Digital Blog Post #I- Chapter 4

Teaching goals, methods, and procedures...OH MY! The lesson planning process is like a teacher's recipe to follow for every subject. Lesson planning really is not just the final result but is indeed a process. Beginning with deciding on academic content to be taught and ending in some form of assessment is something that the teacher once had to do by the good old fashion means of books alone. However, in today's day and age we are faced with an abundance of resources via presentation software, visual-thinking software, web-based diagram, flowchart-making tools, teacher-developed websites, podcasts, wikis, and more (Maloy, 2014).  The technological resources available today for each aspect of lesson planning enables teachers to reach every learner and learning style that they may encounter, and provides them with choices on how to get them to reach their goals. Websites such as planbook.com is a great site to organize your classroom. create templates, store grades, match lessons to standards, or even sharing successful lesson plans with peers. Then lesson plans themselves may come from sites, for example, such as abcteach.com, and educationworld.com just to name a few. The use of technology in the classroom does not only apply to the utilization of a computer, tablet, or Smart Board app or website that the students may use in a lesson. It actually refers to the use of all of the above mentioned websites and resources during the entire lesson planning process.

Just as lesson planning may have an abundance of resources, there are also just as many, if not more, sources of technology based assessments.  Gone are the days of pen and paper essays or fill in the blank tests being the main form of assessing students. Now with the use of electronic tests and quizzes, grade keeping software, digital portfolios, student response systems, online surveys, and learning performance rubrics, teachers have many options for what type of assessment they wish to use that is best suitable for the content of which they are teaching as well as the student's learning styles. All of these assessments can be used for students to show what they have learned and can be summative, formative or diagnostic. I felt as a teacher, it was most important to mix up the types of assessments used in the classroom. Although, sometimes it is easier to get in the habit or routine of using one form of showing mastery, we have to remember that while some kids may do well with that form of testing, others may not. By allowing them opportunities to assess differently, will give students the chance to prove what they have learned in various ways.  Many times, in my language arts class, upon completion of reading a novel as a class, I would provide students with a choice of three or four types of assessments to choose from.  I made sure that these assessments were aimed at various learning styles, so that the non-traditional learners would have an equal opportunity to show what they have learned as the student who preferred pen and paper traditional exams.  Having not taught for a few years, and with so many advancements in technology, I am eager to use some of the new forms of digital assessments in my future classroom experiences.  

Student performance rubrics are used to evaluate student work on course assignments and activities by providing a criteria to the students prior to them doing their assignment. From a teacher standpoint, this form of grading may be much more work at the beginning as you try to create a rubric that categorizes what students goals are for an assignment. However, utilizing such websites as rubistar.com can make creating these rubrics much easier. Although creating a rubric may create more work in the planning process, in the long run it will save the teacher much work when it comes to grading. By providing students with expectations and points possible for each category of grading on the rubric, students are not guessing what the teacher wants out of the assignment.  The organization that a rubric provides gives a clear concise idea to the learner and makes them reaching their goals more attainable, since they know what the teacher is looking for.  

This chapter provided so much important information regarding lesson planning and assessments as it pertains to technology.  Teachers today have the ability to plan, and assess in so many ways so that they may meet the needs of all students, while sticking to the game plan and standards provided for each academic content being taught.


Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.


Tarabokija, V. [Lesson Planning Wordle] Created 18, March, 2017, on www.wordle.com.