Kahoot! is a newly made educational tool that has already gained millions of users around the world. Kahoot! is a game type where you are able to create questions and give four different answers. There is a time limit on each answer, so the sooner you answer, the more points you will get if you get the correct answer. Kahoot! is easy to make and can be played from any smart device that has internet. The subjects are not limited to just the basics, but can be pretty much anything you need it to be.
The exciting and challenging thing about Kahoot! is it makes you think on your feet and forces you to make quick decisions based on initial instinct. I have had the opportunity to play this game in a different class and it is definitely an exciting and positive start to the class period. It integrates technology while being easy enough for anyone to be able to make the questions.
So, in TEAC259 we've talked about making and makerspaces, but this blog really highlights the difference these spaces make in student lives. It creates a space in school where it's ok to for students to be passionate. I hope any school that is able considers incorporating makerspaces into their environment, and for schools that may not have the funds to encourage passionate exploration for students. So much student confidence and power can come from giving them the freedom to pursue their own interests.
Read the blog here: http://www.thenerdyteacher.com/2015/11/thoughts-on-makerspaces-makingmatters.html?m=1
I love the idea of taking students' hobbies and molding curriculum around them. With the rise of Instagram and snapchat, young people take thousands of pictures every year.... Why not use that in class? This blog had a few ideas (and some recommendations for tool to use!) to bring student photography into focus of the lesson. This is a multi-modal way to get students to internalize the lessons.
I'm so excited for Google Expeditions to launch. It seems like a really great interactive way for students to have field trips to places that would have been unattainable otherwise (for instance the surface of Mars). This could help bring a breath of life into history classrooms, showing battlefields and strategy in real time. I would like to use it to give a place and context for settings in novels or other works of literature for my students wouldn't who otherwise have a grasp of. This is another great tool from google that can be used to give students perspective.
See google's statement about the launch here: https://www.google.com/edu/expeditions/.
This blog goes into depth about the flipped classroom concept. He says his students read more fully when they have the choice of what to read and have the opportunity to read in class. He uses the class to "coach" them, by commenting on their blogs or teaching new methods of flagging information.
This article gives different strategies on how to reach all the kids when teaching language arts. Towards the beginning of the article it gives an instructional model where it gives time limits on things and how long you should teach them and why. It is a useful article for teachers who are looking for something to change up how they teach their everyday class.
For a long time, it has always been the story that the arts are losing money and have to find ways to keep the programs going by charging more or doing fundraisers in order to let these activities go on. This scenario was showcased in the movie with Kevin James called, "Here Comes the Boom", where he decides to wrestle in the WWE in order to get funding for the orchestra program to keep going. While he is able to achieve his goal and keep the program well-afloat, some other schools aren't always so lucky. Many schools these days are cutting fine arts out of schools or just simply leaving them with less and less funding as the years go on. As someone who was actively involved in the fine arts, I was fortunate enough to be able to go to a school where the fine arts did well enough to have a solid program to where all who participated were give an exciting and individual experience. I think by participating in the fine arts such as choir and theater, I was able to achieve skills of performing in front of strangers as well as peers, which are skills that easily translate into the classroom.
What this articles talks about is how "schools in areas serving children from low-income families have reduced or completely cut their arts and music programs due to the fact that these programs tend to be the first casualties of budget cuts in hard-pressed school districts already struggling to meet other demands of the curriculum." When federal budget cuts are something you have to worry about when funding these types of programs, there is really not much you can do in those situations. When it comes down to it, getting the materials to teach the students actual curriculum always need to come ahead of the extra stuff. At the same time, however, it is important that these young kids, or even older kids, need to have those opportunities to participate in music and theater programs in order to develop those skills that I had the opportunity to develop throughout my theater experience. Though it seems like this will be difficult because it gets expensive, in the end its an investment that will have payoff in the future when you helped fund programs for future directors and teachers. Many language arts teachers get their beginnings from these types of programs, and I'm sure they are a reason why they are able to have a slight advantage over those who chose to not do those programs. Though it may be small, the difference still exists.
This article talks about the importance of working in children's theater and gives different interviews from different people that talk about how much they enjoy it and how they are glad they continued to work in this field. One man says that there is "little importance is attached to children's theater". I agree with this statement. We even see that more and more schools show less and less attention to the fine arts programs due to things like athletics receiving most of the funding. Now i'm not going to harp on athletics in this post, because i did sports in high school, but I can see why childrens theater is seen as so unimportant. If high school or college aged kids don't get great support in it, why should the children get it? Unfortunately, that is how some of us think today.
This is actually the first page of a book, and it talks a little about how we think about language arts. Something i liked that it said was, "Focusing more on the component parts of language arts, rather than on language and language learning,". I think it easy sometimes to focus so much on the speaking part that we forget about the "component parts" of language arts. There are always more than one thing that needs to make up a subject as we see here with the two parts.
Public speaking is so easily overlooked in our profession. Many people in our age group who plan to become future educators sometimes fall by the wayside sometimes simply because they lack the skills to comfortably speak in front of other people. Public speaking is a skill that can be obtained and even inherited. All through school, we all have taken many different classes where speaking in front of people was mandatory. It was always so easy to pick out those who would struggle and those who would flourish when speaking in front of people. It is not hard to spot.
In language arts, public speaking is pretty much required. If you can't speak comfortably in front of people, it will be difficult to be able to go on a stage and recite lines to 500 pairs of eyes glued to your every word. It will be hard to stand in front of a small audience with four other people, reciting a comedic sketch about drivers ed in a speech. A lot of how you learn how to public speak is by the people who teach you. Good teachers, coaches, or even parents who are willing to be straight up with you and tell you how you can get better instead of sugar coating your efforts and telling you "you're great" when you aren't. Though feelings may be hurt initially, in the end they are doing nothing but making you better at what you do as well as making you a better public speaker.
In this article, it gives 7 ways to effectively public speak. What I liked about this article was that it was straight up, like what I was talking about in the previous paragraph. The first rule we see says "Perception: Stop trying to be a "great" public speaker". As students and even as teachers, it's easy to try to hold yourself to such a high level of perfection that we see ourselves giving a speech about photosynthesis like MLKJ would himself, and that simply isn't always going to happen. It's possible, but its not something to be upset about if you don't accomplish that task in front of a class of 15 students.
I loved Mansaray's "Nine Strategies for Reaching All Learners for English Language Arts." The strategies are found at the bottom of the page. They each contain tips for facilitating learning that meets students where they are.
One section was "Make Meaning." This does not mean creating a fake meaning where there is none, but discovering relevance for students.
His tips reinforced the purpose of my Guided Learning Experience, which is to annotate and discuss "I, Too" by Langston Hughes. Mansaray's post highlighted annotating text as a great way to make meaning for students. I also like annotations because they allow a student to think through the poem or text on his or her own before being expected to contribute to class discussion, which can be intimidating for some students.
This article touches on the various aspects that English educators do in preparing their students for college. English should expose the students to various forms of literary works, writing practice and speaking skills. As an aspiring English teacher it is exciting to think how I can impact my students through the course works that I have implemented.
Many teachers in early education focus on phoenix of speech. There is an overview of basic teaching instruction. As much of speech is first heard and adapted at home the schools will then refine the skills and if extra help is necessary the teachers can set up that help.
This article reiterates the basis that all teachers should have when they are teaching speech.
1. Teacher must know his students
2. Teacher must know his subject
3. Teacher must know how to teach
With these three core ideas it is essential as an educator to be able to take these ideas and expand on them. Making speech an individualized experience is a crucial way that educators can impact their students.
Having Journalism in schools is one of the ways that educators can provide key skills for writing to their students. With the availability of Journalism in schools student's are given work that has a purpose. Many times in the standard english classes students do not submit their best work because only the teacher will see it. With the idea of having a school newspaper there is more motivation to have a solid piece of writing in the columns because of the audience.
Many schools have a variety of Journalism courses that students can take. The intro classes include the ways that journalism is a possible profession and how the students can use their skills in writing as a career. Other courses focus on the aspects of media and journalism, by keeping the students aware of the world around them, they are able to keep others informed through their own writing. There are also courses that build their writing skills by constantly pushing the students to do their best while preparing them for their futures in writing.
With the current school trends it is my hope to see journalism in all secondary schools. These courses give the students a purpose. It offers outlets for them in ways that other sources cannot. While the students are growing in their writing they are also growing in their communication with one another and the world around them.
As high school theater educators are there to facilitate the theater as their classroom, one job is also to ensure the development of skills for the students. One way to achieve this goal is to constantly push the students into improving their skills. In theater there are countless ways in which aspiring actors can grow and push themselves. The standard questions always concern blocking, volume, diction and staging. While in the moment of acting it is hard to tell whether or not you are doing well.
In this article there is focus on the ability to show the students how they are acting on video tape. By doing this it exposes the students into how the audience views their performance. There is a saying that we are all our biggest critique. That being said we are the ones that will push ourselves to the best that we can be. "If a learner can record his or her behavioral performances electronically, by audio or video, he or she can devote cognitive resources to the learning process then to the self-monitoring process, which will improve the quality of both processes" (Zimmerman 1995).
As an aspiring English and Language Arts Teacher I am excited to implement various teaching strategies for my students. In my own experience with theater watching yourself on video really puts into perspective how the audience views you. You can realize things that you didn't even know that you were doing.
While I have more to learn I am excited to offer my future students my own input as well as new information that I am gaining in my pursuit of higher education.
I
am a junior Journalism and Secondary Education English/Language Arts
double major at UNL. I love the written word, and have a passion for
journalism, fact-checking, and proofreading. I also love literature,
especially poetry. My favorite class I've taken at UNL was British
Literature since 1800. I spent Summer 2015 studying abroad in Stirling,
Scotland, where I took a journalism class about the British monarchy and
an education class about how the Scottish system works. I want to learn
how to best serve my future society by fostering critical language
skills in myself and my future students.
Eric Zimmerman
I
am a Sophomore this year at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. I am
currently a Secondary Education English and Language Arts major, with
hopes of becoming a high school English teacher. I love to help people
and I am always willing for adventures. I am very involved at the Newman
Center on Campus. I have had the privilege of working with the homeless
on the streets of Denver through a program called Christ in the City. I
first went to Christ in the City in the summer of 2014 and have since
been back three times for various mission trips and helping out. This
experience has truly impacted my view as to why I want to become a
teacher and how I can impact lives. My hopes for post graduation are to
teach abroad in areas that are less privileged than we are use to here
in the U.S.
"I have found the paradox that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love."
- Mother Teresa
Lincoln Chamberlin
I
am currently an academic transfer student from Southeast Community
College where I went through my general courses, so this is my first
year at UNL. I am currently a language arts major, with hopes of
becoming a high school English teacher. My favorite course that I have
taken so fare in college was a fiction writing class where I went on to
learn a lot from the teacher and other students and ended up having
tremendous success in that class. I love to write and look at other
peers' writings because there are times when there are not always right
or wrong answers, but just suggestions in order to improve on the story
or essay they have already written.
Jon Regnier
I am a freshman Pre-Secondary Ed major at UNL. I am an avid user of technology and always have some sort of new device on me. I am focusing on Language Arts and minoring in Film Studies. I enjoy movies and entertainment media and I feel that I have learned as much from them as I have in the classroom. My goal is to be able to provide knowledge to students in a way that is both entertaining and beneficial.
Crash
Course is one of the best programs online for independent learners, but
also a great resource for teachers who want to engage students on their
terms. Using YouTube for instruction is great in lots of cases, but the
extra research and production value that goes into the Crash Course
series takes it to the next level. Hosts who are passionate about the
subject matter take high school students from apathy to empathy about
literature.
In the first video of the Literature
series, author of "The Fault In Our Stars" John Green, discusses why we
read and provides insight on how to do "close reading" of texts. He
doesn't want students to regurgitate information about texts to get a
good grade. He outlines four things reading will do:
Have a fuller understanding of lives other than your own
Will help you be more empathetic
Help you avoid some pitfalls of life
Reading critically and attentively can give you the linguistic tools to share your own story with more precision
By bringing these purposes closer-to-home for students in a
humorous, yet informative way, Green offers some sort of greater
incentive for students to read and care about literature. This can lead
to greater understanding and an opportunity for students to internalize
what they do in an English classroom.
Currently, Green
has posted 24 Literature videos, and so far the channel has posted 412
educational videos on topics ranging from Economics to History to
Astronomy. His brother, Hank Green, an ecologist by training, created
this channel along with SciShow to promote lifelong education. They have
also launched Crash Course Kids, a channel geared toward elementary
students, which incorporates National Standards. These channels are
funded partially through Patreon, a website where viewers can contribute
to the programs they love in order to keep them running and growing.
They are also working towards creating other classroom curriculum for
teachers who love Crash Course.
I personally use Crash
Course as a learning tool, and intend to use it in my future classroom
to gain attention or provide another thoughtful perspective on some
literature. Take a look at their channel and learn more about any of
their 14 topics!
For our class we were given the assignment of creating a prototype of some technological tool that could help teachers or students in our subject are of Language Arts. We decided to mock-up an app for tablets to use in theater or drama classes. We wanted to create a way for directors and advisers to have an all-in-one place to make notes, access scripts, and design sets instead of having a bunch of loose notes and pieces of paper that easily get lost.
Here's our ideas of what the app would contain:
Our app would simplify theater direction by keeping everything in one place.
Sets on the stage- Keeping track of where everything goes on stage on paper is tough. However with our app, you have everything in front of you, and are able to easily move things around to where it would better fit.
Director's Notes- a feature that links the director's notes to the student’s devices. Ability to make notes portable and for everyone.
Various Play scripts are available for download through the app making scripts portable and easily accessible. Directors can make adjustments in-line so nobody has an out-of-date script.
Students can also select their part to see it highlighted.
There will also be a video function where directors can type on the screen and create pop-ups for suggestions at certain moments of the production. This is better than YouTube because it's private and can be updated through each rehearsal.
Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
This standard can be very helpful for students because it guarantees them to be exposed to a wide variety of different literary genres as well as adapting to the current world with the evolution of ebooks. It also helps them be better workers because the standard highlights educational, vocational, and personal uses for this skill.
The purpose for this standard is that students should be exposed to multiple genres because they all are read in different styles, with different strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, reading different pieces in class will teach students how to adapt to read different literary forms for learning, working, and fun.
For me as an educator I think that I can apply this standard in my classroom through the use of ebooks and exposing my students to the genres that influence their thoughts on culture. This will also mean reading more literature from different eras and styles to create a fuller picture of history.
Idealy, I would create a classroom that is able to facilitate open discussion on current issues within the world and various cultures. In addition to current issues being able to discuss literary works freely within a class is the most important thing that I can try to do as a teacher. Creating a reading schedule throughout the year where we read different perspectives throughout the year so every student comes to understand the diversity available through literature in every form.
Some ways that I can apply technology into these teaching standards are through the use of ebooks or even following various twitter accounts and being able to read current responses to various cultures that apply to the students’ lives.
Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
This standard is saying that students should be able to adapt themselves to know to whom they are talking.
This is important because we live in a world with many different cultures and styles. With text and Language Arts essentially being the best way to document the events and voices of our society, it is important to be able to capture their voices and portray them effectively in many situations.
I think that I could easily teach students to adjust how they communicate quite easily. It would be important for me to present my students with various speech patterns and to learn the differences between speakers.
I would enjoy having a class period where students pretend to be someone else and deliver their messages using that voice. I think taking on different personas would help them learn how people in different roles need to communicate their different messages.
Using ‘text’ language would be an easy way to identify the different ways that an audience can perceive a message. I could also encourage the class to live-tweet a speech or event, noting how the speaker changes his/her message depending on the topic.
Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
I think this standard can be used to help students in whatever professional or personal path they decide to take. Research skills are so useful in every instance, whether at an academic capacity for research or just knowing where to find credible information on which to base political opinions.
The purpose of this standard is to help all students be capable researchers and information interpreters. This is one of the standards that work toward many different goals of education: being competent in the workforce, becoming a lifelong learner, building a toolset of a responsible citizen and consumer, and molding critical thinking skills along with those objectives. I also think teaching the standard of communication to varying audiences is important to reflect realities of the world, like differences in tone of professional or personal writings.
In the future as a teacher, having this standard would guide lots of my classroom activities. As a high school Language Arts teacher, it would be important to help students comprehend and sort through all the information they are given on a daily basis, even material presented in the class. Helping individuals evaluate the information at hand will make them better readers and writers.
I would ideally create a few assignments throughout the year where students would have to do research or find facts and present them in different forms of expression. Obviously, a classic academic research paper could be one, a less-formal persuasive paper on a debatable issue another, and finally a general informative news style article on a current event. These different projects would help students learn how to internalize the information they research and also help them be conscious of the differences in writing style depending on the purpose.
Technologies will support these projects most importantly as a tool to research using online resources. Finding a variety of credible sources from both databases and general searches will help students in their pursuits for information about a variety of sources.
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
I think that this standard is key in keeping students interested in reading. This standard’s purpose is to make the reading seem more realistic and relevant to each student personally.
This standard keeps the student engaged by making the reading seem more personal. It helps them relate what they are reading to things they have experienced in other situations in their lives.
I would use this standard to make learning more fun. Having students link the reading to three different aspects of their lives, or other texts they’ve read.
This standard can be used by applying the TTS,TTT,TTW method. The text-to-text method makes students link the reading to other similar events that they read or saw in the same medium. Text-to-world has the students connecting the readings to events happening around the world. Text-to-Self is a method in which the student brings what they are reading back to personal experiences.
Technology could be incorporated into this very simply. Social media would make the TTW method very interesting. Students could create presentations on their connections to give them an even more engaging experience.
Students whose first language is not English make use of their first language to develop competency in the English language arts and to develop understanding of content across the curriculum.
I agree with this standard. This standard is saying that students can use their first language to help better their learning and ability to speak English, and allows them to keep both languages.
I think it allows the students to bring their own sense of culture and integrate it into their learning of another language. This merits being a standard because this does not limit the students to be forced assimilate to English without any help from their background. It would be extremely difficult and unfair for a student to have to ignore what they know from their original culture in order for them to learn English. They should embrace both languages and be multicultural.
As a teacher, I think this standard would help me tremendously in helping a student who had didn’t have English as their first language. In some cases, it may be difficult to teach a student who doesn’t understand things you are trying to convey to them. However, if you were able to find something in their culture to help relate to them for them to understand a subject or problem better, than that would help the teachers dramatically.
A type of experience to create in order to make growth and understanding better would be to have a student or maybe a teacher or paraprofessional to be there in order to help the student on things they don’t understand during times where the teacher wouldn’t be able to help them. Having a personalized teacher or assistant with them during normal classes might make them feel more comfortable as well as get the attention they deserve in order to better understand the material. Especially in Language Arts, where English language proficiency is so important, having a “lifeline” of a para there to help define newly encountered words, etc., will help these ELL students be more successful in class.
Some ways to support those experiences by incorporating technology would be to have computers available at any time for the student if he/ she ever had questions outside the classroom but still was in the school. Sometimes the student will see or think of something after class and want to find a solution on their own. By using an easy to access computer, they will be able to find the answer by themselves and further their education.
LA 10.1.6.a Evaluate the meaning, reliability, and validity of text considering author’s purpose, perspective, and contextual influences.
This standard was essential to my education because it acted as a safeguard. When I reached upper level education, it was important that I was able to accurately grasp the point being made by the text. With this standard I learned to use and analyze various readings, through knowing more about the author.
I feel that a lot of students will read through a material and not truly understand the message that is being portrayed. the lessons that this standard would provide would allow students to continue reading, even if they are stuck on a word, because they can assume the meaning by the text surrounding it through context.
I feel that this standard could potentially make school easier for high schoolers because it would allow them to get through the various texts on their own. It would also make it easier for teachers because the students will learn to draw their own conclusions.
This standard helps with Language Arts because it requires that teachers include concepts like context about an author into the lesson plans. When reading a book it is helpful to pay attention to all parts of the story so that if they become confused they can use common sense to assess the situation. They should also use information about the author to help discern what point he/she is trying to make. This is especially valuable when reading unfamiliar genres, like poetry or specific jargon-filled reports.
A way that technology could be used to help with this standard is by finding websites connected to the text and allowing students to search and find other people’s interpretations of the text, information about the author, or related information used for fact-checking.
LA 12.1.6 Comprehension: Students will extract and construct meaning using prior knowledge, applying text information, and monitoring comprehension while reading grade level text.
This standard reminds me of struggling to understand what I was reading sometimes. It was the situation of reading what was on the page, but not really comprehending it. I had to force myself to make a conscious effort to go line by line in order to understand what I was reading.
I think this has merit as a standard because I believe a lot of students struggled with similar problems to what I struggled with. It needs to be made clear that the teachers expected the students to do things like use prior knowledge, otherwise there was no purpose of reading grade level text. By making this a standard, teachers are pushed to help student actively engage in what they’re reading.
I see this as an opportunity to see what the student has learned in the past and how they are able to incorporate it into what they are reading now. If the student was never taught to look for context clues or was but never paid attention, than as a teacher it is my job to spend more time on that subject for that student to help them better understand. One of the main focuses of this standard is to make sure the student comprehends what he is reading and is able to make his/ her own thoughts on what’s happening.
Some ideas I would design to support for growth would be to put students who understood it well with the students who had a harder time with the reading. This allows time for discussion as well as hopefully hearing a point of view that is easier to understand seeing as it is coming from a peer. Sometimes hearing the material from a classmate can help the students who can’t understand the material by themselves.
Ways to incorporate technology in those experiences are to create a Facebook or some type of discussion channel into which they can talk about the reading even when they aren’t in the classroom. Seeing as most kids have the technology to do so, having students work from home on their computer or phone will hopefully connect them on a more academic level.
LA 12.2.2 Writing Genres: Students will write for a variety of purposes and audiences in multiple genres.
As someone who loved writing in different ways, this standard stuck out to me as one that I didn’t get to experience as often as some of the other standards. We typically wrote the same type of genre with exceptions here and there during high school, but I never got to look forward to a time where the genre we got to write about was a mystery.
I think this has merit as a standard because students need to be able to write in multiple genres, not just one or two. By expanding their skill set, this will better prepare them for times when they are challenged with a genre that is not common, yet they will be able to use the skills they have learned from other genres and write an excellent piece.
Seeing as my subject has a good deal to do with writing, I think this standard goes hand in hand. I would like my students to be able to write in multiple genres. This gives me as a teacher more flexibility on what to do in class as well as being able to teach more complex ways of writing. If my students are limited to one or two genres, there is a limit to how broad we can let our skills grow.
Ideas I would create for this standard would be to possibly have a new genre every week. This way we can cover a broad spectrum of genres for a week rather than a couple days. Some the students will love, some they will hate, but this would be something that sharpens skills and that would hopefully make them better all around writers.
Ways technology could support these ideas would be to vote on a “genre of the week” from their phones. As each week goes by, the options will grow more narrow, forcing the students to pick the less popular genres at some point. By using their phone or tablet in class to vote, this keeps them engaged and lets technology have an appropriate use in class.
LA 12.3.1 Speaking Skills: Students will develop, apply, and refine speaking skills to communicate key ideas in a variety of situations.
This standard to me sounds like it would be fun to apply in class because it has the students get out of their shells. Also, teaching students to become comfortable with their speaking skills can be beneficial down the road.
I think that this is a standard because building and refining speaking skills can be applied to various aspects of the students lives. Within their future careers it is more likely than not that there will be some kind of communication with people. Therefore building those core speaking skills and applying them to different situations can help a student be better prepared.
As a teacher this means that I am going to be the one to set the example to my students on how they should communicate with others. I will have to show in-depth examples of how to utilize my own speaking skills and therefore they will be able to apply what they have seen to their own work.
To take speaking skills and have them grow there must be a constant stream of practice. There is always room for improvement when speaking with others. In my own experiences communicating in small groups is just a step that one can take to apply to larger groups.
I can apply technology to the classroom by pulling up various examples of communication and speeches from the internet and showing them to my class. By using this the students can see various types of speeches.
LA 12.4.1 Multiple Literacies: Students will research, synthesize, evaluate and communicate information in a variety of media and formats (textual, visual, and digital).
This standard sounds like it has a real potential to be very fun for students and teachers alike. Multi-media projects I’ve been assigned in the past can be hit or miss, depending on if the students are interested in the subject matter and have the freedom to use their creativity to demonstrate their knowledge.
I think that knowing the differences in presentation of different media is especially relevant in our digital society, where people are taking in information in increasingly compact ways. Giving students the opportunity to practice expressing thoughts in a variety of formats will help them become well-rounded communicators. It is also important for them to ingest more varied communication, from printed word and visual art to broadcast journalism and radio, they need to understand the differences, strengths and weaknesses, in communication in its different forms.
As a teacher, this means I will need to produce my information in varying media and forms, depending on the purpose. I would be a hypocrite if I taught about variety of media exclusively through lecture or powerpoint. This will mean more effort to gather resources in video, audio, and visual tools, but I think it will enhance the lessons being taught when these tools are used appropriately.
There are a ton of possible exercises that will support this principle. Thinking in a journalism aspect, having students read a newspaper piece, listen to a podcast, watch a newscast and read a relevant political cartoon about the same topical event could reinforce the differences in types of media. We could go over the pros and cons of what each format provided for the experience of learning about that event and discuss the importance of well-rounded news intake. They could also move through units in class learning how to produce podcasts, news reels, and written stories and gain the experience of hands-on work.
Technology would definitely be vital to this standard. With consumption of information or the production of it in these various digital forms, they would need to be technologically proficient in filming, editing, and other production tools.
1.B Create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
I see this standard as something that this very project could display. We were given a set of guidelines, but we are given some freedom to show creativity and expression. This gives room for all groups to show there different take on what they can do with the assignment.
I think this has merit as a standard because students should not be limited on expression or creativity. The standard starts off saying “create original works”, which means something that has been rarely or possibly never been done before. If you force students to follow a checklist of things to accomplish, they will all turn in the same project, just with different names at the top. This standard opens up doors for students to show what they can do.
As someone who would be using this standard, this shows me that while instruction and direction are important for a student’s learning, I need to be able to give them space in order to see how they express themselves differently from one another. Each student is unique and has something unique they can bring to the table. As a teacher, we need to realize this fact and utilize the difference between the students backgrounds.
I could easily design some techniques to help growth in the classroom, such as letting the students choose one of two-to-three projects that seemed interesting. By letting them choose the one they liked the most, this gets them more excited to create and let their imaginations go to work. If you have two different groups of students creating ideas about two separate things, this allows the students choices as well as room to expand their creative minds.
To incorporate technology in this aspect, something I could do would be to send out the two possible fun project ideas online, and give the students a week to complete the project. Once they are finished, I would have them take a picture of the project and put it into a group where the whole class is able to see what the other students did. This also helps other students get ideas for projects in the future while using technology to reach the students when they aren’t at school.
2.B Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
I think that this standard is important because it applies technology to communication. This can be applied throughout life in various job settings that require presentations to groups with the use of visual aids.
This merits being a standard because the ability to apply information to communication in various media formats is a necessary skill that can be used in both the classroom and in future careers.
As a teacher I can apply this to a discussion group. There I can post to my students from my teacher account about various upcoming events that relate to the course, articles that they may find interesting and having a community where they can bounce information off of each other.
One idea that I have about the growth of different media within the class is have the students utilize their own forms of social media and reaching out to various organizations by tweeting at them for example. Even retweeting information from a reliable source can be a way that information is given to a larger audience from the media.
Technology that can be used would be Facebook groups within the class and myself because that is a way that I can communicate to them as a whole. If they were to use LinkedIn that is also another way that the students can communicate with others and have a network to share information.
2.C Develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.
This standard is important because as technology advances we are becoming more connected with the world and therefore have a better understanding of what is going on in various parts of it. With the use of technology we must be active citizens and be well informed of the current situations as to be better equipped to handle global crises and celebrations.
This merits being a standard because of the need for global awareness. With the ability to be connected with the world we have a certain responsibility to knowing what is going on in the world so that we can do our best to try and help those who need it.
As a teacher I can apply this to my class by assigning current events for the week and we can have class time to discuss what the students have found.
An idea that I have about the growth of this standard is not only have current events for the week but to assign students to groups and to have them pick a topic that they follow up on for about a month or so and can give a presentation about background effects and a possible solution to the problem that is presented.
Technology that can be applied to this standard could be the use of the internet or various news apps. Students are encouraged to make a powerpoint or prezi that they can present their information to the class and have various articles from the internet that support their findings.
3.C Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
This standard would help keep students from using the wrong sources of information, like those from non-credible sources.
I think that this is important because most students will look up the answer and grab the first thing that pops up, they need to know how to evaluate a resource before selecting it.
As a teacher I feel it is important to not only teach students to find reliable sources, but to know which information is pertinent to their topic. This also ties into the TPACK model, because I have to know how to link the tools I’m using to help the students in their learning, not just pick the tools that are convenient.
A web scavenger hunt might be a good way to help students understand how to look for information.
While using the internet, it has become much easier for students to get lazy with their research. I think that a way to incorporate technology into this standard is by giving them an assignment, but restricting various easy access sites, so that they have to actually get in depth with their research.
4.C Collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.
I like that this standard is included because it touches on the citizen aspect of the purpose of education. Every student will need to solve problems and make decisions on a daily basis, whether personal, professional, academic, political, or any other realm of their life. This skill will really matter to the students who are taught how to collect informed data.
This merits being a standard because it has a far reach into these students’ lives. In an academic sense, problem solving is necessary to work through questions, but these same tools can be applied to personal issues people go through as they mature.
As a teacher, I want to be sure to display how to source information from multiple outlets and analyze the weaknesses and strengths in each source that can help make an informed opinion or decision. Collection of the data is something most classrooms succeed in, but analysis is often lacking. Being careful about the steps for analysis to solutions will help students take that template into their own lives.
Activities that can be used in a Language Arts classroom that enhance analysis and problem solving could include anything from debates to analysis of a piece of literature to identify themes or other literary meanings. In a debate format, students would have the whole world to research and collect data from, but in the literary analysis example, they may have as little as a paragraph. These can be adapted to different grade levels from middle school through college, because these skills can always be honed.
Technology can be used in the research stage as well as for organizational tools. Students could be encouraged to highlight and annotate online texts, and with programs like Microsoft’s OneNote, these annotations and research could all be kept in one compact place.
Conclusion:
After considering these Language Arts and Technology Standards, it is clear that there are many different ways we can utilize technology creatively in our classrooms. In Language Arts classrooms, it is important to have access to credible information, reliable programs for composition, and freedom to creatively express ourselves. Technology, and the Internet in particular, provide many avenues by which we can explore the worlds of literature, public speaking, performance, and journalism. Also, through brainstorming activities that would both satisfy standards requirements and integrate technology, each member of our group identified different ways for each of us to succeed in both of those realms. Creating unique varieties of activities and experiences will be what engages our future students and keeps our jobs interesting. In our field, we will all be able to creatively interact with our students using technology as a tool to teach our students the principles they need to know to be successful in the future. These standards are important and applicable to the future of our students in their progression of education, their professional careers, their personal fulfillment, and their responsibilities as citizens.
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