I have imbedded my screencast below for covering the purpose of my assessment design, the teaching context, how this assessment matches with my Assessment Design Checklist, and some of the CMS affordances and constraints.
Purpose The purpose of this assessment design is to gauge whether students are understading the implications of reversing the Chicago River. It is also looking at how students can apply their learning in agreeing or disagreeing with the City of Chicago's decision to reverse the river. The Google Classroom assessment design allows students to interact with content, answer based on their knowledge, and collaborate with peers. Teaching Context Based on Illinois State Standards for 3rd grade Social Studies SS.H.2.3. - Describe how significant people, events and developments have shaped their own community and region SS.G.1.3. - Locate major landforms and bodies of water on a map or other representation SS.G.2.3. - Compare how people modify and adapt to the environment and culture in our community to other places. Assessment Design Checklist Is it meaningful? The assessment forces students to contemplate the far reaching positive and negative impacts of rerouting a river. Established Learning Goals? Illinois state standards for 3rd grade social studies focusing on history and geography Constructive Feedback? Through the comments feature of responses they will receive feedback on their summaries by both the teacher and their peers Informing Teaching? By giving a quick Google Form assessment I am able to identify any possible misconceptions with the content. If one is identified, I can go back and reteach. CMS Affordances and Constraints Affordances: - The ability to have imbedded YouTube clips - Google Form integration - Organic classroom conversation through the commenting feature Constraints: - Google Classroom is good for linking other Google Applications but not as great for imbedding (more of a directory than a stand alone CMS) - Younger students may find navigation difficult - No student view for teacher Assessment Commentary: I found keeping the screencast to under 2 minutes to be very difficult and resulted in several tries. I could see using this type of assessment format in a middle school setting, where one-to-one technology has been implemented, but for an elementary classroom it may be more difficult. I may look to use this type of assessment occasionally with my students but using Google Classroom does not seem developmentally appropriate to implement for every unit. URL to Screencast
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Google Classroom
For my choice of a For my choice of a CMS to review, I chose Google classroom. I have experience using Blackboard, PowerSchool, RomanNet, and Weebly but felt that this was a great opportunity for me to work with a CMS that I was unfamiliar with. Google Classroom is a CMS that has interested me for some time but have never had the opportunity to use. During the school year I use RomanNet but with its many constraints, I rarely use it. Many of its features are clear advantages in a middle and high school setting but for 3rd graders the time investment to use it is not feasible. This is a nice lead in to why from a overview I like the idea of Google Classroom. From the many other Google Application that I use in my classroom on a daily basis and their broad streamlined user friendliness, I find the use of Google Classroom to be a natural pick of a CMS for me. I have categorized each feature and bullet pointed the question requirements for each. Defined
Security - Login username and password. Affordances: Google security is reputable and can ensure students data is safe. Easy log in and the ability for two stage authentication. Constraints: Everything is in one place(For example, if student and teacher accounts are compromised then a lot of personal data can be accessed.) Implications: For example, when I was trying to add student accounts that are not within the account domain it reads an error message and will not give access (I wanted to see the student view but after trying a work email, personal email, and university email, I was denied.) This ensures no one can get access to the Classroom data that is not supposed to and that assessment data is safe. Notifications - Emailed updates for activity in Classroom. Affordances: This feature enables you to get active updates on what is happening within the Classroom. You can get notified on comments for your comments or ones that you are mentioned on, and student work updates (that are posted and given deadlines within the CMS) for late submissions and resubmissions. Constraints: While notifications can be nice for staying up-to-date, they can also be overwhelming. Even though the settings give you the ability to turn some of these notifications off, it will still end up sending you a lot of emails. Implications: This allows you to stay easily up-to-date throughout the many moving parts of your Classroom. While it has the potential to be overwhelming, it is more important that a teacher is well informed. Overall this will ultimately help with organization. Main Posts Announcements - Posts to keep your class informed. Affordances: Has the ability to inform or notify your students. Link files (Google Drive, YouTube, hyperlink or file attachment). Have the ability to automatically post, schedule a post or save as draft. Through the use of a topic indicator it is possible to categorize information. There is even a way of identifying specific students that will receive the announcement. Constraints: Access to technology to view the announcements. Students willingness/motivation to check announcements. Implications: (Many of the affordances and constraints for posting will be similar in this section.) The functionality to link files in posts is incredibly seamless, especially when using other Google applications such as Google Drive, Website Creator, Docs, Slides, and Sheets. This very useful for both the teacher to share files but also for students. While there is the obvious advantage to having all your files accessible from one system, there is also the advantage of user interface comfortability. I can see this also have a great impact when students are studying or trying to complete homework. As the teacher you could have a Google Drive organized in a way that allows your students to click on a link from your announcement that has all the information that they will need right there for them. Or as an example you could even have Youtube videos imbedded in your post that has part of a lecture, so students can receive a refresher before starting their homework. Question - Post a question to start a discussion. Affordances: Questions can be framed as either a short answer or multiple choice. Different questions could be given to different students. Students can be given the ability to reply to each others responses and even the ability to edit their answer after posting. The question can be set to have a due date and be a scheduled post. Constraints: Questions are limited in the type of responses they offer. If answers are visible to other students in the class it could influence other students answers. Implications: With the integration of links and other documents questions could be built out in a way that you are not just limited to short answers and multiple choice questions. With the use of due date and scheduled posts, you could hypothetically build out a scheduled curriculum that is paced in advance. The application of this feature as a check in either as a bell ringer, exit slip or even during instruction opens up several possibilities for efficiency, as long as there is a routine around it. Assignment - Post an assessment. Affordances: At a glance the number of students that have completed the assessment is represented. The linking of files and Google Drive folders is well integrated. Instructions, expectations and resources all in one place. Gone are the days of printing extra copies for students that lost them and absent students have resources that they can reference. Constraints: Class time starts to become undervalued. Digital organization becomes more important for managing the completion of assessments. Implications: Students could start to see the materials as a reason not to pay attention in class. For example, when learning math in middle school it was crucial that I paid attention to instruction because if I didn’t, I would be left to figure it out myself when it came time for homework. If students get to comfortable with the amount of resources available to them then they may not value the in class instruction as much. I do feel that the benefits far outweigh the potential drawbacks. Especially in 3rd grade students are still learning organization and digital organization is no different. Reuse Post - Post from something you have already posted before. Affordances: Allows the teacher to repost from different classes and improves efficiency. Constraints: Lends itself to the potential to reuse bad assessments. Implications: Same issues that come with teachers reusing lessons for years. Just as lessons can become stale and outdated when not revised or reassessed for their validity so can posts (assignments, questions, announcements). Sidebar Options Calendar View - Organize all your classes in a weekly calendar. Affordances: Organization. Constraints: Limited in the amount of views (only weekly). Implications: I wouldn’t realistically imagine running every content area in a CMS for 3rd graders because I don’t feel this would be developmentally appropriate and their for the calendar would not be used to its full potential. A middle or high school teacher or student would be able to use the calendar to organize their different classes. For assessments this could be incredibly helpful for managing your time on a week to week basis. To-Do - Helping you keep track of posts you need to look at and those you already have. Affordances: Identifies work that has been done in the Classroom for the teacher to review. Also, features a reviewed section to look back on work that has been completed. Constraints: If you have a lot of students, I can imagine this being an overwhelming task to look through each individual comment or question response. Implications: Helpful for the teacher to keep track of their classes. Classes - Organization (if you have several different classes) Affordances: Organization Constraints: N/A Implications: Helpful for middle or high school but irrelevant for elementary. About - Class information. Affordances: A great way to collect your resources for a course. Creates an easy why of directing students to a place where everything is available. Completing assessments can be referenced here. Constraints: N/A Implications: If you are able to keep an organized resource page students will be able to quickly and easily reference what they have done in class. This will be incredibly helpful when working on any assessment. It is a great one stop for anything your students could possibly need relating to the course. Conclusion Overall this would be a great option for my classroom. The current CMS that has been established in the school works for an older group of students, it is not developmentally appropriate for an elementary classroom. Following the use of several other Google applications that have already been established with my students, Google Classroom makes the most sense for its streamlined user interface and great file integration (thanks largely to Google Drive). The affordances of Google Classroom far outweigh the constraints for my classroom. Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1erNcqpr-XinG55cNw3sW6toMt4ZvZSn4q0jE6dEjQZE/edit?usp=sharing |
AuthorMy name is Ryan MacLeod and I live in Seattle, WA. I am currently a K-8 Lab Coordinator. I have a passion for educational technology integration and curriculum design, especially when it comes to the social sciences. Archives
April 2021
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