Technology based lessons

It was interesting to see how everyone interpreted technology lessons. A lot of the lessons were similar in their set up but it's still good to see how people applied them to different books.

E-Speaker

Ms. Diedre Price joined us today through an e-conference. I think that it would be great if the technology was a little more widely used. Then I could get a range of speakers to speak to the class. I think there are considerations that would need to be taken to apply this in the classroom, though. Students would need something to draw their attention, either the content or an assignment to complete like fill-in notes or something similarly.

Group

Ms. Williams split us into groups and assigned us each a playwright. I really liked the role assignments, and it reminded me of a different way to do a jigsaw. I think I am going to use this idea in some lesson that I am doing in my pre-internship. I like that we only had 30 minutes to prepare, even though it was challenging, we did not have time to be off task. This would be perfect for a middle or high school class.

Film Clips

Using film is a great tool for the classroom. Like we have talked about it is so important to have a specific purpose in using a film rather than a free day to grade papers. It can be really useful to help students visualize images in literature, which is especially important for plays as works that are meant to be seen. It is also helpful to make literature relevant to students' lives by connecting literature to movies. Movies are also extremely helpful to help students learn to look at literary elements in a less intimidating way. This can help them make the jump to finding literary elements in text.

It also lends itself to deep thinking and critical comparisons in the classroom.

Copyright and Fair Use

A Fair(y) Use Tale was a great video! I think it would be a great to use in a middle or high school class. You may need a transcript, because it was a little hard to follow at first. Maybe just a transcript for the beginning until the students get used to it. It has great information that I think I have down. I had no idea there were so many regulations! I thought that "educational purposes" had a bigger freedom than it does...

WebQuest Presentations

Today I got to see the result of the hours of work everyone put into their webquests! It paid off, and I got a ton of ideas on how to structure webquests, and how to cover different themes in books. Though I probably won't teach all the books that were presented, I will most likely teach books that have similar themes!

WebQuest

I had heard about WebQuests, but had know idea what was involved with them. I like the idea I found of connecting music with the Outsiders. I really think the students will connect with the music aspect of the assignment. The music is relatively old to them, and I think it will be good to expose them to something a little different than what they are used to. It seems like WebQuests wwill take a long time to put together, so I don't know how many a teacher would be able to prepare. However, I think it's worthwhile to pursue because of the amount of critical thinking it makes students do, and the draw it will have on students. It is something different and interesting to present information through.