Reflect on the process you’ve just worked through. Consider your decision-making throughout this process How do your instructional decisions, the technologies used, the teachers & students roles change as you describe your lesson at each SAMR level?
I really liked working through this process, and I'm hoping that it will become second nature after working through this thought process a couple of more times. I used a unit/lesson that I am going through with my seniors right now. We just finished reading Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild. The unit's driving question is "What does it mean to live a meaningful life?" My students have been continuously reflecting on this question through a variety of assignments. As seniors, it is time for them to begin thinking about what has been meaningful to them in their life so far, and it is also a good starting point for a poignant college essay.
I used my driving question for this unit as my driving question for this assignment: What will make this lesson meaningful for my students?
One thing that I have noticed throughout our reading is that my students feel disconnected from the narrator and the author by socioeconomic status as well as life experiences. I wanted to use technology to help them understand why McCandless felt drawn to nature, so I decided to use the tech that I have available to create an interactive experience for them. I also wanted to provided them with more examples of people who felt inspired by nature, maybe they could find someone that they felt that they related to more to help them understand McCandless's story. I also wanted them to see themselves in Chris.
When I worked with substitution, it was clear to me that Google Docs was a much better way for students to work than Microsoft Word. The augmentation is that students can easily share and update their work. It also removes the danger of something not saving or a computer crashing and something being inaccessible. A modification would be to allow students and teachers to easily comment on the work and make suggestions. I think that the last step would be creating a level of anonymity so that everyone felt comfortable sharing. As I work through these steps, the students become more independent and I become a facilitator of the process rather than a direct instructor. I think that this will help students as they continue to try to answer the driving question: What does it mean to live a meaningful life?
I really liked working through this process, and I'm hoping that it will become second nature after working through this thought process a couple of more times. I used a unit/lesson that I am going through with my seniors right now. We just finished reading Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild. The unit's driving question is "What does it mean to live a meaningful life?" My students have been continuously reflecting on this question through a variety of assignments. As seniors, it is time for them to begin thinking about what has been meaningful to them in their life so far, and it is also a good starting point for a poignant college essay.
I used my driving question for this unit as my driving question for this assignment: What will make this lesson meaningful for my students?
One thing that I have noticed throughout our reading is that my students feel disconnected from the narrator and the author by socioeconomic status as well as life experiences. I wanted to use technology to help them understand why McCandless felt drawn to nature, so I decided to use the tech that I have available to create an interactive experience for them. I also wanted to provided them with more examples of people who felt inspired by nature, maybe they could find someone that they felt that they related to more to help them understand McCandless's story. I also wanted them to see themselves in Chris.
When I worked with substitution, it was clear to me that Google Docs was a much better way for students to work than Microsoft Word. The augmentation is that students can easily share and update their work. It also removes the danger of something not saving or a computer crashing and something being inaccessible. A modification would be to allow students and teachers to easily comment on the work and make suggestions. I think that the last step would be creating a level of anonymity so that everyone felt comfortable sharing. As I work through these steps, the students become more independent and I become a facilitator of the process rather than a direct instructor. I think that this will help students as they continue to try to answer the driving question: What does it mean to live a meaningful life?