Kids are Worth it! by Barbara Coloroso

Assignment 4B- Annotated Bibliography- MAT675

Hello Everyone!

The following is my annotated bibliography for the book Teaching the 4Cs with Technology: How do I use 21^st century tools to teach 21^st century skills?

I found this book to be very informative yet easy to read which is great for me because I needed to find a book that I could read in a short period of time! I definitely give this book 2 thumbs up. I also recommend it to all teachers who are not tech savvies but who are looking for new strategies to incorporate technology into their classroom, as well as teachers who want to learn about new technology tools out there.

Annotated Bibliography

Budhai, S. S., & Taddei, L. M. (2015). Teaching the 4Cs with technology: how do I use 21st century tools to teach 21st century skills? Alexandria, VA: ASCD. 58 pp.

In this book, Stephanie Smith Budhai and Laura McLaughlin Taddei provide helpful and valuable strategies to assist teachers in the process of teaching the 4Cs of the Common Core using technology. The authors highlight the importance of teaching critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity, which are the 21^st Century skills, integrating technology tools that will prepare students to take part into our global, fast emerging futuristic society. Budhai is an assistant professor at Neumann University, as well as an Instructional Technology Specialist for K-12 teachers who need assistance with online modalities. She has written a variety of articles pertaining the use of technology in educational settings. Taddei is an assistant professor at Neumann University as well as a professional development speaker for K-12 and higher education. Both respected and well accomplished authors want teachers to learn various ways to incorporate technology tools into the classroom that will contribute to a better learning experience for all students.

The key objective of this book is to deliver different tools for teachers to use in the classroom, on a daily basis, in order to design lessons that include the use of technology within the Common Core Curriculum. The authors formulated concise methods to follow in order to provide continuous opportunities for students to engage using technology tools such as wikispaces, edublogs, Google docs, PowerPoint, Prezi, videos, social media, and much more. Teaching the 4Cs with Technology: How do I use 21^st century tools to teach 21^st century skills? emphasizes the importance of teaching in a creative, engaging, innovative, yet relevant way.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Nora Huskins

Assignment 3B- Moving Beyond Vocabulary and Content

Moving Beyond Vocabulary and Content

Teaching is an extremely rewarding career which lets you taste success in the end, but it is not always as easy as it sounds! Creating meaningful lessons is a challenge, and a difficult task at hand which requires a lot of planning and constant variety. Students deserve to be in a classroom where their learning is a priority. Creating lessons that are engaging, hands on, and meaningful is the key to success. Teachers have to be familiar with all the different strategies they could use in order to keep lessons interesting, engaging, hands on, minds on, and fun.

 

           

When creating a lesson plan, it is important to consider the quality and effectiveness of the lesson. Students need to be exposed to material of interest, hands on activities, and tools that would provide the engagement they need to retain the information learned. It is also extremely important to practice differentiated instruction at all times in order for all students to learn at their own level. For example: Consider creating a simple lesson for 6th grade students in which they will learn through discussion about the civil rights movement. They will research current events, and/or any books, magazines, newspaper, website, etc. that is relevant to the civil rights movement.

SL.5.1- Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

SL.5.1b- Follow agreed-upon rules for discussion and carry out assigned roles.

The way I would carry out this lesson is by providing students different articles related to well-known people who have fought for our civil rights such as Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and others. Students would have independent time to work on pre-reading, post-reading, checking for understanding, highlighting unknown words, writing notes on the margins that would help reading comprehension, circling main ideas/thoughts, and more. Once the students are finished with their independent portion of the lesson, they would move on to work in groups.

            Every group will be responsible of going over the list of new vocabulary they found within the text and discuss the meaning. Some of the civil rights vocabulary includes the following:

1.  Civil Right
2. Civil disobedience
3. Segregation
4. Discrimination
5. Martin Luther King Jr.
6. Rosa Parks
7. Nonviolence
8. Protest
9. boycott
10. The Civil Rights Movement

The main objective of this lesson is for students to learn about civil rights, as well as people (civil rights leaders) who have made a difference in the history of the United States. Much importance will be given to the making of certain laws that pertain civil rights as well.

As the teacher I will provide students with a list of open ended questions to discuss as a group, all of which are related to specific civil rights. I will include question about current events that students would be familiar with and interested in as well. They will discuss with their group, make connections, and create a two to five minute presentation for the audience (the rest of the class) that includes the most relevant information discussed, what they learned, comments, questions, etc.

During each of the presentations, the rest of the students will write down five things they learned from their fellow classmates, questions they might have, and comments or critic they would like to share. 

Students will work collaboratively share ideas, thoughts, comments, unknown vocabulary, as well as important connections they have made with the different articles read. They will then move on to sharing their own articles, stories, or any information found during their research done prior to the lesson. The main objective of this lesson is for students to learn about civil rights, as well as people (civil rights leaders) who have made a difference in the history of the United States. Much importance will be given to the making of certain laws that pertain civil rights as well.

As the teacher I will provide students with a list of open ended questions to discuss as a group, all of which are related to specific civil rights. I will include question about current events that students would be familiar with and interested in as well. They will discuss with their group, make connections, and create a two to five minute presentation for the audience (the rest of the class) that includes the most relevant information discussed, what they learned, comments, questions, etc. I will constantly walk around the classroom and serve as a mediator, clarify information, and provide some input if necessary.

During each of the presentations, the rest of the students will write down five things they learned from their fellow classmates, questions they might have, and comments or critic they would like to share. 

Reflection                            
   

Being able to create a lesson that allows for open discussion, group work, collaboration, and anything that has to do with social development is a must for me. Building relationships is important for every aspect of our lives, not only our personal life but professional as well. We all have to know how to relate to people, and believe or not, a lot of people do not know how to create meaningful relationships. It all starts in the young school years, and yes it has to do with the teacher. Many teachers do not like group discussions because they see it as free time. In order for group discussions to work, certain rules have to be in place and they can never be broken, no exceptions. Classroom management is definitely important for open class discussions to avoid off-task behavior.

Collaborative work does wonders for children in many different areas including social, emotional, cognitive, and speech development. There is more going on than just talking, students are thinking critically, they are sharing thoughts and ideas, asking questions, and much more. I would recommend collaborative classwork to every teacher on the planet!

Thank you for reading my blog!

Nora Huskins