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Reflections: 

            I waited to post the entire Remix until I had completed the entire project, which is mostly why I didn’t post until today.  The final group will present next period (7^th) and overall it went ok.  The things that were most stressful include multiple student absences (for several days each) which made it difficult for groups to keep moving forward. They did need a good deal of direction with this project because of the nature of the beast – creating and agreeing on government policies and how to get from point A to point B and still be speaking to your peers at the end of the project. I love that the students are finding themselves politically and think nothing of telling you what they think about just about anything.  They did have their own ideas and opinions on whether health care should be universal and who should pay for it. 

            I allowed the expert groups to form on their own, therefore they picked their friends and were probably disappointed when I created the jigsaw and moved them into another group to create their final plans. Even though they were truly mixed at this point for diversity they managed to work fairly well within their groups.  I found I had to allow class time for everything here because these groups were now made up of students who wouldn’t normally get together after school.  Additionally I provided my own iPad and we borrowed my son’s iPad mini so we had two iPads and two PCs to use in each class.  A few students also brought along their own iPads to help out, although some forgot them every day. For this reason, some programs were apps on iPads and some were internet sites where you could create your own login and then create and present them on PC or iPads – we presented mostly on iPads, mirroring with my iPad in my room.

            Because I wanted this lesson to be about health care but also about learning a new technology piece, we chose to use apps and sites that were random and unfamiliar to most of us.  The final presentation for each group included a review of the app and comments about the good, the bad and whether they would recommend them to anyone in the future. 

            Other than the absences which made the flow of the project more difficult, we had some difficulty with presentations because we were using three or four ipads and could not mirror from all of them because they were student owned.  I do hope in the future that students will be able to use their device and mirror as needed, because this was a problem when we realized we had to mirror everything from mine only.  In the end we overcame the issues quickly as the students are very good at technology and someone always can jump in and teach the rest of us.  Overall, it was an interesting project. 

     As for the technology, the students really seemed to like popplet and prezi best for presentations and thought they would use them again in the future for other classes.  They liked them for ease of use and accessories that are many. Additionally, we found that Explain Everything came in very handy when two students could not be in class on the final day for presentations.  Those students voice recorded their parts on their slides with Explain Everything and it was just like they were in class on presentation day.  The app the students disliked the most was Educreations because it was not as easy to use and you must finish your project in one sitting because you cannot go back in to add stuff after you have saved.  For that reason, the students had to recreate their project since they couldn't get done in one sitting -or changed their minds the next day about what they wanted to add.  Again, these were the student opinions.  When I can figure out how to collect all of the projects together, I will post them here.

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Objective for Government Classes– Creating a Health Care Plan for the United States

 

Standards/Content Statement:

21. A variety of entities within the three branches of government, at all levels, address public policy issues that arise in domestic and international affairs. Content Elaborations: Public policy issues are matters of discussion and debate related to the functions of government. They frequently revolve around problems the government is attempting to address and the projected consequences of public policy decisions.

Materials: iPad(s), Projector, AppleTV, PCs, internet, Frontline documentary “Sick Around the World,” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/, a variety of apps (see bottom of lesson)

1. Days 1 - 3    As a class, students viewed Sick Around the World, a documentary on health care in the United Kingdom, Japan, Taiwan, Germany and Switzerland on Frontline and took notes on various aspects of the health care plan for each country, including what works and what does not.

2. Students submitted notes on each country which included good points and bad for each country, and what they find works well.  (25 points – 5 per country)

3. I then created small “expert” country groups to research specific aspects of each country’s health care plan – what is good, what is not so good.

4. Days 4 & 5 Expert country groups worked in the computer lab for two days to research their country and used: Frontline – Sick Around the World – Five Countries website, Google, Yahoo, Bing search engines to locate articles on health care in their assigned country, including current articles that may provide evidence of how their plan is working or not working, local opinions and critiques, students' notes from viewing the documentary.

5. Students completed charts on their specific country’s health care plan as they performed their research. (charts were collected later for 10 points)

6. Students earned points as they participated in the group discussion and completed their chart. (10 points group work)

7. I then created “jigsaw” groups into four new groups (A, B, C, D), that included at least one member from each country. 

8.  Days 6, 7 & 8.  As a new "United Nations" group, students were assigned to create a health care proposal for the U.S., using the best parts of the plans from each country. Their charts also include information on Switzerland and the United States, therefore they had additional information to compare, contrast and improve upon. Clearly this is an overwhelming task, (just ask President Obama), therefore, they focused on major ideas for a workable plan, rather than trying to solve the entire problem. We had 4 UN groups for each Government class for a total of 12 plans.

8. Day 9.  Students presented their plans using a multimedia program of their choice and projects were presented and discussed in class.  For this assignment, students chose:  Popplet, Docs to Go, My Story, Prezi, PowerPoint, Dropbox, Explain Everything, Creately, Infogr.am, Educreations, and Comic Life.

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Re-remix: (Changes in red) #3

 

Objective/Content Statement is the same

Materials: Students have notes from Flip Lectures #12 and #13 on Manifest Destiny and the Mexican War, Student iPads and classroom computers (now) iPads once they all have them,Smart board with projector and Apple TV, Edmodo APUSH website, Random Name Generator, PageSend interactive whiteboard app and www.socrative.com website.

Procedure 1: Two Days before exam, students are assigned topics from the review guide and assigned to create questions for homework. Teacher uses the Random Name Generator website to assign the topics to each student.

Procedure 2:  Day before exam teacher introduces the new Bloom's Taxonomy chart (on Smartboard) and models sample questions for each level of Blooms. http://eyeoneducation.com/Blog/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/2724/Infographic-Applying-Blooms-Taxonomy-in-Your-Classroom#.UO7RxXfNl8E

Procedure 3:  Students break into groups of four to review, answer and then categorize the questions which the students created for homework, now according to the Blooms chart.  The students in small groups must then rewrite the original questions to include action verbs contained in Blooms as well as raise the level of questioning.  This small group work can be done on iPads using a variety of new apps that will allow them to edit their questions without changing the original form of the question.   A good app to create and share is PageSend interactive whiteboard, explain everything, or iBrainstorm.  A great article which contains many apps broken down into each of Bloom's categories is http://appitic.com/index.php/bloom-s/apps-for-bloom-s-taxonomy

Procedure 4: Finally, the small groups will take turns mirroring their questions and revised questions using Apple TV and demonstrate how they revised their questions for the entire class. The class will discuss the questions, as well as the correct answers, while the teacher creates a review bank in socrative.com and the APUSH website on Edmodo.

Procedure 5: For homework and to prepare for the exam, the students will go to the Edmodo site, review  and take a practice quiz on line. Results will be sent to teacher who can review any issues that appear to be unclear just before the test. Test will be administered using socrative.com.

Remix 2, January 3, 2013

AP US History (Original)

Objective/Content Statement: Manifest Destiny & Early U.S. imperialism: the Mexican War

Review for Exam

Materials: Students have notes from Flip Lectures #12 and #13 on Manifest Destiny and the Mexican War

Procedure 1: In small groups or as a class, teacher asks review questions regarding content in preparation for tomorrow’s exam.  Sometimes I do this is small groups and they compete against each other as teams, sometimes I review in large group format, allowing students to respond individually.

Procedure 2: Students write exit cards with questions, comments or concerns

Remix: (Can be used for any class)

Objective/Content Statement: Same

Materials: Students have notes from Flip Lectures #12 and #13 on Manifest Destiny and the Mexican War

Student phones, iPads or classroom computers (now) iPads once they all have them

Smart board with projector, computer and www.socrative.com website

Procedure 1: Prior to class, teacher prepares test review questions using socrative.com website. This site allows for multiple choice, true/false and short answer responses.

Procedure 2: Students sign in to the website upon arrival in class, are directed to the teacher’s “room” and as directed answer questions to the review test; teacher pulls up class test results on the Smart board as we review and students check responses.  This format can be used for the entire class period to determine which students actually know the content material and to clarify and correct answers for students who need help. The results of the test can be emailed directly to the teacher at this point in case you want to give the actual test in this manner.

Procedure 3:  Before leaving class, students create an exit ticket using socrative.com to make comments on the review or ask questions that are still unclear.  Teacher can email students with additional support for students who are still in need of help (including videos, websites or links to sites for further clarification of issue).

Note:  I like this site as it allows teachers to assess the content knowledge of all students, not just the ones who are willing to speak up. There are many other ways to use socrative.com.  This is just one way I could mix it up today.

 

 

 

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Remix #2 Jan. 3rd 2013

Audio Response Extension:  MotryRemix2Response.mp3

 

Motry

Remix 2, January 3, 2013

AP US History (Original)

 

Objective/Content Statement: Manifest Destiny & Early U.S. imperialism: the Mexican War

Review for Exam

 

Materials: Students have notes from Flip Lectures #12 and #13 on Manifest Destiny and the Mexican War

 

Procedure 1: In small groups or as a class, teacher asks review questions regarding content in preparation for tomorrow’s exam.  Sometimes I do this is small groups and they compete against each other as teams, sometimes I review in large group format, allowing students to respond individually.

 

Procedure 2: Students write exit cards with questions, comments or concerns

 

 

Remix: (Can be used for any class)

 

Objective/Content Statement: Same

 

Materials: Students have notes from Flip Lectures #12 and #13 on Manifest Destiny and the Mexican War

Student phones, iPads or classroom computers (now) iPads once they all have them

Smart board with projector, computer and www.socrative.com website

 

Procedure 1: Prior to class, teacher prepares test review questions using socrative.com website. This site allows for multiple choice, true/false and short answer responses.

 

Procedure 2: Students sign in to the website upon arrival in class, are directed to the teacher’s “room” and as directed answer questions to the review test; teacher pulls up class test results on the Smart board as we review and students check responses.  This format can be used for the entire class period to determine which students actually know the content material and to clarify and correct answers for students who need help. The results of the test can be emailed directly to the teacher at this point in case you want to give the actual test in this manner.

 

Procedure 3:  Before leaving class, students create an exit ticket using socrative.com to make comments on the review or ask questions that are still unclear.  Teacher can email students with additional support for students who are still in need of help (including videos, websites or links to sites for further clarification of issue).

Note:  I like this site as it allows teachers to assess the content knowledge of all students, not just the ones who are willing to speak up. There are many other ways to use socrative.com.  This is just one way I could mix it up today.

 

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Remix #1 12/12/2012

 

 

Motry

Remix 1, December 12, 2012

10^th Grade U S Studies (Original)

 

Objective/Content Statement: The Progressive era was an effort to address the ills of American society stemming from industrial capitalism, urbanization and political corruption.

 

Materials: Smart Board w/projector, PowerPoint on Progressive Era, Copies of PowerPoint for Students, Computer paper, pens, colored pencils and crayons

 

Procedure 1: Class Lecture and discussion on Progressive Era and reformers; students will complete notes.

 

Procedure 2: Using completed notes, students will work to create one propaganda piece representing one aspect of the Progressive Movement.  Propaganda pieces must include visual as well as verbal explanation and include date, cause and effect of event.

 

Procedure 3: (Next Day) Students participate in Gallery Walk to view and critique Propaganda pieces

 

10^th Grade U S Studies (Remix)

 

Objective/Content Statement: Same

 

Materials: Smart Board, iPads, Apple TV, PowerPoint notes, Dipity.com, Library of Congress Website

Procedure 1: Students will view Lecture notes the previous night for homework and teacher will conduct question/answer discussion on Progressive Era on first day.

 

Procedure 2: Teacher shows video clip and one or two primary documents (pictures, letters, political cartoons) from Library of Congress on Smart Board. Teacher demonstrates then assists as students work to analyze primary docs together in large group format.

 

Procedure 3: Using their iPads and www.Dipity.com, or www.capzles.com, students work to create an interactive timeline of the Progressive Era. Students must not only create the timeline with events, but also explain each event and include a link to a video clip or primary source for each event on the timeline.

Procedure 4: Using Smart board, teacher conducts a large group share out – students will present and critique timelines in class.