TLAT #1, Part 2: Exploring lessons.

We started working on the first Think Like a Teacher activity Monday. We’ve worked through Step 1 of our Lesson Design Guide so you have a good idea about which of your curriculum standards require students to communicate and/or collaborate. See how a Martha’s Vineyard teacher uses Skype with her students. (We’ll start the video about 3 minutes in).

In order to complete the TLAT #1 (due Wednesday, September 29th) you’ll need to complete the Lesson Design Guide that was shared to your Google Docs account. We’ll work through step 2 and 3 in class today (and for HW) and you will do step 4 on your own by Monday. We’ll finalize things on Monday in time for you to turn in your project Wednesday.

Your grant proposal will be evaluated using these 5 criteria from the grant letter:

1. The lesson activity should engage students in content learning by addressing Georgia Performance Standards or other learning standards.
2. Technology should be used to promote one or more types of communication and/or collaboration described by the National Educational Technology Standards.
3. The lesson activity should allow every student to participate in and contribute to their group work with clearly defined roles.
4. The grant application should address all questions posed and reflect clarity of thinking as the lesson activity is developed.
5. The lesson elaboration and reflection should show how the lesson activity would impact student content learning and engage them in communication and collaboration opportunities.

When teachers plan learning activities for their students – the first thing they must do is identify what they must teach (curriculum standards). Then, they must look at their students’ strengths and weaknesses (learner profiles) to determine how best to teach the curriculum (teaching strategies). Students might be confused by the topic, unmotivated to learn it, likely to forget the important details, etc.  Good teachers try to anticipate issues like this as they plan their learning activities.

Find other students in the class with similar grade levels/content areas and discuss the “big picture” you created in Step One. Discuss with them the challenges you listed in implementing collaboration or communication in your lesson.

Today’s task is to explore lesson resources and come up with several ideas for your lesson.

Let’s look at some other resources for using technology to promote communication and collaboration. There are many other places teachers can go to get ideas for instructional strategies: lesson plan sites, ideas from other teachers, and information from national organizations (National Council for Teachers of Mathematics: NCTM, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: ASHA, International Reading Association: IRA, etc.)

Once you’ve come up with 5 possible learning activities it’s time to look at Step 3. This is the step where you take your 5 ideas and select the best one.  Why do you need criteria to make this choice?
There are already 3 criteria in your evaluation chart (in Step 3). These criteria are from the grant letter you read on Tuesday. Use your “Big Picture” from Step 1 and come up with 2 additional criteria to use to select the best activity.

Once you’ve selected your 5 criteria you can rank each of your 5 activity ideas based on how well each one meets the criteria. You might rank them 1-5: 1 meaning the activity does not meet the criteria and 5 meaning the activity meets or exceeds the criteria. The activity with the highest overall score is the one you should select to move on to Step 4.

Homework

• Make sure you have brainstormed 4 to 5 possible lesson ideas and type them in your design guide.
• Complete step 3, choosing one lesson idea you think will be a good fit.  If you have a chance, discuss with me you ideas before you leave today.
• There will be no class Friday.  Use the time to work on your TLAT. By Monday you will need to complete section 4.  We will work on section 5 in class.  If you have any questions and would like to meet with me on Friday, please email me in advance to set up an appointment.