This week, in my instructional technology class, we have been studying the idea of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).  UDL involves creating a classroom environment that allows students freedom to learn in ways that are best suited for them by presenting material, assessing work, and expressing learning in a variety of ways.  In UDL style, we were allowed to complete our work for this assignment in 3 distinct ways: through an interview with a teacher using UDL in her classroom, by compiling a list of apps that lend themselves to use in the UDL classroom, or by creating a lesson plan that incorporates some of these ideas.  I choose to modify a lesson that I had recently taught to include more variety to accommodate a wider variety of learners.  The lesson is posted below with the modifications colored red.  I haven't written a plan in this format since college (note:  I used the CAST Lesson Builder site to keep me on track.  It was pretty easy, if you forgot how to format those lengthy lesson plan), so this one's for you, Dr. Bohach.  

Importance of Citations

Lesson Overview

Title: Importance of Citations
Author: Kalyn Cody
Subject: Other
Grade Level(s): 5
Duration: 1 day

Unit Description

How We Express Ourselves--Exhibition of Research

During this unit, students will work in groups to research an issue in our community. They will then work out an action plan to help deal with this issue.  After research and the action has occurred, the groups will share their work with the class and later with the community and their families at an open house.  The duration of this unit is 4 weeks, plus 1 week of preparation two months beforehand.     

Lesson Description for Day

This lesson takes place on day 1 of research.  It is meant to begin a conversation about the importance of citing information, opinions, graphics, and images.  

Students will not only discuss the reasons for citing, but will also begin to form citations in their notes.   

State Standards

From Iowa Core Literacy Standards: 

Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably. (RI.5.9)

With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of two pages in a single sitting.(W.5.6.)

 (plus a boat-load more, but these seemed most relevant) 

Goals

Unit Goals: 

1.  Thorough research into a real-world issue

2.  Compile information into a usable presentation

3.  Become able to answer questions on the repercussions of this issue

4. Become more aware of the interconnectedness of our community 

Lesson Goals: 

1.  Become more aware of the necessity of crediting original work

2.  Explore the feelings someone might experience when their work is "stolen"

3.  Learn how to give credit to a variety of materials

Methods

Anticipatory Set: 

Begin by sharing "my" new short story with the class.  This short story will have already been written on a previous day by one of the students (hopefully, this story has already been shared with the class).  I will read it, feign great pride in the work, and ask the class for feedback.  I will prompt obliquely until the class realizes that I didn't write the story, but instead "stole" it from Student X.  

This will prompt a discussion on why I can't pass off work as my own when I clearly did not complete it and also how I could go about rectifying the situation.  We will also talk about how simply reading the story to the class is bad, but it could be worse if I chose to publish the work online. 

Introduce and Model New Knowledge: 

I will then ask the students to come up with a way to give Student X credit for the short story while still posting it to my blog.  Students will be allowed to make a graphic organizer of necessary information, write it out, or type it into a word processor.  

We will then talk about my "summer vacation."  I will then use a projector connected to my computer to show my vacation photos of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, Mohammed Ali's knockout of Sonny Liston, and other pictures I could not possible have been present for in summer 2012.  I will pretend that I took these pictures and own the rights, leading to another discussion of why we need to cite images.  I will also include a picture that is obviously fake (i.e. me on the moon).  The students will then either write, type, or make a graphic of how to give credit to these pictures.

Provide Guided Practice: 

Students will be given a graphic organizer that contains a template for citing websites, interviews, and books/articles.  This template will be a simplified version of MLA-style citations.  I will then project a website on the wall and we will pick a quote that we would like to "use" in our research.  Then we will track down the information needed to cite this page.  We will continue in this manner to cite a book and call in a neighboring teacher for a short interview.   

Provide Independent Practice: 

Students will then be assigned to work in pairs to find and cite 3 webpages, 3 books, and 3 interviews.  The students will be able to use the graphic organizer provided, use a site such as easybib.com to cite the resources, or come up with their own graphic organizer that shows the necessary information.  

Wrap-Up

The class will have a brief conversation about the importance of citations and the implications of not citing someone else's work in our research projects. 

Assessment

Formative/Ongoing Assessment: 

Students will turn in their end of lesson citations to be scored by the teacher for accuracy and completeness.  Lesson will be retaught in small groups if necessary. 

Summative/End Of Lesson Assessment: 

Students will show proficiency in this skill by including proper citations (at a 5th grade level) in their exhibition of research projects. 

 

via 21st Century Learning Initiative

A 21st Century education can only be achieved with 21st Century tools.

These tools have developed and evolved at an incredible rate over the last 30 years.  Not only has the rate been extremely fast, it has also been accelerating.  Technologies have come and gone:  from desktop to laptop to tablet; from floppy disk to Zip disk to flash drive, but the common theme has been how these technologies have been repurposed for use in education.

Currently, one issue that I've been running into in my school is the amount of paper we have been using.  The administration wants us to stop making so many copies, but the new "standards-based" reading curriculum we've been mandated to use is almost entirely paper-based.

via tpack.org

One solution I've put forward is to stop spending money on paper and start spending that money on getting my class a complete set of laptops or tablets.  While this is a bit of a pipe dream and the suggestion was made semi-jokingly, I have lately been thinking about how I could make my classroom virtually paper free.  These thoughts have been percolating for some time, but like the pace of technology, has been accelerating recently because of my Instructional Technology course through the University of Northern Iowa.  One specific reason for this acceleration has been our discussion of the TPACK model of technology integration.   Basically, the model expanded an earlier idea by Lee Shulman that stated that teachers needed to be not only knowledgeable in the content they taught, but also the pedagogy of how to teach that content. TPACK goes on to say that teachers need not only content and pedagogical knowledge, but also knowledge of technology and how to integrate that into the mix.

So, If I Had a Million Dollars, and bought my class a set of laptops or tablets, how could I go about reaching my dream of never touching a piece of notebook paper again?  Let's break it down by subject (and remember to look back on this in a few years and laugh about how dumb I was for using technologies that will surely be embarrassing by comparison).

English:  In many ways, this would be the easiest class to assimilate to a fully digital environment.  The reading series my district bought has all their stories available online, so I could simply put the sections I needed into a shared file storage space (maybe Google Drive, Dropbox, or even some sort of class blog).  This way, I could simply have kids open up the reading for the day whenever their turn to read came up.  I could also have them find articles to read, do plenty of writing/blogging/commenting through the web, and simply email me their completed work.  I don't see any reason why I couldn't go paper-free in English starting tomorrow if I had enough computer/tablet access for my class.

Science/Social Studies:  See English.  All the things that hold true for that subject fits here, with the added bonus of being able to find videos, maps, diagrams, and models on the web.  I'm sure my kids would be disappointed to never see my drawing of the United States on the whiteboard again, but the improved accuracy would surely aide their learning.  Again, there seems to be no apparent obstacles to going paper-free in science or social studies.

Math:  Math is where my dream is a little harder to imagine.  As a guy who spent the last 4 years as a math teacher, I know how hard it is to write math problems with normal office software products (speaking of repurposing).  Word, Excel, and Powerpoint have all tried hard, but none are as simple and efficient as simply writing out fractions, division problems, or geometric shapes.  I also worry about how kids would be able to show their thinking while first figuring out how to represent that thinking in a whole new language.  However, these problems can be minimized with a tablet and good stylus.  This is one place where I would prefer to give my kids tablets over laptops.  It also wouldn't break my heart to simply share a page of problems with my kids in our common storage space, have them return the document with only the answers, and hand in a page with their work shown.  I suppose I could handle each student burning through 2 notebooks over the course of a year.

Overall, I the more I think about the idea of removing paper from my classroom, the more feasible it seems.  The problem, as usual, is monetary.  However, if I could convince the decision makers in my district to invest in technology rather than paper and paper-based textbooks, I could conceivably be cost-neutral within a couple years.  I guess that makes for a natural part two...