Learning Goal(s) or Objective(s): Students will name the natural disasters Students will show how natural disasters happen Students will show the cause and effect of natural disasters
Student Understanding(s): Students will understand what the natural disasters are Students will understand what causes natural disasters to occur and what effect they have on the area in which they occur
Essential Questions: What are the different types of natural disasters? What causes these disasters to occur?
Methodology: 1. Before having students watch the video and start the lesson, I will ask them to just think about how the weather effects them and their lives. (For this lessons purpose, winter storms will be the disaster that they are most familiar with living in Buffalo). However, we have heard over the news about tsunamis hitting in the world, as well as, California wildfires. I would like them to briefly reflect upon those instances to prepare them for the activity. This warm-up activity supports recognition learning in that it supports the students background knowledge.
2.Instructional Delivery Method (How will your students get to the video?): In order for the students to have the easiest access to the provided video, I would chose to post the link to the video onto my wiki page. This will allow the students to have more allotted time for the activity, rather than fiddling around trying to figure out how to get onto the website to watch the video. Students would be watching this video individually with headphones. Directions for the entire lesson on Natural Disasters will also be posted on my wiki page, entitled, Natural Disaster Lesson. These directions will be written, as well as, audio recorded for those students who need multiple formats of directions. ["Rose and Meyer (2002) encourage teachers to design instruction that enables students to choose, or control, the context they are most comfortable with" (Shively, 2010, p. 4)]. [Learners can move at different paces (Shively, 2010)] The video obtainable on brainpop can also be viewed in closed captioning. If students feel more comfortable reading about the natural disasters, as opposed to listening, they are able to with this feature. The video also has a full screen option, to limit distraction. Providing multiple ways to access the information on Natural Disasters supports recognition learning. The limiting distraction strategy also supports affective learning.
Scaffold:(Will you provide kids a scaffold to help them focus on the important points? If so, what will you use?) I will be taking notes right alongside the students on the video and post what information I learn (what important information I want to make sure the students get from the video). This will allow the students to see what good note taking look like. I will also provide the students with a small outline, if they choose to use it, that will be apart of the quick note feature each student will be using to take notes. [The technology enhances the interaction between the student and teacher. There is a consistent flow of information between the two. (Roschelle, Penuel, & Abrahamson, 2004].The outline is as follows:
A. What is a hurricane? How does it form? What causes the damage? B. What is a thunderstorm? C. What is the most violent natural disaster? Why? How fast do the winds get? D. What is a winter storm? What do winter storms cause? E. How is a flood created? How much water needs to be present to be a flood? F. What is a drought? Why would this be considered a natural disaster? G. What waves are present during a tsunami? How are they caused? What is the most common cause of a tsunami? How fast can they be? H. Where do earthquakes occur? How much damage is done depends on what? I. How are volcanoes created? What can they cause? J. What is the difference between a wild fire and contained burning? Where are wildfires likely to occur? How are they started? Why are they difficult to put out? K. During a natural disaster, what is the best thing you can do at home? What should you have at home?
If the students do not wish to use this outline, that is okay. However, they still need to be able to take notes on the video and post them to the class wiki page.
This outline is a strategy that supports recognition learning. The choice of using the outline or not, allows for those students who wish to challenge themselves, to do so. This supports affective learning.
Organization Tool: (How will your students organize the information they are learning from the video?) I will encourage students to use quick note to organize the information they learn from watching the video. The class will watch the video twice. The first time around, students will be asked to simply watch and listen, without taking any notes. The second time watching the video, they will be encouraged to keep track of the points they learn by typing them into quick note. This strategy supports strategic learning. If students wish, they can either hand write their notes or type them into a word processing program (Microsoft word) and then add them onto the class wiki page. This supports affective learning.
Collaboration Tool:(How will your students share what they know with each other or you? do you want them to?) Once students have finished taking notes onto quick note, I will ask them to anonymously post their findings onto the wiki page under a new page entitled, Class Notes on Natural Disaster. This will allow students to see what their peers have learned from the video, and to compare their notes with those of their classmates. [Laptops support the changed pedagogy that requires students to write and discuss what they are learning. Besides writing in a word processor, students can write their ideas on their classroom blog/message board (Richardson, 2010; Wells, 2006), or wiki (Richardson, 2010)].I’d like it to stay anonymous so that the students focus on the information being presented, rather on who has said what. [Classroom networks can facilitate a blend of public anonymity and individual accountability that reduces academic anxiety and fear of embarrassment but encourages students to work hard (Davis, 2002, as cited in Roschelle et al., 2004, p. 53)]. I, as the teacher, will also be posting what I have learned from the video (or the key concepts I’d like them to take from the video) so that if they are unable to come up with the important points mentioned, at least I will have posted them for the students to see. Allowing the students to view their peers notes allows students to learn from one another. Sharing their final presentations encourages the students to work hard and to be proud of their final product, almost acting as an award. Both of these will hold the students interest. This strategy supports affective learning.
Product: (What will the students create with the information learned from the video?) Once the students have posted their comments to the community discussion board, students will have an opportunity to create a Google presentation, written paper, or wordle. I would like the students to present the notes posted onto the wiki page creatively, using one of the creations above. However the students choose to present their information, all finished products will be put onto the wiki page for others to see and comment on. I will ask them to embed their presentations onto the wiki page under the page entitled, Presentations on Natural Disasters. Again, all directions will be posted onto the wiki page entitled, Natural Disaster Lesson.["Community-centered environments... connect the learning of each individual to the learning of the group." (Roschelle et al., 2004, p. 51)].Allowing students to choose how they would like to present their information is a strategy that supports both affective and strategic learning.Student choice is a huge idea to keep the students motivated in their learning.
Assessment:(How will they know that they learned? How will you know that they learned?) The students responses to the video that are posted onto the wiki page will allow me to clear up any misconceptions and double check to make sure that the students were able to get all of the important points. I will comment on any notes that may be different than mentioned in the video, or if someone has missed any of the notes to clear up the confusion. A rubric will be used to ensure that each student has included the necessary parts and has a creative and accurate presentation. This rubric will first be used for the individual to score themselves, before I do so. I will ask the students to first fill out the rubric for themselves, and then send it to me in a Google document for me to then see and assess. I will then share the document with each student.["The technology allows the educator to see what the students are doing, thinking and understanding. Teachers will be able to assess prior knowledge, target understanding, motivate and engage, create group discussion and question students while providing constant feedback." (Roschelle et al., 2004, p. 51)].Providing feedback is very important, when it is relevant. It allows students to recognize when they are effective in their own learning. This is a strategy that supports strategic learning.
Analyzing the Effectiveness of an Activity or Assignment Teacher tool __ Student tool
Collect several samples of student work in response to an activity or assignment—home- work, a worksheet, project guidelines, or a problem to solve—that reflect the full range of student ability. Also gather any feedback you offered to students on their work. Answer the following questions to help you analyze the effectiveness of the assignment or activity.
1. What is the concept you intended your students to learn or explore? Natural Disasters, and more specifically:
Students will name the natural disasters
Students will show how natural disasters happen
Students will show the cause and effect of natural disasters
2. How does this assignment fit with the prior and future learning of the class? I believe that this assignment on natural disasters fit with the prior learning of the class because all of the “students” had either personal experiences with natural disasters or have had previous understanding of some that may have occurred in the world around them. The students were able to make real-life connections and make the lesson meaningful to them because they have had prior knowledge. For future learning of the class, I believe that this assignment fits because the students will be learning about some of the natural disasters more in depth, so this lesson will be put in their already build schema for those future lessons. When the students do move on throughout their educational journey, they will in no doubt be learning about the disasters, at least some, in more detail. They will be able to recall this lesson and use their prior knowledge to help and assist themselves through their learning. Also, because this was a lesson that showed the different disasters, almost acts like a social studies current event lesson, students will look back at what they have done the next time something devastating happens around the world.
3. Why did you decide to organize the assignment in this manner? That is, how does this approach advance student understanding? The big thing from this lesson was the choice the students had in determining how to go about learning. They were given a quick activity to spark their background knowledge, and discuss their experiences with their peers. They were given a video that they were either able to listen to, watch, or read along with the closed captioning (or a combination of the three) if that is what they decided upon. The students were given an outline to help them in planning their notes as they watched the video, if they decided they needed that assistance. Finally, the students were able to chose how to present what they learned to the rest of their peers. I wanted to provide enough choice for each different learning style. That way, the students felt more comfortable in their learning and were able to really focus on the content being studied. There was a lot of collaboration in the discussions, the note posting and the final presentations. This helped the advance student learning because they were able to help one another. If one student missed something, they were able to see what their peers had gotten, and learn from them.
4. Consider the student work, both of the class as a whole and of those for whom you have samples. What does it tell you about their level of understanding? What does it say about their perseverance? I think that all of the students were able to get the main points from the video into their notes. I also think that they were able to transform those notes into a presentation that showed they understood the different natural disasters, how they were created, and what effect they make. For the students perseverance, I almost feel as though most of the students chose to do the easier task for their final presentation, the wordle. I was hoping that I would have gotten a few different presentations, but all of the students were able to present what they learned in a new, unique way. No two wordles were the same. Some of the presentations had some spelling errors, which leads me to believe that they may have rushed through the assignment. One students in particular decided to do a Prezi as their presentation. This was one of the more time consuming choices, and I am very much appreciative that this student decided on that.
5. If you had the opportunity to make this same assignment again, would you do it in the same way? If you would alter it, explain why. I think that one thing I might alter would be the presentation choices. I do not think that the wordle compared in time and effort to creating a Google presentation or a Prezi. I might take away the choice of the wordle all together, and keep the other presentation ideas. Other than that, I do feel pretty confident in my lesson and how I set it up. The directions were there, in detail. They were also there for the students to listen to if they did not want to read. I think that I was able to capture the many different learning styles into the one lesson and I also feel as though I was able to support recognition, affective and strategic learning.
6. Given the student work, what do you plan to do next with these students? Something that I might do next with the students is a research project. I might encourage them to choose one of the disasters to research more in depth with. I would have them work in pairs and provide appropriate websites, reading materials, and videos that the students could use to find out more about their chosen disaster. I would encourage them to find out where in the world the most recent earthquake (for example) occurred, and what the effect of that disaster was. I would then have each group present to the rest of their peers what they found in a different way than in this lesson.
Questions you may have....Is there something you want to learn how to do?
What are some different ways, besides providing an outline, to scaffold for the students?
Title of Video: Natural Disasters
URL of the Video: http://www.brainpop.com/science/earthsystem/naturaldisasters/
Learning Goal(s) or Objective(s):
Students will name the natural disasters
Students will show how natural disasters happen
Students will show the cause and effect of natural disasters
Student Understanding(s):
Students will understand what the natural disasters are
Students will understand what causes natural disasters to occur and what effect they have on the area in which they occur
Essential Questions:
What are the different types of natural disasters?
What causes these disasters to occur?
Methodology:
1. Before having students watch the video and start the lesson, I will ask them to just think about how the weather effects them and their lives. (For this lessons purpose, winter storms will be the disaster that they are most familiar with living in Buffalo). However, we have heard over the news about tsunamis hitting in the world, as well as, California wildfires. I would like them to briefly reflect upon those instances to prepare them for the activity. This warm-up activity supports recognition learning in that it supports the students background knowledge.
2.Instructional Delivery Method (How will your students get to the video?): In order for the students to have the easiest access to the provided video, I would chose to post the link to the video onto my wiki page. This will allow the students to have more allotted time for the activity, rather than fiddling around trying to figure out how to get onto the website to watch the video. Students would be watching this video individually with headphones. Directions for the entire lesson on Natural Disasters will also be posted on my wiki page, entitled, Natural Disaster Lesson. These directions will be written, as well as, audio recorded for those students who need multiple formats of directions. ["Rose and Meyer (2002) encourage teachers to design instruction that enables students to choose, or control, the context they are most comfortable with" (Shively, 2010, p. 4)]. [Learners can move at different paces (Shively, 2010)] The video obtainable on brainpop can also be viewed in closed captioning. If students feel more comfortable reading about the natural disasters, as opposed to listening, they are able to with this feature. The video also has a full screen option, to limit distraction. Providing multiple ways to access the information on Natural Disasters supports recognition learning. The limiting distraction strategy also supports affective learning.
Scaffold:(Will you provide kids a scaffold to help them focus on the important points? If so, what will you use?) I will be taking notes right alongside the students on the video and post what information I learn (what important information I want to make sure the students get from the video). This will allow the students to see what good note taking look like. I will also provide the students with a small outline, if they choose to use it, that will be apart of the quick note feature each student will be using to take notes. [The technology enhances the interaction between the student and teacher. There is a consistent flow of information between the two. (Roschelle, Penuel, & Abrahamson, 2004]. The outline is as follows:
A. What is a hurricane? How does it form? What causes the damage?
B. What is a thunderstorm?
C. What is the most violent natural disaster? Why? How fast do the winds get?
D. What is a winter storm? What do winter storms cause?
E. How is a flood created? How much water needs to be present to be a flood?
F. What is a drought? Why would this be considered a natural disaster?
G. What waves are present during a tsunami? How are they caused? What is the most common cause of a tsunami? How fast can they be?
H. Where do earthquakes occur? How much damage is done depends on what?
I. How are volcanoes created? What can they cause?
J. What is the difference between a wild fire and contained burning? Where are wildfires likely to occur? How are they started? Why are they difficult to put out?
K. During a natural disaster, what is the best thing you can do at home? What should you have at home?
If the students do not wish to use this outline, that is okay. However, they still need to be able to take notes on the video and post them to the class wiki page.
This outline is a strategy that supports recognition learning. The choice of using the outline or not, allows for those students who wish to challenge themselves, to do so. This supports affective learning.
Organization Tool: (How will your students organize the information they are learning from the video?) I will encourage students to use quick note to organize the information they learn from watching the video. The class will watch the video twice. The first time around, students will be asked to simply watch and listen, without taking any notes. The second time watching the video, they will be encouraged to keep track of the points they learn by typing them into quick note. This strategy supports strategic learning. If students wish, they can either hand write their notes or type them into a word processing program (Microsoft word) and then add them onto the class wiki page. This supports affective learning.
Collaboration Tool:(How will your students share what they know with each other or you? do you want them to?) Once students have finished taking notes onto quick note, I will ask them to anonymously post their findings onto the wiki page under a new page entitled, Class Notes on Natural Disaster. This will allow students to see what their peers have learned from the video, and to compare their notes with those of their classmates. [Laptops support the changed pedagogy that requires students to write and discuss what they are learning. Besides writing in a word processor, students can write their ideas on their classroom blog/message board (Richardson, 2010; Wells, 2006), or wiki (Richardson, 2010)].I’d like it to stay anonymous so that the students focus on the information being presented, rather on who has said what. [Classroom networks can facilitate a blend of public anonymity and individual accountability that reduces academic anxiety and fear of embarrassment but encourages students to work hard (Davis, 2002, as cited in Roschelle et al., 2004, p. 53)]. I, as the teacher, will also be posting what I have learned from the video (or the key concepts I’d like them to take from the video) so that if they are unable to come up with the important points mentioned, at least I will have posted them for the students to see. Allowing the students to view their peers notes allows students to learn from one another. Sharing their final presentations encourages the students to work hard and to be proud of their final product, almost acting as an award. Both of these will hold the students interest. This strategy supports affective learning.
Product: (What will the students create with the information learned from the video?) Once the students have posted their comments to the community discussion board, students will have an opportunity to create a Google presentation, written paper, or wordle. I would like the students to present the notes posted onto the wiki page creatively, using one of the creations above. However the students choose to present their information, all finished products will be put onto the wiki page for others to see and comment on. I will ask them to embed their presentations onto the wiki page under the page entitled, Presentations on Natural Disasters. Again, all directions will be posted onto the wiki page entitled, Natural Disaster Lesson. ["Community-centered environments... connect the learning of each individual to the learning of the group." (Roschelle et al., 2004, p. 51)]. Allowing students to choose how they would like to present their information is a strategy that supports both affective and strategic learning. Student choice is a huge idea to keep the students motivated in their learning.
Assessment:(How will they know that they learned? How will you know that they learned?) The students responses to the video that are posted onto the wiki page will allow me to clear up any misconceptions and double check to make sure that the students were able to get all of the important points. I will comment on any notes that may be different than mentioned in the video, or if someone has missed any of the notes to clear up the confusion. A rubric will be used to ensure that each student has included the necessary parts and has a creative and accurate presentation. This rubric will first be used for the individual to score themselves, before I do so. I will ask the students to first fill out the rubric for themselves, and then send it to me in a Google document for me to then see and assess. I will then share the document with each student. ["The technology allows the educator to see what the students are doing, thinking and understanding. Teachers will be able to assess prior knowledge, target understanding, motivate and engage, create group discussion and question students while providing constant feedback." (Roschelle et al., 2004, p. 51)]. Providing feedback is very important, when it is relevant. It allows students to recognize when they are effective in their own learning. This is a strategy that supports strategic learning.
Student Products-Natural Disasters
nAtUrAl DiSaStErS on Prezi
Reflection- Natural Disasters Lesson
Analyzing the Effectiveness of an Activity or Assignment
Teacher tool __ Student tool
Collect several samples of student work in response to an activity or assignment—home- work, a worksheet, project guidelines, or a problem to solve—that reflect the full range of student ability. Also gather any feedback you offered to students on their work. Answer the following questions to help you analyze the effectiveness of the assignment or activity.
1. What is the concept you intended your students to learn or explore?
Natural Disasters, and more specifically:
2. How does this assignment fit with the prior and future learning of the class?
I believe that this assignment on natural disasters fit with the prior learning of the class because all of the “students” had either personal experiences with natural disasters or have had previous understanding of some that may have occurred in the world around them. The students were able to make real-life connections and make the lesson meaningful to them because they have had prior knowledge. For future learning of the class, I believe that this assignment fits because the students will be learning about some of the natural disasters more in depth, so this lesson will be put in their already build schema for those future lessons. When the students do move on throughout their educational journey, they will in no doubt be learning about the disasters, at least some, in more detail. They will be able to recall this lesson and use their prior knowledge to help and assist themselves through their learning. Also, because this was a lesson that showed the different disasters, almost acts like a social studies current event lesson, students will look back at what they have done the next time something devastating happens around the world.
3. Why did you decide to organize the assignment in this manner? That is, how does this approach advance student understanding?
The big thing from this lesson was the choice the students had in determining how to go about learning. They were given a quick activity to spark their background knowledge, and discuss their experiences with their peers. They were given a video that they were either able to listen to, watch, or read along with the closed captioning (or a combination of the three) if that is what they decided upon. The students were given an outline to help them in planning their notes as they watched the video, if they decided they needed that assistance. Finally, the students were able to chose how to present what they learned to the rest of their peers. I wanted to provide enough choice for each different learning style. That way, the students felt more comfortable in their learning and were able to really focus on the content being studied. There was a lot of collaboration in the discussions, the note posting and the final presentations. This helped the advance student learning because they were able to help one another. If one student missed something, they were able to see what their peers had gotten, and learn from them.
4. Consider the student work, both of the class as a whole and of those for whom you have samples. What does it tell you about their level of understanding? What does it say about their perseverance?
I think that all of the students were able to get the main points from the video into their notes. I also think that they were able to transform those notes into a presentation that showed they understood the different natural disasters, how they were created, and what effect they make. For the students perseverance, I almost feel as though most of the students chose to do the easier task for their final presentation, the wordle. I was hoping that I would have gotten a few different presentations, but all of the students were able to present what they learned in a new, unique way. No two wordles were the same. Some of the presentations had some spelling errors, which leads me to believe that they may have rushed through the assignment. One students in particular decided to do a Prezi as their presentation. This was one of the more time consuming choices, and I am very much appreciative that this student decided on that.
5. If you had the opportunity to make this same assignment again, would you do it in the same way? If you would alter it, explain why.
I think that one thing I might alter would be the presentation choices. I do not think that the wordle compared in time and effort to creating a Google presentation or a Prezi. I might take away the choice of the wordle all together, and keep the other presentation ideas. Other than that, I do feel pretty confident in my lesson and how I set it up. The directions were there, in detail. They were also there for the students to listen to if they did not want to read. I think that I was able to capture the many different learning styles into the one lesson and I also feel as though I was able to support recognition, affective and strategic learning.
6. Given the student work, what do you plan to do next with these students?
Something that I might do next with the students is a research project. I might encourage them to choose one of the disasters to research more in depth with. I would have them work in pairs and provide appropriate websites, reading materials, and videos that the students could use to find out more about their chosen disaster. I would encourage them to find out where in the world the most recent earthquake (for example) occurred, and what the effect of that disaster was. I would then have each group present to the rest of their peers what they found in a different way than in this lesson.
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ASCD