Balajthy. Lesson Plan 3 – Blog Assignment

mita24 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:42:43 +0000

“Stories About Struggling Readers and Technology”- The first two stories start off with some good idea’s of how to utilize resources on the Internet. The first story about “Rachel”, included many of the things which we have already been taught in our education classes, such as catering to the needs of a wide range of student abilities. The second story about “Susan” does a lot of the same things. I like how she gathered twenty-five different books, all of which are relevant to the African-American students. Giving the students a wide range to chose from gives them an enhanced feeling of autonomy, and therefore should help with their motivation to learn. My initial reaction to this was that using technology such as the Internet in inner city schools may not work because some of the students might not have access to it at home. However, students can access “Susan’s” blogs from the projects computer lab, which helps to solve that issue. I also liked how she utilized a local college’s education program to supply the project with pre-service teachers to be reading partners with the students. The third story to me was quite endearing in seeing a community come together to help kids in a “tough neighborhood” succeed in their literacy abilities. One point that I took away from this story however, is that you have to be careful not to ‘mis-use’ technology in schools. Using technology appropriately and effectively is the key factor in using technology at all. The fourth story with “Martha” is a good example of how to incorporate a child’s personal interest to boost motivation for reading and writing. She used a struggling student’s interest in a new toy had received as the basis for his reading that week. Next, she used technology and cooperative learning to help the student create a Power Point story board about his toy with the help from other students. Applying the principles taught in this article, I believe I could use in math as well. Instead of gathering different books for students to choose from, I could provide different types of problems that students could choose from that they feel more comfortable with and understand better.

“Collaborative Literacy: Blogs and Internet Projects”- This article which showed the potential of using Internet collaboration, such as blogs, to enhance student engagement, was very interesting. One aspect of this is that students are much more willing to revise their writing because they know that other students and teachers will be reading what is said. This is where collaborative learning comes into play as well. The students who write their blog together both have the motivation to to do well, and also have the benefit of sharing ideas with someone else. I could see this being useful in math a couple ways. One, students could have access to any homework problems, practice tests, etc on the blog. Two, students could write any questions they have on a blog for the problems, which could be answered either by me or fellow students.

“A Wiki for Classroom Writing”- This article is great for a teacher to read because it gives steps and suggestions about how to set-up a classroom “wiki”. A ‘wiki’ is very similar to a blog aside from the fact that the collaborative site is changed by revisions made by the student and teacher, rather than just being able to post comments about the blog. Initially, I struggled to think of any way to implement this tool with math, however I came up with one idea. A ‘wiki’ could be set-up with all the different formulas and therems that are taught throughout the curriculum. I could begin with the name of the formula and students could fill in the rest; explaining how and/or why the formula works, uses for it, etc. Above average students might even be able to provide proofs for the formulas and theorems.

Some articles I found on WordPress:

http://quidditycirce.wordpress.com/2008/01/18/cheryl-lowe-on-teaching-math/
http://sitalia.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/22/
http://jd2718.wordpress.com/teaching-math/

Trevor Foster

Mita24's Blog

Balajthy. Lesson Plan 3 – Blog Assignment