Recap
Previously, my mentor teacher and I had developed a three-day plan to provide targeted interventions for my Tier 3 small group. We decided to focus on developing vocabulary and categorization skills after reviewing assessment data from Istation. Aligning instruction with the standards being taught and the assessments being given helps teachers ensure that their teaching is cohesive and students' skills and learning are being accurately assessed (Carnegie Mellon University, 2022). Originally, we were primarily concerned with differentiating the instruction based on students' needs and interests. This week, I returned to the lesson plan with the intention of incorporating more technology or adjusting the current implementation of it to further promote global awareness and diverse cultural perspectives in my first graders in order to help them develop global literacy. Global literacy involves them taking responsibility as citizens of the world to advocate for literacy in multiple mediums as a universal right (Dwyer, 2016).
The Technology
Technology can be used as an instructional tool or aid, as a platform for self-reflection, or as a vehicle of student choice and creativity (Robinson, 2022). In the lesson plans my mentor and I developed, we originally relied on technology as an instructional tool. On the final day, students were able to use it as a way to reflect on their learning. After reviewing the plans, I added in a digital read-aloud to aid my students, an interactive whiteboard that fosters collaboration, and I adjusted the opening and content of the summative assessment to help my students interact with different cultures.
The read-aloud will be a digital read-aloud about holidays around the world. Initially, I will present it on our SMART board, and afterwards, students will be able to access it on Otus, our learning platform. It will provide auditory support for my auditory learners and visuals for context clues. The interactive whiteboard activity is a growing favorite among my students, and we will use it to sort goods and services from around the world. This will allow us to collaborate on the same whiteboard from separate devices and will also tie in to our social studies lessons. The summative assessment was already in place as a digital sorting activity on Otus. It is a drag-and-drop activity in which students would sort words and pictures into two categories and one "Does not Belong" category. I decided to keep this activity in place and adjusted the opening and content of the assessment. Students will listen to read-alouds of cultural fairytales (e.g. the many versions of Cinderlla or the Gingerbread Man) in order to see and hear their vocabulary words in context. The summative assessment also includes Text-to-Speech tools as well as the ability to add pictures and words to the sort. I also included a "Check Answer" button so the students could reflect on their work before turning it in.
Student Engagement and Technology Use
When I designed this lesson plan, I worked to choose strategies and tools that would keep my students engaged. I drew on my relationships with them to review what I already knew about their needs and interests, I built in times for me to ensure they knew what they were learning and why it was important, and I made sure the tasks were challenging while using technology and collaboration to provide supports for student success (Ferlazzo, 2021). I knew that my students in this group were primarily auditory learners that liked to also have visual supports, so I made sure that either myself or digital recordings could provide auditory support. I also made sure to include pictures and visuals. I also made sure that the anticipatory set in each lesson would be engaging and involve technology that my students liked to use while making sure they knew why they were completing the tasks that they were. They are more likely to be motivated when they know what skills they are practicing and why they are important. I also designed their tasks to be challenging (identifying key attributes is difficult for this group), but I implemented technological tools that would support students in reducing their cognitive load so that they could focus on the core challenges. These tools include things like pictures, the interactive whiteboard activity, and Text-to-Speech. They were highly enamored of the interactive whiteboard activity in a previous lesson, so I knew they would stay engaged.
Part of keeping my students engaged in their learning is ensuring that they are appropriately using their technology. To do this, I make sure that they have clear instructions on how to use the programs on their Chromebooks through step-by-step modeling. We have also had many opportunities to practice throughout the year, so most of them are comfortable users now. I also communicate clear expectations on what is and is not appropriate use. I then monitor their use by continuously rotating around the room. If necessary, Otus allows me to shutdown all outer activities until their summative assessment is done.
Promoting Global Awareness and Diverse Cultural Perspectives
My students are first graders in a rural school in Idaho with an extremely small, insular population. Most of their cultural experiences come from school via their literature or social studies curricula. In order to take this opportunity to promote global awareness and diverse cultural perspectives, I decided to adjust the vocabulary sorts and activities to include topics and words from our social studies curriculum and our literature standards. The initial digital read-aloud and "You do" activity are centered around holidays around the world, the interactive whiteboard activity focuses on sorting pictures and words about goods and services from around the world, and the summative assessment will now focus on sorting vocabulary from cultural fairytales after listening to digital read-alouds.
A major part of first grade social studies curriculum focuses on communities and families. By incorporating holidays around the world into this unit, students are able to interact with images and vocabulary from around the world, and they get to investigate, albeit briefly, how those holidays compare to their own celebrations. The same can be said of the interactive whiteboard activity. We learned about the very basics of the economy and goods and services, and by incorporating them from around the world, not only do students have the opportunity to apply what they learned in social studies, but they can see how people from around the world make money. Finally, the cultural fairytales address key skills and standards for my first graders as it lets them compare and contrast the key attributes of a well-known fairy tale from various cultures' viewpoints. For example, they could sort characters, setting, or magical objects from the different versions of Cinderella's fairytale. The vocabulary sort can be adjusted to better fit the skill we are working on in our reading class as well. These interactions allow my students to begin developing global awareness and diverse cultural perspectives.
Conclusion
Today's world requires students to be 21st century learners, and part of that demands that they develop global literacy. In order to help my students develop this skillset, I reviewed my previous three-day unit to include more technology. The purpose of this technology was to provide opportunities for them to engage with other cultural perspectives and develop global awareness. I used the technology to include holidays around the world, goods and services from around the world, and cultural fairytales. By engaging with these topics, my students would be able to see how other cultures compare to their own, allowing them to understand a little bit more about their own community's place in the world.
Thank you for reading!
Cassandra Coleman
References:
Carnegie Mellon University. (2022). Align assessments, objectives, instructional strategies - eberly center - carnegie mellon university. Eberly Center. https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/alignment.html
Dwyer, B. (2016). Teaching and Learning in the Global Village: Connect, Create, Collaborate, and Communicate. Reading Teacher, 70(1), 131–136. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1002/trtr.1500
Ferlazzo, L. (2021, March 24). Nine strategies for promoting student engagement (opinion). Education Week. Retrieved April 12, 2023, from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-nine-strategies-for-promoting-student-engagement/2021/02
Robinson, A. (2022, January 21). Effective uses of technology in elementary school. Edutopia. Retrieved April 12, 2023, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/effective-uses-technology-elementary-school
No comments:
Post a Comment