Week 4 - Using Video in Instruction

I decided to build my video lesson plan around one of the more complex topics in my 9th grade economics class - supply and demand.  We teach only the very simple concepts of supply and demand, but it is something students still struggle with.  The most effective way I've found to teach graphing problems is through practice - almost like a math class.  My hope is that a lesson like the one below will be more engaging, but will also allow students to move through the content at their own pace until they have achieved mastery of it.  It also allows students to rely as much or as little on my "help" as they need it.  Students will have already done two introductory lessons before moving into this video lesson.

Learning Objective: students will be able to analyze headlines to determine if supply or demand is shifted and how it impacts the market equilibrium for that market.

Students will work through a supply and demand shifter practice problems worksheet.

Step 1 - students will watch a supply and demand introduction powtoon video.

Step 2 - students will watch the below videos I created to review the six supply shifters and six demand shifters.  These shifters will be used in the practice problems later on in the lesson.

Supply Shifter Video

Demand Shifter Video

Step 3 - students will work through the supply and demand shifter practice problems.  They can check their work using the videos below.  I intentionally did not make videos for some of the problems so that students would be forced to be self-reliant on at least a couple of problems.

Question #2 Video

Question #3 Video

Question #5 Video

Question #6 Video

Question #7 Video

Question #8 Video

Week Three Artifacts and Reflection

Political Ideology in the United States - 2017 GIF

Causes of World War I Infographic

Collage

Women's March Topeka, Kansas 2017

CC 2.0

_________________________________________________________________________________

Week 3 Blog Post

Application and Use in Classroom Environment

For week three I am developing a lesson plan to help students understand the two-party system in the United States, and the issue platforms of the two major political parties.  Students will be introduced to the GIF posted above.  The GIF portrays the elephant of the republican party and the donkey of the democratic party charging each other and meeting each other in an explosive collision

Learning Objective: students will analyze the issue platforms of the Republican and Democratic parties by assembling images representing the major policy positions of each party.

I will begin the lesson by showing students the GIF and asking them what they think it represents.  After a brief discussion of the GIF and the major policy positions of each party, students will take time to assemble images representing different policy positions.  Students will then assemble these images into a collage which will include brief one-sentence captions explaining the image.

After reading the information about access I would include the following accommodations for students who cannot access visual content.

1 - describe the GIF and assignment requirements orally or through an audio recording.

2 - have students with visual impairments access soundbites of speeches and news clips and determine how the soundbites fit into the larger question of political ideology and political parties.

My lesson plan incorporates the multimedia design segmenting principle.  Students should not access the next image or soundbite without first understanding the image and the concepts represented by that image.  Students can take us much or as little time as needed before moving on to finding and annotating the next image.

Reflection

All of the multimedia tools we have covered so far in this course are entirely new to me.  I feel like I am kind of bumbling my way through and struggling to effectively manipulate these different tools.  Keeping in mind the multimedia design principles adds another layer of complexity to the projects.  

Despite these struggles I believe that these first couple of weeks are opening my mind to the possible applications in my classroom.  Instead of representing information as text I can create engaging lessons that involve higher-order thinking skills using images, video, text, and animation.  Multimedia resources force students to analyze and process an image before making links and conclusions with the information.  Having students create something like a meme to represent a specific concept could be an incredibly engaging and thought-provoking classroom lesson plan.

Week 3 Meme

My 9th graders love memes.  So at the start of second semester I decided to use a collection of memes to explain classroom procedures and expectations as well as some of my personal pet peeves in class.  The above meme captures one of my favorite student questions after returning from an absence.

Week 2 Padlet Reflection

Padlet in the classroom

Learning Objective: students will analyze civil rights documents and be able to identify key leaders, groups, and legislation, and their respective role in gaining civil rights for African Americans.

The padlet I put together is designed to give students the opportunity to read and analyze various sources related to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s through 1970s.  Students would gain familiarity with a variety of groups and individuals with drastically different civil rights tactics and philosophies as well as be exposed to different landmark civil rights legislation.  Students will use the acronym SOAPS (Source, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, and Speaker) to identify key information in each source.  Once students have completed a review of the listed resources they must locate their own source and add it to the padlet.  As part of this process students must provide a brief annotation of their source and include the appropriate copyright/attribution information.  After analyzing each document students will be required to group the documents into similar categories and then write a response to the question "What approach to gaining civil rights during the 1950s-1970s was most effective?  Provide and explain evidence."  

Application of Instructional Media Design Principles
Overall, I feel that I could've paid greater attention to including multimedia design principles to my padlet.  The principles that I felt like I intentionally included were the modality principle, coherence principle, and segmenting principle.  I included multiple resources that include spoken words along with images and video as opposed to written text - this represent appropriate application of the modality principle.  The very design and structure of padlet allows for easy application of the coherence principle and segmenting principle. Students will analyze each source individually- students are able to take their time and really make sure they understand and comprehend each item on the padlet before moving on.

Reflection
In creating this padlet I realized that I just as easily could've made a lesson plan where students could collaborate in creating a padlet.  Instructional technology opens up new possibilities for student-centered learning and collaboration as opposed to teacher-centered instruction.

I also realized that I am very much in the beginner stage of multimedia and technology use for instruction.  I felt like I fumbled through quite a bit of this project and spent a significant amount of time reviewing the resources posted in the class padlet.  More important than the actual format that this project took was the philosophy and approach to instructional design that it modeled and guided me through.

Civil Rights Primary and Secondary Source Padlet

EDU 642 Introduction

Hello!  My name is Daniel McElheny.  I was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan and I currently live about 30 minutes to the northeast of Grand Rapids in Belding, Michigan.  I am wrapping up my 4th year as a high school social studies teacher at Forest Hills Eastern High School.  During my time at Forest Hills Eastern I have taught U.S. History, Civics, Economics, and Sociology.  Last week Thursday I wrapped up my first semester teaching AP Government when my students took their AP Exam.

I keep pretty busy outside of my teaching day.  I coach the boys and girls cross country and track and field teams - we have about 90 total athletes this spring.  I also serve as a class advisor and have worked with our Model UN students outside of school.

I started the educational technology program last August, but took the winter term off to focus on building and teaching my AP course.  I am excited to get back at it as I enjoyed the courses I took in the fall.  My district adopted a BYOD program two years ago and the professional development that accompanied that program piqued my interest in educational technology.  As a teacher I am interested in using a variety of  instructional methods in my classroom and I am excited about the possibilities multimedia technology offers both as an instructional tool and as a mode for students to create through.

Looking forward to a great semester!