Research Report
Overview:
This lesson not only integrates technology, but also Writing and Reading Informational Text Common Core Standards. Prior to the lesson, students are surveyed using Google Forms to gather information as a teacher about topics of interest. After being immersed into the research genre, students use Padlet as a way to collaborate on taking notes. Then, students type their draft using Google Docs so the teacher can provide immediate feedback and suggestions. After finishing the revising and editing stages of writing, students use their expertise about their subject to create mini-documentaries using iMovie. The class celebrates and shares their projects by holding a film festival.
The main technologies that will focused on below are Padlet and iMovie.
Detailed Lesson Plan (download):
techlessong4research.docx |
This tool is part of Google Apps and is very easy to use. You can create surveys and assessments in a matter of minutes. It allows you a variety of response types such as multiple choice, text box, longer text response, drop-down menu, and checkboxes. Answers are automatically generated into a Google Sheet for immediate feedback. This tool saves teachers time from having to bring home worksheets or sort through paper surveys.
In this lesson, Google Forms is used to create a quick interest survey of students to determine what topics they would be interested in researching. Giving students the choice increases engagement in the project.
Other Uses
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- Create a quick formative assessment entrance ticket to flexibly group students, especially in math.
- Replace the social studies packets that require students to complete an entire chart by having each student group answer questions based on their assigned person/place. Give students access to the responses page and they can analyze how the different people and places compare. This frees up the time of copying from the projector and adds engagement.
Padlet is an web-based tool that allows multiple users to post ideas. The users can post text, add a URL, upload a file, and take a picture to post. Depending on how you set the privacy settings, you can allow multiple users to work on it with just the click of a link and no sign-in required. In this lesson, students learned how to identify the main idea and details from informational text. They worked in groups to research their chosen topic and wrote in their findings in their notebooks. After having a student with cognitive disabilities participate, I found that using Padlet would be the perfect fit and help the research process go faster. Here is an example of what my student created for his tornado research:
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iMovie is an Apple product that is used for creating dynamic movies with photos, videos, text, music and sound effects, and special effects. There are a lot of hidden tools built into the program like adding picture-in-picture and using green screen to add fun background effects. For the purpose of this lesson, students have written individual research papers after collaborating on notetaking with a group. Now, students work in pairs to create a documentary about their topic for a class/school film festival. I created a very short example of a mini-documentary with some of the effects students could use and shared it. Here is an example of one of the movies a student group created:
- The basics from Apple support
- Many resources from Lynda.com
Other Uses:
- Have students create a tutorial teaching a math problem and post on a class site so students can access and use for homework help.
- Students can record or take pictures of a science experiment and add commentary about the reasons something did or didn't occur. This is also great for students who are absent.
- Students can create ebooks for younger students in the school.
- Make a movie that shows sequence of events or cause and effect from a social studies lesson.
- Students could make a movie that demonstrates a health lesson, such as first aid.
This lesson was based off how I would change the way we just instructed it. For starters, the students actually did their note-taking in their notebooks and it made it difficult to jump around from each main idea because they didn't leave enough room. I felt like there was no reason students couldn't collaborate on taking notes because they were in the same group. For these reasons, I feel the use of Padlet is on the modification level of the SAMR model. Using Padlet allowed for collaboration from school or home, and students could easily adapt the space as certain topics got longer. Students could also easily snap pictures of diagrams or pictures to have on their Padlet wall. This couldn't have been done on just a piece of paper.
The use of Google Forms to poll the students on their interest levels would be at the augmentation level. While it's replacing what could have been a paper and pencil task, it's adding convenience with immediate feedback generated into a spreadsheet. I feel using Google Docs to write/revise/edit their reports is also at the augmentation level. Again, it replaces a pencil and paper task, but students do not need to recopy their draft into a final copy. This saves a huge amount of time and helps student develop their word processing skills.
The final project, the iMovie has students combining drawings, photos, text, and audio into an authentic product. The students have to collaborate to determine what information they feel is most important to share. Because of all the components that went into making this movie, and the higher-order thinking students had to use to synthesize all their knowledge, I would rate it at the modification level. When we had the students do this in class, we had them make a movie with their whole animal group. It was hard for 4-5 people to all collaborate on the movie at once, so the general education teacher, reading specialist, and I decided having them make the movie in pairs would be more productive. We also learned that this was the first time all but 2 of the students had ever used iMovie so it took much longer than expected. I highly recommend using Mac laptops over the computer lab because we ran into barriers with taking turns recording the audio. Using the laptops would have allowed them to go out in different parts of the hallway to record.
Overall, I felt this lesson definitely created a more learner-centered experience for the students and I was thrilled to see how engaged they were in all parts of this research unit.
Evaluated on ISTE-T Standard #1: Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity
Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.
a. Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness
Students were encouraged to be creative with their iMovies by being shown how to use the program, but allow them to determine what information they shared, the effects, music, and text. Students also had the chance to add in their own artwork or diagrams. The students found creative ways of using the Ken Burns effect to add movement to their images.
b. Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources
The students had the opportunity to research a topic they were interested in. Along the way, some of the groups found issues associated with their animal. For example, the polar bear group became really interested in global warming when they learned it was melting their homes. One of my students researched tornadoes and it lead him to create a poster showing how to stay safe if there is a tornado warning.
c. Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes
I feel one of the greatest challenges in any writing lesson is getting the students to reflect more in the revising and editing process. It's hard to express just how realistic it is that writers are constantly trying to make their work better. As teachers, we were able to encourage collaboration on students editing each other's work by sharing their file on Google Docs. Planning out their work on Padlet definitely allowed for collaboration in a new and engaging way. I wish we had a little more time to have the students reflect on the movie-making process and what they could have planned better to be more effective.
d. Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments
Using Google Forms, Padlet, and Google Docs all allowed for the teacher to model the collaborative knowledge construction. The teacher can provide feedback to students through all 3 of these virtual environments.