The focus for my individual project involves the use of technology,
the reading/language arts series, and student team work. My intention is
to integrate technology in a logical and meaningful way. I wish to provide
students and parents with the opportunity to see published student works in
a new and different way via the use of technology.
The students are to be involved in a reading unit entitled "It's
Cool, It's School." The theme I intend to bring out in all subject areas
of this unit is teamwork; the art of working with others, and the benefits
of working with others. One of the stories involves a most important and
memorable school day for one of its characters. I wish to pull this idea
into student writings. The students will also be covering formation of
good sentences, paragraphs, and short writings. Students are expected to
use the concepts mentioned above to enable them to write (using the five
steps to successful writing) and publish their short writings into a class
Power Point presentation.
After discussing and sharing students' most memorable school days,
each student is asked to write about his/her most memorable school day. I
work with the class as a whole to discuss the five steps of the writing
process. The students then team up, make recommendations for
improvements, make necessary improvements, and proofread their works.
As this is going on, I meet with partnerships and individuals to guide their
discussions and collaborative activities. Once groups begin to work
through this process and revisions have been made, I work with individuals
to make final revisions.
My next intended step is to introduce the technological aspect of
the student activies. I will create an expert group of volunteers who will
become the experts on Power Point. This small group will be able to
troubleshoot some of the basic questions others in the class have. This
will free me to work with others on various problems, questions, etc. of
the activity. After my sessions with the expert group, I will show the
class the program and basic tools they will use with in the program. I
will then show students how to create their portion of the Power Point
presentation. At this point, students will work through the process of
learning about the program to create their presentations. They will rely
on each other, the expert group, and myself to complete the activity.
I have a few questions that have come about as I have planned the
Power Point presentation activity. First, does this activity appear to be
appropriate for what you are expecting? I wish to evaluate students as we
go through the process on the completion of the 5 steps of the writing
process. I also wish to evaluate students on their use of the technology.
I am not sure how and to what degree I should do this with fourth graders.
I do feel that they need to be accountable for their actions and learned
concepts on the computer, yet I do not know how to approach this. Any
suggestions regarding these comments or your own thoughts would be
greatly appreciated.
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