress. Maps created by students may be shared with their teachers via Google Drive. Teachers may then publish those maps on a class Smartboard for class discussion.

Providing students with graphic organizers or mind mapping resources to organize their thoughts is a classroom intervention with numerous benefits. Having the ability to access and share these maps over the web adds a new layer of interactivity and accessibility that makes MindMup worth exploring.

Directions and Documentation for Mindmup can be found here: http://blog.mindmup.com/p/documentation.html

Read the Mindmup Blog Here: http://blog.mindmup.com/

 

The Flipped Classroom Model Is Not All That New

"Flipping the classroom" is a very hot topic in education these days.  The topic appears in journals, websites, blogs and just about all education based literature. The basic model requires students to review content/materials for homework and then apply what they learned during class. Most references to the flipped learning model discuss students watching video taped lectures or lessons for homework. The idea is that the process of transferring information to students is automated. During class time the students are provided opportunities to apply what they learned, receive individualized or collaborative assistance and to move forward at a more individualized pace.

The "flipped model" really isn't new. It has existed in english and social studies classrooms for quite some time. Students have been assigned readings for homework. The expectation during class time would be either a discussion regarding the readings,  or a written assignment or project that requires the requisite knowledge obtained from the readings. This model allows for more higher order learning experiences. It also provides an opportunity for teachers to assess student understanding immediately and provide targeted remediation.

Traditionally mathematics and science courses have not embraced this model of delivery. The flipped model provides an opportunity for teachers of these subject areas to differentiate the delivery of their content by individualizing the experience. Whole group, class lectures may be replaced with short video tutorials that are followed up in class with activities that apply what was learned and provide formative assessments for teachers. The advantages of the flipped model have been cited in numerous publications so I won't include them all here.

I do believe that when implementing a flipped model the following should be considered:

1. Collaboration:  Is it possible to have a group of teachers creating, sharing, revising and reviewing videos and assignments. No reason to duplicate efforts

2. Reflection and Active Learning: Consider creating reflection questions or guided questions for students to consider when reviewing recorded content.

3. Formative Assessment: Consider starting classes with a short assessment, possibly using student response systems (other options include cell phones or Moodle quizes), to receive immediate feedback regarding the students comprehension of material or if they did actually review the videos.

4. Structure:  Many teachers who start a flipped classroom model spend a majority of their time planning and implementing the development of video tutorials and not on designing the experience in the classroom.  How will your classroom look? What design aspects will you consider?  How will you facilitate and evaluate the student experience?

5. Informing Parents and Students: This shift in instructional delivery requires thorough communication to parents and students. Identify the benefits of this method and how you will provide each student what they need to be successful.

6. There is a time and a place for face to face direct, explicit instruction:  Not all lessons should be flipped. Not all students benefit from this method of delivery. Know your students and your content and decide where flipped learning fits best.

 

The Importance of Asking Great Questions

Dan Pink recently published a short video that speaks of the importance of asking good questions. When preparing lesson plans a focus on essential questions and enduring understandings can transition a lesson from teacher disseminating information to active learning through conversation, cooperative learning and the development of new questions and learning.

 



Additional Information on Effective Questioning:

A Questioning Toolkit

 

Student Reflection on a Lesson with Blogs

As part of our teacher training programs and evaluation protocols we have a focus on lesson reflection. We encourage and sometimes mandate that teachers reflect on a lesson after its completion. What worked? What didn't work? Did you have a clearly aligned objective and did you meet that objective? Did the students understand? How do you know ? What would you do differently next time? etc....

What we typically do not formalize is the collection of feedback from students regarding a lesson. We do evaluate and assess understanding through formative and summative assessment, but do we know how they truly felt about the delivery of a lesson? Do our students have insights that could improve the instructional delivery, method of assessment or expected outcomes? I am sure they do!

Blogging in the classroom and the development of student blogs provides students with a voice. It is an opportunity to publish their thoughts and ideas for an audience. We encourage students to take part in online discussions or possibly comment on a publication. How about asking student to provide feedback regarding a lesson? While they may require a framework regarding effective feedback, I would believe that what they provide a teacher may be as valuable as the results of the formative/summative assessment used to measure a lessons effectiveness.

Blogger, Kidblog, Edublogs or Moodle are all great classroom blogging options.

Improve Student Writing Through Electronic Conferencing

A new app available within Google Drive allows for the insertion of Voice Comments into Google Docs. The app is free and easy to use.  The tutorial below will demonstrate how to install it and begin using it.

This tool allows teachers to provide specific feedback to students regarding their writing using verbal expression. It can also be used for students to provide peer review. In the past I have connected my students with other students around the world to conduct peer review of writing using the comments features. This allows the students to gain the benefits of expressive verbal language. It's also really cool!

 

 

Reading..Connectivity..Technology and Attention

I have been the owner of an Apple IPad since they were released. I have found it to be my go to technology tool for consuming information such as emails, news, web searches, blogs, and audio and video content. I have utilized services such as Pocket and Delicious to tag and categorize resources that I discover online. Flipboard and Zite curate news and information from my most trusted sources and provide a simple and dynamic reading experience.  Checking emails, sharing content and conducting web searches are efficient and productive when using a tablet like the IPAD.

The long standing argument regarding tablets is that they are devices designed to consume content. While this may be a strength it is by far not the only use of the device. The ability to link text, embed videos and audio, link to discussion and commenting features, annotate text, and share are interactive features that allow for active consumption. An example of this is the app Subtext which allows for the creation of social community within the pages of a text. The app allows the teacher to layer in enrichment materials, quizzes and assignments as well.

The opportunity to take a passive act of reading and integrate interactivity, multiple means of representation of information and social collaboration extends learning, differentiates, and provides peer sharing and learning opportunities. This has be referred to as "social reading"

21st century information texts cross a variety of platforms. Many of which are social. News is no longer confined to newspapers, magazines and your nightly news anchor. Current events are delivered and discussed on social media using Twitter hash tags, blogs,  video sharing, and various social apps.   Information that is shared online is typically written in hyperlinking form, sometimes referred to 3 dimensional writing. The new information literacy skill requires students to validate text, navigate the hyperlinking trail of information that is contained in published content, curate and evaluate relevant information, make connections, draw conclusions and develop further questions.

Social and interactive reading is not just a required skill, but contributes to student engagement. Utilizing web-based literature circles, book clubs, discussion forums or embedded chatting features in documents and apps provide a collaborative learning environment with 24 hour access.

The development and sharing of podcasts or video tutorials provides a differentiated approach to content delivery and assessment. Students create such content to demonstrate understanding while providing an instructional resource for student who require additional modes of representation of course content.

While a tablet provides a number of advantages with regards to teaching and learning it does pose a problem. Students must learn to maintain attention and focus while  viewing active content.  Justin Reich (Contributor for Mindshift)  cited the work of Howard Rheingold ,by discussing the need for students to to remember their core purpose of reading and not get lost in the network of hyperlinked text.  Teachers, students and parents must employ focus and attention strategies and decide when focused reading or connected reading should be the goal.