Doing my own thing...Steph Kiero

Well, I've gone a bit rogue and worked on my own task this PLC.  Here is a bit about it.

1: I actually chose a tool related to "How can students show their knowledge in more effective digital formats?"  The tool will be Educreations and a shared Google Doc.  The goal is for students to have a digital platform to create and present problems, solve others' problems, and present solutions.

Students will work on a foam tile project in which they learn to write expressions to describe perimeter and surface area in terms of a variable.  They will also learn to group like terms and plug-in given values to evaluate an expression.  Students will practice with pre-designed tiles and ultimately create a tile and solution of their own to share on the class doc.  This is a multi-day lesson that I am teaching during Extended Math.  Students will spend one class period at the end viewing and solving problems from at least 3 other students.

Mt time table is behind everyone else, so I'm still figuring out what works and doesn't.  Posts 2 and 3 will be coming shortly.

PLC Round 3 Post 3

Using Blogger prompted everyone in class to be engaged simultaneously, and saved time in the class.  The students were using the target language in a personal way that wouldn't have happened verbally.  They were interacting more with each other.  They helped each other, and the teachers, with the technology.  Blogging removed the anxiety that sometimes accompanies class discussions.

PLC Round 3--Post 2

Group Reflection on classroom implementation of tool (BLOGGER) used


Instead of reflecting on Concordia, we decided to set up a classroom blog to begin a discussion using specific grammar points during group discussions.  Each language set up an 8th grade blog.

What worked:

All students participated in the blog and the set-up went smoothly.  Structure helped.

• In German Frau Grover assigned each student to write three sentences reflecting on a film.  Each sentence had to be unique requiring the students to read the other posts before making their own.
• After a long weekend or break French students practice what they did but this took a lot of class time and became disengaging.  When this activity became part of the blog, it took less class time.
• When they made mistakes another assignment was to make a suggestion to correct another
• Most students were respectful and engaged and some were able to use the language in a more personal way

What we learned:

An efficient way to invite multiple guests is to put a comma and a space between each member.

Structure helps.

This is a learning process and we learn from the students too.

You can label your post to help organize.

Up-loading pictures is possible.

Not many students had not blogged very much before.

What didn't work:

We had some students whose invitation expired.  Also a few students did not have authorization to use Blogger.

Some students made grammar errors and others read those and made the same mistake.  

Brainstorming Lesson Plan Ideas for Differentiation

Summary of group’s discussion regarding strategy/tool each member is considering to address our topic:

Members from the language department gathered to brainstorm a lesson plan and classroom application.

Next year, we would like to develop a lesson plan that involves pre- and post activities to prepare our students for Concordia Language Village.  This idea does not fit into the PLC timeline.

Use a blog (or Prezzi)

• We could do "post-Concordia" and have 8th graders give advice to 7th grade. 
• Commands, Clothing, Past-tense
• Challenges and Benefits 
• We could do a classroom blog to encourage conversation in the target language
• On-line journal

Our next meeting we plan to work with Matt to set up the blog and talk about digital citizenship.  If we have extra time, we will begin working on prompts.

Task-based language learning with technology workshop (Feb. 6th during PLC)

Relevant to Differentiation:  Here are my notes on 

Task-Based Language Learning and Technology by Elizabeth Harsma

http://tblt-and-technology.wikispaces.com

Why?

Focus on form (noticing) and meaning (interaction)

What is a task?

1.     Meaning focused (context)

2.     Real world (what a native speaker would do & real world)

3.     Communicative

How are tasks different from projects?

·      Tasks are process-oriented

·      Projects are product-oriented

Task Cycle

·      Pre-task  (vocab and grammar-building) i + 1 (connect to previous knowledge) ex. TPR, set learner up to succeed

·      During-task focus on meaning, learners engaging with the language

·      Post-task-focus on feedback, reflection, and follow-up (what was easy, what was difficult, why, what do you think you need to be successful next time)

Task types

·      Information gap (one student has info the other needs)

·      Opinion exchange (life experience exchange)

·      Reasoning gap

·      What others can you think of

Approaches (Strong vs. Weak Approaches)

·      Strong (curriculum is entirely task-based)

·      Weak (task supplemented curriculum)

Five Examples:

1.    Un día en Madrid (basic)

2.    El campamento de día

3.    El Transporte

4.    Las Noticias

5.    Cena con Amigos

Un día en Madrid

·      Jigsaw and reasoning (each student picks one thing to do in Madrid; you can provide a specific source…) collect info about these events then they come together as a group and share and then decide what to do; then one makes a voice mail using Vocaroo.com.  (or fotobabble or dropbox--they upload their folder in your class folder) Vamos a ir al Prado porque…(Task—students fill in infinitive verbs and nouns)

·      Adv. Of Vocaroo (don’t need an account; only requirement is approp. Software); students save it and share the link with you. (Doctopus in Google can help with managing this)

El campamento de día (collaboration--1 submission for several students)

·      Task—base it off of their experience in 4^th grade (past tense) (then choose a few from your group and create a day camp schedule; create a website with that product info—meaning focused)

·      With a Google acct. –tools are similar to word; go to google sites website (in the “even more” category beyond blogger; add images (embedding can be tricky)

El transporte (you can provide as much structure on where to find info; guide them on what to look for—cost, environmental impact…)

·      Jigsaw and reasoning gap task

·      Task:  decide which kind of public transportation is best to use while staying in Mexico City

·      Product:  a post describing their choice and why

·      Tech tool:  Edmodo (facebook) or Voice discussion board like Voxopop.com

Facebook (intercambio intermedios—exchange w/ Venezuelan school); instructor required posts to keep the momentum going

Las Noticias (how do newscasters present themselves, what language do they use)

·      Opinion exchange task

·      Task:  report on a news item, give opinions

o   Process-

§  find information on ________,

§  ask fellow students about it

§  report on it

·      Product: video of a news report

·      Tech tool:  Youtube.com, (Teachertube.com) iMovie (or other editing program and/or smart phone apps like Vine)

Cena con amigos (decide which dish to bring to dinner)

·      Jigsaw and reasoning gap

·      Do research on food and eating habits (what time of day; what ingred, what for bkfast, lunch and dinner…what do they eat for special celebrations;

·      Give opinions

·      Compare and Contrast

·      This is what we decided to bring and why (pintrist—2 -5 pins; visual + ingred. + typical dishes; great collection location, good for visual learners)

Tasks:

1.     News article variation

a.     Newsmap (create your own classroom newsmap w/ wordl)

b.     (pick news articles that they already know about and compare w/ how it is reported in another country El Pais…); level 1 comparisons; level 2 preterit

2.     Peruvian Cooking show (commands & comparisons)

3.     Viernes Cultural “genius hour”

4.     “Go animate” (choose text and vocalize the text and you can hear the dialect in “Parental interrogation” (when are you going? Who are you going with?...

Show poor pronunciation w/ voki (swith American English for the Spanish)

5.     fotobabble (like vocaroo but you can up-load a photo) to make a brochure or big huge lab (make a mosaic…)(create your own travel agency and create your itinerary; choose a Spanish-speaking country (6 days for itinerary)

6.     Re-creations of stories and film it—iMovie, Microsoft movie maker

7.     Fashion blog—review clothing vocab w/ adjectives + video, task (you are going to the office, sporting event, use Pintrist and come up w/ 2 outfits.  Other groups vote on clothing they prefer and comment why.  Winning outfit goes into a catalogue w/ description (website maker)

8.     Itinerary day trip (action verbs and time-telling) Make a timeline (powerpoint w/ voice over narration and text); Prezzi (you can embed sound files or youtube)

           

Embedding Technology in Science Classrooms - So COOL!

http://plpnetwork.com/2011/11/04/life-in-a-technology-embedded-classroom-science-2/

Final Meeting Notes

Goals and Ideas to Explore:

1.  How do we serve students at all levels of comprehension, without detracting from our advanced learners and how do we use technology to further this?


2.  How do we differentiate for students that have obtained basic skills and have them move on to problem-solving and application utilizing available technology?

Programs like ALEKS or Rosetta Stone provide a great review, repetition for students who need more practice.  Steph played around with using technology to collect  "pre-test" data to determine groupings, but keeps coming back to the fact that paper/pencil is the best way to communicate in math.  Some of my advanced problem solving groups did choose to communicate their process and ideas digitally-Educreations or movies.

3.  How to provide choices and options for students with differing learning styles and preferences with appropriate technology?

Odile had great success in using a verbal testing situation with a student who had previously struggled with a written language assessment.  It has been hugely motivating for this student-he found success in class and is working hard.   Lucas talked about how this is affirming of our current philosophical emphasis...but we always struggle with the practicality of this at larger levels.

How do we communicate different learning adaptations that were successful forward to next teachers?  How about College?  What does this mean for career?

4.  Discover new technology tools to enhance differentiation in our classrooms across different platforms and skills.



5.  How do we let our students use technology on their own terms to work most efficiently in class and on projects?


6.  How do we use technology to be as inclusive as possible for every student?


We found technology most useful in gathering resources and sharing ideas to help us learn about differentiation or affirm our choices, more so than specific tools for differentiation.