Week 7 GAME Plan Reflection

This course has been an eye opening class. I have always tried to make my projects and tests cumulative since I teach a foreign language. It upsets my students, but as I tell them we simply build on the language that we learned prior- we do not forget how to say the words we learned as a child. Therefore, our projects and tests will always incorporate the vocabulary that they learned previously. My previous projects have always only become longer in length but I feel that they were lacking in cohesion. This class has helped me make my projects more meaningful and progressive.

I never considered having my projects build into a larger more meaningful assignment before. Yes, I have made project-based learning assignments but they have never had the same impact as these that I created this week will. I feel my lessons have more of a purpose and a true goal behind them. I was nervous about creating a social networking lesson plan. However, I loved the sample activities that were presented in the videos for week 6. Vicki Davis (Laureate Education, 2009) made those projects seem so simple and fun for the students to do. I think every student should be involved with a Flat Classroom Project. Our world has too much hatred and not enough acceptance. Bringing our students together like Davis did can open our students up to new experiences and more acceptance and tolerance. I think my lesson involving the high school French students will have a good impact on our department and the students. My students will get a glimpse of what they will be able to achieve if they continue to take the language. While the high school students will be able to encourage and mentor the level one students.

In regards to technology, I think that I over estimate how much my students are able to do. Yes, they are wizards when it comes to social media, however, there is still a lot that they need to learn to use presentation software, to complete audio exercises, and to use some hardware: like speakers and microphones. I need to be more patient and to plan for time in my lessons to give tutorials on these aspects of technology to my students. It took me about 4 weeks for my students to be able to use their school emails from home and another 3 weeks until they were all able to use their audio software in their online textbooks.

My students like using technology and I want to continue to strive to implement meaningful lessons and  incorporate technology into my classes. As Cennamo (Laureate Education, 2009) stressed, it is important to be a self-directed learner and become acquainted with the changing technologies and teaching strategies. I hope to stay current on the latest technologies so I can keep my classes current and increase my students' 21st century skill set.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas:

          Promoting self-directed learning with technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas:

          Spotlight on technology: Social networking and online collaboration, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Corrie Kociscin
French 6-8
Old Bridge, NJ

Monitoring my GAME plan progress

     As of right now, my main focus for my GAME plan is to teach the students the French language. We are working in Leçon 3 in our textbook Discovering French- Bleu by Holt McDougal. This chapter focuses on food and the culture of cafés and bistros in France. The culture of this chapter is rather eye opening for the students. They are learning about shopping in specialty stores, eating various animals we do not typically eat in the US, and how one respects the waiters and chefs in France. This will be setting the students up for discussing the foods offered in restaurants in their Francophone cities. They will be sharing some traditional foods that are eaten in those cities with the class. It has been shocking to some of them to learn that the French eat rabbit, snails, horse, and pigeon. But I am proud to say that they did not become overly disgusted and treated the differences in the foods with respect and maturity.
     I do not feel the need to modify my action plan just yet. The students are now comfortable with studying their vocabulary terms and the verb conjugations, they know what is expected form them. Now is the time to build their vocabulary and increase their comfort with the language and speaking in front of each other. Presently, my students are working on dialogs with partners. They must incorporate terms from all previous chapters to have a conversation, which they will present in front of the class. They are also completing audio exercises in their online textbooks. I love being able to hear the students  using the language in the comfort of their own homes. I am able to give each student the needed attention they deserve to give them pronunciation pointers as I grade the assignments. I am able to praise them and build their confidence for using the language in class.
     I am rethinking one aspect of the action plan. The audio segment of the project. This seems to be the hardest part for most students during the creation of the presentation. Not all software programs are user friendly when it comes to inserting audio. Therefore, I am exploring Voice Thread as an alternative program for the students to create their projects. It seems that some students have difficulty recording their voices on their computers (I found this out while doing the audio exercises from the online text). Therefore, I am investigating Voice Thread since it can be used on their phones as well, something they are all familiar with using. Wish me luck!

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

The Goal I will be concentrating on is for Standard 1c - Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes. My students will be creating a presentation of a Francophone city in French. They will need to research the city so they will need to use search engines and the Internet. They will need organization software like Kidspiration for concept mapping. Students will use presentation software like Prezi, Google Docs, Power Point, Powtoons, iMovie, Movie Maker, or Animoto to create their city presentation. Students will need a tutorial on how to insert movies and videos into the presentation. I will use YouTube tutorials to show the students how to use this for their projects. The students and I will need to use computers, the Internet, and I will also use a projector to show samples and tutorials to the class. 

I will be incorporating several different learning strategies during this project. I will have the students brainstorming some topics that they would like to know about Francophone cities. They will be completing individual research and creating individual presentations about their chosen city In French. Students will be completing handouts to evaluate their research and verify their facts. They will review their facts and answer class generated questions about their presentations to verify that they have enough and interesting facts about their cities. The audience will also be choosing which cities they would like to visit based on their peer's presentations. They will also explain why they would like to visit that particular city.




The most important aspect of this project is having the students use French to describe their city. As of today, this is the only aspect that I have worked on with the students. We have covered two chapters where they have learned to describe themselves using adjectives, how to use the verbs to be and to have, introduce people and things to others,  and they have learned their numbers in French. So far they have practiced speaking French into audio recorders and are experienced at listening to themselves and critiquing their work and possibly deciding to rerecord their audio segments. These skills will again be used for their Francophone city presentations. So far so good.

My GAME plans

There are two National Standards for Teachers from the International Society for Technology in Education that I would like to become more confident with. They are: Standard One- Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity: c- Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes, and Standard Four- Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility: d- Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools (International Society for Technology in Education, 2015). In Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach by Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer (2009), the authors explain how the “Game Plan” is used to set goals, take action to meet those goals, monitor one’s progress towards reaching those goals, and evaluate whether the goals were accomplished and extend one’s learning for the future.

My GAME Plan for Standard 1c - Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes is as follows.

GOAL- My goal is to have my students reflect on their work of creating a presentation about a Francophone city around the world. I want my students to feel that they researched the city in enough depth to give an enticing description of the city and all it has to offer, so that others will want to visit there. I hope that my students will feel that they did not simply state places to visit but helped make the city come alive to the audience.

ACTION- I will require the students to research tourist and monument sites to gather information about the places to visit in their Francophone cities. They will be asked to watch you tube videos and virtual tours of those places. They will be asked to describe what they saw and learned about using very descriptive language.

MONITOR- My students will be asked to review the information they are finding and compare it with a questionnaire provided by the teacher. Will the audience be able to answer the questionnaire after viewing the individual’s presentation? What more needs to be added to the presentation to help the audience answer those questions? Does the student need to complete more research? Does the student need to use better adjectives? Does the student need to better understand the monument they are explaining?

EVALUATE AND EXTEND- The evaluation will be the grading of the presentation and the use of French to showcase their Francophone city. Students will be required to present their city to the class using their presentation and showing videos and photos of their cities. Students will take notes on the presentations and complete a wish list of places they would like to visit and must state why they would like to visit those cities, using the information that they obtained from the presentations.

My GAME Plan for Standard 4 d- Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools is as follows.

GOAL- My goal is to use ePal to create a link with a school in either France or a Francophone country.  I would like my students to create relationships with students from around the world to be able to compare their lives and cultures to those in the French-speaking world. I would like my students to become more comfortable speaking French to native speakers so they can become more confident in their language use.

ACTION- I need to take action to learn about ePal. I need to research how to sign up and what measures are taken to protect the students while using this form of communication. I need to get permission from my administration to use this type of site with my middle school students. I will also need to find a teacher in a French speaking country that would be willing to partner up with my class.

MONITOR- In order to gage if I am making sufficient progress towards my goal, I will need to set up a time frame for myself to ensure that all of my research of the site is completed and able to be presented to my administration for approval. Once that is competed I will need to have parents sign permission slips allowing their children to participate in the activity. I will need to monitor the emails to and from my students on a weekly basis to ensure they are communicating in the target language and completing the assignments I set up for them.

EVALUATE AND EXTEND- I will be evaluating my students based on the weekly communications with their ePal.  I will be monitoring their use of grammar and vocabulary and on whether they accomplished their goals set forth on the assignment sheets provided. I will also be evaluating the amount of growth the students have made while communicating with a student from another country. Most of my students can be very egocentric and believe that the only way to do things is the way that they have always done them. This will give them a view into other cultures and customs and see how the other parts of the world function. I hope to be able to see the difference in my students when discussing ways other parts of the world celebrate and function.

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful

            classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom

            ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards

            for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from

            http://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards/standards-for-teachers.

Walden Assignment September 27th - Dr. Lebeau

Stream the recording via SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/mark-kociscin/wk4assgnkociscinc/s-o2a80

or

try this link:

Walden Assignment September 27th - Dr. Lebeau

or

            My Personal Learning Theory has not changed too much since Week 1 of this course. I still believe that it is very important for students to be fully immersed in the language and to be motivated to learn by desire to gain the knowledge. I also still feel that Kolb’s and Roger’s Experiential Learning Theories are on what I base my personal theory. However, after listening to Dr. Wolfe describe how the brain functions and how memory and learning take place I feel more connected to the reasons behind my beliefs.

            I received my teaching license from the Alternate Route Program and I always felt that I was lacking something in my education. I had the teacher’s “intuition” to create a good lesson but I could never explain why I used the strategies and methods that I would use. This course has enhanced that part of my education. I understand how a brain functions and how memories are stored. I now know why immersion and experiential learning are important for my students. My students need to make those connections and build the networks in their brains. Technology is a wonderful way to engage my students in virtual tours, auditory assignments, and movie making for dialogs. These creations and experiences will stick with my students longer and have more meaning in their lives then just repeating some phrases and conjugating verbs in class.  They will hear constant reinforcement in the target language and begin to incorporate more vocabulary into their daily language.

            I would like to incorporate a few technology tools in my classroom. This year I have used a blog site in our course work that I would like to utilize in my classroom. I hear my students complain about using technology for education and I want them to feel more comfortable using technology for real world situations. I want to create a teacher blog page for my classes next year, one per grade level. I want the students to be able to ask questions in the target language (for 8^th grade) about their homework or classwork and get a response from a classmate or myself. I think this would help the students feel more like they are a learning community not just a struggling individual.

            I would also like to incorporate a journaling blog page for each student. In previous years my students would keep a portfolio for the year. I have moved away from this assignment and I think I would like to start it up again. I want my student to see how much they have improved over the course of the year. I would incorporate both written and auditory assignments so the students could see their growth in both written and spoken language. I think students need to feel confident and secure in their language skills to be able to take risks speaking in class, so I want them to see how much they have improved.

            I would like to make a few changes in my instructional practice regarding technology. I want my students to have the ability to use computers or iPads more in class. I would like the students to use them to either complete their journaling blogs, complete textbook aural activities. I ultimately would like my students to Skype with a classroom in Quebec or France. I want my students to be exposed to more native speakers from around the world so partnering up with a school in Quebec or France is a goal of mine. They would be able to use what they are learning in class to have authentic conversations with native speakers. I get chills just thinking about the wonderful impact that would have on their learning, not of just basic terms but also of the culture and slang of kids their age. I need to start applying for grants to purchase the ipads or computers that my students will need to use and I want to ask my PLC’s about schools they partner up with for this type of class-to-class interaction. 

            Thanks for listening.

Corrie :-)

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is an important social learning strategy for the 21st century classroom. Social Learning Theory states that students learn from creating an artifact based on the knowledge that they gathered and by socializing within a group to solidify and more fully comprehend what they have learned (Orey, 2001). Cooperative learning "focuses on having students interact with each other in groups in ways that enhance their learning" (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, 2012, p.73). Pitler, Hubbell and Kuhn also go on to discuss that cooperative learning binds the students together so they will strive to succeed in the project as a team (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, 2012) . This increases class moral and student confidence by ensuring that each member is an important and integral part of the group. Cooperative learning must be set up by the teacher in advance so that the students are aware of their roles in the group. Pitler, Hubbell, and Kuhn state that this strategy can back fire if not enough prep work is done to prepare the class for working in their groups (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, 2012). This supports the social learning theory idea of learning from one's mentor, or in this case the teacher.  Teachers need to model and explain the role of each group member and monitor the classroom to ensure every one is on task and working towards the goal of the group.

Skype and Google Docs are some examples of technology used in cooperative learning. These applications enable students to work with people outside the classroom. Whether it is in their own homes across town or across the globe, students can use these applications to share knowledge and discuss ideas no matter where they are. This is what social learning theories are trying to encourage, learning with and from others, or as Orey (Laureate Education, n.d.) called them, More Knowledgeable Others.

Social learning theory also states that culture and one's own experiences are important to the learning group. Each student brings their own ideas, morals, and experiences to the information gathered and artifact created by the group (Laureate Education, n.d.). As the members in the cooperative learning groups share their ideas and interpretations, they debate and explore each other's ideas. This again expands the knowledge they are creating and interpreting.

There are simply too many positive effects of social learning theories and cooperative learning for educators to ignore. We should all incorporate these theories and strategies into our classrooms.





Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Social learning theories [Video file]. Retrieved from

          https://class.waldenu.edu

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from

          http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works

         (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Corrie needs some good advice and suggestions

Ok friends, I need your help. Please view my voice thread below and try to help me with the problem that I am facing with one of my French Classes.  I need help motivating my students to study and do homework.  Thank you for any help that you can give me.

Merci

Corrie

Corrie's Dilema