Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan CEP 800

Choice of Technology Think of a technology and say how it would help you achieve your goals.

I’ve decided to use my existing WebQuest on Banning Boxing for four reasons:    

To improve students’ reading and writing skills.

To improve students’ analysis and synthesis skills.

To improve students’ communication skills.

Too engage students in a challenging learning experience using the social constructivist approach.

What particular skills does this technology address?

This experience aims to improve students’ reading and writing skills. They will need to read articles about boxing, analyze the information from each article and then synthesize it into a persuasive letter. Students will have different conceptions (explicit assumptions) and values (implicit assumptions) of boxing.

What are the affordances and constraints of this technology?

Affordances:

Students will avail of a wealth of articles that would otherwise be impossible to access from any single work station. No special computer skills are required and it’s possible for group members to work both together and independently.

Constraints:

A lab has to be available and equipped with as many computers as there are students. A fast Internet connection is also needed to view and download pictures and listen to audio material.

What are the different learning theories involved?

Basically, the social constructivist theory prevails, although there are traces of the behaviorist and cognitive theories as well. Students start constructing knowledge by reading the articles and building on what they already know, thus altering their existing schemata to allow new information to fit in (change of cognition). As they react to the content of these articles, they’ll realize that approving of certain articles would mean behaving in a certain way. That is, if they side with an article admonishing boxing, they’ll have to support their case using examples from that article. Their behavior will be dictated by their reaction to the articles.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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Lesson Plan CEP 800 How is this technology unique in achieving your goals?

The WebQuest’s main role is to avail students of the wide array of information which they will need to build their case. It’s unique in the sense that no other technology can do so from one work station.

How does this technology align with your school curriculum?

The school curriculum requires high school students to produce different types of essay. At the end of this experience, students will have to present their case in the form of a persuasive essay favoring the ban of boxing. This is central to the curriculum. As a side requirement, this experience will enhance students’ presentation and communication skills through the use of PowerPoint.

How does this experience make use of web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is definitely involved in this experience. Students use online resources, work collaboratively, and make use of different technologies to present their work.

How does this technology address students’ different learning styles?

WebQuests present material in both visual and auditory forms, thus targeting students with different learning abilities. The academic differences won’t affect the end product; every member of each group will present information to the best of their ability, and the group as a whole will help each member to present the material in a compelling way. In other words, both weak and strong students will benefit regardless of their relative differences.

What skills do teachers and students need to have in order to use this technology?

Teachers may need to help students with accessing the different websites. They also need to be very familiar with PowerPoint to help students insert pictures and audio in the slides. Students need to know the basic skills of web browsing and PowerPoint presentations.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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Lesson Plan CEP 800

Essential Questions How do you decide on students’ readiness to use this technology successfully?

The title of my WebQuest is Banning Boxing. The idea is to have students present a welldeveloped persuasive essay on banning boxing to the local Boxing Association, accompanied by a powerful and convincing PowerPoint presentation. So here are the questions that come to mind: 1. Can students use Word to edit text and insert pictures?

2. Can students use PowerPoint to create colorful slides and insert audio in them?

3. Can students use search engines?

4. Can students write a well-developed essay?

5. What do students think of boxing?

Metacognition How do issues of memory, attention, development, and metacognition inform your thinking about your lesson plan?

Memory and attention are key aspects of learning practically anything. In my WebQuest, students have to perform routine tasks such as using search engines, word processors, PowerPoint, and writing skills. I don’t think memory is an issue here as most students come to me with some computer literacy. To some extent, they know how to use Word, PowerPoint, and how to locate information on the web. Their cognitive resources have already been freed up.

Minor help can be provided every now and then to solve technical issues.

What I’ll probably have to do is draw their attention to their selective attention. I’ll tell them that they need to choose what information to pay attention to and what to disregard. I know people normally do that, but I want them to know that they are actually processing information they reckon is relevant to the WebQuest. For example, I want the student in charge of locating information on boxers to focus on injured boxers and not be distracted by stories or pictures of other boxers that are completely irrelevant to our WebQuest. The student writing the essay will need to focus on persuading his audience of the dangers of boxing rather than on entertaining them by simply relating stories of different injured boxers. He/She will need to direct his/her attention to using persuasive skills rather entertaining skills or others.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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Lesson Plan CEP 800 I’ll also encourage students to use different strategies to achieve the task at hand. For example, the student in charge of searching for information will be encouraged to use different search engines to get the best results. Most students are used to Google. Very few know that Altavista is more efficient for finding specific pictures. The essay writer will be shown different ways to present information. If he/she finds it hard to present relevant information in separate paragraphs, he/she can be taught to better organize the information. For instance, instead of simply writing about injured boxers, he/she can categorize the information as pertaining to “Mildly injured boxers”, “Severely injured”, and “Dead boxers”. This will make the writing flow easier and smoother.

Metacognition will actually be present throughout the WebQuest. As students compile information, they’ll be using selective attention to eliminate distractions. As they search for information, they’ll be deciding on the relevance of this information to the task at hand and using different strategies to achieve better results. They’ll be comparing the results found on different websites to decide which pertain more to the task at hand. In short, they’ll be aware of their own thinking process as they move along the WebQuest: What do I have to do next? What strategy am I going to use? Is the information provided relevant to the task at hand? Am I satisfying the equirements of the task? Have I edited my work properly? Is there anything else I can do to improve my work? Have all three of us completed our parts properly?

With these questions in mind, students can’t but come up with a satisfactory end product: A persuasive letter accompanied by a powerful PowerPoint presentation and a lively videocast.

Do these issues make you think differently about the use of technology in your lesson plan, or, more generally, the use of technology in education?

Thinking about these issues definitely makes me reflect on how to integrate technology in education. First and foremost, I make sure the technology is not too overwhelming so it doesn’t require too many cognitive resources. This would detract students’ attention from the task requirements as they’ll be busy trying to figure out how to operate the technology. Next, I use the technology that allows the use of multiple strategies. This gives students some leeway in completing the tasks.

Finally, I assess the benefits and drawbacks of the technology: Is it unique or can a better technology be used? If not, how can I reduce or eliminate its drawbacks and increase its benefits?

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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Lesson Plan CEP 800

Lesson Plan General    

Grade level: Grade 10 Subject: English Content area: Writing & Speaking Rationale: Students will improve their communication skills through a meaningful activity.

Objectives 

Academic: Students will learn to develop a persuasive essay and present their arguments verbally through a powerful presentation.

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Technological: Students will be able to use search engines to access the required information. They will also use Word to write and edit their essay. Finally, they will use PowerPoint to present their arguments verbally.

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Social: Students will develop an awareness of the risks involved in boxing.

National Standards 

Students will be able to develop essays of different types (argumentative, descriptive, persuasive, narrative).

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The career-based curriculum requires students to use technology to achieve academic goals in order to prepare them for the 21st century work environment.

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Students will grow into responsible citizens ... with regards to discipline, behavior, and attitude.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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Lesson Plan CEP 800 Anticipatory Set Teacher: What do you think of boxing? (Answers vary) Teacher: What do you think happens to a boxer after a boxing match? (Possible Answers: gets injured, bleeds, goes to hospital, becomes famous, makes a lot of money, ..... or nothing!)

Teacher: Do you know of any professional boxers? What happened to them? What kind of life have they had? (Possible Answers: Mohamed Ali, got Parkinson’s disease, Mike Tyson, became famous, committed crimes, ...)

Teacher: Do you think professional boxers live a nice life? (Possible Answers: No, they die young, they suffer severe traumas, or Yes, they become rich, live a luxurious life, ...)

Teacher: How would you feel if you got news that one of your best friends died due to a severe injury to his head? What would you think if you saw 2 boxers beating each other to death in the ring?

This last question forms the transition to the beginning of the WebQuest, the Introduction.

Students read the letter and think of the tasks that lie ahead (writing a persuasive essay supported by a PowerPoint presentation).

Teacher Input Teacher shows students pictures of different boxers fighting and asks them to describe what they see.

Teacher: What’s happening in these pictures? How do you think these people will wake up the next day (if they do)? How can we find out what happens do boxers after a boxing match?

(Possible Answers: They’re beating each other. They’ll wake up tired, numb, they won’t be able to walk, ..... or they’ll be just fine! We can read about them, talk to them, enquire about them, ...)

Eventually, someone will mention the Internet as a source of answers to all the questions raised so far. The idea of using the Internet rather than printed text is because it provides a wealth of information with the click of a finger. Besides, the information can be printed text, podcasts or movie clips. The different media offered by the Internet caters to a wider variety of students.

For example, for someone who can only be convinced by listening to a boxer describe his hardships, a podcast or vodcast would do. For someone who needs to see the aftermath of a boxing match, short clips or pictures would do a better job than printed text. And then there’s the printed text for students who benefit more from detailed descriptions.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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Lesson Plan CEP 800 Teacher: How about reading what happens to boxers after a boxing match to see what happens to them? To hear them describe the hardships they go through? To find out whether they live a nice life?

In this way, practically all types of learners will be engaged. Students will know what is expected of them at the preliminary stage. They will then discover how to go about achieving the different goals as they progress through the WebQuest. This learning strategy aims at having students anticipate their next move without being told explicitly. They’ll discover on their own that some tasks will be completed individually, while others will have to be done in groups.

Modeling the Behavior Now that everyone’s on the WebQuest page, the teacher and students go through the different steps together.

Teacher: What do you think you have to do in each step? Let’s start with the Introduction.

What do you think you’ll find in the Introduction?

The same applies to the rest of the steps, eliciting as much information as possible from students. This works well with auditory students. For those visual students, the best thing would be to open each link to read the content and look at the pictures. For dyslexic students, other students in the group will read and interpret instructions for them. The idea of doing so is building a strong sense of teamwork as they all know that the success of each will also depend on the success of the group as a whole. It wouldn’t be wise to use assistive technologies at this point as they will weaken the team spirit. Besides, by having other students interpret the content, the teacher can be doubly sure that they’ve grasped the content.

For each step of the WebQuest, a short pause would help to recapitulate the progress achieved and anticipate the next step. Auditory students benefit from the discussion, while visual ones can read the content and look at the pictures. Dyslexic students will be dealt with as mentioned above.

Check for Comprehension Initial understanding of some steps of the WebQuests, such as the Introduction, Task, and Process, can only be assessed by having students explain verbally what they will be doing. As students move along the WebQuest, they will have to demonstrate understanding by actually performing the task(s) allocated to them. For example, the student in charge of the essay will show understanding by compiling all the findings and coming up with a plausible draft. The student who has to prepare the PowerPoint presentation will need to insert pictures in the slides and add audio. The other student who is responsible for the vodcasts will gather material Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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Lesson Plan CEP 800 relevant to the topic and edit it into a short digital story if possible. As the teacher walks around, he/she can check student understanding by checking on their progress. Feedback is given by either demonstrating how to do things (apprenticeship strategy) or by having other members of the group step in to remedy the situation. Teachers should first rely on peer assistance as it asserts understanding. This leads us to next point, which is the guided practice.

Guided Practice In the Process part, students get to work individually and in groups. Individually, they learn to rely on themselves by putting together the work they gathered as a group. In groups, they learn to listen to others’ opinions, share knowledge, split up responsibilities, and be part of a team.

Once students have reached the production stage, which means making a PowerPoint presentation or a short clip, the lesson is paused and the steps in creating PowerPoint presentations and short clips are explained. The explanation can be done in 2 different ways: Inquisitive students can go about experimenting with the PowerPoint application and Movie Maker; feedback and assistance will be provided on the go. The apprenticeship strategy will be used with the others whereby the teachers models the process and students repeat what they see.

Closure Once students have completed the WebQuest, they move on to the Conclusion part.

Teacher: Congratulation class! You’ve done an excellent job. Now, what have you learnt from this experience? (Possible Answers: Boxing is a cruel game, boxing causes damage to the brain, boxing should be banned (hopefully), or Boxing rules should be stricter, boxers should be paid more, boxers should take out insurance, ...)

Teacher: Can you think of another topic that can be addressed in the same way? (Possible Answers: Car racing, bungee jumping, kick boxing, ...)

Teacher: How has this experience changed your communication skills? (Possible Answers: We learnt to be more convincing, our ideas are better organized, we can speak more confidently, we can use technology to convey a message more strongly, or We’re not sure!)

These questions will take learning a step further and have students apply the skills they have acquired to new topics relevant to boxing. The questions that follow will expand students’ understanding of powerful communication by having them think about types of communication styles other than persuasive.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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Lesson Plan CEP 800 Teacher: Do we always communicate with people to persuade them of something? Are there any other reasons why we communicate with people? (Possible Answers: To inform them about something, to advise them, to entertain them, to teach them, or To keep in touch with them, to tell them a story, or I can’t think of any reasons right now!)

These answers take learning to a higher dimension. Students realize that there are different types of writing, and that communication takes place for diverse but specific reasons. The next thing would be to have students think of topics they’d like to explore differently from boxing.

That is, they could choose to inform their audience about the 10 hottest touristic sites, or to advise them on the criteria for buying a car. The options are endless.

Teacher: Let’s say we’d like to inform people about something interesting. What can you think of? What do you think would be beneficial for people to know that they probably don’t?

(Answers vary.)

Teacher: For those of you who are more of advisors, what can you think of that you may want to advise people about? Where do you think people need advice that you think they aren’t getting any? (Answers vary.)

Teacher: For the more artistic type, ..............

Questions of this type target all types of students and address the different communication styles. Students have a pool of resources to choose from and apply the newly acquired skills to various unseen topics.

Independent Practice This mode of learning has been addressed throughout the WebQuest by having students work individually and in groups. See Task and process for details.

Assessment Before students embark on their WebQuest, the teacher goes over the assessment rubric in the Evaluation part. In addition, students will be reminded that they will be evaluated on their success as individuals, as group members AND on their relative progress. That is, students will appreciate the importance of not simply achieving tasks and catching up with peers, but also showing progress compared to their initial knowledge.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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Lesson Plan CEP 800 Materials My WebQuest is posted on my website at www.msu.edu/~aurajean/WebQuest.html, including references, credits, and a Teacher’s Page.

Modifications for Students with Disabilities 

Blind and dyslexic students can click on the audio icons to hear each section of the WebQuest.



Students with ADD will be directed to one site at a time and asked to complete the different tasks one at a time. For example, in Part A of the resources, where students have to find the different types of injuries boxers usually suffer, a student with ADD will be given only one site and asked to complete the task. Once done, he/she can move on to the next site. Plenty of encouragement will be given to those students for completing the task successfully.

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Deaf students would normally be S1 in charge of writing the essay. As for the oral presentation, the other members of the group would write down the script. In this way, deaf students will be fully engaged in the parts they can handle and aware of what’s going on in the parts they can’t possibly be part of.



Students with sight problems can magnify the text on the webpage by clicking Ctrl and +. For this reason, I designed my entire WebQuest to open in web pages rather than in PDF files, which was my initial design.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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Lesson Plan CEP 800

Lesson Plan Reflection Lesson Plan My lesson plan seeks to improve students’ writing and verbal skills. They will engage in a WebQuest on banning boxing. After working on the WebQuest, students will have to write a persuasive letter to the boxing federation urging them to ban boxing. To make their case stronger, they will also prepare a PowerPoint presentation consisting of pictures and testimonies from injured boxers. First I thought students would struggle with the compilation of information and handle Word and PowerPoint easily. It turned out that they were able to use search engines quite fluently but had problems editing their work and using some important features of Word and PowerPoint, especially inserting audio (wrong assumptions…). As a result, I decided to wait for students to gather all the data they needed and group them according to their task (S1: essay writing, S2: PowerPoint presentation, S3: Vodcasts). Here, I used the apprenticeship theory where behaviorism prevails. The main reason is that the best way to learn about a technology is to tinker with it. To render this tinkering more meaningful, students learnt how to use a particular technology to satisfy a purpose, which was presenting their information neatly and convincingly. That was the technology part. As for the actual WebQuest (content), I used the constructivist approach (students had to read some articles and make judicious decisions about how to use the content) and social constructivist approach (students learnt to evaluate the risks of boxing together and exchanged opinions on how to present a solid case).

Lesson Plan Implementation I had 6 groups of 18 tenth graders work on the WebQuest for six 45-minute periods. I didn’t have access to computers long enough to have them finish the entire WebQuest.

Nevertheless, enough was accomplished to give me a pretty clear idea of how things went.

They handled technology quite well but struggled with language mechanics. They needed some guidelines for essay writing and help with summarizing some articles from the websites. This is understandable since their English is at the intermediate level. What I wanted to do was design sites that would easier for them to understand, but then I thought I wouldn’t be exposing them to authentic language. I’m actually still considering giving it a try. Most students managed to compile all the data they needed and had started writing the essay and working on the PowerPoint presentations by the end of the 6 th period. No one had the time to search for testimonies, so there were no podcasts. Another 6 periods Would have sufficed.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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Lesson Plan CEP 800

Questions 1. What was learned? What were the learning goals of this instructional experience? What were the underlying assumptions (explicit and implicit) about the nature of knowledge?

Students learnt to use their persuasive skills both in writing and speaking. I assumed they would handle the language aspect well and have difficulties with the technology. It turned out to be the other way around.

2. What are the affordances for how knowledge/information is being represented? What are the constraints?

The WebQuest is a multisensory tool for visual, auditory, and audiovisual students.

Information is accessed quickly and in a variety of ways. It’s engaging and motivating. The only constraint is that a fast connection is needed. This WebQuest may be a bit difficult to handle at first, but future WebQuests would surely be less cumbersome.

3. How does learning take place? What elements of constructivism did you observe? What elements of behaviorism did you observe? Were any other learning theories present?

Learning takes place in many different forms. Students learn how technology responds by copying the teacher or other tech-savvy students (behaviorist theory). They also produce new information with previously learnt material; this is the case with essay writing. Students compile the data, analyze and synthesize them, then decide what information to keep and how to present it (constructivist theory). What’s more, by interacting with peers, they learn how others feel about boxing and how to exchange ideas (social constructivism).

4. Was your lesson intended to supplement or supplant existing curriculum? Or, was it intended to enhance the learning of something already central to the curriculum or some new set of understandings or competencies?

My lesson was intended to reinforce some key elements in the curriculum (language wise: essay writing; technology wise: use of word processors and presentation tools).

5. How are important differences among learners taken into account?

1. Visual learners understand by watching short clips and looking at pictures.

2. Auditory and blind learners can click on the audio icons to listen to the entire WebQuest.

3. HDD students are given one task at a time, with plenty of encouragement for successful completion.

4. Learners with impaired eyesight can increase the text font.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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Lesson Plan CEP 800 NOTE: Peer assistance will be used throughout the WebQuest. It reinforces social skills and team spirit. The only time I would encourage students to use assistive technologies is when they’re working individually. For instance, when students are compiling data so they can each complete their individual part, I would want them to interact with each other. What difference would it make if an auditory learner listened to a peer or to the recorded material? Getting assistance from a peer would build a strong sense of team spirit. However, if an auditory learner needs to go back to the material at a later stage to complete his/her individual part, they can always rely on the assistive technology. In short, I’d say assistive technologies would be fine when repetition is needed. They shouldn’t replace human contact when the same results can be achieved with or without them.

6. What do teachers and learners need to know in order for your lesson to be a success?

What demands are placed on teachers and other "users"? What knowledge is assumed?

Teachers have to understand that their assumptions will be wrong to some extent (like mine…) but shouldn’t be discouraged from making assumptions in the future. Learners have to have some basic computer literacy skills (typing text on a word processor and PowerPoint slides). The rest, like editing, formatting, and inserting audio requires little time and effort when one knows the basics.

7. How did you assess what students were doing and what they were learning from this activity? How did you hold them accountable for the work they did?

Since my students never got to complete the WebQuest, I used formative assessment. I made sure they completed each task successfully before they moved on to the next one.

For example, before students started the essay, I made sure they had a reasonable draft.

After they had written the essay, I checked the relevance of the information, the layout, and the mechanics of the language. When students finished their PowerPoint presentation, I evaluated the relevance of the pictures and audio material before they did the oral presentation. This is only fair since I don’t want a problem with relevance to affect their oral presentation. These are two separate skills.

8. What role does technology play in your lesson? What advantages or disadvantages does the technology hold for this role? What unique contribution does the technology make in facilitating learning?

The WebQuest offers access to an array of information almost instantly. It allows learners to explore the topic using different media (text, pictures, recordings, movie clips), thus making the activity more engaging. It would become disadvantageous if the connection were slow, or if the learners were complete computer illiterates.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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Lesson Plan CEP 800 9. What did you expect your students to make of their use of technology in your lesson?

How did they react when using the technologies? What questions did students have, and how did you respond to them?

I expected my students to understand that technology can be used as a tool to enhance learning. They couldn’t have possibly collected all this information from one place and so quickly using more traditional means. They loved the WebQuest and were amazed by the amount of information they were able to access. Some were equally surprised to see what they could do with PowerPoint. They thought it was used to display pictures only. When they saw they could also insert audio, they loved it even more. Naturally, they had all sorts of questions, such as how to insert audio, where to find a particular piece of information, how to make a word document look more attractive, and much more. I made a list of all the questions and addressed them individually or collectively.

10. How would you describe how students were making sense of the content with the technology?

Students realized that not all sources of information are equally good. They understood that technology, when used properly, can address and solve a lot of educational issues.

For example, they figured out that WebQuests avail them of a wide variety of information otherwise inaccessible. They also noticed that they have less to remember (relieving their cognition) and more to produce. That is, the technology will handle things such as nice handwriting and formatting while they’re busy working on the content.

Created by: Jean-Claude Aura

Date: May 2009

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