Identifying Shapes with Online Math Maps

Overview:

            This mathematics lesson is designed for second grade students to provide further practice and exploration finding, identifying, and constructing geometric shapes. This lesson follows other math lessons on geometric shapes. Students will use Maths Maps and Google Earth to provide real world application of shapes and structures. This tool also allows for differentiation with students needing support or more challenging material.

Standards:

National Standard:

2.G.1 Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given number of equal faces.5 Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes.

State Standard:

2.4.5    Recognize geometric shapes and structures in the environment and specify their locations. Example: Look for combinations of shapes in the buildings around you.

NETS:

7. Demonstrate safe and cooperative use of technology. (5)

10. Demonstrate the ability to navigate in virtual environments such as electronic books,    simulation software, and Web sites. (6)

TPACK/TIM:

            Content: geometric shapes, like triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes, identifying shapes in the environment. Pedagogy: Collaborative student work with minimal teacher support. Technology: website navigation. All three areas are combined to create a lesson that engages students and encourages collaborative, relevant learning.

          On the Matrix, this lesson is authentic adaptation. This lesson fits in the authentic cell because students use the technology tool to link the math activity to the world outside of a school setting. This lesson fits in the adaptation cell because the teacher is facilitating the students as they use and explore the tool independently.

Learning Objectives:

Students will correctly identify geometric shapes within a shape Maths Map of Paris.

Instruction and Activities:
Duration: 1-2 sessions; following prior lessons on shapes

Introduction/Whole-Group Mini-Lesson:  

        Remind the class that we have been working on shapes in math this week. Explain that these shapes can be found around us all the time. Give a few examples of shapes we can find in the classroom and ask the students to provide examples as well. Explain that today the students will be working with a partner to identify shapes from an online map.

Partner Practice:

            Assign or allow selection of partners. Provide a brief explanation and visual guide of the Maths Maps site – 55 Shapes in Paris Activities. Give the students ample time to explore the site and answer at least six of the ‘Name this Shape?’ questions. Encourage more advanced students to explore and solve some of the other activities within the site. Have the students record their answers on an answer sheet or piece of paper. Assist students as necessary.

Conclusion:

            Provide a brief time to explore the site together as a class and share student answers.

Materials:

          Computers

            Direct Link to 55 Shapes in Paris Activities - Math Map

            Skill Rubric

                        1-3 Correctly Identified Shapes: Developing

                        4-5 Correctly Identified Shapes: Proficient

                        6 or More Correctly Identified Shapes: Mastered

            Answer Sheets (Paper) & writing utensil

           

Assessment:

          The teacher will use informal assessments by observing student work, correcting, and reinforcing learning objectives throughout the lesson. The teacher will use a rubric to check for mastery of identifying shapes.

Related Resources:

Tom Barrett's Maths Maps

FreeTech4Teachers Article on Math Maps

Writing, Illustrating, and Recording Online Narratives

Overview:

            This writing lesson is designed for second grade students to provide further practice on writing narratives in sequence. This lesson follows other writing lessons on writing narrative stories with a beginning, middle, and end. Students will write, illustrate, and publish stories using Little Bird Tales . These texts will then be shared with the class to further student understanding of the concept of narratives by providing additional visual and auditory examples.

Standards:

National Standard:

W.2.3. Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure

State Standard:

2.5.1    Write brief narratives based on experiences that:

·        move through a logical sequence of events (chronological order, order of importance).

·        describe the setting, characters, objects, and events in detail.

NETS:

1. Illustrate and communicate original ideas and stories using digital tools and media-rich resources. (1,2)

10. Demonstrate the ability to navigate in virtual environments such as electronic books,    simulation software, and Web sites. (6)

TPACK/TIM:

            Content: narrative writing, creating stories, sequencing events in order, transition words, adding details to writing, sentence structure, punctuation. Pedagogy: Gradual release of responsibility through teacher modeling, shared writing with teacher and students, and independent student practice with minimal teacher support. Technology: website navigation, illustrating with online tools, typing, recording through a microphone and headphones. All three areas are combined to create a lesson that engages students and encourages a creative, successful learning product.

          On the Matrix, this lesson is active adoption. This lesson fits in the active cell because students are actively engaged in creating their own stories through writing, illustrating, and recording text. This lesson fits in the adoption cell because the teacher is choosing the tool used by all students, modeling its use, and pacing the students through the lesson.

Learning Objectives:

Students will create a narrative using Little Bird Tales that describes an experience in chronological order.

Instruction and Activities:
Duration: 3-4 sessions

Introduction:

*Over the course of several days, read examples of narratives to the class (in regular book and ebook form) and identify each text as a narrative that has a beginning, middle, and an end.

Begin this lesson by reminding the class that we have been reading examples of narrative writing lately and that today they get to write their own narratives that they will share with the class when everyone is finished.

Whole-Group Mini-Lesson:

Begin by modeling how to write a short narrative story in a sequence on chart paper or a graphic organizer (beginning, middle, and end). Be sure to model the use of strong transition words and adding details to the text while you are writing. Then show your already completed narrative story on Little Bird Tales

Shared Writing:

Write a short narrative together with the class on a graphic organizer or chart paper. Transfer your narrative to the Little Bird Tales site with the class. Model each step of the process while the students watch and actively participate. Create illustrations that match your text together. Explain the different tools and what they do. Stress the importance of saving your work as you go. Model how to read the text into the microphone while recording.

Independent Writing:

Give the students plenty of time to create narratives on notebook paper or a beginning, middle, and end graphic organizer. Allow them ample opportunities to transfer their writing into Little Bird Tales, create illustrations to correspond with the text, and record themselves reading their writing. Circulate and help students as needed.

Conclusion:

Have students share their narratives with the class. Students can go back and listen/read the narratives again during their Listen to Reading station on later days.

Materials:

          Narrative Picture Books

            Chart paper, markers

            Graphic Organizer (Beginning, Middle, and End) Example

            Overhead projector with computer/Internet access

            Little Bird Tales Website

            Microphone, possibly headphones or a complete headset

            Writing Rubric (created with the class in another lesson) Example

           

Assessment:

          The teacher will use informal assessments by observing student work, correcting, and reinforcing learning objectives throughout the lesson. The teacher will use a class created writing rubric to assess each student’s narrative at the end of the lesson.

Related Resources:

http://www.eduplace.com/cgi-bin/schtemplate.cgi?template=/rdg/hme/benchmark/3/index.thtml&grades=k_5&alt=K-5

http://www.thewritesource.com/studentmodels/

http://www.thewritingsite.org/exemplars/list.asp?type=wd&grade=3&genre=2&btnSubmit.x=23&btnSubmit.y=13

http://www.thewritingsite.org/exemplars/list.asp?type=lc&grade=3&genre=2&btnSubmit.x=24&btnSubmit.y=18

Here is an example of the finished product:

• Click to view my story.
• 

Visual Literacy Lesson Plan

Adding & Subtracting with Visual Texts

Overview:

            This mathematics lesson is designed for second grade students to further develop and solidify understanding of addition, subtraction, and the relationship between the two concepts. This lesson follows units I taught on both addition and subtraction. With partners, students will create visual representations (graphs, pictures, etc.) of key math vocabulary and the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction to review and reinforce these concepts. Presentation of these visuals will further student understanding of the concepts by providing additional visual examples and discussion.

Standards:

National Standard:

2.NBT.7. Add and subtract within 1000, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method. Understand that in adding or subtracting three-digit numbers, one adds or subtracts hundreds and hundreds, tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose or decompose tens or hundreds.

State Standard:

2.2.4        Understand and use the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction.
Example: Understand that 89 – 17 = 72 means that 72 + 17 = 89.

NETS

1.      Illustrate and communicate original ideas and stories using digital tools and media-rich resources. (1,2)

Learning Objectives:

1.   Students will create visual texts of key vocabulary (addition, subtraction, sum, difference) to show understanding.

2.   Students will create a visual representation of an addition and subtraction fact family in order to show understanding of the relationship between addition and subtraction.

Instruction and Activities:
Duration: 2-3 class sessions

Introduction:

            Reread the addition and subtraction sections of the More M&M’s Brand Chocolate Candies Math book (used in prior separate lessons on adding and subtracting). Ask the students what the author used to represent the concepts of addition and subtraction. Answers: candy, M&M’s. Explain  that visual texts can sometimes help us understand and remember a concept or vocabulary word easier than words alone can. Tell the students that during today’s lesson they will create their own visual texts to review and reinforce our key vocabulary terms about addition and subtraction.

Whole-Group Modeling & Practice:

            Begin by showing examples of visual texts from the website: http://www.mathsisfun.com/definitions/addend.html using previously learned and mastered vocabulary terms like addend, even number, and odd number.

            Discuss each example with the class and create a different visual text for each mastered vocabulary word that could have been created. Remind the students that several unique visual texts could be used to describe the same word. Model using different visual techniques - graphs, pictures, etc. Label each visual text with the term that corresponds to it. Ask for student ideas and input to create visual texts together as a class.

Partner Activity:

            Display the vocabulary terms the students will be depicting in their visual texts. Explain that each partner pair will create a visual text for each vocabulary term and one fact family of their choice and assign partners. Provide the partners with ample time to complete their visual texts using writing utensils of their choice (This portion may extend to another class session). Walk the room to provide any support or redirection needed.

Conclusion:

            Have each pair of students display their visual texts with the document camera covering their vocabulary label. Allow the other students to guess which term is represented by the visual text. Then have the partners explain why they chose to depict the vocabulary word or fact family in this way. If students were unable to guess the correct term, ask the pair what they would do differently now.

Materials:

          More M&M’s Brand Chocolate Candies Math     by Barbara Barbieri McGrath          

            Blank paper

            Writing utensils - pencils, crayons, markers, colored pencils

            List of key vocabulary (sum, difference, add/addition, subtract/subtraction)

            Assessment checklist

            Projector linked to a computer, overhead projector, white board, etc.

 (any thing with an ability to display examples for students to see)

            Document Camera (to project student work for class discussion)

Assessment:

          The teacher will use informal assessments by observing student work, correcting, and reinforcing learning objectives throughout the lesson. The teacher can use the checklist provided to assess each student’s visual texts at the end of the lesson.

Assessment	Name:                       Date:
	Topic: Addition/Subtraction
Checklist	Comments
Student creates accurate representations of key vocabulary terms & the fact family (5 points)
Sum
Difference
Add/Addition
Subtract/Subtraction
Fact Family
Provides a label or caption for each item   (5 points)
Uses a simple drawing that provides only the necessary details for each item (5 points)
Can interpret information in the representations orally (5 points)
Follow-Up: Total Points Earned: _____________

Related Resources:

http://k-8visual.info/

http://nichcy.org/research/ee/math#visual

http://www.mathsisfun.com/definitions/index.html

http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/

http://blog.vcu.edu/ttac/Math_SupportsDivLearners06.pdf 

Annotated Bibliography #5 - Inclusion in the 21st-century classroom: Differentiating with technology

Citation
Hobgood, B., & Ormsby, L. (2011). Inclusion in the 21st-century classroom: differentiating with technology. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/every-learner/6776

Summary
    This article begins by discussing the many benefits of differentiation for all students as well as the obstacles that teachers may face when implementing differentiation instruction. The article then focuses on differentiating instruction for students with learning disabilities or cultural/linguistic differences, and gifted students through the use of technology.
     The authors emphasize that technology should be integrated into a lesson in order to help students achieve the learning outcome not simply for the sake of doing something new, different, or fun. Two models are offered to assist teachers in using technology effectively in lessons: TPACK and Harris and Hofer's five basic instructional decisions.
     The authors identify two dimensions to differentiation: student dependent (student readiness, interest, and learning profile) and teacher dependent (content, process, product and environment). Teachers can learn to differentiate effectively by understanding the variables that make up student dependent dimension. This can be acquired through the use of a clicker system or other individual response technologies.
     Then, the authors describe ways to differentiate the same content using different technological tools, such as videos, closed captioning, images, screen reading, concept maps, Microsoft Word, Ebooks, and CAST UDL Book Builder. The teacher can use these tools to meet the needs of various students with a wide range of learning difficulties, like ADHD, ELL, or reading and processing difficulties. Teachers can also differentiate the process in which the students learn, such as how the student record information. For example, a student who has difficulty writing can use a word processor to record notes or question answers. Online math manipulatives can be used to help virtual or kinesthetic learners. Students can record learning through various technology products, like blogs, wikis, multimedia presentations, etc. Teachers can differentiate the 'controlled chaos' of a differentiated classroom by allowing students to wear headsets to minimize noise.
   Although differentiation can be difficult to implement, it is worth the time and effort as students' needs begin to be met and growth achieved in all individuals. Technology can be a valuable asset in making differentiation work.

Critical Response
    I appreciated the article and the information on differentiation. I thought the authors provided a lot of wonderful ideas and resources on how to use technology effectively to help meet the needs of all my learners. I was intrigued that the authors noted that although we all know we need to differentiate our lessons, many teachers still do not do it consistently and returned results for each complaint through the publication. While I had heard of TPACK and the five questions to consider, I had not heard about the 2-dimensions of differentiation. This was interesting for me to learn about. I will be more considerate of these dimensions when I plan  my lessons in the future.
   I liked the fact that many of the resources provided are free. However, I did feel the article was still a bit limited in assuming what schools do and do not have. For example, the article only provides one suggestion on student responses for a learning profile: clickers.My school is very poor, so we do not have any type of a clicker system in our school. My classroom only has 2 student computers, so an individual response from each student on a computer then is out of the question.

Online Reading - Reflection

Prior to reading the set of articles for class this week concerning online reading, I would have responded to the question ‘Is Google making us stupid?’ with an ‘absolutely not’ answer. I previously felt like Google, and the Internet in general, opens up a world of information to me that I probably would not have had access to several years ago. This information is much easier and faster to acquire than it would have been just a few years ago. In my mind, that does not equal stupid.

However, after reading the article, I began to think that I also would not say that having access to this information specifically makes me smarter either. For instance, I have done the same search multiple times to get the same answer to a question that I simply forgot since the last time I searched. The information I acquired the first time did not become a part of my memory therefore making me smarter. I had to reacquire that knowledge multiple times.

I can understand Nicholas Carr’s concern over society only wanting snippets of information instead of depth and the Internet making those snippets readily accessible. However, I also feel like if a person would like to know more information on a topic, the Internet, specifically Google, also provides the means to research this topic further. I personally feel like society’s rush and willingness or acceptance to over schedule themselves with too many requirements and little extra free time may be more to blame for making us stupid and ruining our attention span than Google or the Internet. These are simply tools society demands they need in order to accomplish their massive to-do lists. 

            Online reading brings many opportunities to teaching. As a teacher, I now have a large base of text to choose from instantly.  As mentioned in the article, Reading Online, the Internet has a wide variety of expository text which is important for students to become accustomed to, learn to read, and learn to evaluate. Online text can also be used to teach strategies of reading in a different way. Reading online still requires the same comprehension strategies and students can practice those strategies with online text. My students have grown up in front of a screen and I can use student interest in online text as an advantage to engage students who wouldn’t typically read a book or other forms of printed text.
            Nevertheless, online reading also brings challenges to teaching. Younger students, like my second graders, must be taught how to navigate the Internet before we can focus attention on online reading. This can be a difficult skill, especially for my students without Internet access at home, since the Internet has such vast amounts of texts. Many of my students are still learning how to turn on a computer, how to use icons, and what ‘that big long white box at the top’ means. Explicit instruction on Internet navigation must be combined with time to freely explore site links and other features to effectively guide my students. I also need to be careful in finding text that is at a low enough reading level that my beginning readers can successfully read and understand the material. While this is not impossible, it can be tricky!
            I think this information reminds me of the importance of using a large variety of text in my teaching, including online text. Although I will need to explicitly model Internet navigation and online reading with my students before giving them a reading task to complete on their own, I truly feel many of them would enjoy reading online and find it fun and interesting. My students need to be familiar with reading from a screen and using the same comprehension skills then as they are with reading printed text. This becomes even more important as more grade levels take the ISTEP tests online.

Annotated Bibliography #4 - Are International Tests Worth Anything?

Yong Zhao cited Keith Baker's article Are International Tests Worth Anything? in his response to Robert Campton's documentary 2 Million Minutes. This led me to want to investigate further, so I chose to do my bibliography on Baker's article.

Citation
Baker, K. (2007, October). Are international tests worth anything?. Retrieved from http://216.78.200.159/Documents/RandD/Phi Delta Kappan/International Comparisons - Baker.pdf


Summary
   Baker sets out in this article to prove that international test scores have no direct correlation to national success. He does this by looking at the FIMS scores administered in 1964 and comparing them to current data that measures national success, such as wealth rate, economic growth rate, productivity, quality of life, livability, democracy, and creativity. He states that if there is a correlation between scores and success then this data from countries mostly run now by the students who took these international tests in 1964 should match up to those test results. However, he finds that the United States comes out ahead in 74% of the comparisons instead of being outranked 100% by the other nations who scored higher on the test.
     Baker also looks at another international testing program, PISA. This data showed that nations with an average PISA score (the U.S. included) outperformed nations scoring above or below average. Based off of these data comparisons, Baker concludes that a certain level of education needs to be reached to provide a base for national success, but, once that level is reached, further gains in test scores may actually hinder economic and national success. He states this is due to drawing attention away from other factors that lead to success, like ambition, inquisitiveness, and independence, and focusing to much attention on test scores. It may also take attention away from real educational issues, like lack of support, run-down urban schools, and achievement gaps.


Critical Response
    Overall, I found this article to be very interesting! In a time when higher test scores seem to be the main focus in education on many levels (international, national, state, local), I was shocked to read an article from 2007 with mathematical research and proof that test scores might not be the key and number one indicator to success for our students. The results seemed to reinforce what I have believed to be true about education. While I agree that a certain level of knowledge needs to be acquired and certain skills taught and learned, there seems to be much more to education than can validly be scored on a test. I personally agreed with many of the points that Baker made, such as Einstein's quote, "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination". Many of his other points, like "it turns out that the elementary teachers who have said all along that there is more to education than what is reflected in test scores were right and the “experts” were wrong", were very motivating and, simply put, nice to hear in a time when "experts" seem to be making all of the decisions.
     I would be interested to read other articles, possibly even more current than this one, that address this issue. Is there opposing 'proof' out there that test scores do correlate with national success? This is an issue I am now interested in looking into further. 

Media Literacy: 2 Million Minutes - Part II

1) What is the message sent by Yong Zhao and what is his purpose?

Yong Zhao’s message is that he feels Robert Campton’s documentary focuses to much on math and science education in order to produce engineers and other workers for his specific industry. Yong focuses more on the economy as a whole. He states that a country cannot survive by producing only one or two types of talented workers, but must instead focus on celebrating the individual student’s interests and talents. He thinks the United States already does well in this aspect of education. He states many facts about China’s high suicide rate among teens and the ‘high test scores, low ability’ problem among their young workers. His purpose seems to be to draw more attention to the broader scope of American education and culture instead of following along with Campton’s more emphasized math and science view. Yong questions whether Campton is asking us to focus on the national economy or his own industry.

2) What techniques are used by Yong Zhao to attract and hold attention?

      Yong uses a lot of humor and personal stories while he talks to attract and hold the attention of the audience. For instance, he tells the story of his own daughter wanting to be an elephant and his son wanting to be a truck driver when they were five and six years old. Laughter from the audience can be heard many times during his presentation. He also uses several statistics and research studies done by others, like Keith Baker’s study done in 2007, with charts, graphs, etc. to strengthen his point of view to the audience.

3) What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in Yong's message?

      I feel Yong’s message strongly represents the point of view and values of a person who has immigrated to the United States. Multiple times in his interview, Yong comments on freedom of choice and the celebration of individuals as reasons that he came to America. He states that this is one of the best strengths of the American education system and forcing students into more math and science courses could hinder this. His point of view is heavily influenced by his own immigration to the U.S. for these reasons. 

4) How might different people interpret Yong's message differently?

      I think some people could hear Yong’s message and feel he is really pushing for open, or even more open, immigration laws. He mentions several times within his speech and the following debate that the U.S. economy does not need to worry about other countries producing and keeping high achieving math, science, and technology students. He states that many of those students come to the United States for their higher education and 95% will move here within 5 to 10 years. Therefore, they will be a part of our economy in the end. This seems to shift the conversation from education reform to immigration reform.

5) What is omitted from Yong's message?

      I feel very similar items are omitted from Yong’s message as where omitted from Campton’s original message. No focus is really given to earlier levels of education prior to high school. While, he does discuss a little about Indian culture and schooling, he largely sticks to comparisons between America and China. I feel he also leaves out the view of foreigners who come to the United States and do not wish to stay but do return to their original countries. He entirely focuses on immigrants who decide to stay because of the opportunities in America.

6) Now you have heard two sides of the story. Which side would you vote for?

            I do not feel I can choose one side or the other of the debate. I do feel like Campton is taking his field of expertise and turning it into a much larger issue. He says his focus is purely on creating students who can compete in the math, science, and technology fields, but the documentary and discussions all seem to me to imply that those are the only fields that will matter in 20 years. In this matter, I agree with Yong that a student in the American education system should have the right to choose from a variety of subjects that they are interested or skilled in and desire to learn more about. Yong says this could lead to a dangerous authoritarian type of education. I do not feel like America needs that type of an education system. Our country and culture is based on the belief that every individual has a right to be celebrated and pushed to achieve his or her potential. I believe higher education is the place for a more focused education in a chosen field of study.

            However, I do agree with Campton’s point about the American culture needing a shift in what they deem most important. Many of our students do seem to spend a large portion of their time focusing on extracurricular activities, like sports, instead of academics. While I see many benefits to sports and other social activities, education should be a top priority. I have students who will come in with notes from parents apologizing for not being able to complete a homework assignment due to a practice or a game. That cultural mentally creates a generation of children who see education as second rate, only a focus after the sport or other ‘fun’ stuff is done. I do think this could cause a problem in education, the future workforce, and ultimately society when other countries are so focused on educating their children and bettering their children’s lives. As a teacher, I strongly believe in educating children to create a better future.

Media Literacy: Video Analysis of 2 Million Minutes

1)     Who is sending this message and what is the author’s purpose?

The film is created by Robert Compton, an American documentarian and entrepreneur who has worked in software and computer business as well as traveled to multiple countries around the world. His purpose for creating the documentary, 2 Million Minutes: A Global Examination seems to be bringing attention to the fact that American high school students score far below students in other countries in math, science, and technology. The film compares high school students’ lives in three different countries (the U.S.A., China, and India) to highlight the obvious differences between America and the other countries.

2) What techniques are used to attract and hold attention?

                  The film switches from one country to the next addressing similar topics in each segment in order to make it easy for the audience to compare each country’s school system, educational culture, and students. Background music is played in various segments. The music is often louder during the American segments than in the segments shot in India or China. Occasionally video game and other graphics, such as a simulated cartoon car race, are included to focus specific attention and provide a visual for a statistic. While the students are talking, visuals of other aspects of their lives are shown, like shots with friends or family and shots of class sessions or extracurricular activities.

3) What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in this message?

      The main points of view come from six students, including a male and female high school student from China, India, and the United States. It provides the views and values of the students’ parents as well. All of the commentators seem to be American either by birth or by immigration. Most commentators have some tie to math, science, or technology either through an educational or business setting. The commentators are linked to one or more of the countries within the documentary. All of the students have educated parents and are not living at a poverty level. Both American students were white students living in a wealthy school district which reflects only a majority, affluent lifestyle.

     

4) How might different people interpret this message differently?

      Some people might view it as being aimed at school systems and the need to change the public school system in America to better compete in global assessments and job markets. Others might view it as a message about American society and how societal expectations and culture need to change in order for students to place a higher priority on quality education. People might interpret the message as specifically praising China and India’s educational systems as opposed to other countries around the world. I wonder if some people would even focus on the fact that the Indian school was a for-profit school and consider this film as promoting this type of educational system in America.

5) What is omitted from this message?

      This message omits any views of secondary educators in America or in any of the other countries within the documentary. The film focuses on math, science, and technology and largely omits any academic success in any other subject area. The film centers on high school education only and does not provide background information on any earlier education the students received. Since the film ends as the students are just beginning college, the message also omits the final outcome of these students’ academic endeavors leaving the audience wondering if these students graduate with these careers and succeed at their career goals later on.

Evaluating Websites on Writing

For this assignment, I chose to evaluate two websites on writing. I was recently appointed to a new writing committee in our corporation to examine our writing assessment scores and methods of teaching across the grade levels in hopes of improving our student's writing abilities (and AP scores). I am currently looking for valid writing websites to share information and professional development ideas with the committee.

Website:  http://www.nwp.org/

Test 1 – URL: This is not a personal site. The domain is .org which signifies a non-profit organization. The publisher is the non profit organization known as the National Writing Project, or NWP as the URL states.

Test 2 – Who, When, What?:

This site does not have a personal author, but it does have an organization, the NWP, that claims responsibility for the page. The website shows a board of directors from across the United States and the colleges, school, or corporations they are associated with. There is also an address, phone, and fax numbers to contact the national office and a list of those senior managers as well. You can also find sites closer to you with a helpful map.

The site has a copyright date of 2011, which is current and up-to-date.

The credentials of the board of directors are very impressive and linked to major, well known colleges and universities. In the about history section, the NWP has been in function since 1974 and is funded with a core grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Test 3 – Quality Information Indicators: This site is linked to multiple resources about writing and literacy. The links I clicked on worked and seemed well organized and carefully chosen.

Test 4 – Others opinion:s

            Alexa Ranking Information: Global Traffic Rank= 540,158,  US Rank= 144,408,                 

                      Sites Linking In – 521

            WaybackMachine shows the site began in 2003 and has been crawled 120 times.

            Link Search shows 605 results. These linked sites seem to be mostly other writing project sites or personal blogs.

            This site is listed several times in the About.com directory.

Test 5 – Why?: This site seems to have been put on the web as a way of releasing information on teaching reading and writing, research on these subjects, and more information on standards, assessments, and policy reform in these subject areas. I feel this is a very credible and useful resource with all of it’s components and credentials. However, there is a section where a viewer can contribute money to help support the organization. I think any reader would need to keep in mind that this is an organization with opinions and goals and be looking for any bias in articles and professional developments within the site.

           

Website:http://www.readwritethink.org/

Test 1 – URL: This is not a personal site either. The domain is .org which signifies that this too is a non-profit organization. The site has two publishers – The IRA, or International Reading Association, and the NCTE, or National Council of Teachers of English. These are well known associations in the education world.

Test 2 – Who, When, What?

            This site does not have a personal author either. It has three organizations that oversee the site and its publications – the IRA, the NCTE, and Verizon Thinkfinity. In the about section, the website also shows lists of the authors who add content to the site, the advisors who offer insight and suggestions, and the reviewers from the IRA and NCTE. You can contact the organization through the website or the address provided.

            The site has a copyright date of 2011, which is current and up-to-date.

            The credentials of the authors, advisors, and reviewers are listed. They are often teachers, reading specialists, or professors. The history of the IRA and the NCTE are also listed.

Test 3 – Quality Information Indicators: This site is linked to both the IRA and the NCTE’s association websites. The sites are all impressive with the amount of information on each site. The information seems to be of a high quality with such a variety of organizations and people overseeing it.

Test 4 – Others opinions:

            Alexa Ranking Information: Global Traffic Rank= 71,674; US Rank= 17,059; 

                       Sites Linking In= 2,776

            Wayback Machine shows the site began in 2002 and has been crawled 455 times.

            Link Search shows 466 results. These linked sites seem to be mostly other organization sites, school websites, and personal blogs.

            This site is listed in the About.com directory.

Test 5 – Why?: This site seems to have been placed on the web as a means of supporting teachers and parents who teach reading and writing skills to students. The site provides lesson plans and activities, as well as professional development for educators and helpful tips and games for parents. However, I think the reader does need to be aware that this website is backed by two organizations that have a chance to become a member within the site. Readers would need to consider this when reading and check for any bias.

*The UC Berkley Internet guide is a great source for students to learn how to use and help evaluate web information to ensure valid and reliable sources of information. It is easy to use and definitely helps the reader think critically about the site they are viewing and information they are considering using. I feel it would be over the heads of my second grade students who struggle to read text. I would mostly use the guide steps to model why I chose a certain site to share with the class in a whole-group lesson. However, I feel upper elementary students and older could be taught to use the guide. 

Information Literacy Quiz & Response

Here are the questions and my answers to the information literacy quiz from the following link: Information Literacy Quiz The correct answers to the quiz can be found through this link as well.

1. List 4 major search engines and a major directory.
            Ipl2                              Infomine                       Yahoo
            Google Scholar            About.com      

2. What is a blog?
            A blog is a type of website usually created by an individual to share posts, or information, on a topic they choose. Readers can leave comments and interact with the blog creator.

3. Why might you use quotation marks when conducting a search?
            If you are looking for a phrase or a person’s full name, quotation marks in a search causes the search to only look for those words when they are together in that phrase.

4. URL is an acronym for…
            Uniform Resource Locator

5. Identify three Boolean search terms.
            and, or, not

6. How do you find the owner or publisher of a Web site?
            The owner or publisher is usually named in the beginning portion of the URL.

7. Identify these extensions and what they represent:
.org  non-profit organization
claa -  
.com – commercial or business
.sch    
.k12 – elementary or secondary schools and school corporations
.edu - educational sites, but this can include personal faculty and staff.    .
gov - government sites
.ac   - United Kingdom academic institutions
 .net – network or Internet service providers
.mil - government sites 
 .co - Columbia, or online branding needs

8. How do you find out who is linked to your school’s Web site?
            Go into google. Type: “link:” and then the url of the school’s site in the search

9. What clues in a Web address might indicate you are on a personal Web site?
            Read the URL carefully. Look for a personal name (e.g., jbarker or barker) following a tilde ( ~ ), a percent sign ( % ), or or the words "users," "members," or "people."

10. How would you conduct a search for the following: a list of Web sites of all the academic institutions in South Africa? (Hint: South Africa’s country code is .za)
Google - Academic institutions link:. *.za

11. How do you find the history of any given Web site?
            Navigate to web.archive.org. Go to the Wayback Machine. Enter in the website you would like to     view the history of and it will show you the history of the website.

12. How would you conduct a search for the following: US higher education Web sites that contain the word turtle?
            Google: turtle site:*.edu

13. How do sites get to the top of a result list in Google?
            The Google Web Directory starts with a collection of websites selected by Open Directory volunteer editors. Google then applies its patented PageRank technology and other factors to rank the sites based on their importance. Horizontal bars, which are displayed next to each web page, indicate Google’s view of the importance of the page. This distinctive approach to ranking web sites enables the highest quality pages to appear first as top results for any Google directory category.


Response to Quiz
    When I was taking this quiz, I realized that no matter how I did on the final quiz, I am no better than somewhat savvy when it comes to information literacy. There were only a few questions I knew right away without researching or using the knowledge I gained from reading articles on information literacy for this course.
   This quiz reminded me of the importance of checking websites you are searching, like checking for the owner or publisher, the history of the site, etc. I was not aware that you could see a site's history through the Wayback Machine. I used this tool to view my school website's history. It was neat to see what the website looked like in 2001 when it was first started.
    I had also not considered using extensions to help define a search. While I was aware of different extensions and their purposes, I did not connect how this could be useful for narrowing a search. Nor had I considered checking to see who was linked to a site I was viewing or using as a source of information.
    I did find it interesting that the quiz focused on searching with the Altavista search engine while I, and many other students, focus on the Google search engine and tools. I recently took a course on Google and how it has grown exponentially in the past ten years. I wondered when this quiz was created and if there was a reason it centered around Altavista. Did the creators of the quiz disagree with the way Google lists their results based on the number of links to a site? I would be interested in finding more information about this topic.

Annotated Bibliography #3 - Integrating Technology: More Than Just Having Computers

Citation
Starr, L. (2011, June 12). Integrating technology in the classroom: it takes more than just having computers. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech146.shtml

Summary
     This article begins by stating the importance of integrating technology as part of your core curriculum instead of just an occasional add-in or project. It recognizes the difficulties this can produce for teachers who lack experience. The article gives nineteen steps and almost fifty websites to help teachers integrate technology easily into daily classroom routines, such as weather forecasts, online math problems, weekly science experiments, and logic games.

Critical Response
     I began reading this article with enthusiasm as it seemed to provide so many resources and neat activity ideas for students. Some of the activities did seem really interesting and fitting for my students. For example, the weather forecast might be a fun thing to include to predict the weather at recess time and graph to check for accuracy.  Other ideas seemed like great resources for myself, like the Steve Spangler science newsletter. Our science curriculum is not very hands-on and I am always looking for related resources that are active and student-centered.  Many other links were for upper elementary, middle, and even high school students which are too advanced for my second grade classroom, but might be worthwhile for another teacher.
     However, a few of the links did not work, like the reading comprehension and fluency link. I also had a difficult time understanding how some of these activities fully integrate technology effectively. The logic games would be a fun game for students to play who finish early or if we have a few extra minutes after a lesson, but I fail to see how it would enhance the actual teaching and learning of a lesson. I fear that, if these were the only ideas a teacher incorporated in their classroom, there would still be a large gap between fully integrating learning and technology in a best practice manner.

Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants

         When I read Prensky’s idea of digital natives and digital immigrants, I initially thought “of course, this all makes complete sense”! The examples of digital immigrants as people who print emails and bring people to computers to see a neat website resonated with me (Prensky, 2001). A fellow young teacher and I were laughing in the workroom just this week as another email from a teacher who has taught for over thirty years was printing out. We both mentioned how we would never even consider doing this and did not understand why they do it at all. As digital natives, or people who grew up with television, computers, internet, and cell phones, we did not understand the principles or thoughts behind a tool we would never use in this manner because we grew up making folders and storing important messages in our inbox.

As I continued to read Prensky’s article and began reading articles by other authors on the subject, I began to see flaws in Prensky’s writing, specifically his terminology and chosen analogies. For example, I agree that there is a generational gap caused by the rapid increase in technology that does fit the majority of people who then fall into the two categories of either digital native (someone born into something) or  digital immigrant (someone who may learn customs and language, but will never be born into that something). However, as Bayne and Ross note, natives and immigrants have a very real negative tone that rings close to home in a world struggling with many immigration issues. I agree that these assumptions need to be considered to prevent us from becoming fixed in any negative thought patterns (Bayne and Ross, 2007).

When I consider digital natives and digital immigrants, I prefer to see it as a spectrum where an individual may fall at any certain spot. Taking myself as an example, I was born into a world with multiple modes of technology, but my household did not have a computer or a video game system. We rarely watched television as my mother did not like the noise all day long. I did not own a computer or cell phone until my college years. Until then, my access was very limited to school, library, and the homes of friends. Therefore, I spent much of my time doing outdoor physical activities, playing imaginative indoor games, or reading which does not fit Prensky’s view as a digital native. However, my cell phone and laptop are now vital tools in my everyday life. As my earlier comment states, I find many of the practices of classic digital immigrants unnecessary. I do not consider myself as a fit for either one position, but closer to digital native on a spectrum between the two categories.

This falls in line with what VanSlyke says about another flaw in Prensky’s beliefs. He states that several questions need to be considered before classifying an individual as a native or an immigrant of technology besides birth year, including the extent of exposure to technology (VanSlyke, 2003). I do not think classifying a human being is as easy as picking a year of birth.

I do agree with Prensky on the notion that we must consider that our students today are different from those in the past. After noting that students may be more or less native depending on their exposure and other considerations, a difference amongst the majority of our student population cannot be denied. As he states in ­Do They Really Think Differently,, students today do seem to “crave interactivity – an immediate response to their each and every action” (Prensky, 2001).

As teachers, we must consider the idea that their brains may be altered due to their experiences and change our teaching accordingly. However, as VanSlyke suggests, I feel the best outcome might occur as a cultural assimilation, or a mutual process of combining two cultures. In my classroom, I have met the challenges of teaching digital natives by incorporating learning based games on our computers as Prensky suggests. I have also used visuals to introduce and teach key terms and ideas. My classroom is largely structured around fast-paced mini-lessons and quick small group activities. However, I continue to encourage my students to read books and build their reading stamina inside and outside of school hours. I continue to include activities of reflection, communication, and discussion with modeling and practice. I truly believe a balance between these two worlds can work best in the education of children in this new generation.

 

Works Cited
Bayne, S., & Ross, J. (2007, December). The 'digital native' and 'digital immigrant': a dangerous opposition. Retrieved from http://www.malts.ed.ac.uk/staff/sian/natives_final.pdf
Prensky, M. (2001, October). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Prensky, M. (2001, December). Do they really think differently?. Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf

VanSlyke, T. (2003, May/June). Digital native, digital immigrants: some thoughts from the generation gap. Retrieved from http://depd.wisc.edu/html/TSarticles/Digital%20Natives.htm