Evaluating my Learning Experiences in my Unit Plan

I am all over the place here. I am doing blog posts out of order because I have notes everywhere about what I will post. That’s how I was brought up – hand written notes. You’d think I would trust the computer and just keep adding and saving a blog post until I’m ready to publish it. I actually would just prefer to have all of the information ready to go then do it – nothing to do with trust 😉

So that’s what brings me to this: my evaluation of my learning experience in the unit plan for assignment 2. This is an expansion of the exercise from the Week 8 learning path. This table is perfect to start evaluating and analysing for the justification essay for the unit plan. I’ve only included the student learning and curriculum goals, not instruction because I don’t think it’s about the teachers you know? Who cares what I do, it’s the students we need to worry about! Except for the fact that I need to model good ICT practices.

Activity and Connection	Reason/s I am including in my plan	R.A.T framework evaluation
The use of digital graphic organisers and mind tools	Graphic organisers encourage deeper thinking about process AND content. Students use HOT skills to sort and analyse information	Amplifies student learning. They could produce a graphic organizer and mind maps with a pen and paper but using a digital one is more efficient, better for the environment, and allows them to practice their computer skills.
Online research and information retrieval	It’s the way it’s done. It’s time efficient. More accessible than books.	Amplifies student learning. Efficient way to research. Wider variety of sources available more instantly.
‘Everyday’ ICTs · Saving file to local network · Emailing a document · Printing out a document · Creating log in username and password	It’s the way it’s done. Preparing students for the digital age and workforce. Basic skills needed to function in the future.	Replaces student learning. Basic skills for using ICTS.
The production and use of a Wiki	Assist in building a collaborative environment. Practice creating and editing information and the ethics and rules regarding online authorship. Student centered.	Transforms student learning and curriculum goals. Student learning is enhanced and transformed because they are using their knowledge of text structures to write in one format of a text about another format of a text. Like inception (yes I said it). Curriculum goals are transformed because the learning outcomes were to explain text structures and to publish texts. The Wiki is one step further and using a particular text structure to explain a text structure in a digital environment. It also allows students to develop so many other skills like collaboration, online authorship, editing etc
The production of a digital multimodal text	Help students with their digital literacy. The collaboration for this task assists in developing the skills needed for producing digital information in a creative and effective way.	Transforms student learning and curriculum goals. The multimodal text transforms student learning because they are able to choose their own tool to use and decide how best to create the multimodal text in line with their event. They are allowed creative control to choose other media and features that add creativity and meaning to the text. Curriculum goals are transformed because the learning outcomes do mention using multimodal elements in a presentation and the students are doing that but integrating the other knowledge and skills such as their knowledge of text structures.
The use of a blog post	Student centered. Develops reflective skills. Encourages critical thinking.	Amplifies student learning. The students would be able to do reflections in their books, however using the online environment allows them to practice their computer skills and associated digital knowledge such as tags, URLs, embedding etc.

I am loving the Mind Tools website. I can’t wait to study it some more and put the tools into practice in my personal, professional and teaching life! Sometimes it’s good to just have something in words, that you can visualise. I am a very visual learner, I love mind maps, brainstorming and sorting charts.

Jasmin

Unit Planning Ideas and Backwards Design

I am posting this in retrospect as I have gathered my hand written notes and collated them into a blog post to officially document my ideas.

The first thing I was thinking of before I even started to use the backward design model was how was I going to transform learning with ICTs? I always like to at least think of learning experience ideas to help me choose content descriptors which is the first step. I really wanted students to develop something using ICTs not just use them. I find it easy to think of ideas and tools to use but not connect or integrate them into a learning experience that is relevant.

My Somewhere:

Year 5 English class, lower to middle class SES state school, some indigenous and EAL/D enrolment, some learning difficulties but managed within classroom without EAP.

Desired Results (from the Australian Curriculum, ACARA, 2016):

Constructing Knowledge objectives

·      Understand how texts vary in purpose, structure and topic as well as the degree of formality (ACELA1504)

·      Understand that the starting point of a sentence gives prominence to the message in the text and allows for prediction of how the text will unfold (ACELA1505)

Transforming Knowledge objectives

·      Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations for defined audiences and purposes incorporating accurate and sequenced content and multimodal elements (ACELY1700)

·      Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1704)

Acceptable Evidence:

I am still working on the wording for the marking rubric for these. But students should be able to apply their knowledge of text structures, format, purpose, language features, information etc into a procedural document on how to write an informative text. They will produce a multimodal text and present it to the class.

I love that other students like Summer have started to think about learning theories to help the development of their unit plans. I think it’s important to assess why you are doing things the way you are both before and during the planning. It makes the planning easier when you have a purpose.

I could probably say my main points that I would be focusing on for my justification involve:

• My choice of task for the age/developmental stage
• Importance of ICTs as a General Capability and in respect to the Melbourne Declaration (MCEETYA)
• How I used the R.A.T framework to assess my learning experiences
• Why I used Explicit Teaching techniques
• Why I used constructivist learning to guide ICT usage
• Why the assessment task successfully uses ICT to transform learning outcomes

I was trawling through Australian Curriculum Lessons looking for ideas for the content descriptors I had chosen but couldn’t find much there or anywhere else that excited me so I have decided to stick to my original ideas.

Jasmin

PCK (not just another acronym)

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK):

PCK goes beyond knowledge of subject matter per se to the dimension of subject matter knowledge for teaching – Shulman, 1986

This article (Van Driel & Berry, 2012) I found talks about integrating PCK into teacher’s professional development. It mentions that PCK is not stable and is very specific to the topic, person and situation so there is no one ideal way to teach or be a teaching expert. This resonates with me with what David Jones (our course examiner) has said with “Everything works somewhere, and nothing works everywhere” (I will need to find the reference later). So I am presuming the best place to start is knowing what is content knowledge is specific to my ‘somewhere’. Then connect that to the pedagogy associated with my ‘somewhere’.

Another article  (Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW, 2016) talks about a study that was performed with two groups of teachers: one group trained only in English content and not teaching, and the other trained in teaching English. They found significant differences in student results and engagement with English content. The biggest difference was how the group that had pedagogical content knowledge engaged the students by relating the texts to their lives. I am considering doing my unit plan for assignment two for English class so I could take on board that I definitely need to relate the texts to the students to engage them and hopefully that will leave them more engaged and with deeper understanding of the text. Turns out another student also found this article useful – great mind think alike!

Specifically referring to literacy, this article mentions the importance of the teacher’s knowledge of the development of children in reference to their reading progression. Just one example of how PCK is important. The authors also mention the importance of understanding student sociocultural influences. I love this quote:

An understanding of sociocultural influences on the learner and learning make it possible for teachers in diverse classrooms to recognise and extend students’ cultural repertoires, and identify and validate available funds of knowledge and skills (Moje et al., 2004) –  Carney & Indrisano, 2013

From my reading on PCK I will need to make some notes about pedagogical practices relating to my chosen subject area such as sociocultural perspectives, the learner’s developmental stage in relation to reading and writing, the learner’s interests etc.

I’m having a hard time finding blogs from other students about PCK. Not sure if I’m missing them!

To the drawing board!

Jasmin