EdPsy490TER: Technology & Educational Reform

Dr. Sandy Levin

Marty Sierra-Perry • Curriculum Project

Proposal:

Revision of An American Literature Class to Reflect De-Tracking

Return to Project Index

Proposal Components

Rationale	Alignment with Standards	Community Connection
Change in Teaching Practices		Integration of Technology

Rationale

The literature study choices for students in their junior year in Champaign Unit #4 Schools are the following: American Literature I and II, American Studies (full year), and Minority Literature. Last school year was the adoption year for literature in the district, and during the year of textbook review, department members were concerned that the students who were participating in co-taught mid-level freshmen classes would feel betrayed if the their sophomore year they were scheduled into 01 or the lower track classes again. Centennial English faculty decided to eliminate the 01 courses. Students would be enrolled in either mid-level or advanced sophomore English. However, two of the mid-level sophomore classes would be co-taught with a special education teacher. Central High School will continue to provide courses as in the past. In light of this change, we are revising the curriculum to reflect the shift in the make-up of the class. While students will be expected to meet the early high school benchmarks as outlined in the Illinois Learning Standards, we will also be moving them into the late high school benchmarks as well. I will take into consideration the results of a survey that mid-level students voluntarily completed at the end of major units during the third and fourth quarters. Top

Alignment with Illinois Learning Standards

I will use information from my curriculum map for 1999-2000 to ensure that I address the corresponding benchmarks for each of the Illinois Learning Standards. For purposes of this project I will address Illinois Learning Standards one, two, and three. In August I will address the remaining standards, prior to the beginning of school. Within the lessons I will address the Applications for Learning that precede each content areas standards. I have tried to embed these within units of study. The units of study that I will design are: Units of Study Eleventh Grade English I First Semester: American Literature 303 Tools of Research:Nothing but the Truth Conformity, Conflict, Rebellion Technology: Using Word to organize research How to use PowerPoint Reading Primary Sources Building Prior Knowledge through Nonfiction works I Second Semester: American Literature 304 The Twentieth Century Seeking the American Dream:The Turn of the Century, "Ragtime" The Evolving American Dream: "The Jazz Age" and "The Harlem Renaissance" Keeping the American Dream Alive: The Depression/America fights the Good War/Japanese Internment The American Dream Onstage: "Death of a Salesman," "Raisin in the Sun." "The Glass Menagerie," "Fences," and "A Streetcar Named Desire" Protecting the American Dream: The Things They Carried Fallen Angels Technology: Creating Multimedia Presentations: Visual Thinking Strategies(VTS) Music of the Decades Web Page Design: Author /Poet Study Top

Community Connection

I piloted establishing a web presence on the Internet during the 1999-2000 school year that parents and students could access for course information and assignments. Next year, I would like to have parents able to access student's grades through the web. I am looking at a couple of possibilities--Blackboard.com is one. It allows the instructor to place handouts on the web, provides a secure site to store grade information, and group chat space. I used Highwired.com to post assignments and updates, iAmaze to share photos with parents of the senior final "The Dinner Party, and used EzBoard as a place for discussion topics for a literary work. If I can consolidate these technology -oriented experiences, I think it will make them more user friendly. I did receive positive feedback from parents who did check the web site and communicated with me through e-mail. In addition to improving on these, I would like to have students do oral histories with retirees who live in a community center for the elderly located on John Street. I thought that my American lit students could use the information from their oral history project to create a newsletter of "Senior Stories: Reminiscences." I won a copy of PageMaker 6.5 Plus during Apple Learning Month in October, and am just beginning to understand how to use it. However, students could type their stories in Word, and "we" could lay them out in PageMaker. Top

Changes in Teaching Practice

I will use the information that I received from students who completed the evaluation survey as a benchmark for determining how to change approaches to content and activities to facilitate their learning. This will probably take the shape of a reflection piece. Top

Integration of Technology

As I reflect on last year's experience and plan for next fall, I will look at the ways that technology can improve instruction, communication, and learning. I will continue to monitor student feedback on their performance using various technologies. I will connect technology use to the Illinois Learning Standards and the Technology Standards. Limited resources make this a real issue. I know that some teachers resent that access to the Communication Center is difficult to plan for. Our building Technology Committed may have to encourage ways that the IBM labs are opened for teacher and student use. Also, perhaps the ZapMe! computers will be up and running this fall in the library. They sat in the library for a whole semester . . . unavailable. Top