Twitter and the Russian Revolution (CEP 800)

Hello! This is the writeup for my Twitter lesson plan. It was designed to help students think about the causes of the Russian Revolution. I hope you enjoy it!

Lesson Plan:

The lesson that I chose to do for my action research was designed to use Twitter to have students decipher the events of the Paris Peace Conference and make predictions concerning the future of Europe after the conference. Due to time constraints during this portion of my course, I was forced to use this same lesson design during a different portion of my course.  I was able to use this lesson during my unit on the events within Russia that led up to the Bolshevik Revolution.  

My original draft asked students to analyze events as they occurred through time and predict how they would eventually lead to problems in the future. This updated lesson used the same ideals to decipher events in Russian history like the Russo-Japanese war and the Russian Revolution of 1905. Students were assigned roles of individual political groups within Russia at the time and asked to interpret the events through the lens of their group. They were supposed to use Twitter to tweet about the events while referencing other tweets, websites, and images that they found online. However, when it came time to actually complete this lesson, our school firewall would not allow students to access Twitter. In order to complete the activity, I created a Google Doc that students edited and referenced throughout the class period.

Implementation of Lesson:

The class that I used to complete this lesson was an 11^th grade IB1 History course. Students came into my classroom and were given the guiding question, “How do political parties create change within a country?” They wrote on this question, and then were put into groups of two or three. Each group received an iPad and were assigned a political party or movement in late 19^th century Russia. We worked through various events during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Students were asked to “tweet” about each from the perspective of their political party. Ultimately, students were asked to create an outline for a five paragraph essay that answers this question, “How did the events of the late 1800s and early 1900s in Russia, and the interpretations made by political groups of the time, cause the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917?”

My students were receptive to this type of lesson and seemed to enjoy becoming the leader of a political organization. Despite the Twitter problem, this lesson seemed to work fairly well. The students were engaged throughout the entire lesson. When reflecting on their summative writing piece, students gained a fairly solid understanding of the content.

Analysis of Lesson:

Connection to Larger Course Goals-

This lesson was designed to supplement the content in my classroom. I believe that knowledge is constructed with the guidance of the teacher. This lesson used new technology to help further this ideal. The content that this lesson covers is a central part of my curriculum.

When looking at this lesson, other teachers must know that this teaching style requires that teachers facilitate learning in a way that does not lead to a fixed piece of information. Students must explore the content and be willing to have successes and failures. Teachers must be willing and able to guide students through this frustrating process. It is assumed that students will have basic knowledge and that the teacher must focus them towards a constructed understanding. The teacher must assess the students throughout the process by asking questions and making sure that students are being pushed towards a complete understanding of the topic. During this lesson I did this formative assessment throughout the lesson and I completed a summative assessment by asking students to create an essay outline that included a thesis statement and supports for their argument. The work that they did during the lesson was monitored and graded based upon the quality of the work and their summative assessment was graded and then discussed with each individual group.

Students learned that differing groups within Russia had very different interpretations of events leading up to the Bolshevik Revolution. I wanted students to be able to analyze how and why the Revolution was rooted in the events leading up to October of 1917. I believe that knowledge is constructed and the format of this lesson was designed to utilize this ideal. Each group was asked to use different types of media in their posts. In doing so, the hope was that students who internalize information differently would be given an opportunity to have visual and auditory cues to help them with the content. Students socially constructed the knowledge that they received. They were tasked to work together to research topics and ask questions that led to an understanding of their political party’s view of each event. I acted as a facilitator and guided them by asking questions as I walked around the room. There was, however, a predefined set of knowledge that students were attempting to acquire. In attempting to scaffold this lesson, I provided them with certain readings and websites that would give them the “right” answer. While students constructed the knowledge, I did utilize some portion of the behaviorist learning theory. This constraint did not allow students to explore the topics as effectively as I had hoped. They learned the information through exploration, but the limited information that I provided held them back.

Educational Use of Technology-

The technology that I used for this lesson allowed students to research their information and socially construct an understanding of many political groups in Russia at the time. Using the iPads and Google Docs (or Twitter) gives students ample time to compare and contrast the views of other political groups. Students put themselves in the shoes of a group and must figure out how their own group would view the thoughts or actions of another faction. Using iPads in this lesson was a powerful tool, but I found them to be hard to type on and the Google Docs often took longer than I would have wanted to update between clients. Despite this, students seemed to enjoy using them to uncover the material and they enjoyed bantering with other groups.

Prior to implementing this lesson, I expected that the students would enjoy using the iPads in this manner. Without the iPads and Google Docs it would have been much harder for students to discuss with all of the students in the classroom. The learning would have been more limited and they would have gotten much less out of the lesson. This lesson was designed with the idea of social constructivism and the use of iPads and Google Docs allowed students to construct their knowledge in an extremely beneficial manner. They took information from other students and applied what they knew to create informative and thought provoking posts. I believe that this lesson was a success and I plan on using it again in the future. 

WPP Final Project- CEP 812

Hello All!

I am proud to present my final WPP results video! I hope you enjoy it. You can find it located here.

You will find a few portions from my video below. The text from the problem, the text from the solution, and the TPACK questions and answers are listed in this section. Please feel free to ask me any questions in the comments!

Text of the Problem:

Assessment is a major function of all classrooms and my classroom is no different. The curriculum in my school is intense and asks students to have a huge set of content knowledge. Not only must students know the content, but they must have skills that allow them to showcase their knowledge and use it to solve multiple types of problems.

Throughout my classes I constantly assess my student’s understanding of the material being presented. This formative assessment is mostly done orally, but is sometimes done using pen and paper. When completing the assessments by word of mouth I am able to instantaneously alter my instruction. If I notice that I have failed to clarify a certain point I will change the course of the lesson. The problem, however, is that I only receive information from a small sample of my students. When using pen and paper, the feedback is not instantaneous, and I fail to alter my lesson within the desired timeframe.

In order to provide better instruction that is moldable to my students needs, I wanted to find a technology that allows me to poll results from all of my students instantaneously.

Text of the Solution:

My goal was to address this issue with the use of CPS clickers. The clickers themselves integrate well with the SmartBoard that is installed in my room. I planned to use the clickers to formatively assess student understanding throughout my lessons. I gave students clickers at the beginning of each lesson and had them answer questions throughout. I had planned on quickly adding questions when necessary. Depending on the results, I had planned to change my instruction in a manner that would help students key in on topics that they were struggling with. I wanted to improve student understanding of my content by using the clickers.

I used this approach with one of my 9th grade World Studies classes. I teach two sections of this course and one class used the clickers while the other did not. The class that did not was my control. I ran the project for a total of five classes in my World Religion unit. The second class used predefined questions throughout the lesson to gauge how well my students understood the content.  I also used some instant questions for immediate feedback.

TPACK Questions and Answers:

TP- What is the TP knowledge for the solution?  (i.e., how does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?)

As a teacher in an IB history classroom I strive to use inquiry throughout my lessons. I try to guide my students towards a better understanding of the content. When designing activities I often look to create lessons that provide frameworks for students and that push them to uncover the content. The clickers that I used for this project helped me to gain a better understanding of my students understanding of the material. Inquiry is not just giving a student a worksheet and letting them “research” the answer. In order to create great learning environments I must monitor my student’s success, and help guide them throughout the process. Clickers allow me to do this better and help me to provide only the necessary scaffolding for students. My understanding of their knowledge allows me to implement supports and remove them as necessary. I believe that students should be pushed to succeed and that they cannot do so without the right supports.

TC- What is the TC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?  Be sure to think about representation.)

The clickers that I used made content knowledge more accessible by allowing me as a teacher to alter my teaching based upon my findings. When students struggle with a particular topic I am not always aware of the problem. My teaching will never be perfect and I need to be aware of content gaps when then occur. No two students learn the same, and while I try to differentiate, there are times when I struggle. Using the clickers provided me with instant feedback of my teaching effectiveness. With this data in hand I was able to cover gaps of content knowledge in new ways. When teaching lessons without clickers I am sometimes unaware of my pitfalls until I assess my students in a more traditional manner. The clickers allowed me to see student understanding instantaneously.

PC- What is the PC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible? Be sure to think about how the student will experience the content given these instructional strategies.

My teaching often asks students to analyze, interpret, and synthesize information. Doing so with inquiry can be a challenge for students and myself. Improperly scaffolding lessons can lead to misunderstandings and content knowledge gaps. Using the clickers allowed me to assess my own teaching on the fly and alter it to meet the needs of my students. Strong content knowledge cannot be accurately constructed without a solid knowledge base. Any misunderstandings need to be addressed. When giving students documents to analyze or problems to solve it is necessary for me to check for understanding. While doing checks it is possible for me to miss problems that my students may be having.

The clickers allowed me to make more accurate decisions. Using the clickers with my inquiry teaching method helps students to uncover the content in a more efficient manner. Using predefined questions, as well as instant questions, helped inform my teaching style or pedagogy instantaneously. Providing information to students without helping them decipher its intricacies can lead to poor understanding of the content. Inquiry is not useful when students are provided with skills and content that they do not really understand. The use of clickers in my classroom allowed me to become a better teacher of content through a more effective pedagogical teaching style.

Group Leadership Project- CEP 812

Hello! This is our final PD product for CEP 812. It is a great tutorial in how to use Windows Movie Maker across content areas to create engaging lessons. These lessons are all aligned with various standards. The video for our final product can be found here.

Below, you will find a description of our final product as well as some takeaways from the process itself. You may also want to read other posts about our production process here and here.

Tool Used:

For this tutorial, we recorded our use of Windows Movie Maker with Camtasia Studio. Windows Movie Maker is a tool that all people with a Windows PC can access. Because of this, we decided to use it as a tool to deliver content. Students are able to use it in a variety of ways to help foster deep student understanding of a topic. Many standards within the Common Core can be easily showcased. Each discipline that is highlighted uses it in a slightly different way. We used Camtasia Studio to record our “teaching” because it is easy to use and because it provides a seamless recording environment. In addition, it has a 30 day free trial that each of us could use.

Lessons Learned:

I learned a couple of things while working on this assignment. First of all, it was apparent that we each have a variety of interpretations when it comes to the requirements of one assignment. Each member within our group internalized the instructions differently. At times, this made it difficult for us to create a clear and consistent product. Additionally, I learned that there can and always will be problems when putting together a large assignment like this. When using video, people will use different codecs to encode their video and programs like Windows Movie Maker will crash on a variety of computers. Previews won’t show up and audio will fail to record. It is important to experiment far in advance with the technology to make sure that it works properly. In fact, we had so many problems that the final video was actually compiled within Camtasia Studio instead of Windows Movie Maker. While the videos that students would produce would be simplistic enough for WMM to handle, more advanced compilations would require a tool like Camtasia.

Things to do Different in the Future:

If I developed a similar product again, I would practice using the recording software far in advance. Most of the problems that occurred were do to the learning curve of Camtasia. I would also make sure that our group goals were more clearly outlined from the beginning. At times I was confused as to what my individual task was. Because of this I was concerned that the final product would not adequately show how helpful a tool like WMM could be in the classroom. 

Professional Learning Plan (CEP 812)

Coming into this course, I wanted to learn how I could integrate technology more deeply into my teaching. I have always been interested in the correlation between student understanding and the methods in which we teach. Using technology to create more engaging and informative classrooms was my goal from the start. Overall, I believe that my experiences in this class (and CEP 800) have helped me to move towards this objective.

At the start of this course I wanted to learn more about the TPACK model and how it could be integrated into my curriculum. I also wanted to be pushed to use technologies in new and interesting ways. At the end of the course, I feel like I achieved both of these goals. My understanding of the TPACK model has improved, and I am better able to reflect on my own teaching because of it. I gained invaluable experience in planning, implementing, and reflecting on an implementation of a technology through the WPP project.

In reflecting on the last two months of classes, there are few major goals that I want to focus on. Many of the lessons and activities that I participated within in CEP 812 have made me think about my future teaching. My specific goals are listed below:

Skills that I’d like to Gain:

·         Positive Affect- When planning any activity that involves technology I often try and think about the logistics of how it will be performed. I try to be meticulous and plan for a multitude of outcomes. What I often forgot to do, however, is create a positive aesthetic in my creation. This blog is a good example of this practice. I put time and effort into creating functional pieces, but fail to great pieces that “look” good. As I learned in CEP 800, positive aesthetics create positive affects. Things that look good tend to be internalized by students in a better fashion. As I move forward and understand more about the technology, I will be able to put more time and effort into the look and feel of the technologies that I use. They need to be functional AND look good.

·         Understanding of Technologies Impact on Cognitive Functioning- In CEP 800, we learned about the effect of, effect with, and effect through technology. These concepts truly intrigue me. When using technology it is easy to see that it can create a positive learning environment. For me, I would love to learn more about why this environment is created. I want to be able to answer the question, “How does this particular technology impact learning of a student?” Are the students performing better because of the technology, or are they transforming their thought processes because of the technology? I love this type of analysis and am intrigued with the differing theories about how we learn best. This understanding will help me be a better teacher and mentor to others within my school.

·         Professional Learning- Schools often put a huge focus on professional development. I find that many teachers are looking for quick technology additions for their lessons. The technology is used, but does not offer anything besides a positive aesthetic. By itself, this might not be horrible, but the technology could be used for so much more. I would love to learn how to prepare and create learning experiences (instead of just PD) that helps teachers transform their teaching. Effective uses of technology cannot be done piece by piece. There must be a wholesale ideological shift in order for teachers to improve their teaching.

How I Will Become a Better Teacher:

Throughout the next year (and beyond) I plan on meeting the goals that I have listed above. In order to do so, I will continue to read educational research and will attempt to expand my PLN. I will continue to reflect on my own teaching and will try not to become discouraged when things do not work out perfectly.

·         Technology can be frustrating, but I continue to make these troubling times a learning experience. Just as I practice in my classroom, every opportunity that presents a struggle is a teachable moment.  

·         Over the years my PLN has expanded immensely. I find that I am exposed to wonderful teaching ideas and ideologies through Twitter and Facebook. While I don’t use these services as much as I want, I plan on implementing them more throughout the year and beyond. I also am attempting to make use of the personal connections within my own school and community.

·         I love reading about student understanding. Without knowing how students interpret information teaching is less effective. I plan on continuing my understanding by reading a large variety of texts on the topic.

Specific Goals for the Next Year:

While the previously mentioned goals are fairly general, I do have a few specific goals for the next year. Over this time I plan on completing the MAET program. I have three specific goals for this time period.

·         Through the MAET program, I plan on focusing on the ways in which technology leads to student understanding. With each implementation of technology, I plan on analyzing how students may internalize the content because of the technology used. I will attempt to create learning environments that use technology to transform student thought about my content.

·         The WPP project showed me how effective the use of clickers can be in the classroom. My teaching typically includes a fair amount of formative assessment. The clickers, however, took this to a whole new level. They provided me with instant feedback that I could use to inform my teaching. Over the next year I plan to use these more extensively in a wider variety of classes. I will be focusing on creating predefined questions as well as using the instant question option. My WPP project showed a correlation between those that use clickers in this manner and student success on my assessment. I hope to ingrain these devices more deeply within my teaching.

·         Over the next year, I plan on taking a bigger leadership role within my school. Over the past two years, I have taught a few PD’s on a specific technology, but I have never done so in a way that focuses on professional learning (instead of PD). I plan on pushing myself to help my fellow teachers create classrooms that use technology at their core (instead of just as an addition). I find that when I teach a topic I become better versed in its intricacies. I learn from my students and my teaching improves. By pushing myself to complete more PD opportunities I will become a better teacher.

The next year is going to fun and interesting. I love the opportunity to work within the MAET program and I believe that I am a better teacher because of it!

I thought that I’d share some of my favorite resources that I’ve learned about (and used more frequently) because of this course! They’ve truly helped make me a better teacher!

Resources for teachers:

http://www.21things4teachers.net/index.html

http://www.schrockguide.net/

Classroom Tools:

http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/windows-live/movie-maker-get-started

http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html

http://www.polleverywhere.com/

http://www.twitter.com

http://exchange.smarttech.com/#tab=0

CEP 800 Twitter Lesson Plan

Hello all!

This is a Twitter lesson plan that I created in order to discuss the events that occurred during the Paris Peace Conference. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Essential Question: Do leaders make rational decisions for their nations?

Standards:

·      Common Core:

o   CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.

o   CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.9 Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

Outcomes:

·      Students will be able to highlight the reasons why each major Allied nation in WWI fought the war

·      Students will be able to theorize why certain key leaders acted in particular ways during the Paris Peace Conference

·      Students will be able to make predictions about how the Treaty of Versailles and other treaties signed at the conference would cause problems for Europe’s future

Assessments:

·      Students will produce a narrative with Twitter that will showcase their knowledge of their “leader” and their interactions with other nations

·      Students will construct a final writing sample that indicates their prediction about the future of Europe after the treaties were signed at the Paris Peace Conference

Lesson Outline:

·      Introduction-

o   Give students the following question. Ask them to respond to this question within a few minutes. Share responses with the class.

§  “Do leaders make rational decisions for their nations?”

·      Body-

o   Paris Peace Conference Activity

§  Put students into groups of two or three. Give each student an iPad and instruct him or her to log in to his or her Twitter accounts.

§  Give each group a leader from the Paris Peace Conference.

·      United States

·      United Kingdom

·      France

·      Italy

·      Japan

·      Canada

·      Australia

·      Belgium

·      Brazil

·      Greece

·      Poland

·      Romania

§  Tell students that we will be going through time and tweeting about the events that have occurred up to a particular point. Tell students that I will be giving them dates throughout the conference and having them create a tweet for each date from their leader.

§  Remind students that each tweet must be researched from the Gale databases and the documents that are provided. Resources must be cited on the handout that was provided to them.

§  Progress through each of the following dates, allowing enough time for students to adequately research and tweet. Have students use the given hashtag and meet the requirements of each tweet.

·      January 18, 1919- Tweet using #1919parisconference1

·      June 28, 1919- Tweet using #1919parisconference2

o   Include a historically relevant image in the tweet

·      September 10, 1919- Tweet using #1919parisconference3

o   Include a link to a resource about this date

o   Include a historically relevant image or video in the tweet

·      November 27, 1919- Tweet using #1919parisconference4

o   Include a reply to another conference members tweet

·      June 4, 1920 Tweet using #1919parisconference5

o   Include a retweet and a reply to another individuals tweet (3 tweets total)

·      August 10, 1920 Tweet using #1919parisconference6

o   Include a reply to another conference member (with an attached multimedia form not provided before)

o   Retweet your favorite tweet of the conference

o   Tweet about the future of the world

·      Conclusion-

o   As a group, have students create an outline for a five paragraph essay that answers the question below. Include a thesis and topic sentence for each paragraph:

§  “How will the events that occurred at the Paris Peace Conference cause problems for the future of Europe?”

As part of this assignment, I was asked to answer multiple questions about this lesson. My responses are below. I have copied the questions at the end of this post for your convenience.

1.     This lesson teaches about the process that occurred at the Paris Peace Conference. It highlights the vendettas that countries brought into the conference and it asks students to make predictions about the future of Europe. Students often struggle to use information from these types of activities when making predictions about the future. They often fail to support their arguments with valid data. Because of this, during the following class we would discuss what information could be used to adequately support the arguments created.

2.     We all learn in different ways. Some students learn visually, through movement or through auditory means. In this lesson students are asked to highlight their learning with visual cues (images) and through text. There is a lack of teaching towards students who learn through active moving simulations. This lesson focuses on a social constructivist theory of learning. Students learn through doing and the teacher acts as a facilitator of knowledge. Students are breaking up large topics (like a jigsaw) in this activity in order to make it easier to decipher.

3.     This topic is so complex that allowing students to uncover the material makes it more meaningful for them. I have found that this topic can be confusing because of the sheer amount of information that is present. By breaking down the material into smaller chunks the students have an easier time internalizing it. Also, students make the information their own because they are discovering it and manipulating it to fit their needs.

4.     I am using Twitter. I believe that Twitter is the only way that this information can be manipulated in such a manner. Using the iPads and Twitter allows the students to research, look through images, and embed a variety of media types. They can interact with other “leaders” and form opinions about the topics. They are able to manipulate the information that comes in front them.

5.     I believe that powerful learning can only occur when knowledge is constructed. We learn from each other and from our interactions with material. Personally, I do not learn well when I am simply presented information and not allowed to discover it on my own. I believe that most students fit this same mold. I also believe that students must be engaged in a plethora of ways. Including images, text, and classroom lecture on the topic will lead a better understanding for more students.

6.     The essential question for this lesson focuses on the role of leaders in specific countries. Throughout history the leaders of nations have shaped their nation’s futures in unique ways. At no time in history is this more evident than at the end of World War One. Allowing students to use Twitter helps them to get “into the shoes” of the decision making process of a single leader. At the same time, they are interacting with other leaders of the time. This role-playing leads to a deep understanding of how and why leaders make certain decisions.

7.     I want my students to know how and why leaders make certain decisions. I want them to put this information into the context of WWI and think about the ramifications of each decision at the conference. Throughout the lesson I will monitor the discussions through the hashtags and will make sure to highlight key concepts that were missed by my students. Using Twitter will help inform my decisions about the content of future lessons. I will also use their group outlines to discuss key concepts and talk about the possible implications of the decisions of each leader.