edu 573 assignment 1
Week 1 lesson:
Lesson Plan Development: Class Differentiation
· Describe the demographic section of your lesson plan. This piece is longer than a real classroom lesson plan, because your peers need to understand the setting and students in your class.
· Describe the school setting and environment.
· Describe the students’ demographics, including age, gender, socio-economic class, ability levels (gifted), students with disabilities, and English Language Learners.
· Include any other pertinent information about the classroom, such as unusual schedules or other staff who are part of the classroom.
· What are at least 3 potential advantages to teaching this mix of students?
· What are at least 2 potential challenges to teaching this mix of students?
· Respond to at least one of your fellow classmates' entries. Do you feel that they addressed the advantages and challenges sufficiently? Do you have any questions about their class demographics, teaching strategies, or advantages and challenges?
School Environment and Setting
The school is set up in such a way that there are classrooms. The school has been built up in such a way that they are comfortable for learners in all climatic conditions. The classrooms have electric heaters to ensure they are warm during winter. In hot summers, the classrooms are fitted with temperature regulators that help in standardizing the temperatures. Classrooms are used for academic disciplines. There are policies that ensure that the classrooms are well managed (Pelham, Smith, Evans, Bukstein, Gnagy, Greiner, & Sibley, 2017). The school has a large compound that accommodates sporting activities with basketball courts, gym, soccer pitches as well as running tracks available in the school’s sports complex. There is also an administration complex where the school’s management offices are based. The school’s environment is beautified with flowers as well as beautiful tracts of grass that are often cut to good sizes.
Students Demographics
The current statistics of student’s demographics based on gender indicate that there are about 47% of boys enrolled in the school and the remaining 53% is girls. At this point, the school has not identified any transgender case. The average age of an 8th-grade student around 13-14 years of age with a decreasing factor of one down the grades. The family backgrounds of the students in the school are people who come from parents from different professions. This makes the students be from backgrounds that are from low to high social classes of the society (Bayeck, 2016). The school has a population of students with different academic abilities with some having little ability and other high abilities. In the policy of the school to natural talent, different talent abilities are natured through the extra-curricular docket. Students with physical disabilities account for 8% of the total school population.
Classroom Information
The school’s classroom environment is set up in such a way that it is able to accommodate different kinds of students. There are lamps fitted over stairs in order to help wheel chaired students access the classrooms. Based on the fact that the students in the school are of different abilities, there are special programs that offer specialized programs that offer support to students with little abilities (Noble, 2017). The classrooms uphold the common core state standards where special programs are in place in order to support the learning of English and Mathematics. In the afternoon, after normal classes, there are lessons to help willing students with difficulties they are facing in learning. This is in the efforts of implementing individualized education programs. Integrated co-teaching programs are also in place.
Advantages of teaching a mix of student
First, mixed ability classes give an opportunity of accepting, discussing, and listening to other people’s perspectives. This helps students to learn from one another and helps them embrace the differences between themselves. Secondly, it helps more abled students help the less able students helping them come up with better ideas (Köttgen, Schröder, Borowski, Richert, & Isenhardt, 2016). Thirdly, mixed students have the advantage of helping each other out in class discussions as well as in brainstorming sessions that help come up with an excellent solution to problems at hand.
Disadvantages of teaching a mix of students.
There are several disadvantages associated with teaching a mix of students. First, most textbooks are designed for a homogeneous environment. Students react to teaching differently. Therefore, these books are a disadvantage to mixed student demographics. Problems such as attitude problems emanate from mixed student's classrooms (Thomson, 2016). This serves as a disadvantage to mixed student classes.
Raised issues
Issues pertaining to the ratio of boys to girls is a key concern with no clear explanation for the larger number of girls as compared to boys despite the fact that the country's statistics indicate otherwise in the population. Questions of how to deal with challenges of mixed ability classrooms are also a concern.
References
Bayeck, R. (2016). An exploratory study of MOOC learners' demographics and motivation: The case of students involved in groups. Open Praxis, 8(3), 223-233.
Köttgen, L., Schröder, S., Borowski, E., Richert, A., & Isenhardt, I. (2016). Flipped classroom on top–excellent teaching through a method-mix. In Automation, Communication and Cybernetics in Science and Engineering 2015/2016 (pp. 325-338). Springer, Cham.
Noble, D. D. (2017). The classroom arsenal: Military research, information technology and public education. Routledge.
Pelham, W. E., Smith, B. H., Evans, S. W., Bukstein, O., Gnagy, E. M., Greiner, A. R., & Sibley, M. H. (2017). The effectiveness of short-and long-acting stimulant medications for adolescents with ADHD in a naturalistic secondary school setting. Journal of attention disorders, 21(1), 40-45.
Thomson, M. M. (2016). Metaphorical images of schooling: beliefs about teaching and learning among prospective teachers from the United States displaying different motivational profiles. Educational Psychology, 36(3), 502-525.
Week 2 Lesson:
Brainstorming
This is just brainstorming. What would you like to teach? Think of subjects, activities, lesson hooks, and other items that you might want to include in your lesson. This doesn't mean you HAVE to include these things. Here is where you get your ideas down on paper.
Mention factors that will affect what you can teach, such as class size, time for lesson, resources, and classroom space.
Respond to at least one of your classmates. Do you have any suggestions for them?
Brainstorming refers to the process of generating numerous ideas about the given topic at hand through further evaluations of the written ideas. Evaluations are not done in the process of brainstorming of ideas it comes after the idea is generated. An instructor may begin a brainstorming session by asking a probing question or introducing a topic which leads to leaners contributing to the topic before getting down to the main points, (Kotb, 2016). All learners are encouraged to participate in this process of coming up with creative ideas that will be evaluated and analyzed by the instructor later to see if each idea fits in that particular context. A teacher should always employ the ability to brainstorm in order to come up with extra teaching strategies that will help in the development of the lesson. Making the teaching-learning process to be enjoyable and interesting it means that the teacher can think of something like a field trip or a concert which will help learners grip concepts through an open discussion forum about the problem presented to them, (Ramadan & Altamimi, 2019)
However, the activities that a teacher may deploy in the classroom to enhance learning might face several challenges. Student behavior in the classroom might make the process of discussing the problem at hand is not achieved. This is done in the evaluation process where the instructor may find out that the learners are not well-equipped in that subject area. Gaining the learners' attention in that subject area may be difficult with regard to the teaching strategy used. The time assigned for the lesson may be limited to the learners because they may not be in a position to capture everything that was to be accomplished. It may fail to cover and include all the learners, (Cheung, 2015). Activities like drama and inclusion of song performances of the content may pose a challenge as a teacher because of the limited space of the classroom. In case the instructor wants to utilize concerts or a field trip, resources is another great challenge in achieving this to improve the teaching-learning process.
References
Cheung, D. (2015). The combined effects of classroom teaching and learning strategy use on students’ chemistry self-efficacy. Research in Science Education, 45(1), 101-116.
Kotb, A. G. (2016). Effect of Brainstorming Program on Teaching Skills for Student's Teacher. Journal of Applied Sports Science, 6(1).
Ramadan, R. A., & Altamimi, A. B. (2019). BCLO—Brainstorming and Collaborative Learning Optimization Algorithms. In Machine Learning Paradigms: Theory and Application (pp. 393-412). Springer, Cham.
Week 3 Lesson:
Week 3 Lesson Plan Development Scope and Sequence
· From your brainstorming last week, define the subject and scope of your lesson. Also, define the time you have to teach your lesson. What classroom/school resources can you use in your lesson, such as a computer lab, science lab, Smartboard, manipulatives, space in your classroom for circle time, or breakout groups?
Topic
From the brainstorming lessons, and issues of improving the school learning environment. The motivation in this discussion is the fact that learning environments should be welcoming and friendly for students. In differentiated learning environments, platforms that provide functionalities in engaging and learning new skills are fundamental. Learners can learn an array of things from this environment through contact learning as well as indirect learning (McLaughlin, Roth, Glatt, Gharkholonarehe, Davidson, Griffin, & Mumper, 2014). A wide range of issues to do with learning environments to enhance learning was brought forward through brainstorming. Characteristics of good learning environments were outlined.
Scope
To ensure an effective brainstorming session, the scope of issues was narrowed down to. The first issue discussed was based on how learning in school should be connected to the community. The opinions brought forward indicated that there is a need for learning to be more connected to the community and issues in the environment (Rietzschel, Nijstad, & Stroebe, 2014). Students felt that learning concepts connected to the environment were easier than learning more abstract things. Students felt that this made learning more interesting and learning environments being more appealing. The second issue discussed is the place for creativity and practical work in learning environments. According to issues raised, learning environments are more interesting and when creativity and practical sessions are put in place.
The classroom resources
Class timing
The brainstorming session was initiated in the afternoon when the temperatures were high and the concentration level for active learning could not be established. The brainstorming session was allocated 30 minutes (Okazaki, Mateo, Werner, Hendricks, Woodbury, Sun, & Cameron, 2015).
Classroom set up
The students were divided into groups of five. Each member of the group was encouraged to participate in the discussions about the topic. The session took place in the school's hall where ample space is available. This was to ensure each group's independence. Smartboards were provided for every group to note down its findings.
Particular resources
There are several resources used in brainstorming sessions. Each student was afforded to write down the discussion details. Upon completion of the session, the students were provided with foolscaps that they compiled their results. Each group was afforded 10 minutes of presentation using a white board.
Issues raised
Considering the issues raised, some students through the time allocated per topic should be increased to forty-five minutes. Students think that the topic that was discussed was relevant and results can be propagated further to improve the learning environment.
References
McLaughlin, J. E., Roth, M. T., Glatt, D. M., Gharkholonarehe, N., Davidson, C. A., Griffin, L. M., ... & Mumper, R. J. (2014). The flipped classroom: a course redesign to foster learning and engagement in a health professions school. Academic medicine, 89(2), 236-243.
Okazaki, A., Mateo, J., Werner, E., Hendricks, R., Woodbury, A., Sun, T., & Cameron, G. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 8,954,431. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Rawlinson, J. G. (2017). Creative thinking and brainstorming. Routledge.
Rietzschel, E. F., Nijstad, B. A., & Stroebe, W. (2014). Effects of the problem scope and creativity instructions on idea generation and selection. Creativity Research Journal, 26(2), 185-191.
Week 4 Lesson:
Week 4 Lesson Plan Development Standards and Objectives
Standards and Objectives
· Pick a standard from the Common Core Standards, or your state standards, that you will use in a lesson plan. Write two objectives for this standard that you will use in your lesson plan.
Standard and Its Objectives
The common core states initiative has got several standards that drive it. Among the standards is enhancing research and evidence-based methods of learning. Research and evidence-based learning is a method of learning that enables students to grasp the concepts taught in class by learning through practical occasions or familiar things in their environments (Nippold, 2016). Apart from learning, it is critical to identify the understanding of the students through various tests or other parameters of checking their understanding. There are two main objectives of evidence-based learning that I intend to achieve in the classroom. First, I intend to identify the appropriateness of the teaching strategies I use in the classroom. Secondly, I plan to establish the level of learning of my students on the subject.
Tools of Teaching
I will gather relevant books that I can give or recommend to students to read so that they can gain knowledge on the subject matter. These books will aid in research on the subject. Through research, I will be able to foster a deeper understanding of topics to students. Secondly, I will require to access the lab facilities for experiments (Parkay, Anctil, & Hass, 2014). Experiments will help in proving facts from theoretical research. I will incorporate digital techniques such as simulations. Simulations will help in enabling the students to experiment on the issues that are not viable to experiment in a physical laboratory due to the cost of materials needed or their inaccessibility. It will also be critical to use random assessment tests as well as continuous assessment tests. The goal of issuing this assessment test is to identify the viability of teaching methods as testing the level of student’s understanding. This will help in continuously adjusting the teaching methods to suit the student’s abilities.
Addressing Questions
An issue was raised concerning the issue of the random assessment test. The student thought that it is a method was a way of ambushing the student. However, these claims are not true considering that learning has happened, random assessment test should not be a problem.
References
Nippold, M. A. (2016). Later language development: School-age children, adolescents, and young adults. PRO-ED, Inc. 8700 Shoal Creek Boulevard, Austin, TX 78757-6897.
Parkay, F. W., Anctil, E. J., & Hass, G. (2014). Curriculum leadership: Readings for developing quality educational programs. Prentice Hall.
Week 5 Lesson:
Week 5 Lesson Plan Development Lesson Outline
· Using the templates in Chapter 6, outline your lesson.
Class differentiation
School setting and environment
A school setting and environment are described based on the features of the classrooms, provisions, institutional-based health concerns as well as the discipline and mannerisms advocated for in the schools. A positive school setting is manifested in institutions that have good facilities, appropriate classrooms, fair and precise disciplinary policy and also the availability of institutional-based health (Zhang, 2015).
Students’ demographics
Students in the class have diverse characteristics such as age, gender, socio-economic classes and some are disabled. For this reason, all teachers should understand the uniqueness in all of the children so that they could assist them in their life endeavors. During classroom work, teachers should keep in mind the emotional and socio-cultural requirements of each student to minimize cultural conflicts that may arise amongst them. This also makes the learning environment conducive for the student. Students of different ages and gender also tend to think in different ways. Therefore, the teachers also ought to understand the mental developments of the children in such a way that they do not share with them what might not be appropriate to them. The disabled students also need special care and attention from their teachers. The policies governing all the institutions should incorporate all of these aspects for smooth learning to occur.
The advantages of teaching a mix of children include;
1. It enables the student to learn what the real world looks like through combining students with different characteristics as it is in the real world where there are no segregations at all.
2. There is more diversity in the classrooms which enables the students to minimize different stereotypes they have about others in different genders and social classes (Hill, 2017).
3. They maximize the opportunities of the students to improve their communication skills since they can explore beyond their personalities.
The challenges of teaching a mix of children include;
1. Having a classroom with both genders may cause distractions.
2. There may be cultural conflicts whereby students with different cultures find it hard to interact due to their different cultural boundaries (Hill, 2017).
References
Hill, D. (2017). Social class and education. In Considering Class: Theory, Culture and the Media in the 21st Century (pp. 31-50). Brill.
Zhang, Q. F. (2015). Class Differentiation in Rural C hina: Dynamics of Accumulation, Commodification and State Intervention. Journal of Agrarian Change, 15(3), 338-365.
Week 6 Lesson:
Week 6 Lesson Plan Development Technology Integration
Technology Integration
· Select a piece of technology, program, or activity to use with your unit plan topic. Share a brief description and rationale on the discussion board for the technology piece that you choose.Bottom of Form
Cloud computing is the actual delivering of demanding computer services from the application storage and the power processing center. It enhances the utilization of the central processing unit, read access memory and storage operating system. Reasonably, instead of a company establishing its computing infrastructure or database center, they can rent these services from other companies that provide an application to storage from the cloud service provider. One of the significant advantages of using cloud computing services is the firm avoids the high cost of maintaining their support service. Ranger, S. (2012) Besides that, it requires a computer expert due to its complexity who might be expensive to hire or else they expert in computing might be limited. Despite the fact, the company benefits economically from significant delivering of the same service to a wide range of customers. The aspect of cloud computing has continued to increase to about a third of the IT firms' world using it (Froyen & Iverson,2012).
Emerge of technology has added a lot of value in the education system. Class management has become accessible with a click of a button and touch of the screen. From the very basic of using the smartboard that provides an opportunity to save noted that have been written to the student's portal. ICT tools provide materials that make the lessons to be more lively without the lectures using a lot of human effort. Furthermore, the student gets a clear picture when presentations are done electronically. It has helped students to saves space and material equipment's that are required in atypical lessons where technology as not been appreciated. (Cox and Webb, 2004)
References
(Froyen & Iverson,2012). (n.d.). Benefits of ICT in Education and Classroom Management. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/education/benefits-of-ict-in-education-and-classroom-management-education-essay.php
Market Opportunities in Plastic Fibers: Tecnology, Markets, and Aplications. (n.d.). Information Gatekeepers.
Ranger, S. (2019, July 1). What is cloud computing? Everything you need to know about the cloud, explained. Retrieved from https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-cloud-computing-everything-you-need-to-know-from-public-and-private-cloud-to-software-as-a/
Week 7 Lesson:
Week 7 Lesson Plan Development
· Describe your instructional strategies. Address how you will introduce the lesson, teach the main material, wrap up the lesson, and transition into the assessment. Explain why you chose each strategy and why you think each one is effective for each part of your lesson. Some lessons might have one overall instructional strategy. Some lessons might combine a few different instructional strategies.
Instructional strategies comprise of all the approaches which can be utilized by a teacher or trainer to engage students in the process of learning. The instructional strategies drive a teacher's instruction as they work to meet particular learning objectives as well as ensuring that the students who are learning are equipped with the tools they require to be successful(Tate,2015). I would use the learning menu, instructional strategy and choice board. Introducing a lesson may sometimes be challenging. As for me if I were to introduce a topic, I will consider the following. First, I will introduce myself to the learners. I will also describe what I do. Secondly, I will stimulate thinking by asking various questions. Under the introduction part, I will also mention the strategies which we will use to cover the lesson, for instance study for a specific period, go out for a short break and come back. I will also mention the most important aspects of the lesson which the student need to put a lot of effort to ensure that they understand all the concepts.
I will also mention the main book which will be used for this lesson; the students will have to refer to this book to ensure that they understand all the concepts. Upon completion of the training session, I will issue a few questions to my students to evaluate whether they have understood the major concepts in the lesson. There are several reasons as to why I chose the two instructional strategies which are learning menu and choice board. First, these two instructional strategies address the lessons content effectively, for instance, the choice board gives the students options to as to what activities to complete so that they meet the requirements of the lesson being taught(Moore,2014). ). Additionally, this instructional strategy applies to multiple intelligences, and that's why I would prefer using it. Lastly, I would also choose a learning menu because it allows the students to choose which tasks in the menu that they would like to complete.
References
Tate, M. L. (Ed.). (2015). Worksheets don't grow dendrites: 20 instructional strategies that engage the brain. Corwin Press.
Moore, K. D. (2014). Effective instructional strategies: From theory to practice. Sage Publications.
Week 8 Lesson:
Week 8 Lesson Plan Development Questioning Strategy
Questioning Strategy
Write at least 3 questions that you will integrate into your lesson. One must be aimed at challenging learners in your class. One question must be aimed at the gifted or advanced learners in your class. One must be a divergent question to the whole class.
Describe when and how you will use these questions.
Effective questioning strategies are relevant since they capture the attention of students, thus facilitate an active and positive learning environment while also fostering the student involvement. Appropriate strategies that necessitate asking and responding to questions, along with listening enables the instructors to get students to answer the asked questions. It is essential to ask questions early enough in the course because it sets a tone for an active learning environment. In terms of cloud computing course, students need to understand the implications and effects the technology poses to business organizations and understanding the perceptions behind migrating to the cloud are essential. Therefore, it is vital to consider the high-level, divergent, structured and single questions as depicted below.
i) How do I determine whether the cloud is relevant to my business?
This can be considered as a high levelled question because it needs evaluation and synthesis. This question will rote memory and strive towards understanding the course content. By embracing this question, it is easy to evaluate whether the learners clearly understand the material and also encourages engagements. Additionally, this question is challenging to the learners as they need to understand the effectiveness of the cloud to the business enterprise.
i) What are the primary workloads to move to the cloud?
This question can be regarded as structured since they point out towards a particular context. This question is directed to the advanced learners who clearly understand the significance of cloud to business organizations. The workloads options for moving to the cloud largely depends on the cloud and business strategy. I will use this question to elaborate on what needs to be moved to a cloud environment. Typically, running the IT environment, Application-based workloads along with Test and Dev operations are the primary workloads worth considering.
ii) What are some of the security parameters needed for the cloud?
This is a different question because it can be answered with multiple answers and can be answered by every learner in the course. This question will help to disclose the existing security parameters that guarantee data security and availability, even in case of a cyberattack. The issue will prompt the students to understand the need for ensuring physical security, encryption and identity management. At the same time, the learners will be in a position to learn about the significance of business continuity plans and also the security practices required at the data centre locations.
References
BomanFeb, S. (2019, February 19). 10 Commonly Asked Questions About Cloud Computing. Retrieved from https://blog.newcloudnetworks.com/10-commonly-asked-questions-about-cloud-computing
Question Strategies. (2019, March 4). Retrieved from https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/alternatives-lecturing/questions/question-strategies
Week 9 Lesson:
Assessment
What is your objective and overall assessment strategy? (What do you want students to know and how will you know it?)
Question 1: What is your objective and overall assessment strategy?
My objective, for instance, in an Arts course, would be for my students would be for them to demonstrate the understanding of art theories that we learned in class throughout the weeks. In order for them to do this, they should use them and apply the practical methodologies that we talked about in quality to the task in which they would be performing. The students should be able to have an inner connection with their art and be able to explain every single detail that is contained in it. The projects should be finished on times, and prior submission of an optional draft could be made to ensure that my professional opinion is built on the work for appropriate revision, as well as additional information.
For the assessment, there are various factors that I will be considering. First, the submission time by the students will be highly regarded, and late submissions will attract penalties. The second aspect of assessment would be proof that the work belongs to the student and not any other person. The students' artworks should all depict the theories and techniques that they were supposed to, as well as instruction from the questions, should be followed to the latter. The assessment strategy also implies that the student should provide references to their work. The work should be done and submitted in a manner that means that a student did it. The students should be able to clearly explain the art project, as well as maintain the notes that it contains until it is a better project.
Carnegie Mellon University. (2019). Align Assessments, Objectives, Instructional Strategies - Eberly Center - Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/alignment.html
http://home.oise.utoronto.ca/~hinwood/art_assessment.htmOise. (2014). Assessment Strategies. Retrieved from