Week 10: Final Review. Part 1.

Your final assignment of the course is your course reflection. Here you will discuss what you Learned (The L of the KWL) from the beginning of the course to now. In this blog posting, please discuss the remaining course objectives you have recently met that were not met at the midterm of the course (where you wrote about them in the midterm reflection ). (List them out and discuss how you met them). This also where you reflect upon where you began before this class and what you have learned that will help you in your future as an educator.

When I enrolled in this course, I was not looking for laid-back instruction. My goal was to learn by leaps and bounds, be constantly challenged, make discoveries on every step of the way, and learn what is directly-applicable to my teaching practice. And this course did not fall short of my expectations by any means. Truth be told, this was one of the toughest courses I took at SNHU and the one I learnt the most in. There were two major factors that made this course so effective for me. The first was incredible enthusiasm and knowledge of our professor, Kim Tufts. The second was the "hands-on" instruction delivered in the class. A well-known Chinese saying reads, "Tell me something - and I'll forget. Show me something - and I`ll remember. Let me experience it - and I`ll understand.” Not surprisingly, having us immediately transfer everything learnt in the class to our teaching led to such great outcomes. In the midterm reflection, I already explained what resources discussed in the class I have already started employing in my adult ESOL classroom. However, by that time we had not done a lesson plan with an artifact and a WebQuest yet, and neither had we followed state and national standards to develop lesson plans. Therefore, it is high time I discussed how the lesson plan and the WebQuest together with applicable state and national standards helped me to meet the rest of the class objectives.

3. Design meaningful and authentic digitally based learning experiences with multiple and varied assessments.

In the lesson plan I created, students used various online resources, including teacher recommended ones, to research Boston historic sites, create digital photo stories on them to present in front of their classmates, evaluate the effectiveness of their presentation, assess the learning of their classmates, and create final photo stories of Boston to share their acquired knowledge and travel experiences with their families and friends. In light of their upcoming visit to Boston, the authenticity and relevance of this lesson plan significantly increased. The students were assessed based on their group work, individual work, digital photo stories, tests they created for the classmates, and their overall comprehension and retention of the key concepts. I want to believe that all my efforts resulted in truly meaningful and authentic digitally based learning experiences with multiple and varied authentic assessments.

My Webquest, designed for advanced ESOL students working on research and academic writing skills, allows them to employ multiple online resources to conduct a successful research, answer higher-order questions (like whether or not they believe that Americans and the British are divided by a common language), defend their points of view, and to present their findings in front of their classmates. Students also employ their creativity and imagination while creating an imaginary identity of a human being a thousand years from now, writing his/her professional biography, and acting on behalf of that person. (The latter technique is often used in Desuggestopedia, which "desuggests" learning psychological barriers, anxiety, and encourages students to take risks.) Students are assessed based on their writing, research, presentation, the depth of their comprehension of the key concepts, and the ability to communicate their findings and conclusions to others. All these are examples of authentic assessment tasks and are very close to the ones students will get in college mainstream classes.

4. Reflect upon and demonstrate effective use of digital tools and resources.

I think that weekly blogging allowed me to reflect upon effective use of digital tools and resources. As for demonstrating, I met this objective by creating a lesson plan with an artifact and a WebQuest. Tasks for the lesson plan and the WebQuest were aligned with state and national standards (WIDA core standards, NETs, and English Language Arts Core Standards) and were created taking into account their effectiveness and efficiency. It is critical to ensure that fun and effectiveness are balanced so that students advance academically while enjoying relevant and engaging lessons. In fact, that is what I strove for throughout this course and my lesson plan and WebQuest in particular.

6. Illustrate through application how state and national standards are implemented within the curriculum (e.g., NH Curriculum Frameworks, ISTE (NETS-Teacher/NETS-Student) and NH-ICT Literacy Standards for K-12 Students (306.42))

As I have mentioned above, objectives and procedures for the lesson plan and the WebQuest were aligned with state and national standards (WIDA core standards, NETs, and English Language Arts Core Standards).