Address the following questions in the Discussion Board and respond to at least one other participants' post in this section.
Participant Response - session one
What I learned in this session was contrary to what my team and I were doing. I was doing phonological awareness activities, but in large groups. I also was not tayloring them to my students individual needs. After these readings, I reformed my groups and adjusted my teaching accordingly. Yes, my interventions most certainly did. As a kindergarten teacher, it is standard curriculum to teach P.A. One of the first assessments we do is the P.A.S.T. This reading, however, caused me to go back and look at the scores in depth and create interventions to address those. I am hoping I learn many more intervention strategies from this course.
Facilitator Response - session one
Immediate impact on classroom instruction based on one week's worth of readings! Wow, that is wonderful!!! Have any of your team members modified what they are doing or is it just you?
There are some barriers to direct use of EncycloMedia's content by students, but it's not all bad news! Give one general lesson idea which would leverage this content for student-directed learning. Optional: In your opinion, has the open and interactive Internet impacted the world of intellectual property positively, negatively, or not at all?
Participant Response - Student use
I don't know what it is about typing into these messages, but I'm hitting some key that deletes everything and there is no undo option! Arrgh! I can see a couple of uses for students. Pretests to determine the depth to which I need to teach by seeing what they already know well and student made tests.
My third grader groups when doing dictionary skills get to choose 8-10 words from the dictionary they think other students would not know, create 3 multiple choice answers for them and the next class in the rotation is given this test as an activity table option. They have to have 1 answers that is dead-on, one that is plausible, and one that is wrong. This is harder than choosing the words, but they like the challenge and stumping the other classes.
In creating an account, I am assuming that students can create my contents folders. Given a topic, they could go in, create a for this topic and select the best choices on a particular topic based on the blurb with each film. They could create powerpoints and learn to embed content into them.
I think it would be a good start to have students look at a teacher created model first and get a "walk-through" on how it was done. Students have very flexible minds and can often come up with some of the most creative and interesting presentations, especially when working within this type of context.
I also think you could have students write reviews of films based on their usefulness to a specific topic given a criteria by the teacher. My technology teacher and I will be looking at several options similar to these for the 4th and 5th grade students and if that goes well, move it back to third grade the following year. The more savvy these students are when it comes to looking for and discerning the value of a film clip, the more savvy they will be about what they see in other places on the internet.
Facilitator Response - RE:Student use
It is irritating...anytime you click something which causes you to browse away from the page you're composing a response on, you lose everything. It's just one of those little quirks relative to writing through the Internet...I do feel your pain, I've done it lots.
Full access through a student login is the most flexible way to give students access to the content, but, especially with younger students, creating an assignment, quiz, or writing prompt through the "Student Center" gives activities students can do without an account which will deliver specific KET EM titles. I really like your student-created quiz idea...can you think of a way this idea might leverage KET EM content using one of the Student Center options?
Think about the 5 process readiness indicators and the activity that you completed on virtual manipulatives and reflect on the benefits and limitations of virtual manipulatives. Respond to the question: How could using virtual manipulatives help and/or hinder the preparation of students for algebra. Don't forget to respond to TWO participant responses during the session discussions.
Participant Response - [no topic given]
Fraction Model Applet: I enjoyed using this manipulative. However, I am not sure what time frame of teaching the concepts I would allow students to use it. Perhaps it would be useful in correcting their work. As far as the readiness indicators are involved, this site does not promote reading, problem solving or logical reasoning. And I find that most of my students lack in these areas the most. Algebra Balance Scales: I go back and forth with these. Some students really find them beneficial, while other students get so wrapped up in the mechanics they forget that they are trying to solve an equation. This manipulative does require a little more problem solving and logical reasoning skill. I have used this website before and still use it occasionally while teaching equations. Equation Factoring Calculator: I don't like this. I don't understand why they reordered the problem I typed in and the steps seemed a lot more confusing than they had to be. Where would kids use this? I see them using it to cheat on their assignments! I won't be giving this out. I may bring it up on a Smartboard to show some different ways of seeing a problem solved, but I wouldn't want students using this on their own. And it does not involve any of the readiness indicators. I guess technology, but all the student is doing is typing in a problem and getting the answer. How much technology skill does that take?
Facilitator Response - RE:Student use
Regarding the Fraction Applet--when would you use it? What about using it during patterns to see what happens to the percent or decimal when you change the fraction numerator, such as 1, 2, 3, etc. and leave the denominator the same. Or look at 1/4, for example and talk about what you think will happen to the pattern of the % when you half or double the denominator. If used in this manner, I think it would promote problem solving and reasoning.