3.1: Classroom Management and Collaborative Learning
Candidates model and facilitate effective classroom management and collaborative learning strategies to maximize teacher and student use of digital tools and resources. (PSC 3.1/ISTE 3a)
Artifact: ITEC 7400 Engaged Learning Project
This artifact was created for an International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) Year 1 (6th Grade) class who were studying an introduction to mapping skills in Geography. I created this artifact from a collaborative Unit of Inquiry planned with the Year 1 teaching team. This artifact aligns to Standard 3.1 Classroom Management and Collaborative Learning as it demonstrates my ability to model and facilitate effective classroom management strategies using technology (both in a formal classroom setting and using a field trip) and also looks at how the learning outcome individually is fostered by collaborative learning strategies. I taught this whole lesson plan with my group of Year 1 (6th Grade) students and shared the plan and strategies with the Year 1 teaching team.
This particular engaged learning project artifact demonstrated core elements of classroom management. Students in this class learned the core skills of map reading:
· Scale
· Grid Referencing
· Ordinal Points
· Contour Lines and Topographic Elevation
· Symbols across different map regions of the world
· Sketch mapping using the BOLTS (Border, Orientation, Legend, Title, Scale) technique.
While these were taught in a traditional managed classroom setting with traditional tools (paper maps, digital maps, remotely sensed images, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology and Google Maps, Engine and Earth), the students were issued with their learning challenge prior to the skills based learning using McTighe and Wiggin GRASP’s strategy. Students are assigned a:
Goal
Role
Audience
Situation
Product (what they will make finally – in this case a digital map)
As the final product depends on observations carried out in the field and application of map skills learned in class, the management strategy also involved planning a field trip for a group of ninety students, which includes a safety assessment for the group, permission slips for students to be taken off campus, recruitment of volunteer chaperones additional to teaching faculty, equipment for the trip (smart devices loaded with the appropriate GPS tracking maps, clipboards, pens, pencils, paper) and schedule collapse for Year 1 group to take an afternoon to complete field work. While the students gathered data in their language learning class groups, the nature of data collection (photographing, field observation notes, sketches and measurements) were taken as a collaborative group and then shared for individual project summative assessment work using a collaborative Google Doc.
In completing this artifact, it was soon apparent that when integrating technology and opening up the classroom environment for authentic learning experiences are always desirable for teaching and learning, the management of this needs careful and strategic planning and forethought. Traditional classroom management strategies are highly augmented in this kind of lesson and can be frustrated if technology does not work in the field or if the students are not carefully maneuvered in order to access the main objectives for learning in this context. There is on opportunity to collect data – and while weather and other external and uncontrollable elements can hinder, having a clear lesson using the thinking in this engaged learning project document helped to hone the collaborative planning of the teaching team and to guide as the students applied their knowledge in a real life setting.
One element that I would change on reflection after the field trip is to assign one technology to each group (for example, use of MapMyRun App to one group; GPS Distance tracker to another). Each group found it rather overwhelming with so many technologies that they lost their focus quickly.
This artifact has really assisted with the holistic ideas of the MYP learning environment; where IB World Schools’, as part of their authorization, must demonstrate as part of the Standards and Practices Standard A5 (Philosophy) of being an IB World School that they can “promote responsible action within and beyond the school community.” Impact has already been seen in the created maps that the students have shared with the community and the raised standards of application of mapping skills in a real-life context from the original Unit of Inquiry, which did not have a fieldwork component to it. The students also engaged in an authentic exercise of working collaboratively as a team to gather data that would be disseminated and used individually and, therefore, recognized the importance of quality collection as their personal work was tied up in this collective effort.
This particular engaged learning project artifact demonstrated core elements of classroom management. Students in this class learned the core skills of map reading:
· Scale
· Grid Referencing
· Ordinal Points
· Contour Lines and Topographic Elevation
· Symbols across different map regions of the world
· Sketch mapping using the BOLTS (Border, Orientation, Legend, Title, Scale) technique.
While these were taught in a traditional managed classroom setting with traditional tools (paper maps, digital maps, remotely sensed images, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology and Google Maps, Engine and Earth), the students were issued with their learning challenge prior to the skills based learning using McTighe and Wiggin GRASP’s strategy. Students are assigned a:
Goal
Role
Audience
Situation
Product (what they will make finally – in this case a digital map)
As the final product depends on observations carried out in the field and application of map skills learned in class, the management strategy also involved planning a field trip for a group of ninety students, which includes a safety assessment for the group, permission slips for students to be taken off campus, recruitment of volunteer chaperones additional to teaching faculty, equipment for the trip (smart devices loaded with the appropriate GPS tracking maps, clipboards, pens, pencils, paper) and schedule collapse for Year 1 group to take an afternoon to complete field work. While the students gathered data in their language learning class groups, the nature of data collection (photographing, field observation notes, sketches and measurements) were taken as a collaborative group and then shared for individual project summative assessment work using a collaborative Google Doc.
In completing this artifact, it was soon apparent that when integrating technology and opening up the classroom environment for authentic learning experiences are always desirable for teaching and learning, the management of this needs careful and strategic planning and forethought. Traditional classroom management strategies are highly augmented in this kind of lesson and can be frustrated if technology does not work in the field or if the students are not carefully maneuvered in order to access the main objectives for learning in this context. There is on opportunity to collect data – and while weather and other external and uncontrollable elements can hinder, having a clear lesson using the thinking in this engaged learning project document helped to hone the collaborative planning of the teaching team and to guide as the students applied their knowledge in a real life setting.
One element that I would change on reflection after the field trip is to assign one technology to each group (for example, use of MapMyRun App to one group; GPS Distance tracker to another). Each group found it rather overwhelming with so many technologies that they lost their focus quickly.
This artifact has really assisted with the holistic ideas of the MYP learning environment; where IB World Schools’, as part of their authorization, must demonstrate as part of the Standards and Practices Standard A5 (Philosophy) of being an IB World School that they can “promote responsible action within and beyond the school community.” Impact has already been seen in the created maps that the students have shared with the community and the raised standards of application of mapping skills in a real-life context from the original Unit of Inquiry, which did not have a fieldwork component to it. The students also engaged in an authentic exercise of working collaboratively as a team to gather data that would be disseminated and used individually and, therefore, recognized the importance of quality collection as their personal work was tied up in this collective effort.