Game Plan Overview
Lesson Problem(S) / Driving Question(S)
What was life like in Colonial America according to the three different regions?
How might a timeshare company market the region?
These driving questions are relevant to student learning because it is the basis for why European settlers settled in the Americas and thus based the foundation of our country. Students will apply their understandings of audience in order to market the assigned region, which aligns with English content standards.
PBL Lesson
Students in teacher pre-selected small groups will research an assigned region of the original thirteen colonies (Southern, New England, and Middle) through a number of sources: the internet, encyclopedias, primary sources, library sources, textbooks, teacher generated search engine, and literature. Through their research, the groups will investigate: reasons behind colonial foundation, types of occupations available in the region during colonial times, what daily life was like, gender roles and expectations within the region, government organizations, successes and conflicts within the region, geography of the region and origins of the settlers of the region.
Online Collaboration Lesson
Students will utilize the collaborative tools of a wiki to accumulate their research and collaboratively create a marketing strategy for a timeshare in their assigned region. Their marketing strategy must at least include a brochure and power point presentation. Students will use the wiki to organize information, distribute responsibilities, and finalize assignment details. Students will utilize a teacher organized wiki space according to their assigned groups to fulfill all of the requirements of the assignment. Students will work off the Game Plan they designed in class the previous day.
Students will develop their creative thinking skills in several aspects of this activity. First, they will working on their convergent thinking skills in their efforts to understand what conclusions about the regions the primary sources lead to. Convergent thinking is “a type of creative thinking that attempts to bring together thoughts from different perspectives in order to achieve a common understanding or conclusion” (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p. 26). Students will also utilize their innovative thinking skills in order to develop a marketing strategy for the regional timeshare as innovation is “a type of divergent thinking that aims to produce something that is original and of value” (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p. 26).
Digital Storytelling Lesson
Students will use digital storytelling in order to: (1) teach classmates about each of the colonial region and (2) demonstrate their understanding of content. Students will present their timeshare and brochure in class while being video recorded according to their presentation expectations and guidelines. Students will utilize power point and publisher software in order to complete these actions.
Game Plan Reflection
I practiced all steps of this unit with my students and found it to be more successful than my previous ventures in teaching the differences in the colonial regions. Students were passionate about their desire to “sell” their audience vacation timeshares in the regions. Their marketing strategies were phenomenal and their research was sound and impressive.
I did this with my students at the close of the year and they had a lot of background knowledge on the concepts because we had already learned much of the material earlier in the year so the outcome will be different with students at the beginning of the year with no background knowledge and less experience in research. In order to overcome any challenges that this might present I would have lengthened the time that students got to research. I would have also worked with them prior to teach them how to successfully research academically. I understand that students’ abilities at the beginning of the year are very different from that at the end of the year and I would have to accommodate for that inequality next year.
Students will use digital storytelling in order to: (1) teach classmates about each of the colonial region and (2) demonstrate their understanding of content. Students will present their timeshare and brochure in class while being video recorded according to their presentation expectations and guidelines. Students will utilize power point and publisher software in order to complete these actions.
I also would have lengthened the amount of tie students had to present because I know that many of my groups wanted it. This was something I hard often in student feedback for this activity.
Instructional Practice And Technology
Digital Storytelling
Abrams (2009) explains digital storytelling as “sharing stories through words, pictures, music, narration, and/or video” (Laureate Education, Inc.). Within my classroom students are required to produce some form of digital storytelling at the close of or within every unit; products range from newspapers, news broadcasts, letters, maps, reenactments, advertisements, brochures, websites, and so much more. I have collected these projects over the years from my colleagues, mentors, readings, and even my students! The overarching goal of each of these products is to provide students with opportunities to critically think about the curriculum through various modalities, to express themselves creatively, to relate concepts to real life, and to create opportunities to assess student learning outside of high stakes forced choice assessments. Additionally, because students always collaborate with each other they are developing their interpersonal skills. “In today's digitized world, visual storytelling is a favorite classroom tool, and the affordability and accessibility of technology such as iMovie provides opportunities not imagined a decade ago” (New, 2005, p. 1). My students look forward to these projects – it provides endless motivation as the best projects are always displayed on the class work bulletin board for the duration of the following unit with teacher and student feedback.
Social Networking and Classroom Collaboration
Social networking is “software that allows people to come together around an idea or topic of interest” (Smith, 2007, p.1). Within my experiences as an online student I have found my greatest learning experiences to be in class discussions wherein my peers have challenged my pedagogy and thoughts on subjects, I have researched the material, and either changed or argued my perspective. I find social networking’s ability to communicate so effortlessly and on my own time schedule to be a strength I want in my own classroom. The reality is social networking will be a large component of my students’ future careers. “We need to teach students how to be effective collaborators in that world, how to interact with people around them, how to be engaged, informed twenty-first-century citizens” (Smith, 2007, p.1). For this reason alone, social networking should at the very least be introduced to students in an academic setting in order to discuss the ethics, responsibilities and privileges of the tool.
A struggle I encounter in my classroom is my district’s lack of enthusiasm to have social networking as a academic utility within my classroom activities. “Administrators have to decide this is valued for the whole school community, and they have to give teachers time and freedom to learn, experiment, and play” (Smith, 2007, p.1). In order to overcome this I have to submit parent signed permission slips for activities involving social networking tools to my principal along with detailed lesson plans. This is work I am willing to do for my students to gain the experiences I feel they should have within the classroom in preparation for their careers. “Schools have always taught kids how to present themselves -- that's why we did oral presentations in the classroom. Now we need to teach them to present themselves electronically” (Smith, 2007, p.1). This is a major discussion within my classroom during our interactions with technology, and especially with social networking activities. The majority of their use, however allows my students to collaborate with one another outside of the classroom while I know who is participating and to what extent.
Resources
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Kuhlthau, C. C., Maniotes, L. K., & Caspari, A. K. (2007). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). “Spotlight on Technology: Digital Storytelling, Part 1”. Baltimore, MD: Author.
New, J. (2005, December 2). How to use digital storytelling in your classroom. Retrieved from the Edutopic website: http://www.edutopia.org/use-digital-storytelling-classroom.
Smith, F. (2007, April 20). How to use social-networking technology for learning. Retrieved May 30, 2011from the Edutopia website: http://www.edutopia.org/print/3980.
