Standard+7

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__**7 Teachers are able to plan different kinds of lessons **__ The teacher organizes and plans systematic instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, pupils, the community, and curriculum goals.

Evidence 7: [|Today’s Meet website] and [|Backchanneling Script]

Rationale 7: Today’s Meet is a website used for back channeling or having live chats in the classroom while another activity is happening. This back channeling website was used to have students set objectives for an upcoming unit on economics. We watched a video called “Is America Number One?” which addressed many economic issues. While the video played students used laptop computers and mobile devices to have a discussion on ‘what economic words do we need to identify as vocabulary words?’ and ‘what big economic ideas do we need to study?’. Following the video we analyzed the script to pull out the vocabulary and concepts we needed to include in our objectives in order to better understand economics. Back channeling was a highly engaging activity for the students who often find videos boring and the video questions hard to fill out because they can’t ask questions during the video. This high level of engagement transferred into a higher responsibility for learning the economics concepts studied in the text because they could relate the content to the back channeling discussion.

Trying a new and somewhat unknown activity for a lesson was a great exercise in professional growth. I really had no idea how well students would communicate in the chat room or if it would become an online chaotic mess. Economics is a hard content area for students to grasp, so my hope was that by allowing the students to help set the objectives and giving them a new experience with the back channeling we would have more commitment to learning. Both concepts were new to me, but it was important for my development and the students’ development to step outside my comfort zone to see what rewards we could reap. I am the only one in my district to try back channeling so I have now become a resource for that technology and can share my experiences with others in hopes they will give their students a chance to back channel, as well.

KSD 7.K.2 The teacher knows how to take contextual considerations (instructional materials; individual student interests, needs, and aptitudes; and community resources) into account when planning instruction that creates an effective bridge between curriculum goals preconceptions, encourage exploration and problem-solving, and build new skills on those previously acquired).

Students find the use of technology as their most commonly used form of communication, so allowing them to use Today’s Meet to discuss the video in live time, rather than a person to person discussion at the end of the video fit their interests and aptitudes. The video also allowed them to bridge what they do know about the United States and its economy and begin bridging it to other countries since the video used several comparisons.

7.S.1 As an individual and a member of a team, the teacher selects and creates learning experiences that are appropriate for curriculum goals, relevant to learners, and based upon principles of effective instruction (e.g. that activate students’ prior knowledge, anticipate preconceptions, encourage exploration and problem-solving, and build new skills on those previously acquired).

In Today’s Meet, students activated their knowledge of instant messaging and texting and transferred it to the new skill of back channeling. All are instant and live forms of communication, and so students could use those skills to build from social live conversation to academic live conversation. Now that students have practiced back channeling, it is an instructional strategy that can be used by other 8th grade teachers without any specific instruction on back channeling.

7.D.2 The teacher believes that plans must always be open to adjustment and revision based on student needs and changing circumstances.

There was no set direction to the discussion I posed to the students during the video. The students’ interests and needs took us to certain topics in the discussion. Using the live back channeling allowed for immediate meeting of students needs. When students had a question about words or concepts used in the video it could be asked and answered immediately. Even though much of it was new concepts, more of the video made sense because of my ability to be flexible to meet needs in real time.

The script of the discussion lent direction to where future lessons needed to go and how much background knowledge needed to be built in each class before getting into the book. I could make adjustments to my lesson plans before even starting in order to save instructional time.