Teach and learn

Chapter 3 (Currently under construction - NOT A FINAL DRAFT - Your ideas and comments are welcome)

Chapter 3

The first chapter touched on the reasons behind the topic of “How can a teacher introduce blogging into their classroom to improve critical reading and writing skills.” Chapter 2 discussed a series of topics supporting the use of technology in classrooms and what benefits blogging offers our students and teachers. Chapter 3 will explain the rational for using the Understanding by Design Framework, where the implementation will take place and with whom.

Where and who

The blogging curriculum will be implemented will be in a Freshmen Geography course the Spring semester of 2008 at a newly opened inner city private preparatory high school that is open only to students living in poverty. The student body represents a variety of cultural backgrounds all of which are drawn form the neighborhood around the school and its surrounding cities. 99% of the student body receives free or reduced lunch vouchers from the state. Well over the majority of the students are at least 1-2 years behind their grade level in reading and writing. The average of a student family is $29,386 for a family of 4.3 people.
Despite the challenges I mention above, our students work a “real job” one day a week and five days a month through a corporate internship program the school has created with the Twin Cities business community. Because of this time away from the classroom the students are in school from 8:00 - 4:00 pm for an extended school year, plus a three week orientation. Each class is 70 minutes long and are on a rotating schedule to accommodate the students their work. During the school day there is a time scheduled for all students to receive extra academic support from the faculty and volunteer tutors with the hope of ensuring their academic success. Following the school day the students attend an obligatory after school program designed to provide exposure to stimulating, fun and safe activities. If necessary, it is during this time that student receive additional academic support for the studies in the way of tutors, individual and small group work.
By the numbers, the student body looks as such:
Students enrolled
79 students

Gender:
39 males, 40 females

Ethnicities:
53% Latino
31% African American
6% Caucasian
3% Asian
6% Other

Average Family Income: $29,386
Average Family Size: 4.3

How

I will be using the Williams and McTigue Understanding By Design (UBD) (Williams & McTigue 2005) framework to create the curriculum. I addition to the Williams and McTigue I will be using information from the book Creating a Curriculum That Works: A guide to Outcomes-Centered Curriculum Decision-Making by Dr. Lorraine A. Ozar Ph.D. Both sources look at curriculum development with the end in mind first.
On page 18 of their book Understanding by Design, William and McTigue outline the major elements of UBD. Which consist of the following:
1) Identify desired results
2) Determine acceptable evidence
3) Plan learning experiences and instruction

This choice has been influenced by the importance of teaching to the course goals. Allowing the learning goals to drive the lesson plans forward and to a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the course content is of the utmost importance. Lorraine A. Ozar, Ph.D. states, in her book Creating a Curriculum That Works: A guide to Outcomes-Centered Curriculum Decision-Making that a “curriculum tha tfoucses on significant learning begins with clearly articulated learning outcomes.” (Ozar, 1994) Below, I will present the learning outcomes related to this specific project.
In the curriculum our blogs will be a tool for reinforcing the material our class will be discussing and exploring. It is not my intention to have a class taught online through blogs, but to support their understanding of the course content through reflection and exploration on their blogs. In other words, the blogs will be one of many instructional activities and tools that become part of the process of reaching the course goal, rather than it being the end.
For the blogging to be successful the students will have to learn and understand how to safely use the internet and effectively analyze the content they are exposed to for relevance and quality. All schools are required by a Federal law called Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) to monitor the online practices of minors and have a policy to reinforce and guarantee the protection of those students. As mentioned in the first chapter, with all of the precautionary steps that could be taken by a school not all adult and inappropriate content can be filtered and most blocked sites can be accessed by students if they so desired.
This brings to light the need to create awareness to the realities of the internet. By developing responsible internet users in our students they will be able to identify and protect themselves from falling victim to pitfalls of the internet. Bellow are standards for safe and responsible use of the internet that all users should apply to their activities on line. Millions of students today use social internet programs like Myspace, Xanga, Facebook, etc. These programs are rarely used for educational purposes but have been embraced by the very same people we are educating. Teaching them how to safely use the internet will aide them not only in the classroom but in their personal and social use of it as well.
I have identified and listed, bellow, as recommended in stage 1 of UBD, the desired results of the curriculum. (William & McTigue p.18) They are a series of essential knowledge for safe and effective use of the internet that students will also need to demonstrate:
1) Student will know how to discover the source of any web site they visit
2) Students will know how to analyze the validity of the sources they find in a website and the worth of content found there as well.
3) Students will know how to appropriately react upon coming across an inappropriate site.
4) That the internet is an extension of the classroom and should be treated as such.
5) Students will know to use a pseudonym/alias while on line, never revealing their true identify to another unknown individual they may run across
6) Students will learn critical thinking, analytical and synthesis skills needed to reflect on what they have discovered.
7) Students will demonstrate the ability to build and manage the content of their personal blog
My ultimate goal, as I have discussed in this chapter, is to create a curriculum that focuses on essential goals for learning. In the upcoming chapter I will clearly present an outline for the implementation of and successful fulfillment these goals. Which you will identify as stages two and three of UBD. You will see well designed, student centered, appropriate ways for students to demonstrate their learning through detailed lessons plans that help this significant learning to occur. I hope that this outline will serve as an example for other teachers to use and adapt to enrich the curriculum they are already using in their classrooms.