ELED TECHNOLOGY REPORTBy Kristen Cole

Section 4IPT287

Learning ObjectivesUtah State Core Curriculum, Grade One

Standard 1, Objective 2, Indicator b:“Use a variety of formats (e.g., show and tell, drama, sharing of books and personal writings, choral readings, informational reports, retelling experiences and stories in sequence) in presenting with various forms of media.”

Props for the class play, Click,Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin!

More props for the class play. Readingposters were used for choral readings by the cows.

Actors: Cows, duck, Farmer Brown,and three narrators.

Filming the class plays.

The class plays were performed in front of all the first grade classes. The actors’ feet can be seen near the top of the photo.

The first graders loved watching all ofthe performances. They left with smiling faces!

My lesson outline: Read “Putting On A Play”, watch the class play projected on the wall,and complete a journal write about the student’s favorite part of the class play.

While watching the class play video the students were assigned the task of evaluating their performance. The students were to evaluate what was done well and also thingsthat could have been improved. The video was a key part of the students evaluating their performance.

What Went Well The students were able to learn how to use drama, choral readings, and

sharing of a book in presenting with various forms of media (or in this case in presenting with a video recording). This ties in with the lesson objective.

The technology worked. I didn’t have trouble with the video recorder, camera, DVD burning, or LCD projector.

The lesson was well focused on plays. The students enjoyed the story, “Putting on a Play”, watching the video of their class play, and writing a journal entry on their favorite part of putting on the play.

The students were able to receive a reward, watching their class play video, after working so hard on the play.

The students were able to truly apply the lesson objective to themselves as they watched themselves perform the play and as they personally reflected on the play and wrote about their favorite part in their journals.

I was also able to get permission from a student’s mother who was objected to the idea of having her son filmed. I talked to her and we made an agreement that as long as the film didn’t end up on the internet I was free to film the play. That was a good experience of dealing with parents and the appropriate use of technology.

What Went Not So Well It was difficult to get pictures of the students performing the play

because of the privacy issue, but I was able to take pictures of the backs of the audience and some of the performer’s feet.

I got the vibe that one student was embarrassed of watching his performance during the video. He was one of the lead characters and had many lines of which he didn’t like to watch. I felt a little bad for him, but the rest of the class was completely enjoying the video.

What I might do differently in the future:- Take pictures from behind the students on the stage. (I would need to

figure this out because there was a wall right behind where the students were standing and performing.)

- Take a class vote ahead of time to see which students would like to and would not like to actually watch the performance. I feel this delivers the feeling of more of a class democracy where each student’s voice is hear; however, the majority vote would win which I feel still would have let to the desire of watching the performance.

Principles of Effective Technology Integration

1. Student use of technology: I used the technology mostly by setting up the LCD projector, video recording, and taking pictures. Though I handled the technology all my efforts were made so that the students would benefit from the technology. The students used the technology to evaluate their performance so that they could refresh their minds as to what happened during the play and then write in their journal about the play. I feel that the video involved the students actively because they searched for what they liked about the video while watching it. Their was a purpose for watching the video which made it active learning rather than passive learning in which they would have sat their aimlessly watching the video.

Principles of Effective Technology Integration

2. Technology Use is Essential: The learning activity was to have the students reflect on their play; what went well and what could improve was a purposeful discussion for the lesson. Incorporating the class play video into the lesson enhanced the learning activity because the students were able to better reflect on their performance after watching the video. The students were able to reflect and write about their favorite part of the play in their journals. The video and technology was added as a motivational factor for the students to truly reflect upon their performance. Having the video to watch helped make the reflection part exciting for the students. The video/technology motivated the students to become a part of the learning activity and enjoy the lesson objective more fully.

Principles of Effective Technology Integration

3. Focus on Learning Task: The technology focuses on learning the subject area because the video is a recording of the subject in action. The students participated in a play and I used technology to enhance the experience for the students. Technology was used as a tool to help achieve the learning task because the video and LCD projector were focused around the learning objective. The learning objective states that students learn how to use a variety of formats (choral readings, drama, and sharing a book) in presenting with media. Students demonstrated all the formats, listed in the parenthesis, in presenting with media. Students greatly enjoyed the use of media in a lesson; it was exciting and rewarding.

Principles of Effective Technology Integration

4. Added Value: I feel that the lesson would not be easier to complete without technology; technology is needed to truly enhance the learning activity because students benefit from seeing the live performance in order to write their play reflections. The added valued to the learning process is that students feel ownership for the lesson; they feel that without their effort and play performance the lesson could not have taken place. As the teacher I was able to help the play come alive to the students that I would not have been able to do otherwise. I was able to let the students feel ownership and reward for working so hard on accomplishing a performance. I would not have been able to prove to the students how well they did on their performance without the video/technology. The technology truly spoke for me in places that I could not, and that is the reason why technology was so powerful in this lesson.