For my final project, I chose to create a virtual tour for my students about 8 World Wonders (when I looked up "Seven World Wonders" there were many different categories, so I just chose one collection of wonders). The students will go on a virtual field trip each day and do activities related to each place about the culture, language, food, ext. Students must also write a reflection piece for each day about their least favorite activity, favorite activity, and what they learned. At the end of the unit, they will create a "Museum Box" that will house all the the artifacts they created throughout their "journey" and all of their reflections. They will also reflect over the entire unit. Students will then give the class a short presentation about their favorite place, and why it was their favorite destination. The Museum Boxes will serve as the final project and in turn be used as a portfolio to track their participation and progress. Students will then look at one another's museum boxes "gallery walk" style. I created my rubric to reflect each region. Since there are eight different regions, there are eight categories on my rubric, and each day is sort of planned out based on the World Wonder, and then sub categorized into culture, language, food ext. The students also have a daily project that relates to each area that they get points for completing. So, for the Great Wall of China, students will collectively create a great wall of China out of Styrofoam blocks. I feel like my rubric also allows for partial credit and would also be useful for a class for students with disabilities because a lot of the grades are focused on completion. Even the final project, as a portfolio, is essentially based upon completion. The students could guide this project because all of the places we will "visit" also have a virtual tour component, so students can poke around all of the areas to explore the wonders as if they were actually there. The activities that follow each lesson can also be completed entirely by the students after I give instructions. This type of unit would also be ideal for allowing students to create their own culture pieces, or drawings that are related to the culture or region we focus on that day. I think the concept of a virtual tour in and of itself was very beneficial for me. I had never heard of this type of student experience before, so I learned more from researching things on my own and looking up different sites and videos than I would have with a regular lesson plan that didn't involve a new concept. I was able to find many different websites with information about virtual, interactive tours, and also find new ideas for other potential virtual field trips.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Hoertel Position Paper Post
For my position paper, my top three choice were: Phonics, Opportunity gap, and the gender gap.
I chose Phonics as my final paper topic. This topic personally affects and interests me. I have never understood phonics. When I was younger, I never had any problems reading, or learning to read, I just never understood phonics. My teacher and parents tried everything they could think of to get me to understand phonics, and it nothing worked. To this day, I still can't explain the difference between a "long" a and a "short" a and whatnot. I have always been an excellent reader too. Therefore, I am interested to know alternative ways to teach reading, without focusing on phonics so much. I have personal experience, and know that teaching Phonics is not a method that works well with all students, and am interested in finding ways for students to learn without such a focus on phonics.
I chose the opportunity gap as my second choice because this is another topic that I am find interesting. I took a Sociology class last semester , and this is something that constantly interested me. I then did a poster that went on the the USF about the Failure of NCLB. Most of the failures of this law had to do with opportunity gap. Teachers are only part of the equation. The home life of students and their parent's role also makes a major difference in their development. I would be interested in understanding how to close this gap and also how this mainly relates to Urban areas and ways students can overcome these inequalities in order to have the best chance of success.
Finally, I chose the gender gap for my third choice. When I saw this choice I immediately thought of the studies that showed that on a subconscious level teachers call of male students more often than female students and the affect that this has on female learning and male learning/behavior. I looked this issue up quickly before ranking my options, and read something that was concerned about male students struggling in school. I think it would be interesting to see if there was a correlation between these two things, and also what causes the gender gap and effective ways to close the gap.
I think all of these topics need to be debated. Everything taught should be viewed from both sides. Even if it is a method or study that has been effective for years, there is always chance for improvement and revamping.
I chose Phonics as my final paper topic. This topic personally affects and interests me. I have never understood phonics. When I was younger, I never had any problems reading, or learning to read, I just never understood phonics. My teacher and parents tried everything they could think of to get me to understand phonics, and it nothing worked. To this day, I still can't explain the difference between a "long" a and a "short" a and whatnot. I have always been an excellent reader too. Therefore, I am interested to know alternative ways to teach reading, without focusing on phonics so much. I have personal experience, and know that teaching Phonics is not a method that works well with all students, and am interested in finding ways for students to learn without such a focus on phonics.
I chose the opportunity gap as my second choice because this is another topic that I am find interesting. I took a Sociology class last semester , and this is something that constantly interested me. I then did a poster that went on the the USF about the Failure of NCLB. Most of the failures of this law had to do with opportunity gap. Teachers are only part of the equation. The home life of students and their parent's role also makes a major difference in their development. I would be interested in understanding how to close this gap and also how this mainly relates to Urban areas and ways students can overcome these inequalities in order to have the best chance of success.
Finally, I chose the gender gap for my third choice. When I saw this choice I immediately thought of the studies that showed that on a subconscious level teachers call of male students more often than female students and the affect that this has on female learning and male learning/behavior. I looked this issue up quickly before ranking my options, and read something that was concerned about male students struggling in school. I think it would be interesting to see if there was a correlation between these two things, and also what causes the gender gap and effective ways to close the gap.
I think all of these topics need to be debated. Everything taught should be viewed from both sides. Even if it is a method or study that has been effective for years, there is always chance for improvement and revamping.
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