Week+3+Reflection

This page will include all the reflections and products from the Week 3 Assignments and readings.

__** Week 3 Reflection **__

The focus of this week's learning was creating learning activities that are flexible in presentation, learning and assessment. Rose and Meyer (2002) state, "Today's typical classroom might include students whose first language is not English; students who are not reading on grade level; students with behavioral, attentional, and motivational problems; students from varied cultural backgrounds; and students classified as gifted. In addition, there are students with particular needs, such as limited vision, motor disabilities, emotional difficulties, speech and language difficulties, and learning disabilities." This is why the need for flexibility is so important. With the varying levels of abilities, both mental and physical, and larger class sizes, teachers need to work harder to help every student learn successfully in the classroom. To help teachers accomplish the seemingly insurmountable task, Rose and Meyer (2002) suggest creating lessons that have students access the three learning networks in the brain, recognition, strategic and affective.

Students use the recognition network to discern patterns in the information and relate it to patterns they are already familiar. Many teachers present information in class one or two ways, leaving those students who need it in a different format lost and frustrated. In order for all to recognize the "pattern" the teacher may need to demonstrate the information orally, visually, textually, physically, and so on. By presenting information to the students in multiple ways, they are able to "see" the pattern. Using the various options that digital media offer, the teacher is able to build a library of resources to help reach all students.

The strategic network focuses on the problem-solving area of the brain, where students learn new information and relate it to what they already know. To successfully do this, students need to develop an internal model of the information and content in order to use it to generate results. For this, the teacher needs to provide many examples of the correct process as well as “incorrect” so students learn how to do it correctly. Digital media helps, as there are many different models of the process that are explained and presented in different ways. Through the web, students can read, watch, play and talk with other people about the process.

For student to be connected to the "why" of learning, they need to use the affective brain during the learning. "Giving students choices of content and tools can increase their enthusiasm for learning particular processes" (Rose, D. & Meyer, A., 2002). Having a student track their average of successful baskets made during a basketball game is much more interesting than working a page of math problems focused on learning how to find an average. In this way, the teacher is able to link a student's interest to a skill they need to build. When a student is actively engaged in the learning through their interests, they are able to sustain their focus and create better understanding of the content.

Digital media and other technology can quickly become a major part of the UDL lesson when planning for all students to achieve. Focusing on the structure and strategies of teaching the lesson, teachers can use technologies and methods that allow them to meet the students' particular needs for each network of learning.

Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal Design for Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web site. Chapter 6. Retrieved on October 5, 2009, from http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/

__**bookbuilder.cast.org assignment:**__ Plate Tectonics - Boundaries

__** BookBuilder Reflection **__

The process of creating an eBook and using BookBuilder.cast.org was a little bit daunting. First, though I am usually pretty good with technology, my background for the information I placed in the book was lacking. I had to pick my husband’s brain for the information to make sure it was age appropriate. The second challenge was planning how to present the information in the book. To help me with this challenge, I looked at several books that other teachers had created. The tips given by the giraffe character were also helpful. There were several items that I needed to create to use in the book. I used Illustrator to create the images and GarageBand to record my audio portions. With the third challenge completed, the final hurdle was using bookbuilder.cast.org to create the book.

The site was fairly easy to use. Having the book planned out and the images and audio created should have made the process simple. Wrong! As I began with entering the information about the book, I realized that I had not planned for making the book accessible to many different levels of students or that it needed to be a technology that could be incorporated into the lesson. This is where the coaches come into the plan. The three coaches, in my book, were given the jobs of content coach, vocabulary coach and clue coach. The content coach explains the concept by having the student do a hands on activity. Though the vocabulary would have already been taught, there is a coach to refresh the students’ memories. The final coach would have clues for the “check for understanding” questions.

With more time, I believe the eBook can be used as a teaching aid in the classroom as one of the many different way of presenting the concept of plate tectonic boundaries. Since it is located on the web, the book can be used by students, who were absent, to stay up with the instruction through access at home. One final way would be as a review instrument. Once the book is actually used in the classroom, I am sure several more uses will become apparent.

__**lessonbuilder.cast.org assignment:**__

__** Lesson Builder Reflection **__

Working with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Lesson Builder (http://lessonbuilder.cast.org) had me stop and think about why I was using a particular strategy to instruct, what activities would be a barrier for students to learn, and how to assess the authentic learning that might happen. Keeping the three networks of learning, recognition, strategic and affective (Rose, D., & Meyer, A., 2002), in mind and using the "Lesson Self-Check" found on the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) site I created and evaluated the activities for the lesson.

To start the lesson, I used an activity that most students should have some context to relate and added group brainstorming so all students would have a chance to voice their ideas. From there we extended the discussion to the whole class as each group contributed their ideas. As I moved on to the guided and independent learning activities, I found that learner-centered activities fit perfectly with the UDL model. By giving the students several choices, including the use of technology, the students could achieve the goals of the lesson using their particular learning style. For the final assessment, students were encouraged to choose a component of the lesson for their project focus. Their task was to research and create a presentation in any format that they wanted to present to the class. Again, this allowed the students to show off their talents, skills, and interests and what they have learned.

In the end, this was an interesting exercise that made me focus on my teaching strategies, as well as, what activities would help all the students learn and be successful in the classroom.

Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal Design for Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web site. Chapter 6. Retrieved on October 5, 2009, from http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/