Monday class
recap
During last class, I received some very helpful advice
regarding my infographic design from Janet and Fallon. As you might know, I
chose the prison system as a topic. Originally, I was struggling to come up
with a clear and visually interesting way to organize my infographic. I knew
there were categories of the “prison experience” that I wanted to include. For
example, the trial, facility, meals, work, recreation, daily life, security.
Janet and Fallon suggested that I create a top-down view of the prison and subdivide
square section to represent these different categories. I really like this idea
because it blends reality of content (ie- various rooms representing different
prison activities) with a highly organized and easy to understand display of
visual information.
Wednesday project
meeting recap
After discussing our project with Dr. G, we learned that
we must conduct a more thorough audience analysis. The main reason why we need
to do this is because our group has decided to change our instruction from what
we presented last semester. Although these parameters are still being
finalized, currently our instruction focuses on improving 1st grade teachers’ ability to engage their students using
play-based teaching strategies. Along with that, we are looking into the
justification that play-based teaching strategies are more relevant in 1st
grade because students are more used to that style of teaching in Kindergarten.
At our meeting we brain-stormed several questions that we
might pose to 1st grade teachers. We are still refining these
questions so we would love your input on them! We want to craft questions that
might result in answers that justify our project. However, we also do not want
to lead those answering to give a
certain answer. Additionally, we are hoping their answers could help us focus
our understanding of play-based teaching. There is not a set definition of what
that kind of teaching entails so we are still collectively determining what is
and is not play-based. Below are the questions we came up with.
How would you describe your teaching strategies?
How would you describe the difficulties students face
transitioning to 1st grade?
How do you help students adapt to the new grade
environment?
If you incorporate play in your teaching methods how do
you do that? Any examples?
What kind of play resources do you wish you had to adapt
students to 1st grade?
Have you ever been given any play resources to help adapt
students to 1st grade?
-Scott
Scott,
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you received some helpful advice on your infographic. I think these are excellent recommendations. I too found the in-class exercise to be helpful. Once I completed a draft, I also sent it out to my team members and received some very useful feedback in return. Collaboration is a great thing!
I am really looking forward to seeing your infographic. Your topic is very interesting and I think well suited to visual representation. Just last night I watched a program about life in San Quentin. When I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area I drove by this facility quite often. I was always intrigued by its location with sweeping vistas of the Bay. It is located on some pretty fantastic real estate. Beyond that, I am interested in life behind those gates. From the warden, to the guards, to the inmates, there are so many stories to tell.
I am curious what influence your decision to move away from the comedy module. I think it could have been tailored for online delivery, but I also understand the challenges that went along with that.
Your new topic is equally as interesting. I have heard some talk recently related the challenges students face in transitioning from kindergarten to 1st grade. This appears to be a fairly hot topic. I’m sure you have already completed or are considering a literature review. That is definitely where I would have to begin since I am not very familiar with the topic. I imagine it would help create an appropriate focus and would also help in identifying the most appropriate questions to ask.
Maybe even before the first question you have listed, you might consider asking a broad question like “Are there significant differences between kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms?” and then follow-up by asking what these differences are. I do feel that the second question might be a bit leading in that it asserts that there are difficulties. Perhaps it could be stated something like “Have you identified any difficulties students consistently face in transitioning from kindergarten to 1st grade?”. These are just a couple initial thoughts.
After performing a literature review, you might find that it would be helpful to also create a tool that would provide more quantitative data rather than qualitative. This tool might use rating scales and the like to find out to what extent various activities do or should take place.
I wish you and your team the best of luck as you continue to refine your approach and scope! I look forward to reading your updates throughout the semester. Have a great week.
-Kipp
Thanks for your comments, Kipp. You give very helpful advice!
ReplyDeleteWe will surely be using much of the content we created last semester. Our decision to move away from the "comedy" topic was prompted by the realization that many of our suggested activities for increasing student engagement through comedy were not actually very comedic. For example, we included an activity in which students race to pop balloons filled with writing guidelines. We included this activity in our module even though it would be considered more of a "play" activity than a purely comedic one. Additionally, it is nearly impossible to "teach" someone to be funny. Therefore, most all of our suggested activities were already very "play-based" in nature. I'm thankful for the opportunity to approach our instructional idea again because we are able to make these kinds of foundational changes.
Thank you for your comments on our questions. Also, I think you are absolutely correct to suggest we learn about differences between kindergarten and 1st grade during out literature review. And your suggestion to perform a quantitative analysis is well received! That kind of data would not only be a useful tool for guiding our instruction, it would also contribute to our module's projected legitimacy.
Thanks again for your insightful and helpful comments!
-Scott