Field Experience Assignment

Mrs. Coulon’s third grade class is one of eight third grade classes at Hooksett Memorial School located in Hooksett, New Hampshire. Every Monday afternoon, after lunch, Mrs. Coulon brings her 23 third graders to one of the computer labs located in the school. In the computer lab, she uses a SMART board to model for her students the process of logging in to the computer, navigating the school wiki page, as well as logging in to the AR application. The school homepage wiki is a Glogster design, with bright colors and easy to find tabs. Students clicked on the AR button, which brought them to a website by Renaissance Reader, called a Renaissance Page. On this page was the AR application, short for Accelerated Reader. This is a program that offers short quizzes on books, adjusted to size by the reading level of the book, that the students can take at their own pace. Almost every book that the children could think of was located in this site, searchable by title, author or keyword. The students worked together to type in the name of the story that Mrs. Coulon had spent the last few weeks reading to them, Charlotte’s Web, and each student answered 10 questions based on reading comprehension. They also have the choice of testing their vocabulary or literacy comprehension. The majority of the class navigated this whole process with ease. They were able to find the homepage tab at the top of the web page and many students typed with one finger or two.

After the students had finished their quizzes, they headed back to their classrooms to work on practicing cursive handwriting, and some students took additional book quizzes, using the AR app, on the classroom IPads. There are 30 IPads available to the entire school, so there are 10 shared per grade. The students remembered their logins that they had just practiced in the lab, and continued to show how easily they can manipulate technology by navigating the same process with the quizzes quickly and efficiently.  For these third graders, it was the first time they had used an IPad in their school classroom, although you couldn’t tell that from the way they handled the devices.

In my opinion, the use of the AR application is a very smart tool for these children because it is something they have the skills to navigate at their age and they can use the application on many different computers and hand-held devices. The quizzes themselves allow for modifications for students who are advanced, a little behind, or have special needs. Since the only technology I saw present during the day was SMART boards, computer labs, and IPads, I asked the teacher if she had plans to integrate any other kinds of technology. She said she did not have any immediate plans, and did not feel that they would likely have access to more than the 10 IPads any time soon. I feel that the ways that she has incorporated technology so far are certainly more stimulating than the alternative (for example, taking paper quizzes), but I do wonder if there are more tools or applications that could be used in her curriculum to further learning. The most interesting part of the observation was when the teacher confessed to me that she was not trained on her SMART board when it was brought into the classroom, that the children were trained and that she had to follow along with them and then rely on them later to help her. This reminded me of the co-learning environment we talked about in our class. Apparently the students really like when they get to help out their teacher and be the ‘expert.’

Is that my voice? Is that, my voice?

Enjoy my digital story! I hope it's not too long.

Oh and every time I listened to the playback, all I could think about was this- specifically 35 seconds into the video (the Emperor's New Groove video, not my digital story).

Kindergarten Lesson Plan

Enter your name and specific age group(s) to use this lesson: Amanda Tanguay. Lesson Plan for Kindergarten.

List the Web site you found your lesson on:  http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/animalAlphabet/

“Big Idea” this lesson plan supports:  Learn the letters of the alphabet and the different sounds they make. Also introduction to digital storytelling and working in collaboration with peers.

Lesson Plan Component	Criteria
Title - Name of Lesson	Animal Alphabet Shorts
GSE’s/GLE’s/ Frameworks/Common Core/NETS- Standards (listed under Course Documents)	W-K-6.1 Naming or labeling objects or pictures W-K-6.2 Representing facts through pictures W-K-8.1 Using pictures to illustrate information related to topic OC-K-1.2 Listening and responding to stories, songs or poems OC-K-2.1 Speaking clearly and distinctly, orally sharing information and experience OC-K-2.3 Telling stories about pictures, books or experiences R-K-1.5 Recognizing and naming all upper and lower case letters R-K-1.6 Identifying the primary sounds represented by most letters NETS Standards: 1.Creativity and Innovation Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. a.Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes b.Create original works as a means of personal or group expression c.Use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues 2.Communication and Collaboration Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. a.Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media b.Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats
Lesson Objective(s) - The Student can or will … using a verb from Blooms Revised Taxonomy Sub Categories Each of the categories or taxonomic elements has a number of key verbs associated with it Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) Remembering - Recognising, listing, describing, identifying, retrieving, naming, locating, finding Understanding - Interpreting, Summarising, inferring, paraphrasing, classifying, comparing, explaining, exemplifying Applying - Implementing, carrying out, using, executing Analysing - Comparing, organising, deconstructing, Attributing, outlining, finding, structuring, integrating Evaluating - Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, Experimenting, judging, testing, Detecting, Monitoring Creating - designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing, devising, making Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)	Students will be able to…     -Recognize the letters of the alphabet in both upper and lower case form     -List the letters alphabetically     -Classify sounds to letters     -Find animals and additional words that match the sounds of the letters     -Create pictures of animals and matching words     -Plan the script for the story about the animals     -Construct a digital story
Materials - What will they need to complete this assignment? Be as specific as possible.	-5 computers with internet access and the ability to support the website slidestory.com -scanner -projector screen and speakers -paper and markers
Anticipatory Set - Prior Knowledge - How will you “hook” students prior to teaching the lesson	Students will sing the “Alphabet Song” Students will practice lining up alphabetically by first letter of first name Students will watch Alphabet video as a class
Procedures - What will student and teacher do? Best practices - Ask 3 questions here to promote higher order thinking related to lesson plan.	1. After watching the Alphabet video and reviewing the letter sounds as a class, students will be broken up into groups of four and assigned four letters to each group, consecutively next to each other in the alphabet. (For example, group 1 would have letters A, B, C and D, etc.) 2. Each student will then pick a letter and an animal to represent that letter, using this site as a resource if he or she needs help finding animals with names that mimic the sound. 3. Each student will also write a short story, about 2-4 lines about the animal including 2 more words that start with the same letter-sound. 4. Once the student has completed his or her script, he or she will draw 2-3 pictures illustrating the story and showing the animal as the main character, again using this site if needed for pictorial inspiration. 5. With the help of the teacher or parent helper, students will scan their drawings into their computers and, using the slidestory website, record their script to go with the coordinating pictures. The group of four children will edit their video. 5. The teacher will then edit all the videos together into one and the class will watch it together. Discussion Questions: 1. What are the letters of the alphabet? 2. What letters make similar sounds? 3. What changes would you make to the digital story? What did you like about the process and end result?
Closure - How will you have students reflect on what has been learned in this lesson?	Students will re-group into their groups, be handed a piece of paper with four letters of the alphabet that they did not work on before, and try to remember what stories the other students told to match the letters. If there is time, they can draw pictures as well as discuss. Students will answer the three discussion questions listed above.
Assessment- Assessment is directly correlated to stated objectives (listed above) and provides an opportunity for every student to demonstrate progress toward meeting the objective(s)   Create a rubric that shows objectives relating to project. - Assessment can be completion of project. Something student creates.	Students are assessed on how well they understood the assignment of matching the letter sounds to words and animals, the quality/quantity of the drawings, and the ability to collaborate with peers as well as create an entertaining and meaningful digital story. See rubric below: Category: 3 Points 2 points 1 point 0 points Understanding and Drawings Students were highly engaged in class and group discussions; clearly identified all the letters of the alphabet and their sounds; and created colorful and unique drawings that demonstrated a solid understanding of a particular letter and its sounds. Students participated in class and group discussions; adequately identified most of the letters of the alphabet and their sounds; and created somewhat colorful and unique drawings that demonstrated a basic understanding of a particular letter and its sounds. Students participated minimally in class and group discussions; were unable to identify most of the letters of the alphabet and their sounds; and created incomplete drawings that did not demonstrate a basic understanding of a particular letter and its sounds. Student did not participate. Digital Short Students collaborated to create a seamless presentation, rehearsing and trying to articulate for the voice recording. Student fulfilled minimal requirement of 2-3 scripted sentences to tell the story.     Students struggled to collaborate. Story was in some order and almost fulfilled requirement of sentences and words to match the sounds. Students did not collaborate on the work. The short was disjointed or hastily done. Not enough words or scripted sentences. Student did not participate.
Modifications/ Accommodations Lesson plan includes appropriate modifications and/or accommodations for students needing enrichment, remediation, or alternative strategies Students with IEP - Individualized Educational Plans or 504’s would require modifications or accommodations -	Students who are showing advanced knowledge can choose to make his or her digital story longer by including more words that start with the same letter, a longer script, and may even choose to add music to the presentation. Students with an IEP or 504 could have the option of buddying up with a friend on the same letter, choosing less words to include in the story, using an online drawing tool if paper and marker is not an option, or can use the animal from the original Animal video.