Pam Pleviak's Professional E-Portfolio

Week 8 Final Revised--for now

2010-08-07T18:40:00.000-07:00

This week we've had a chance to enjoy the rigors and revision of formative assessment through a peer-review process. While our "best" project was due last week, we have the opportunity to consider peer formative criticism to improve our "best" work. How many of us have had a chance to revise our final? Last week, during a department chair meeting, I shared this experience with my colleagues. They were intrigued with the idea of having final projects due the week before finals. Doing so has allowed me to consider improvements, clarifications and revision of my project. The result will be better work. Further, it has made the learning process in this class more rigorous and relevant. Input from peers, some of whom are from very different fields, has been illuminating. It has caused us to see some of our blind spots and has revealed areas where we make assumptions about our learners. What I appreciate most, besides our great class and supportive instructor, is the fact that I'll actually use and share much of what I have learned over the past eight weeks. Thank you everyone!

Week 7 Final Project

2010-08-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

How will we know as teachers that our students have learned? How can we assess that learning authentically? What tools will we use? How might those tools build a classroom community and enhance student engagement? These were some of the questions that I considered as I developed the final project over the past week. In the past, teamwork has figured heavily when I've worked on a unit. Usually, I'm working with my counterpart in the other building, or a social studies or English teacher; however, this project was more solitary. Nevertheless, I solicited input for English teachers, reading teachers, the summer reading assignment we have for incoming freshman and students from our online class. Yet, I see that before, I never really appreciated the magnitude of creating a new course solo. The other factor that became clear to me was the need for revision, field testing, feedback and validation. Wiggins talks this need for reflection and improvement, but now I see more clearly its importance. I know there will be things that I want to change in the future or that the teachers using it may wish to change, but for now I'm done. Where's the Sunday paper?

Week 6 Final Preparation

2010-07-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

This week the blossoms for the final project began to set fruit. To continue the metaphor, my ideas have begun to germinate and extend beyond the initial seed. I'm excited that my project will fill a niche in our English reading curriculum and that my colleagues are enthusiastic about pursuing at least a rendition of this idea. In order to stretch myself, I explored the VideoPaper project and even began the outline of my final project there, yet I was concerned about lingering "known issues" even though the page is dated 2005. Thus, I decided it was time to develop the project differently. Knowing that I had at least one Animoto and one slideshow to embed, I decided to go with a wiki. In fact, the slideshow that I used is found on AuthorStream and I corresponded with the creator this week to make sure that I had permission to use her presentation.

I've used Wikispaces before, but learned a few new things as I worked on this. For one, I learned how to re-order my navigation page. Thank goodness for a rainy day! If you're wondering how to do so, click here. Fortunately, my presentations and videos embedded properly and I my sense of how to organize the final project continues to gel. In fact, I've decided that I'll probably write a paper in Word in conjunction with my wiki, because I plan to use the wiki, but might need the paper to fill in the gaps to meet the criteria of the rubric. My work-in-progress is here, but please don't post to its discussion board, because I'm still working on it. Plus, I finally figured out how to change the logo and added a picture of a teenager reading outside.

Meanwhile, as noted on the discussion board, I need to remember to have students self-reflect and provide surveys so that I can guide instruction/learning more effectively. To that end, I created this survey in SurveyMonkey. Since we've found in the past that students have a tenuous grasp on theme and character development, I decided to create a pre-assessment to figure out what they knew and didn't know. That link for my pre-course survey can be found here.

Finally, I received news that the grant for our book club books was awarded this past week and that the presentation of a colleague and I was accepted by the Illinois School Library Media Specialists Association. Not only that, but I canned 9 quarts of pickles and 6 more pints of raspberry jam from the garden. It's been a productive week. Now if I can continue this "flow" for the next couple of weeks, I'll be truly exhilarated. Set the sails!

Week 5 Bloom's Taxonomy

2010-07-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

This past week we analyzed a case study not only for its adherence to the principles of Bloom's Taxonomy, but also for its strengths and weaknesses in adapting it into an online class. Probably not surprisingly, the class heavily depended upon read/view and respond. Because online classes, particularly asynchronous ones, depend so much upon the written word, this class would have needed to have some additional activities that would have provided other measures of learning, otherwise participating in the class would have been awfully tedious. That said, opportunities specific to online learning, would have provided for opportunities to demonstrate learning that fall into the synthesis category of Bloom's, an area where there were few activities in the class for student expression. For instance, students might have done a podcast, created a YouTube video or made a Jing to recreate their knowledge. As I consider ways of assessment in the online category, I posted this useful diagram of Visual Bloom, illustrating various 2.0 tools for the Bloom's categories.

Another article worth visiting in planning the final exam is Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally. This is a Tech Learning article with both of the Bloom's diagrams that the class utilized last week. In this article, Churches creates an extremely useful digital taxonomy map based upon Bloom's hierarchy.

The second piece of learning this week that has occupied my brain is effective objective writing. I still feel as if I'm not quite in the saddle for that, or that my horse only has three legs. It seems every time I think that I have a good objective something is missing. Nevertheless, I've settled upon the focus of my final project: Summer Reading Seminar. After discussing it with other people in the business, English teachers, reading teachers, curriculum people and tech people, I think it's a niche worthy of time and energy. Charge!

Week 4: Group mid-term

2010-07-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

This week led to new challenges--no surprise there. Group work is often assigned as part of university classes; however, in traditional settings the group members see each other every week and, as a result, can easily meet before or after class to begin planning a project. Not so in an online classroom. Many students in online classrooms are doing so because of the unique ability to timeshift. Anyone with a DVR or Tivo understands timeshifting. The idea is that we participate in something at a time that is convenient to us. It is probably due to that fact that collaborating with group members and creating a firm project timeline was incredibly challenging for our group. This will give me something to ponder as I create rubrics for our students to help them surmount this issue.

While logistics were at times worrisome, my piece of the jigsaw was worthwhile and engaging. I was forced to consider Webex as a peer-to-peer application for assessment and really thought through some of its drawbacks and applications within a classroom. Considering these tools from the point-of-view of a teacher and then shifting point-of-view to the student yields different possibilities. I'm eager to read the work of other groups for their own insights and ideas.

Week 3 Concept Mapping

2010-07-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

It's been years since I've tried Inspiration; in fact, the last time I used it, it needed to be loaded with floppy disks. The new version holds a more robust collection of images and formats. Using it, I've created two concept maps: one for evaluating secondary sources, and another to brainstorm the structure for a tech advisory committee that I'm going to co-chair this upcoming fall. Ordinarily, I think of myself as a right-brained thinker, but for some reason, creating concept maps is difficult for me. It's not how I think, but then, maybe the way I think isn't the way my students think, so using this as an organizer might be helpful for them. Perhaps using it in the research process would help them to better organize their thoughts.

This week led to more learning and more overwhelm. Bonk's 30 emerging technologies--especially since they were dated 2004, made me wonder how I would be able to assimilate all of this new information. The fact that 4 years have passed and even more technologies are on the horizon was not lost on me. Indeed, I think it helped me to better empathize with reluctant teachers. This week was an ambitious schedule given the holiday weekend and family in from out of town. Next week, is even more daunting with network down-time and a group project due. That plus, realizing that I was as rusty on writing objectives as I am on my eagle yoga pose, fills me with trepidation. Breathe...

Finishing up the week, I realized that I had somehow missed the Puzzles & Pattern Making Case Study. That was really discouraging. In my post regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the method presented, I couldn't resist a bit of alliteration and adding "Paint Drying". That article was really a tough go and I felt some empathy with our students when they are assigned a reading that they really don't connect with intellectually or in terms of interest. Yes, there were interesting and valid points, yet I think that in terms of direct applicability to the educational community, Marzano and Wiggins might have a niche opportunity in the wings.

Week 2 E-Learning Assessment

2010-06-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

Clustrmap is now installed, but I'll feel like a sophomore with no date for homecoming, since I'd be surprised to see little dots clustering my map. Perhaps this is the formative piece of this activity:) I had hoped to return to my blog and now this will force me to do it. So far, the reading on uses of blogs in the classroom as pertaining to student work excites me. It validates their use and is supported by evidence. I'm intrigued by the idea that blogging will support all students in their self-reflection and learning.

Week 1 E-Learning Assessment & Partner Interview

2010-06-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

Online learning is about as relaxing as being a stay at home mom. Anyone who thinks it's easy hasn't done it. However, that said, online learning allowed me to continue class while on vacation, where traditional learning would have necessitated missing a week's worth of class. I'm excited about the power of this class to help to bring my own online learning as well as that of my teachers and students to another level. Thus far, the readings have been relevant and have up-to-date copyrights too. I'm especially interested in the fact that we're studying Wiggins too, since our district has invested considerable time and energy in revitalizing our curriculum using backward design.

The best part, though, in online learning is knowing that other students are in it with you. It seems as if there is a greater interdependence of learning in an online class--if only because we become desperate in trying to figure out "what to do" or "how to do." Please meet Phil Haitz, my interview partner for the first class.

Meet middle school Math teacher, Phil Haitz. Phil has ambitiously decided to take two online courses this summer, so wish him luck.

One of his favorite hobbies is to troll the flea markets in Chester and Lancaster counties in PA a couple of times per month. What's he looking for? A good deal. Sounds like fun to me.

One of his favorite formative assessment tools is Study Island, a web-based math program this is aligned to PA state standards. It allows Phil to pre-assess students so that he can differentiate his instruction appropriately.

Welcome Phil!