What instructional goal/challenge does your SOS address? What additional value does the integration of digital media bring to your idea in terms of students’ understanding of the concept or topic?
The instructional goal that my spotlight on strategies (SOS) addresses is making inferences. Making inferences is a skill that all students K-12 need to be secure in order to be successful in the real world. According to Harvey and Goudvis, inferring can be defined as merging background knowledge with clues in the text to come up with an idea that is not explicitly stated by the author (Harvey & Goudvis 2000). Good readers make inferences with context clues, picture clues, covers, vocabulary clues, and background knowledge connections. For this particular project, I integrated technology into the activities because I feel that the incorporation of digital media helps to better meet the students needs of today’s world. I included three different links to YouTube clips that portray two stories for my project. These YouTube clips are a great extension because lower-level readers can easily follow the text, and visual/auditory learners are easily appeased. To take the project a step further, students can create/edit an online blog/existing blog in which they track inferences they make (1 per each book) throughout the unit. At the end of the quarter or semester, students can look back and see that each book they read required them to make inferences. This very easily helps to answer the infamous question, “why?”, that we ever so often get from our students.
I believe a blogging-type digital media extension is very appropriate for today’s learners. According to Lenhart, aided by the convenience and constant access provided by mobile phones, 92% of teens report going online daily — with 24% using the internet “almost constantly,” 56% going online several times a day, and 12% reporting once-a-day use (Lenhart 2015). Instead of an explicit lecture pedagogy, perhaps it is time for today’s teachers to infuse digital media to bring back creativity into the classroom. I believe that a great way for students to track their learning is an "old-fashioned" blog. Many students have strayed away from blogs because Facebook makes it far too easy to update others on their “status”. According to Lenhart, “microblogging and status updating on social networks have replaced old-style ‘macro-blogging’ for many teens and adults” (Lenhard, Purcell, Smith, Zickuhr, 2010). I believe that creativity can be brought back into the classroom by allowing students to explore social media/digital media options like blogging that can be used in the classroom. I also believe that allowing CHOICE and giving some DEMOCRACY sets students up to be more comfortable with being creative in the classroom again. (*415 words not including question and references).
References:
Lenhart, A. (2015, April 9). Teens, social media & technology overview 2015. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/
Lenhart, A. Purcell, K. Smith, A. Zickuhr, K. (2010 Feb 3). Social media and young adults. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/02/03/social-media-and-young-adults-3/
Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension to enhance understanding. York, Me.: Stenhouse.
The instructional goal that my spotlight on strategies (SOS) addresses is making inferences. Making inferences is a skill that all students K-12 need to be secure in order to be successful in the real world. According to Harvey and Goudvis, inferring can be defined as merging background knowledge with clues in the text to come up with an idea that is not explicitly stated by the author (Harvey & Goudvis 2000). Good readers make inferences with context clues, picture clues, covers, vocabulary clues, and background knowledge connections. For this particular project, I integrated technology into the activities because I feel that the incorporation of digital media helps to better meet the students needs of today’s world. I included three different links to YouTube clips that portray two stories for my project. These YouTube clips are a great extension because lower-level readers can easily follow the text, and visual/auditory learners are easily appeased. To take the project a step further, students can create/edit an online blog/existing blog in which they track inferences they make (1 per each book) throughout the unit. At the end of the quarter or semester, students can look back and see that each book they read required them to make inferences. This very easily helps to answer the infamous question, “why?”, that we ever so often get from our students.
I believe a blogging-type digital media extension is very appropriate for today’s learners. According to Lenhart, aided by the convenience and constant access provided by mobile phones, 92% of teens report going online daily — with 24% using the internet “almost constantly,” 56% going online several times a day, and 12% reporting once-a-day use (Lenhart 2015). Instead of an explicit lecture pedagogy, perhaps it is time for today’s teachers to infuse digital media to bring back creativity into the classroom. I believe that a great way for students to track their learning is an "old-fashioned" blog. Many students have strayed away from blogs because Facebook makes it far too easy to update others on their “status”. According to Lenhart, “microblogging and status updating on social networks have replaced old-style ‘macro-blogging’ for many teens and adults” (Lenhard, Purcell, Smith, Zickuhr, 2010). I believe that creativity can be brought back into the classroom by allowing students to explore social media/digital media options like blogging that can be used in the classroom. I also believe that allowing CHOICE and giving some DEMOCRACY sets students up to be more comfortable with being creative in the classroom again. (*415 words not including question and references).
References:
Lenhart, A. (2015, April 9). Teens, social media & technology overview 2015. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/
Lenhart, A. Purcell, K. Smith, A. Zickuhr, K. (2010 Feb 3). Social media and young adults. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/02/03/social-media-and-young-adults-3/
Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension to enhance understanding. York, Me.: Stenhouse.