Technology in the Classroom

     Unfortunately the class I took here at the university with this title did not teach me as much as I would have liked to been taught about using technology in the classroom and how to work with technology as a teaching tool. However some other classes (including this one) have been extremely helpful in my attempt to implement technology in my own classroom! I have had personal experience with how effective technology is in the classroom and I think that teachers need to embrace this upcoming changing classroom environment to better teach future generations.

     What kind of message does it send to young students if schools do not utilize something extremely important to our culture and society as technology? Students will develop the idea that schools are not as advanced as they truly are and they will be underprepared for the real world, in which they will use technology on a daily basis. Technology can help students learn valuable skills they will need in life and their careers.

     Directly relating to one of the technology articles there is some new technology in the works that can help us more efficiently skim and scan pieces of literature. The technology, to be utilized on a smart phone or tablet, uses the front facing camera to track where your eye is looking on the page and automatically scrolls for you when you near the bottom of the page. Amongst other leaps in technology, this one in particular helps with controlling the readers pace and can help the reader practice slower and faster pacing during reading.

     In my practicum experience I brought in my own tablet to use during a lesson and it worked very well. Before the students would drill sight words using notecards and their attention spans would be gone instantly. When I brought notecards up on a tablet they immediately focused in and I haven’t had a management problem with them since.

     As I said earlier in this post technology is so vital for these young generations to get accustomed to because when they group up and are leading our society technology will be even more prevalent in our country and around the globe. Technology also has the capability to unlock student creativity that would have otherwise remained untapped. One computer game called Minecraft is what is known as a sandbox game that allows the user to build whatever he/she wants within a finite world. I have seen videos and read articles about this being incorporated in the classroom and some things the students can produce simply by stacking the blocks in certain formations are extraordinary.

     My future classroom will definitely utilize technology. I aim to use it everyday in every lesson I teach so that the students are exposed to it across a multitude of subjects. In the end technology is a great classroom tool for teachers to master and implement in their teaching, but it can also be a risky business sometimes. The key is knowing when to draw the line that separates technology being helpful for students as a learning tool and where it becomes more of a game instead of learning based.

Instructional Conversations

Despite being in a classroom of 1^st graders I had high hopes for my instructional conversation. Many portions of it proved to be effective however for next time I would like to work on getting the students to respond to each other more. Aside from a few occasions the students were mostly responding to my prompts or me. Some of the students really got it and were contributing excellent higher order thinking responses while others were sticking to surface level themes or summaries of the text we focused on.  As I dive into the thorough analysis this week I will explore what led up to moments that showed great instructional conversing amongst the students, what did not work so well, and what I can improve on for next time!

I chose to do my instructional conversation about the picture book Peter’s Chair. In this picture book Peter’s baby sister has just been born and his parents are paying more attention to her than him. They paint all of his baby things pink and he gets jealous and attempts to run away. In the end Peter decides to help his dad paint his chair for his little sister. So despite the somewhat basic plot line this book has several talking points that could be focused on that reveal the theme of the story. The ones I chose to focus on with my students were Why did Peter decide to run away, why was he grumpy throughout the story, and why did Peter change his mind at the end of the story. These talking points deal with Peter’s jealous and anger throughout the story. And the last one deals with his overall care and love for his sister that he was able to realize at the end of the story.

I taught my lesson with an instructional conversation focus last week and I do have some good data to analyze however the biggest mistake I think I made was making the group aware of the tape recorder. With other groups I have worked with the tape recorder did not change their interactions with me at all, but this group could not handle it as well as the other groups. During the lesson they were obsessed with the recorder and would try to say things into it.

As Goldenberg specifies I followed the elements of an instructional conversation by establishing a focus (Peter’s reaction to his sister), activating schema (asking the students about their own siblings and feelings they may have had), and provided starting points for thoughtful conversation (the talking points I listed above). Backed up in Johnston’s text, this idea of collaboration and building on peers ideas will promote critical thinking and HOTS among the students. So in my first attempt at an instructional conversation I think my content and focus was there, however student interaction with the conversation could be improved.

After I construct my Instructional Conversation essay I will be keeping in mind things that went well, not so well, and what I learned about this process that I can use for next time I have one in my own classroom.

Writing Assessment reflective post

  Overall my students did well on this writing exercise and gave me plenty of ideas regarding how to expand on this topic and build up their writing skills. Although my rubric specifies the importance of exact structure of the poem, their poems most definitely showed writer voice and a developing usage of descriptive adjectives, these two things are supported in Andersen’s text as traits of good writing (Andersen 56). To build on what this assessment has shown me I believe the students would benefit mostly from drafting work, word choice enhancement, and layouts of writing pieces. All three of these teaching ideas can be applied in small groups, large groups, or individually.

  Drafting, as several of our course texts have specified is an essential component of writing. As Miller’s text says, reading and by association writing is all about making meaning so how is the student supposed to make meaning after one writing exercise with Cinquain poems? Through a drafting process I would propose that students create a rough draft then with small groups or partners we could peer edit. The ability to think together is not only useful in classroom settings within writing, but also in the context of the real world (Johnston 103). Responding and reflecting on a peers writing is also identified as two of the five points of teaching true and to the test in writing (Wolf 232). Observing the students share ideas and writing with each other I could informally assess any growth that would take place.

  This collaboration would be encouraged in my next suggestion to direct future instruction and assessment. Enhancing the vocabulary of the students in exercises involving thesauruses and using descriptive words would help improve their writing. Andersen specifies the importance of rehearsing writing and that good writers return to topics they can connect to and have purpose for writing about (111). To apply this in the classroom setting letting students choose their topics is absolutely crucial. Through choice of their own topic they will have an interest and maybe some background knowledge to work with while they delve deeper into the topic. Topic choice for writing was something that was discussed thoroughly in other courses I have taken, so between that and the professional text that supports it I believe it is pretty important for developing writers.

  Finally, to address layouts of writing pieces introducing different kinds of writing layouts will help familiarize the class with all the different styles. A specific example, the students could write a formal letter to a celebrity or member of the government. This activity would simultaneously address adhering to layouts for certain writing pieces and writing to a real audience, which is a component of being an initiator of writing (Andersen 29). Layout of writing and genre can go hand in hand to improve the students understanding of layouts of writing. An activity could be to write the same story from different perspectives or genres (Andersen 154). Through these activities the students will gain a new understanding of layouts and will maybe even be inspired to revise previous writing pieces with different layouts.

  My group of students is on the right track for writing development and will continue to grow and learn if the goal of lifelong writing is reinforced. Through working with drafting and peer editing, word choice exercises, and lessons about layouts and genres of writing I believe these students will gain a better understanding of writing and themselves as writers.

-Andersen

-Miller

-Johnston

-Wolf