Going Digital with Reading

Throughout this course, I have learned about many new websites that could be integrated into a classroom. What I did not know was how difficult it was to actually integrate media into a lesson plan. At first, I thought “Yes! I could easily use Power Point!” but I thought about it and told myself to step out of the box. I did not learn about the many websites for children for nothing! So, I decided to go through the class delicious list and before my eyes were wonderful websites I could use for my lesson. I was so excited about the websites that I kept on bookmarking what I could possibly use for my lesson, however, I had no set direction of how I was going to implement these into my lesson. As a matter a fact I did not even have a set subject or a lesson. So, that was the first thing I did. Finally, I decided to teach language arts and reading in the 5th grade level. Throughout this whole lesson planning journey, I learned a lot about planning lesson activities and used many of my new technology tools to complete this assignment. But before I get to my wonderful story of my journey here are a few standards that apply to my multimedia lesson plan.

Now standards are very important when it comes to lesson planning. What are standards? According to The International Society for Technology in Education, effective teachers model and apply these standards as they design, implement, and assess the learning experiences to engage students and improve learning (The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers, 2008). So, basically standards serve as a guideline for teachers to follow to ensure that students are learning what they need to learn and a guideline for us to plan our lesson around.

The standards I am following and that apply to my lesson are the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS*S) for Teachers. The first standard is 1A where teachers demonstrate introductory knowledge, skills, and understanding of concept related to technology. Here, I will be showing the students through a step by step process of how to use the websites. Another standard that applies to my lesson is 2B, which is the development of technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to become active participants in setting their own educational goals. Here, I am providing my students with a bunch of websites such as Pirate Pad, Comix, and GoAnimation to try out, which engages the student in the activities and encourages them to complete their assignment. Finally, the third standard is 2C where I have to identify and locate technology resources and evaluate them for accuracy and suitability. Before I give my students these new websites to try, I have to try out these sites first and decide whether the sites are appropriate for the grade level and age and whether these websites enhance the students learning process in organizing their thoughts when summarizing their book.

Now, once I had all my ideas set, I used several technology tools to complete this assignment. The first tool I used was the class delicious account. I was so excited when I found a website called Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers. In this website, or actually a pdf file, I was able to get the idea of Penzu, which is an online journal, Pirate Pad, and even voice thread. This site is basically a document that is intended to give a simple introduction to some free tools that can be used by teachers who are interested in using technology in language teaching (Peachey). Once I found all the media I needed for my student to be able to complete this lesson, I tried each one of them and made sure that they are appropriate for the 5th grade age group and easy to access. Overall, the tools used to complete this assignment were Google, Delicious, and the Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers pdf file. Now, looking at all these tools you may think that this lesson plan assignment was fun. Well, to me the assignment was actually pretty fun and innovative, however, I do have some dislikes about this assignment as well.
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What I liked best about this assignment was having the opportunity to try new media tools such as Make Belief Comix, GoAnimate, Prenzu, Pirate Pad, and Voice Thread. I chose these websites for several reasons: one, they could help bring out the creative side of the students when writing their story in groups telling each other about their book. Two, they are easily accessible and easy to work with. This will actually be the only lesson plan I have created with an integration of a lot of media tools to carry out a lesson. This assignment helped me step out of my box of comfort and encouraged me to try many new things in lesson planning and in my future classroom.

Although I had many great things I liked about this assignment, I also had some dislikes. A few dislikes was that it was very time consuming. I had to plan ahead of time and try out the many tools that I would be using in the classroom to carry out this lesson. Other than that, I really liked this assignment of incorporating multimedia into a lesson plan.

Throughout my essay, I have mentioned the standards that apply to my lesson, my secret tools in completing this assignment, and my many likes and dislikes of this assignment. From this experience, I have learned that planning lesson activities integrating multimedia takes time, patience, and skill to carry out this sort of lesson plan. I have also learned that there are more helpful tools other than PowerPoint to teach a class and get the students involved. I am definitely planning to use this lesson plan in my future classroom to teach reading and comprehension, all I need now are 20 computers and Internet and by golly I am ready to go digital with reading.

Sources Cited:
1. Peachey, N. Web 2.0 Tools for Teacher.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19576895/Web-20-Tools-for-Teachers

2. The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers. (2008). Retrieved April 15, 2010, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf