Our unit is complete and I am very pleased with how it turned out and how the collaboration process went. I was a bit apprehensive at the beginning of the collaboration process because I would be doing it mostly online with Mary. We were fortunate to have a few times over the course of the semester when we were able to work together in person and these times proved to be very valuable for our unit. We worked best when we were together in person or on the phone rather than through e-mail. I think this is because we could quickly bounce ideas off of each other and get immediate feedback about our different ideas. If this had been a real situation, I think making weekly meetings with the teacher would prove to be valuable rather than communicating completely or mostly through e-mail.
I think this was an excellent process to go through as a graduate student because I feel like I have now had a collaborative experience and my first one won't be at my first job. I feel as though I could use the wiki and unit we created as part of a portfolio for a job interview and it would help a lot. I do wish that I could help to implement the unit Mary and I created, but I know I will hear about it as she does it at the end of this school year. She did share it with the other third grade teacher at her school and she was very excited to teach it for the first time this year and see the changes that were made to improve it.
As the LMS partner in this collaboration, I feel as though I did my job to help Mary enhance her unit with different resources, technology ideas, and ways to communicate what is being taught in her classroom. I feel as though her students will have a greater understanding of folktales and also be able to gain some technology skills in the process. I'm looking forward to repeating this process with other teachers in the future.
I am eager to review in depth the units of the others in the class. I think that every collaboration experience will be different because every teacher and unit is unique. I am interested to see how others went about the process and what things they did to enhance a teacher's unit.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Assessment
Mary and I are done with our collaboration, so I want to tell a bit about a few sections that we added into the unit and talk about our assessment in more depth.
First, we added a section entitled "Higher Order Thinking Framework". This section lists some of the higher order thinking questions that frame the entire unit. Many of these questions come up in various places throughout the unit, but mainly in the worksheets that the students complete to receive their assessment for the unit. Each of these questions is meant to get students thinking instead of just copying information about their folktales. The questions are designed to have students create their own response.
We also added a section on "Ethnolinguistics Minorities". This section details what accommodations would be made for students from different cultures or who speak different languages. The school which Mary is teaching in is not the most diverse school, but we still felt that it was important to include information on this area in case other teachers/librarians would want to use this unit as their own. This also helps Mary out if she ever does have a student who would fall into this category, although they are few and far between in this school.
In regards to assessment, we made some big changes for Mary. In the past, she would look at what level the students completed the folktale worksheets and give them a grade based on that. She also had a reading and writing rubric that would be used for report cards, but did not specifically focus on just this unit. Essentially, she did not really have a concrete assessment tool that was used specifically for this unit.
To change this, we decided that rubrics would be the best form of assessment for this unit. We created one rubric for the overall unit. Since there is a requirement for the unit of reading a certain number of books and doing a certain number of worksheets, we wanted to make sure that these numbers were recorded along with the rubric. We made a checklist/rubric that would work for this unit. In order to produce the rubric, we used the existing reading/writing rubrics that she used for report cards and modified them to fit this unit. It was very helpful to have some sort of rubric in place already to work from and having them very close in topics will help Mary when she does her report cards in the future.
We also added a rating scale/rubric for the Folktale Recommendation project. This will ensure that the students are evaluated on their use of technology in the unit. Since this was not found on the unit rubric, we felt it was important to have a separate rubric for this aspect. This rubric will be completed by the librarian/computer teacher in conjunction with Mary.
The stakeholders for this unit are the student, parents, administration, and community. We detailed a few options for sharing the assessment information with these stakeholders.
Students and parents will receive copies of the rubric to see how they did in each area. These rubrics will also be presented at parent/teacher conferences and discussed. This will help the parents to understand exactly why their child was given the grade that they were and be able to ask questions regarding their child's work.
The administration will be shown the wiki to show exactly what the teacher and librarian did together and how technology can enhance the learning process. This wiki will be a good way to show how the librarian is adding to the learning of the students and how they are enhancing the classroom work of the teacher. Some student work and rubrics can also be shared with the administration to show how the students did in the unit and with technology.
The community will also get to experience some of what the students did for this project. The can characters that the students create can be displayed in the public library or some other community area particular to the area of the school. The information notecards that go along with the can characters will also be displayed. This will show the community what the students are capable of doing and will also get the name of the school in the public for the community to see. The Folktale Recommendation PowerPoint can also be displayed in the public library to encourage students and parents to read more folktales. Once again, this will be a great way to show that the school is using technology and perhaps get more people into the school. A local newspaper could even run a story with pictures of the can characters and the slideshow to show the unique things that the school is accomplishing.
Overall, I think the assessment for this unit will work and be worthwhile to the teacher, librarian, students, parents, administration, and community. The assessment has the possibility to bring all these different groups of people together for learning.
First, we added a section entitled "Higher Order Thinking Framework". This section lists some of the higher order thinking questions that frame the entire unit. Many of these questions come up in various places throughout the unit, but mainly in the worksheets that the students complete to receive their assessment for the unit. Each of these questions is meant to get students thinking instead of just copying information about their folktales. The questions are designed to have students create their own response.
We also added a section on "Ethnolinguistics Minorities". This section details what accommodations would be made for students from different cultures or who speak different languages. The school which Mary is teaching in is not the most diverse school, but we still felt that it was important to include information on this area in case other teachers/librarians would want to use this unit as their own. This also helps Mary out if she ever does have a student who would fall into this category, although they are few and far between in this school.
In regards to assessment, we made some big changes for Mary. In the past, she would look at what level the students completed the folktale worksheets and give them a grade based on that. She also had a reading and writing rubric that would be used for report cards, but did not specifically focus on just this unit. Essentially, she did not really have a concrete assessment tool that was used specifically for this unit.
To change this, we decided that rubrics would be the best form of assessment for this unit. We created one rubric for the overall unit. Since there is a requirement for the unit of reading a certain number of books and doing a certain number of worksheets, we wanted to make sure that these numbers were recorded along with the rubric. We made a checklist/rubric that would work for this unit. In order to produce the rubric, we used the existing reading/writing rubrics that she used for report cards and modified them to fit this unit. It was very helpful to have some sort of rubric in place already to work from and having them very close in topics will help Mary when she does her report cards in the future.
We also added a rating scale/rubric for the Folktale Recommendation project. This will ensure that the students are evaluated on their use of technology in the unit. Since this was not found on the unit rubric, we felt it was important to have a separate rubric for this aspect. This rubric will be completed by the librarian/computer teacher in conjunction with Mary.
The stakeholders for this unit are the student, parents, administration, and community. We detailed a few options for sharing the assessment information with these stakeholders.
Students and parents will receive copies of the rubric to see how they did in each area. These rubrics will also be presented at parent/teacher conferences and discussed. This will help the parents to understand exactly why their child was given the grade that they were and be able to ask questions regarding their child's work.
The administration will be shown the wiki to show exactly what the teacher and librarian did together and how technology can enhance the learning process. This wiki will be a good way to show how the librarian is adding to the learning of the students and how they are enhancing the classroom work of the teacher. Some student work and rubrics can also be shared with the administration to show how the students did in the unit and with technology.
The community will also get to experience some of what the students did for this project. The can characters that the students create can be displayed in the public library or some other community area particular to the area of the school. The information notecards that go along with the can characters will also be displayed. This will show the community what the students are capable of doing and will also get the name of the school in the public for the community to see. The Folktale Recommendation PowerPoint can also be displayed in the public library to encourage students and parents to read more folktales. Once again, this will be a great way to show that the school is using technology and perhaps get more people into the school. A local newspaper could even run a story with pictures of the can characters and the slideshow to show the unique things that the school is accomplishing.
Overall, I think the assessment for this unit will work and be worthwhile to the teacher, librarian, students, parents, administration, and community. The assessment has the possibility to bring all these different groups of people together for learning.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Mid-Planning
This project is finally starting to feel like a collaboration! Mary and I were able to talk face-to-face a couple of weeks ago when I was home for my sister's birthday which helped us a lot in getting this unit going. At that point, we were able to divide the work up into what would be appropriate for the teacher to do and what the librarian would do. Our divisions can be see on our wiki page under "Teacher Responsibilities" and "Librarian Responsibilities". These two sections divide what we did for the collaboration and what we will do when actually teaching the unit. We tried to each fill in the parts of the planning sheet that pertained to our responsibilities.
Our unit is Folktale Fever for 3rd graders. It was fun to bounce different ideas off of each other for things to add or change in the unit that Mary has been using for a few years already. I suggested a WebQuest, but when we talked through how to do it, we realized that her students don't have enough Internet experience to be able to do something so complex right away. Instead, we decided on a simple website that allows the student to make a timeline and creating PowerPoint slides that recommend the students' favorite books to others. I'm excited to see how the technology works for Mary in her classroom since this is something that she rarely, if ever, uses.
Tweaking the worksheets that Mary has used for a few years was also a much needed update to the unit. These worksheets now look much better and we even changed how some of them were laid out or what they asked because Mary said she had never liked them. It is wonderful to work with another person on a unit because if you can't think of a better or easier way to do something, the other person probably can!
We were also able to add in another project that incorporated some art and creativity instead of having the students fill out worksheets for the whole unit. This was something I had done in school for a similar unit. It's wonderful when we can use other people's ideas!
Incorporating standards and assessment into this unit were big tasks because there was nothing previously set in place. Mary works in a private school where standards are not required. Lesson plans or unit plans do not have to be turned in and therefore many of the teachers ignore the Michigan standards. We were able to read through the Michigan ELA GLCEs to find appropriate standards for this unit. It was reassuring to see that this unit fit perfectly into some of the appropriate grade level standards.
The only assessment that Mary had for this unit was to receive each student's packet of worksheets and look through them and give a grade. This did not help the student's to see what was expected of them or how they would be evaluated. It also did not provide for any concrete assessment to be shared with parents or administrators. We were able to talk about what Mary currently does for assessment in this unit and how we could change it. We started by simply talking (over the phone) about what were the most important things in the unit and what could actually be measured. The unit rubric we developed covers these things and even incorporates some topics from the report card rubrics that Mary uses for reading and writing.
Our planning sheet is basically complete. There are a few things that are missing that I'm still waiting to find out more information on. It is exciting to see how Mary is taking this as her own and getting excited to teach this at the end of the school year. I wish I really was the librarian at her school and could actually help her teach it!
Our unit is Folktale Fever for 3rd graders. It was fun to bounce different ideas off of each other for things to add or change in the unit that Mary has been using for a few years already. I suggested a WebQuest, but when we talked through how to do it, we realized that her students don't have enough Internet experience to be able to do something so complex right away. Instead, we decided on a simple website that allows the student to make a timeline and creating PowerPoint slides that recommend the students' favorite books to others. I'm excited to see how the technology works for Mary in her classroom since this is something that she rarely, if ever, uses.
Tweaking the worksheets that Mary has used for a few years was also a much needed update to the unit. These worksheets now look much better and we even changed how some of them were laid out or what they asked because Mary said she had never liked them. It is wonderful to work with another person on a unit because if you can't think of a better or easier way to do something, the other person probably can!
We were also able to add in another project that incorporated some art and creativity instead of having the students fill out worksheets for the whole unit. This was something I had done in school for a similar unit. It's wonderful when we can use other people's ideas!
Incorporating standards and assessment into this unit were big tasks because there was nothing previously set in place. Mary works in a private school where standards are not required. Lesson plans or unit plans do not have to be turned in and therefore many of the teachers ignore the Michigan standards. We were able to read through the Michigan ELA GLCEs to find appropriate standards for this unit. It was reassuring to see that this unit fit perfectly into some of the appropriate grade level standards.
The only assessment that Mary had for this unit was to receive each student's packet of worksheets and look through them and give a grade. This did not help the student's to see what was expected of them or how they would be evaluated. It also did not provide for any concrete assessment to be shared with parents or administrators. We were able to talk about what Mary currently does for assessment in this unit and how we could change it. We started by simply talking (over the phone) about what were the most important things in the unit and what could actually be measured. The unit rubric we developed covers these things and even incorporates some topics from the report card rubrics that Mary uses for reading and writing.
Our planning sheet is basically complete. There are a few things that are missing that I'm still waiting to find out more information on. It is exciting to see how Mary is taking this as her own and getting excited to teach this at the end of the school year. I wish I really was the librarian at her school and could actually help her teach it!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Early Planning
Despite this being an e-collaboration, Mary and I did meet last week to get her set up on the wiki and talk a little bit about the unit she wanted to work on. She has a folktale unit that she teaches every year that she would like to update. Right now, the unit involves the students reading a certain amount of folktales and completing different types of worksheets for a select number of them. She wants to update this and incorporate some technology and new folktales. I'm excited to be able to help her with this goal!
Getting her set up on the wiki went well (better than for me!). I'm interested to see how editing it will go from both ends of the collaboration. I think I will have to help her a bit to get started, but I'm hoping that she will get the hang of it the further we go along. I'm not sure if I would choose to use a wiki with a teacher at a school that I work at, but it would be nice to have one document that both people can edit. If a teacher wanted to do a complete e-collaboration (like I'm doing with Mary), I think I may suggest e-mail or a specific drive (if available) on the school's network to keep track of the unit plan form.
Besides the technology issue, I think the collaboration will go well in regards to interpersonal issues because we have always been able to work off of each other's ideas and come up with even better ones. Mary is also very open to having things changed drastically, so that helps making suggestions easier and less threatening.
So far, the biggest roadblock has been the distance and technology. When we met last week, Mary gave me a folder with the information/worksheets that they currently use for this unit. I found some other information that I wanted access to, so now the question is whether that can be found electronically or if it will have to be sent to me through snail mail. No answers yet, but they will come soon.
We do have some initial thoughts on how assessment will occur in this unit because it is a partially developed unit. In the past, students had to read a certain number of folktales and then complete worksheets on a select number of those stories. This basic format will probably stay the same, but the numbers/worksheets/books will probably change. Also, a rubric is needed to keep track of what each student has done to make the assessment job easier for the teacher. This is something we will have to develop because it does not currently exist.
On our wiki page, I have posted a collaboration unit planning form that we will use to organize our collaboration and make it easy to teach. I took ideas from 3 different sources (found at the bottom of the wiki page) to develop a form that I think will work well for our unit. Please take a look at it to understand my discussion of it now.
The information at the top (names, grade, time) is included so that I can keep track of the collaboration. If I were doing this with multiple teachers, this would help to keep the classes and units separate. Having a "Big Idea" or general goal is one of the most important aspects to collaboration. If both the teacher and the librarian have the same goal and keep it in mind throughout the unit, it will be more likely that the unit will fulfill what they wanted it to. Having this will help Mary and I keep the same focus on folktales.
The content area standards table will be used to make sure that state standards are being followed and met throughout the unit. Mary's school does not require this because it is a private school, but I think it is still important to keep some sort of standards in mind when teaching to ensure that students are learning. The assessment section will help us keep in mind what the outcome of the unit is and what the students should learn.
Pre-Requisities are important for this unit because students need to know something about literature before tackling folktales. This section will help Mary make sure that these skills are taught before this unit is undertaken in the spring. The lesson activities section will provide a brief outline of each day's lesson. This will help to keep the lesson on track and on time. The special needs section will ensure that each different type of learner is being addressed in ways that will help them learn the best. I know that Mary has a few of these types of students in her class, so it is important to make sure that these students are being thought about throughout the unit.
Teacher/librarian/student responsibilities will ensure that each person is doing what they should with this unit. If everyone knows what is expected of them, the unit will go along smoothly. Since Mary has never collaborated on a unit, I felt this was important for both of us so that we know what we should do in the unit. The worksheets and assessment rubric sections will provide place to include the various worksheets and rubrics that will be included in this unit.
The resources section will help to enhance the resources that Mary already uses with this unit. Keeping track of different types of resources will also help to enhance the unit by making it more varied. The references section is to keep track of what references we use to develop this form and the unit.
This collaboration unit planning form will be completed by both Mary and I. Mary will focus on the sections that deal directly with the students (special needs, pre-requisites). I will focus on sections that deal with new resources for the unit. We both will develop the Big Idea, standards, and worksheets/rubrics.
For this unit, I am focusing on Level 8 of Loertcher's Taxonomy. This is the "Scheduled Planning in the Support Role" level and is described as, "Formal planning is done with a teacher or group of students to supply materials or activities for a previously planned resource-based teaching unit or project" (Daniel, 2002). Since this unit was already developed previously to this collaboration, I will be working to make it more technological with more electronic resources and ideas. Since this unit is focused on folktales, this is a resource that is already available to me. I will be able to enhance Mary's teaching by providing her with more resources and ideas for the development of the worksheets. In the Montiel-Overall article, I think what I am doing with this unit will fall into the Cooperation/Partnership level. I think that Mary will see me as a support to what she teaches in the classroom.
I'm excited to see how this unit develops from here! It has started well and we seem to have a good sense of the direction that we want to go in. Stay tuned for more updates!
References:
Daniel, E. (2002, January 31). Two taxonomies of the school library media program. Retrieved February 20, 2009, from http://www.ils.unc.edu/daniel/242/Taxonomies.html
Montiel-Overall, P. (2005). Toward a theory of collaboration for teachers and librarians [Electronic version]. School Library Media Research, 8.
Getting her set up on the wiki went well (better than for me!). I'm interested to see how editing it will go from both ends of the collaboration. I think I will have to help her a bit to get started, but I'm hoping that she will get the hang of it the further we go along. I'm not sure if I would choose to use a wiki with a teacher at a school that I work at, but it would be nice to have one document that both people can edit. If a teacher wanted to do a complete e-collaboration (like I'm doing with Mary), I think I may suggest e-mail or a specific drive (if available) on the school's network to keep track of the unit plan form.
Besides the technology issue, I think the collaboration will go well in regards to interpersonal issues because we have always been able to work off of each other's ideas and come up with even better ones. Mary is also very open to having things changed drastically, so that helps making suggestions easier and less threatening.
So far, the biggest roadblock has been the distance and technology. When we met last week, Mary gave me a folder with the information/worksheets that they currently use for this unit. I found some other information that I wanted access to, so now the question is whether that can be found electronically or if it will have to be sent to me through snail mail. No answers yet, but they will come soon.
We do have some initial thoughts on how assessment will occur in this unit because it is a partially developed unit. In the past, students had to read a certain number of folktales and then complete worksheets on a select number of those stories. This basic format will probably stay the same, but the numbers/worksheets/books will probably change. Also, a rubric is needed to keep track of what each student has done to make the assessment job easier for the teacher. This is something we will have to develop because it does not currently exist.
On our wiki page, I have posted a collaboration unit planning form that we will use to organize our collaboration and make it easy to teach. I took ideas from 3 different sources (found at the bottom of the wiki page) to develop a form that I think will work well for our unit. Please take a look at it to understand my discussion of it now.
The information at the top (names, grade, time) is included so that I can keep track of the collaboration. If I were doing this with multiple teachers, this would help to keep the classes and units separate. Having a "Big Idea" or general goal is one of the most important aspects to collaboration. If both the teacher and the librarian have the same goal and keep it in mind throughout the unit, it will be more likely that the unit will fulfill what they wanted it to. Having this will help Mary and I keep the same focus on folktales.
The content area standards table will be used to make sure that state standards are being followed and met throughout the unit. Mary's school does not require this because it is a private school, but I think it is still important to keep some sort of standards in mind when teaching to ensure that students are learning. The assessment section will help us keep in mind what the outcome of the unit is and what the students should learn.
Pre-Requisities are important for this unit because students need to know something about literature before tackling folktales. This section will help Mary make sure that these skills are taught before this unit is undertaken in the spring. The lesson activities section will provide a brief outline of each day's lesson. This will help to keep the lesson on track and on time. The special needs section will ensure that each different type of learner is being addressed in ways that will help them learn the best. I know that Mary has a few of these types of students in her class, so it is important to make sure that these students are being thought about throughout the unit.
Teacher/librarian/student responsibilities will ensure that each person is doing what they should with this unit. If everyone knows what is expected of them, the unit will go along smoothly. Since Mary has never collaborated on a unit, I felt this was important for both of us so that we know what we should do in the unit. The worksheets and assessment rubric sections will provide place to include the various worksheets and rubrics that will be included in this unit.
The resources section will help to enhance the resources that Mary already uses with this unit. Keeping track of different types of resources will also help to enhance the unit by making it more varied. The references section is to keep track of what references we use to develop this form and the unit.
This collaboration unit planning form will be completed by both Mary and I. Mary will focus on the sections that deal directly with the students (special needs, pre-requisites). I will focus on sections that deal with new resources for the unit. We both will develop the Big Idea, standards, and worksheets/rubrics.
For this unit, I am focusing on Level 8 of Loertcher's Taxonomy. This is the "Scheduled Planning in the Support Role" level and is described as, "Formal planning is done with a teacher or group of students to supply materials or activities for a previously planned resource-based teaching unit or project" (Daniel, 2002). Since this unit was already developed previously to this collaboration, I will be working to make it more technological with more electronic resources and ideas. Since this unit is focused on folktales, this is a resource that is already available to me. I will be able to enhance Mary's teaching by providing her with more resources and ideas for the development of the worksheets. In the Montiel-Overall article, I think what I am doing with this unit will fall into the Cooperation/Partnership level. I think that Mary will see me as a support to what she teaches in the classroom.
I'm excited to see how this unit develops from here! It has started well and we seem to have a good sense of the direction that we want to go in. Stay tuned for more updates!
References:
Daniel, E. (2002, January 31). Two taxonomies of the school library media program. Retrieved February 20, 2009, from http://www.ils.unc.edu/daniel/242/Taxonomies.html
Montiel-Overall, P. (2005). Toward a theory of collaboration for teachers and librarians [Electronic version]. School Library Media Research, 8.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Pre-Planning
Hello! Welcome!
My name is Beth Ponstein and I am currently working part-time at the Allen Park Public Library while taking classes for my School Library Media Specialist endorsement to the MLS degree. I am looking forward to this collaboration project and wanted to give you a brief introduction.
My teacher partner is Mary Pfruender, who happens to be my mother. She is a third grade teacher at Legacy Christian School in Grand Rapids. She loves to try new things and has even become a little more daring in her use of technology in her classroom despite working as a teacher for over 20 years. I chose her because she wants to revamp some of her units and I thought this would be a great project to help her do that.
I am a little nervous about this project because I have never done anything like it before. Usually I have developed units on my own for my own teaching and have never done it with someone else. I hope that I can be open to what her thoughts are as well as mine. I'm also a little nervous to do it at such a distance. Mary is learning new things with her computer all the time and the wiki will be a completely new program for her. I hope that I can help her with the technology side of it while making a productive unit for her.
I think the biggest strength that I bring to this process is my organization. I like to have everything ready to go and in order. I think this will help to make this process go more smoothly since we will not meet face to face. I hope this will also come through in the actual unit to make it easy to follow and understand.
Thanks for visiting and hopefully I will have a lot of updates on how our unit is coming!
My name is Beth Ponstein and I am currently working part-time at the Allen Park Public Library while taking classes for my School Library Media Specialist endorsement to the MLS degree. I am looking forward to this collaboration project and wanted to give you a brief introduction.
My teacher partner is Mary Pfruender, who happens to be my mother. She is a third grade teacher at Legacy Christian School in Grand Rapids. She loves to try new things and has even become a little more daring in her use of technology in her classroom despite working as a teacher for over 20 years. I chose her because she wants to revamp some of her units and I thought this would be a great project to help her do that.
I am a little nervous about this project because I have never done anything like it before. Usually I have developed units on my own for my own teaching and have never done it with someone else. I hope that I can be open to what her thoughts are as well as mine. I'm also a little nervous to do it at such a distance. Mary is learning new things with her computer all the time and the wiki will be a completely new program for her. I hope that I can help her with the technology side of it while making a productive unit for her.
I think the biggest strength that I bring to this process is my organization. I like to have everything ready to go and in order. I think this will help to make this process go more smoothly since we will not meet face to face. I hope this will also come through in the actual unit to make it easy to follow and understand.
Thanks for visiting and hopefully I will have a lot of updates on how our unit is coming!
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