Audience Analysis/Project Topic
The audience for my presentation will be 21 4th grade students. They range in their reading ability from struggling reader's and below level readers to reader's above grade level. Two students receive Tier 2 reading instruction and another receives Tier 3 instruction. There are no ELL learners and no students with an IEP. However, I will have two students in the audience who have behavioral concerns and will need to be encouraged and managed throughout the presentations. One of those students has a 504 for ADHD and will need concrete, scaffolded instruction.
My topic for the presentations will be Animal Adaptations. My objective is for the students to see how adaptations help animals survive in their biomes. I also want the students to recognize why certain animals have specific adaptations. Finally, I would like the students to be able to see a biome and determine what types of adaptations may be needed in order for an animal to survive in that biome.
Task Analysis
The main skill I'm asking my students to obtain is the ability to identify adaptations that animals use to survive in their habitats. The students background knowledge will need to include information on what animals look like and what certain biomes are like. The students will need access to an interactive whiteboard to participate in some of the lessons. They will also need access to the internet and computers so they can watch videos on animals in their natural habitats. The students will also participate in the task of creating and writing about an animal that they create from scratch. They will use their knowledge that they learn about adaptations and different biomes to create an animal that could survive and flourish in a biome of their choosing.
Content Analysis
I will ask my students to do the same as I mentioned in the Task analysis. I will break this down into smaller chunks by using the sequencing technique. I will acquire the information needed from my audience through the use of a pre-test and finally a post-test at the end of the lessons. The pre-test will tell me what exactly the students have as background knowledge. The smaller chunks that I will break this into is examining different biomes and talking about their characteristics, talking about what an adaptation is, looking at current adaptations found in nature, and finally discussing and analyzing why these adaptations are useful in this biome.After the students acquire this knowledge the teacher and students will work together to "construct" an animal for a particular biome. The students and teacher will talk about what adaptations would be needed and why. After this guided practice, the students will be assigned to create their own animal and describe it's adaptations and why the animal has them.
Making it Happen Review
Making it Happen was a surprisingly easy read. I found it flow easily and there were a few interesting points. The point that jumped out at me the most was the way Will utilized other people to help him achieve success in his project. From the beginning, his boss Stu, told him that he was in charge of everything except the marketing. At first I was concerned about this as we have seen how this strategy did not work in the case study we reviewed in class. However, as Will progressed through his project he relied on his team and even his own family for advice and direction on which way to go. This was the biggest message I took away from this book.
My biggest question is how this relates to education. I kept reading the book trying to see how I could relate what was happening to WIll to something I might encounter in my profession. I just couldn't come up with a connection. I may have missed something but I was really struggling with that throughout the book. While it was an easy read and I enjoyed the book, I was confused as to how I could relate to what it was saying in regards to my profession as a teacher. The only thing I could really latch onto was the idea of not going at it alone when it comes to projects or building lessons/curriculum.
A Poor Presentation Reasons why this is poor This is a poor presentation because it is a mass jumble of words. The presentation was too much to take in as a viewer and I could picture myself tuning out if I was sitting through this presentation. Also, the template chosen (The Desk Lamp) does not seem to fit the theme and seems to take up more space and be a distraction more than an asset. | A Quality Presentation The Social Marketing Funnel View more presentations from Mike Lewis Reasons why this is well done This presentation is well done for a few reasons. The first is that it seems like it accompanies the oral presentation, not drive it. It moves along nicely and pinpoints specific things that the presenter wants you to acknowledge. It does this by showing one thing at a time rather than throw it up all at once on the screen. The slides of the growing line graph illustrates this the best. |
Taking Learning Seriously
The first pathology discussed is Amnesia. This is a common phenomena in the classroom and is seen a lot when it comes to the students taking standardized tests. The students can show mastery of knowledge learned in the current grade and from past grades but once the test is given, the knowledge is gone for some of them. I think the best way to make sure students retain knowledge is to teach it and then have the students use that knowledge in multiple ways. They can apply it to modern day living, through games, and even technology. I think that technology provides one more avenue for students to retain their knowledge and learning. You can use a website to expand students learning such as Brainpop or you can use a software program. In my school we use a program called SuccessMaker which is for math and adjusts the problems given to the students based on the questions they've answered correctly or incorrectly.
The second pathology discussed is Fantasia. This phenomena is similar to amnesia but more serious. In schools we see students have prior knowledge that can be wrong but they truly believe it to be right. They then go online, find a site that agrees with their prior knowledge, and believe they are correct. Technology, in this case, can be very dangerous. Fantasia is a major reason why schools do not allow students to use Wikipedia as a website to site in their research papers. The fact that anyone can go on Wikipedia and change information, makes it dangerous. While Wikipedia is good at making sure this doesn't happen, it is still a possibility. In order to prevent fantasia, we must make sure that we direct students towards sites that have proven, scientific backing and are exposing our students to what we want them to learn and to what is correct.
The final pathology is Inertia. This phenomena is when we have students with knowledge but not the ability to think beyond basic recall of facts. This phenomena is seen in my classroom a lot. We are always trying to push students to think further outside the box but some students just can't or are at a spot, developmentally, where they are unable to. However, through technology, we are able to pull some of this knowledge out and have the students think at a higher level. The best part is, most students don't even realize they are doing it! Through the use of online resources or flipcharts that I use on my Promethean board, students take the basic skills and knowledge that they learn and apply it at a higher level.
The overall impression I took from this article was that technology can have two purposes. It can serve for good or for evil. It's all in how we direct and instruct our students on the uses of technology, that can show how powerful it truly can be.
