Carrying out my GAME Plan will require many resources (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). I must carefully craft exactly what tools I will need to better succeed, because “all students deserve the opportunities and resources to develop skills to pursue life’s goals and participate fully informed, productive members of society” (Davis, 2007, p. 5). My desire is to get this plan into motion so that I can prepare my learners for the world!
Last year I took a differentiation professional development class that had many tic-tac-toe choice assessment examples. Since I moved classrooms, I will need to locate this resource, so that I will not have to totally recreate something that is already prepared. Of course I will need to adapt the choices according to the needs of my students, because “the needs of the students in your [my] classroom will change continually throughout the school year and from year to year” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 116). I will at least have a starting point with my current resources. When looking at student needs, I will use one of my readings from another course titled Differentiation Instructional Strategies for Reading in the Content Areas (2009) by Carolyn Chapman and Rita King. On page 46, figure 3.4, there is a table giving various comprehension tasks for students. What is helpful about this table is that options are given for students listed in categories of the eight different Multiple Intelligences. As for additional information, I will need to use my colleagues’ experiences with choice assessments to be able to start off on the right track. I know that “Sharing what you have discovered with a colleague is a critical step in improving your instructional effectiveness” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 115). Teachers with experience can help guide me, often offering resources that cannot be found any other place.
I have already learned valuable information from a colleague while blogging! I now know that ePals can be quite a challenge when you cannot connect with another classroom. In order to help with this problem, a colleague suggested that I begin searching now for a classroom teacher who will collaborate with me on ePals for the 2010-2011 school year. So that is the first step I will take to grow in the area of NETs-T standard 4d. “develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools” (NETS-T, 2008). Are there any other resources that teachers have used to collaborate with other cultures online? If there are better resources available to me, I would love to explore those options so that I can meet my goals. So again, I will use the experiences of my colleagues to help guide me to valuable tools that I have yet to encounter. Another way to carry out my plan is to use the resources my already multi-cultural building! We have a high percentage of English language learners from various cultures around the world, such as Korea, Mexico, China, Libya, and Jordan just to name a few. I could have my students use email as a means of communication to connect with these students who are learning English in our ESL classrooms. This would be a great way for my classroom to build a community with people in our school who we do not get to communicate regularly with because of the language barrier. This would also give the ELL students a way to practice their English with support from their teacher. So I guess I will need to know whether the ESL teachers would be willing to begin this cultural exchange using digital technology.
As I begin looking at the resources I have, I believe I have a solid foundation. I have already been able to locate resources such as the Multiple Intelligence table and the ESL classroom in my school. These beginning steps are important in committing to my goals. The next step I need to take is to begin searching for a classroom on ePals and searching for my differentiation professional development resources. From now on, I must “continue a dialogue outside of common planning times and staff meetings” to collaborate with colleagues and use them as resources (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 115). I am well on my way… I feel the motion! Do you?
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Davis, D. (with Spraker, J., & Kushman, J.). (2004). Improving adolescent reading: Findings from research. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.
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Yup, I feel the forward motion of your GAME plan! I'd like to get in on the motion...feel free to contact me as a potential e-pal for the 2010-2011 school year.
ReplyDeleteI teach sixth grade in Iowa. Perhaps we could select a novel to complete together? Maybe we could study a math unit together or investigate an ancient civilization.
Hi Tianna,
ReplyDeleteI love how you incorporated strategies from the previous classess we have taken. The advance I give you is to remember that “creating a separate activity for each child is not necessary” (Laureate, 2009). I feel we, as teachers, sometimes loss sight of that and try to do too much.
I love the idead of using the students' cultural backgrounds to teach them English. This will allow them to relate and better understand the standards you need them to learn.
James
6th Social Studies
Tianna,
ReplyDeleteA solid foundation is everything as is the willingness to try new things. Your students are lucky to have a teacher who strives to develop new content as well as improve what is already being done. Keep in mind that even if you cannot find another teacher outside your district, there may be teachers within your own school that would be willing to do something like epals with you. You could even do it as a cross-curricular activity. Pick a topic and have students approach it from different core content perspective. For example, I might ask students to discuss the plot of The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, but James might ask his students to explain some of the aspects of Greek Mythology. Together, our students would hopefully discover the connections between the two. Good Luck....
Tianna,
ReplyDeleteI am with you on the professional development resources. Every time I go to a professional development session I get alot out of it but I don't always organize the information well, because I can't always use it right away. That is really cool that you are going to try Epals. That is definitely going to be an interesting experience for you and your students. I am sure there will be some glitches, but it should be well worth it in the long run. I am not sure how I would organize that with the 150 or so students that I have, but I might look into it.
Thanks for sharing your ambitions.
Paul