Reflection Over Implementation

Reflection Over Implementation

When trying new things, there are always going to be successes and failures. What we learn from the successes and failures is how we learn, grow, and create new pathways for our students. I’m thankful to have gracious students who were appreciative of trying new things, even when they didn’t go according to plan. From this implementation plan I have learned that I still have a lot to learn about supporting 21st Century Literacy skills in the classroom setting. In regards to these skills, I need to allow students to explore and create with more independence, which can be difficult for teachers to do, as we have a tendency to not want to “let go of control”.

I will now detail specific strengths and weaknesses observed throughout our Personal Digital Inquiry unit:

Strengths:

  • Students are (mostly) successful in their use of the Seesaw platform with recordings. 

  • Using web literacy tools to gather vocabulary information.

  • Creating representations of learning through Google slides.

  • Students understood using maps and reading those disciplinary texts

Weaknesses:

  • Through some of our digital resource use, students mentioned not being able to find information they needed.

  • Not being able to use the Kami digital annotation tool for the first lesson as intended.

  • Ineffective planning in regards to Personal Digital Inquiry versus collaborative practices.

  • Evaluating print and digital resources, determining why a resource was helpful.

Overall, I do feel that students learned the content standards in an authentic way, but there are some changes I would like to make based on observations, strengths, and weaknesses. As Seesaw is a Norman Public Schools tool that will be used for assignments in the event of a return to all virtual, students need to have more successes in the classroom with creating recordings using devices. Prior to implementing a plan like this in the future I will make sure to provide more opportunities for using this specific tool. It will also be helpful in future endeavors, to ensure that specific tools are working properly with the available devices. It’s frustrating when activities don’t proceed as planned, so this will be a necessary step when students will be using new literacies. 

Through this plan I attempted to use a good mixture of PDI and collaboration. However, with how some of the activities preceded I found I had to make some adjustments. Next time I will think of other ways for students to work together as it didn’t work with the specific activities in which I tried to include collaboration. I planned for students to collaborate on the project where they chose a specific state to live in, and how they wanted to make a living. Next time. I would include collaboration of students through discussion, rather than working on the end product collaboratively. I intend to look more into articles and videos detailing when to include collaboration. This video (while not about PDI practices) discusses the differences between cooperation and collaboration, and when to use each piece. 

Cooperation vs Collaboration: When To Use Each Approach 

By supporting digital and multimodal literacies in the classroom, I feel that I am truly preparing students for their future. Not all students will go on to work in education, or have a, “typical office job”. However, all of my students should participate in civic engagement in order to understand the world around them through reading/viewing digital texts. I can now see how these literacies support students learning and finding information independently, and it’s important for them to practice these skills. 

My hope is to inspire others to implement digital and multimodal practices. If i could provide suggestions to those teachers, I would say take things slow, and give yourself (and your students) time to reflect over these new practices and what is being learned. Also, stay current on new practices, and this video explains why:: https://youtu.be/O35n_tvOK74. 

If we are to truly be supportive of our students, we will ingrain these new literacies, as though it’s pedagogy. 


Here are some of my students’ observations from our implementation plan:

https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_item?item_id=item.9fffed7a-a2f2-42c8-96ba-69e826ba6a88&share_to ken=0_IY3GJ5Rwa7GkRprJ8pBg&mode=share 


https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_item?item_id=item.8a6a5691-14c6-430a-973e-753c492c61fd&share_ token=bWAGvHEHTd-Q8NJqG0ZBiQ&mode=share









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