Welcome again to Obaratone's sound studio, where I'm sounding off again on technology in classrooms! This is a very important topic related to the future of our children, and here at the studio, we're all about kids! In doing some research, I found an article by Roschelle, Pea, Hoadley, Gordin, and Means, talking about involving technology in classrooms. They write about how classrooms and lessons need to be centered around technology and using it to its fullest extent. They focus on four main fundamentals that are needed to improve learning: active engagement, participation, frequent interaction, and connections to real world context. All four of these points are essential in turning the classroom from a chalkboard-based snoozefest to a inquiry-based learning smorgasbord! In fact, I can give you a real world example of how we can use these four simple things, along with technology, to make the best of a social studies lesson.
Picture this: I'm teaching a lesson on the Civil War. I split the class into two halves, label them North and South. I appoint positions to several students (Lincoln, J. Davis, Grant, Lee, etc.) and have them do research on each of these individuals. I assign lessons asking what each president, general, whoever else, thinks about certain policies according to what research the students did online. They will have everything at their advantage, including speeches that the real people have written, pictures, old newspaper articles, and whatever biography websites that are legitimate they can find. A more personal use, and something that can be done with higher level students, is have the students who are assigned generals study the generals they personify and map and plan battles. There are many sites out there that offer interactive battle plans and maps that show the different formations and how they play out. There are many things that can be done with this type of strategy. How do the four techniques apply within this lesson? I assign the students roles and give them specific assignments. That means they are responsible for their specific part. It gets them involved in doing research related to finding out more details about a certain person or people (citizens in Union and Confederacy). This type of assignment really gets them involved in the most interesting part of history: the people. People in history are so interesting, and when you assign a student to become someone in history, they have to learn about that person, and therefor can really delve into history and become a part of it. Student interaction is important in social studies. When technology is at your fingertips, when it can give you all the information you need to know about someone, you have to use it. They wouldn't be able to get this using just books. There are only so many books in relative distance that can be used to someone's advantage. But the internet is always there! You can go anywhere and find anything you want! Ditching the blackboard and embracing the computer can be a great thing. Now the question I pose to you is can this lesson actually be done and with what range of grade levels can it be used? I know it involves a lot of research and individuals doing specific things. I think this can be a really great activity, but of course, I am open to suggestions. Just leave your comments at my Gettysburg Address.
-JPO
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I believe the lesson can be done for all grades in middle and secondary schools. I like your emphasis to research primary documents and legitimate biographies. Using some interactive maps to plan battles seems like a neat idea to keep your students engaged as long as there is a priority placed on researching and learning about their assigned curriculum (Although you may run into problems getting girls to participate as they tend to not like "video games"). Maybe this could be stretched out over a few days to ensure they get everything they need and on the final day reward them by letting them play the game. Neat idea!
ReplyDeleteAlso cool title. Rage rocks!- Jeremy
ReplyDeleteI love how enthusiastically you write... your word choice is great! lol. Anyway, I think your lesson plan is great and I agree with "coop" that it can be applicable to any secondary level. Learning about battles and victories was the worst for me, and I know a lot of other people (girls) feel the same way. If we have to get into the mind frame of a person in the war, get into their heads, it can make the learning of battles more personal and therefore more engaging. If I had a teacher who did something like this when I was in school, I don't think I would have dreaded those kinds of topics as much, if at all!
ReplyDeleteAs far as if it is doable, I think absolutely. Our students are going to be so ridiculously computer literate that it should be a synch. Nicely done :)
This activity seems like a great idea, and although it would be a tremendous amount of preparation I think you could pull this off. Your excitement about the topic would definitely help the students get involved and interested which is half the battle. Maybe providing other wartime activities for students to act out as well would be good motivation. Some students may be interested in battle planning, but others might want to study civil war espionage or the roles of women or minorities in the war. If students have many roles to choose from it might seem more fun. Overall great idea, and don’t be intimidated by the research because you could reuse the lesson plans and resources.
ReplyDeleteI like how excited you are about incorporating technology into the classroom. I talked with a student today and I asked her if she likes it when teachers use the smartboard in her classes. She said she really liked the smartboard only when the teachers know how to use it. She said it is very frustrating sitting in a class watching a teacher struggle to use the technology. If we have a smartboard in our classes, we need to learn how to use it effectively!!
ReplyDeleteTo answer your first question, about the four points to improve learning, I see how your lesson definitely includes the first three. I don't really see how this lesson connects to the real world context. Maybe if you have each student compare/contrast their "character" to a current figure, they could see that certain archetypal characters have existed throughout history.
ReplyDeleteFor the second question, I agree with everyone else that this lesson could work for any secondary age level. Like you suggested, I would have different expectations for middle vs. high school students. I might also allow younger students to work in pairs, because they might be unfamiliar with this kind of research.
I agree with everyone that this sort of project could definitely be done with all secondary grade levels. For high school I think its good to go as is, its just prolly a couple days worth of work. As for middle school, giving them specific places to go for their information or having their sources already mapped out can make things a little easier on them. One of the important skills this project is developing is their ability to sift through and find good resources so as long as you provided them with bad examples as well as good, it should make the project just as beneficial and just as fun.
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