Chapter 4: Designing Lessons and Developing Curriculum with Technology

Chapter 4: Designing Lessons and Developing Curriculum with Technology

3 Main Concepts:

1) Enhancing Lesson Development with Technology

       This has to be the most important concept in this chapter. Technology is constantly improving as the years pass us and it is our job to stay up to date for our students. There is so much digital content provided on the internet that assists educators when teaching. Using search engines, online encyclopedias, blogs, wikis, and web quests allow students to have access to new ways of researching and retrieving information. Teachers will use technology to understand what to teach, how to teach it, and how to perform a learning assessment. Assessments can be electronic tests and quizzes, portfolios, online surveys, learning rubrics, etc. Kahoot is a GREAT website that allows teachers to use tests as a performance/learning assessment. The teacher can create their own quiz and answer selections. Students can use electronic devices such as phones, ipads, or computers to answer the questions. Click on the link below to see how a technology assessment can enhance lesson development.

This is a Kahoot quiz created for Earth Science.

https://create.kahoot.it/#poll/8d21cec3-5d77-46e9-b704-8bdc6885ba9c

2) Approaches to Lesson Planning

           Teachers create goals, objectives, and procedures to determine the layout of their lesson for whole-group and small-group instruction. There are two different approaches to lesson planning: student learning objectives or understanding by design (UBD).

Student learning objectives explain who is doing the lesson, what are they doing, when will it occur, how much/how often, and how will the lesson be assessed. This approach explains how the students will demonstrate that they know the skill being taught.

The Understanding By Design approach is a backwards design of creating a lesson. The first step is to identify what it is that you want your students to be able to do/know after the lesson. The next step is coming up with different assessment strategies to be able to measure the students’ knowledge of the topic. The last step is planning the objectives and methods for the lesson.

3) Assessing and Evaluating Students

            There are 3 factors that strongly influence how teachers think about assessment: personal experiences standardized testing, and teacher tests. The textbook suggests that most teachers use their own teachings from the past also in their classroom. For example, if a teacher grew up always taking multiple-choice tests, they might think that is the best way to evaluate their own class. Using portfolios, group discussions, and creative writing are other assessment options to use. Standardized tests are “high-stakes tests” that are given to students K-12. These tests often determine whether a student will move on to the next grade level or be a part of school graduation. Teacher tests, such as the ones you have to take when in a program, also determine the type of testing a teacher may think is the “right way” of testing.

           Performance assessments are great ways of truly measuring student learning. The student creates, produces, performs, or presents which all counts as a performance assessment. Test assessments show what a student knows academic wise with traditional tests.

           Most teachers use an electronic grading software that stores different assignments, their grades, and grade averages for each student. This form of technology is great for not only recording scores but also keeping attendance and communicating with other teachers.

Conclusion:

     This chapter was very helpful with understanding the two types of lesson planning. I also was able to read about the different types of assessments we can use and how they will help to measure what our students are learning. The 3 factors that influence teachers how to assess their students was also interesting to read. This topic made me think about how I would like to assess my students and how my past classroom experience will compare and contrast to it.