EDLD 5364 Week 4 Reflection

Teachers and schools must continue to understand students master the technologies often used in today’s learning at home, not at school. And now even higher academic standards must be reached. Technology appears to be the key to that educational opportunity. Marshal McLuhan, a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar, who coined the expression in 1967, “the medium is the message,” helps explain the importance of contemporary communication technologies to changing American views as much as any message or curriculum taught.

The student’s level of knowledge and skills must be known for teacher’s to evaluate the effectiveness of curriculum being used or the technology used to assist the student in learning. CAST Universal Design for Learning helps the teacher understand that when effective student learning is shown, individual differences must be accommodated. Different ideas must be able to be communicated via different media to help accommodate those different types of message as well as matching the differences or diversity of the student receiving those messages. Once calculators were banned from solving math problems because such supports were rejected in problem solving because they appeared to be a crutch. We now realize that in real life problem-solving scenarios such technologies are seen very much reasonable and appropriate for scaffolding the learning to the level of the learner. In order for teachers to see learning take place, the student and curriculum outcomes need to be observed over time. The bigger picture will likely show how effective students learn when teachers engage students with curriculum using technologies brought into the everyday classroom that are very much similar to those students master at home.

Lindquist, J. (2004). The future of anytime, anywhere education. THE Journal, 32(4), 32-34.

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

Wikepedia.com. (February 11, 2011). The medium is the message (phrase). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message_(phrase)

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,http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/.

UDL Lesson Plan #3

Title:	TRADE IN COLONIAL TIMES
Author	Tonya Avery
Subject	Colonial Life
Grade Level	5th
Duration	2 class periods
Subject Area	Social Studies
Unit Description	Students will spot and explain economic concepts within a historical time frame?
Lesson Description	Tell students that they are going to be given a chance to go back in history on a time machine. This journey is going to take them back to Boston Harbor in 1680, but their job is to be an economic spotter. Can they spot and explain economic concepts within a historical time frame?
Standards	Name: Social Studies, Grade 5: Knowledge and skills. Standard: 113.16b,10b Grades: Elementary ●       Economics. The student understands the basic economic patterns of early societies in the United States. ●      The student is expected to identify major industries of colonial America.       ISTE’s NETS  Creativity  and Innovation: a, b                                      Digital Citizenship: a                                      Technology Operations and Concepts: a,b,c,d C                                  Communication and Collaboration: a, b, d
Alignment to UDL Principles	Affective Networks-provide multiple means of engagement. Students will work in small groups and individually. Strategic Networks-provide multiple means of action and expression. Students must communicate orally with group and participate in class discussions. Recognition Network-Provide multiple means of representation. Students will view video, text books and power points.
Accommodations and supports for diverse learners	Design learning experiences and utilizes assistive technology and digital tools to provide access to general curricular content to individuals with disabilities. Blind: audio components, braille and larger visual texts Hearing impaired: students will be give preferential seating and written instructions. Multiple achievement levels and Disabled:  students will actively participate in group project and independent study with the assistance of aide’s, special tools, materials and additional time. Gifted and talented: students will be engage in enrichment assignments and problem solving activities.

Goals

Unit Goals	STUDENTS WILL ●    Define the concept of exchange and trade. ●   Find examples of economic specialization within a story ●   Students will participate in technology-based activities to help explain and discuss the history of coins and contains various information regarding current and past coins while including activities about coins.
Lesson Goals	Students will take a trip back in time and spot economic concepts in a historical fiction tale. This time frame features Boston Harbor around 1680.

Methods

Anticipatory Set	KWL Chart (What I Know, What I Want to Learn, What I Learned) Fill in the first two columns of a KWL chart with the whole class in order to summarize what everyone currently knows about Colonial Life, and what they still want to learn. At the end of the lesson today, what the class learned will be discussed and entered on the chart.
Introduce and Model New Knowledge	In a large group, tell children that they are going to have an opportunity to step back into time.  As a support to engage students in a discussion, use picture cards, which depict the Colonial Life.
Provide Guided Practice	In this activity ask each student or pair of students to select and aspect of Colonial life, (food, clothing, transportation, shelter) and to quietly explore and figure out several difference compared to today’s life. Tell them to be prepared to return to the large group in 10 minutes to share their findings.  Resources that students can access include (internet, textbook, and supplied links Collect information on a chart and highlight the similarities and differences between groups.
Provide Independent Practice	Students should spend class time today, and out-of-class time studying their resources, collecting and organizing the information they have learned. and Defining Glossary terms from: http://www.econedlink.org/e301

Assessment

Formative/Ongoing Assessment	Go back to the Time Machine activity and review what you have learned.  Students will complete a  unit vocabulary assessment
Summative/End Of Lesson Assessment	Write a paragraph in which you tell what exchange is and what sort of exchanges took place in Boston, 1680. Tell how specialization helped people in the colonies trade with England.

Materials

Smart Board Projector Computer Internet

UDL BookBuilder

Trade in Colonial History

EDLD 5364 Trade In Colonial History

Bookbuilder Reflection

I think that using book builder could be very valuable to some teachers and possible to students, but I felt overwhelmed it was very time consuming. 
There are a lot of great features within the book builder program.  
It contains text, images and multiple characters.  I feel that there are other products that can do the  same thing . This program is best suited for teachers with more time and a great story in mind.

EDLD 5364- Week 3 UDL Reflection

The quote regarding a key concept to address when designing effective student-centered learning experiences with technology comes from Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age, Chapter 7.  The Value of UDL in Assessment: "Embedded, flexible, ongoing assessments have the potential to resolve many of the problems with standardized, paper-and-pencil tests, particularly as tools for guiding teaching. It is true that standardized tests can yield valuable information, especially if one is evaluating trends and information about groups, but as accurate assessments of individual students' skills, knowledge, and learning, these assessment tools are severely flawed." As we incorporate more and more technology into the curriculum, we must also ensure the continuum between the written, taught and tested curriculum is maintained

Week 2 Reflection EDLD 5364

There is more  evidence that technology must be employed in a way that enhances student learning, increases opportunities for access and promotes higher ­order thinking  Skills. For too long, we have lumped students into categories and pulled them out of their classrooms to participate in Gifted and Talented programs, Special Education programs,and Accelerated programs simply because they learn differently than their peers.