Are you finding the information and resources you need?
I explained to the 5th graders that we would be working on curriculum alignments and that we "must develop and select assessments that allow students to demonstrate mastery that is demanded by the standards." (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 141). I know that you must be wondering why I told my students all that information and those words, and the reason is because we continually talk to the children about tests, and content area information that they need to know. We found other class websites where the class had a continuous blog. I showed them what it would look like which then lent itself to more ideas.
Do you need to modify your action plan?
As of right now, I feel like my GAME plan is working like I wanted it to. As I get further into it, I might need to tweak some things here and there.
What have you learned so far?
By following this format and plan, I feel like my students and I are following some very similar protocols. I feel like I am learning some new things right along with them. I want to involve them in self assessments while blogging. In chapter 6 of our book, it talks about outcome feedback. It says that, "students will benefit most when they receive feedback about the quality of their work and suggestions for improvement - not just whether their responses were right or wrong." (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 139).
I believe in that comment, and have observed and seen it occur firsthand.
What new questions have arisen?
I would like to make sure that I keep my students focused and organized and wonder how I can ensure that to happen. How can I better teach my students to blog and take notes and show constructive criticism to one another.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed). Belmont, Ca: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed). Belmont, Ca: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
Mrs. Huston,
ReplyDeleteI am also a fifth grade teacher. A few years ago I made my first attempt at having my students blog. My students really loved blogging! We learned a lot together. I began with one blog for the class. I posted a response question each week about our current novel and each student was required to post a comment.
Later, each student created their own blog. They had a category for novel discussions and one for $1000 vocabulary words. They posted their own questions for discussion and had to comment to two classmates (sound familiar?). For the vocabulary word category they listed interesting, unfamiliar, or favorite words they came across in their reading. They provided a definition, synonyms, part of speech, a picture, and a sentence for their word.
I'm considering trying something similar this year on a wiki. Sounds like your GAME plan is progressing nicely.