... Rogers stood puzzled. He was staring at the china figures in the center of the table. He muttered to himself, "That's a rum go! I could have sworn there were ten of them."
MODULE 2
Who’s going to help us get there, to state-of-the art, relevant, high-powered teaching and learning in our secondary-level public schools? Our Destination? To reach the “21st century”; by no means are we there yet.
“Much (current) educational change is akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”
--Anon, “…Re-Imagine Schools for the 21st Century”—a blog.
“Traditional instruction is more concerned with the study of opinions about the real world than with the study of the real world itself. Internalizing others’ views requires just one thinking skill—recall. Trying to make sense of one’s own day-to-day experience requires the use of every known thinking skill.”
--Brady, “Cover the Material—Or to Teach Students to Think?”, Educational Leadership, Feb 2008
1. Read carefully …
Specifically, heed “The Key Elements of 21st Century Learning”—Part 2. The assignment stops toward the end of p.10.
3. Travel to Microsoft Education's homepage.
There find “Lesson Plans”. Find a match or at least a reasonable approximation for your particular subject-matter major. Explore this lesson plan and a few of the others at depth!
Print one out, please, and place it in your Notebook.
Continuing...inspect and analyze your sample Microsoft lesson plan again. How is it organized or put together? What does it stress? How different is it, if at all, from a typical lesson employed by an average teacher at Anytown High this year? In what manner?
Are you impressed with Microsoft's current educational initiative? Click on some of the other links in this comprehensive website. Explore. Serendipity is in order.
4. Team Project: Locate on the Internet an existing but imperfect lesson plan that has potential for fitting into Microsoft's lesson plan format.
The plan your team selects should be in a major represented within the team (math, biology, etc.)
A. Modify this newly-found lesson plan so that it fits closely -- no, make that exactly-- with the Microsoft approach. Make it look so much like "Microsoft" that experts could not tell the difference.
B. Additionally, add at least one new significant activity or problem for students to do not found in the original lesson. This new activity or problem must be "link-based"; that is you must provide one or more links to the Internet that the student must go to and consult in order to cope with the activity or problem you created to enhance the existing lesson. Improve the original; make it more challenging and comprehensive.
*No! Don't just tack on a new link and meaningless or worthless activity to the original, serving no real function. Instead, your modification(s) must become an integral part of the newly-modified lesson.
C. Once modified as above, post it on Blackboard. (Your instructor will show you where.)
There TWO (2) other teams in ED 235 will be assigned specifically to critique your work.
Specifics on the critiquing process in ED 235 are located in Addenda 1, 2, 3 and 4 below.
Depending on the FEEDBACK sent to you from the teams assigned to critique your team's production, modify your Microsoft-compatible lesson plan.
Resubmit your revision on BB and maintain dialogue with your critics until you get it right -- 100% right.
The process of revision could take a week. Work at it until you arrive at a thoroughly professional, first-rate product.
Be proud. Accept nothing less than "perfection".
D. By all means, post the original lesson as you found it on Blackboard too. Post it immediately under your revisions... same thread.
Thus both the original and revised lesson are readily available for anyone to view on BB.
E. With regard to the above assignment, any team of four or more must divide into two subteams. Each is to build its own Microsoft project independently and submit it to critiquing on Blackboard. Divide according to major when possible.
The purpose of subdividing in this manner is to increase student involvement and interaction.
Special Note to Students of the "Arts" (Dance, Drama, Music, Visual Arts): Throughout the semester in ED 235, you are expected to focus on the didactic aspects of teaching your subject and not the performance dimension (which is beyond the scope of this course).
Example: A music major could seek a lesson in music appreciation and revise it as above. The same holds for the other "arts" majors.
In contrast, a performance lesson on ballroom dancing, say, that directs students to the floor literally to dance would not be appropriate here. The dance major should expect training in how to teach performance lessons in his/her strategies class, coming later in the secondary education sequence of courses.
“The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.”
--William Gibson ,“…Re-Imagining Schools for the 21st Century," a blog.
General Template or Pattern for Processing Any Team Project in ED 235
The Give and take of Critiquing
Public learning tends to be "quality" learning:
...successful models of teaching and learning already exist that we could emulate and build on. In the architecture studio, for example, all work in progress is made public. As a consequence, every student can see what every other student is doing; every student witnesses the strategies that others use to develop their designs. And there is public critique, typically by the master and perhaps several outside practitioners. The students not only hear each other's critiques, but because they were in some sense peripheral participants in the evolution of each other's work, they also have a moderately nuanced understanding of the design choices and constraints that led to the final result. As a result, the critique has substantial significance for them all--not just for the student whose project is under review.
- "New Learning Environments for the 21st Century...", Brown, Change, Sept/Oct 2006
When a given team posts an assignment on “public” Blackboard, two (2) other teams or team representatives will be assigned to critique the posting team’s construction.
Frank, thoroughly professional critiques are the norm and highly valued. The team will be informed by critics what they liked about its production, what was found wanting or questionable, and what the project make them think about.
Get comfortable with being critiqued and critiquing others in ED 235. Critiquing is a staple of the course and will go on all semester. Likewise, commit yourself to critiquing others; you’ll be expected to do it in a sane, reasonable, thorough manner.
Why? We learn and improve when we receive feedback on what we build or accomplish. Honest, fair, balanced, extensive feedback leads to revision, to an improved product, better understanding of what was to be learned in the module, and hopefully transfer of learning to related endeavors.
The Final Chapter reflects the significance of a good critique. It’s worth reading.
A “fact of life” in ED 235; all teams critique and are critiqued…...repeatedly
What is a critique?
Let it be established at the top that critiquing is not the same thing as proofreading (the detection of spelling and grammatical errors, etc.). That stated, however, a critic could and should provide feedback to the creating team on spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, "typos". Whether all or every "mechanical" mistake of this nature detected as part of the reviewing process should be pointed out explicitedly, however, is moot. The instructor will leave it to the critics as to how to deal with proofreading as part of the overall critiquing enterprise.
At the heart of any critique is the examination and critical evaluation of IDEAS! Logic, internal consistency, validity, accuracy, breadth, depth, relevance to the specifications of the assignment are at stake.
What Goes Into A Well-Done Critique is essential reading.
Three questions!
Spool identifies three critical questions that, if addressed adequately, virtually assure a well-accepted and highly useful critique.
Let us modify these three questions now for better fit for our course:
1. What did we (I) enjoy about this project solution (creation) and why?
2. What concerns us (me) about this project solution and why?
3. What does this creation remind us (me) of and why?
NOTE: The very-open ended third question affords intelligent critics with the opportunity to “go wild", speculate and maybe have some fun in the process. Perhaps focus could be on the critic's own experiences as they relate to the project.
Students, please pay attention to what I am about to say:
For the duration of the semester, these three Spool questions, so modified for ED 235, are to be addressed fully every critique rendered. No exceptions.
Yes, these three questions are to be the backbone, the structure of our critiquing adventures.
Some critiques will be rendered by teams, others by individuals. Highly Important: Download and study CHECKOUT now.
Rating the Critiques
Throughout the semester, teams will be directed to evaluate the completeness and adequacy of critiques they were concerned with, both their own (sent to another team) and others (received from other teams) for purposes of providing feedback to all concerned.
Copies of the standard rating scale to be used on each occasion to accomplish the above feedback are to be obtained in the following pdf file. The student is asked to make a copy of this rating scale now and store it in his/her notebook for ready reference and use. It is a very important document in ED 235.
What Constitutes a Critique?
A FULL critique consists of:
1. The initial WRITTEN critique sent to a team your team was assigned to critique. This written statement is to be posted on Blackboard immediately under the project or product in question. Keep the project and the critique together under the same thread.
This written critique is to be comprised of 100 words or more. 100 words or more! Got that?
2. All Blackboard interchanges, critiquing team to the critiqued team, in dealing with the written critique. The written critique is to be discussed thoroughly on BB. It may have to be amplified, clarified, defended, changed or modified depending on what questions or issues the critiqued team raises.
Deal with them promptly and completely on BB as they materialize.
Expect the critiqued team to raise questions about your critique on BB. Your responses to these questions represent part of the overall critique. Be sure your team deals adequately with these questions. You are to be held accountable for doing so.
Your team may want to appoint a team representative (one teammate) to monitor BB and deal with all questions and issues related to the initial written critique promptly .
***Thus a FULL critique embodies BOTH of the above (#1 and #2). Don't skim or delay on either.
The adequacy of your critique depends on both factors, not just the written critique.
Be prompt, be responsive, be helpful. be civil, be professional--always.
---------------------------------How to Handle the Critique Rating Scale.
1. Print a copy of the Critique Rating Scale (CRS). It is in pdf above.
2. When the instructor gives the cue, the critiqued team or team representative will complete the form or scale thoroughly. Longhand is perfectly fine.
3. Reminder: The overall critiquing effort is to be evaluated on the pdf scale--both the initial written critique and subsequent BB follow-up. Consider both together...give only ONE overall rating....not two.
4. Give the completed form (CRS) to Dr. Z when he asks for it. A Runner will take the completed form and place it "on the chair" .
5. Dr. Z will look them over. However, he will not assign grades based on what is said on the forms. He will, however, praise teams doing a superior job and put questions to teams not.
6. Dr. Z will make availaible the CRSs to the critiquing teams next Maxwell class. Runners will deliver the form to the team at the start of that class.
7. The team whose critique was critiqued on the CRS has the right to contact the the team that completed the CRS and discuss. This too occurs on BB same thread.
Be civil. Be courteous--no exceptions.
A Sample Critique
Ryan, Great WebQuest and good job evaluating it. I, too, agree that it is an accomplished WebQuest. The first thing I noticed was your WebQuest was also in Spanish which adds another level to it because it makes it easily accesssible for Spanish speaking students and teachers. Next I noticed the lack of images which you pointed out in your critique. I also felt more religious images could have been used to display the Renaissance. I looked over the tasks quite a bit and thought all 5 were great activities. (Which one did you like best?) The only issue I had with your critique is how you knocked Wiki. I know Wiki is "outlawed" because anyone can put information up and it's not always correct... but incorrect information is knocked down rather quickly now-a-days making it more reliable.
Thanks again for your good work. I look forward to hearing from you. Greg
It is your instructor's judgment that this sample critique should be rated a "4" on the 1-5 critique rating scale described previously.
It's a respectable "4", but not a dazzling "5".