Artifacts

=**__Artifact 1: Lesson Plan Analysis Description and Reflection__**= For this project, my group members and I did a thorough analysis of a lesson plan called Critical Media Literacy: TV Programs. First, we studied the content of the lesson plan. Then, we discussed our view points of how we perceived the lesson plan. We decided things such as, what enhancements could be made, what aspects of Bloom's Taxonomy were fulfilled and how the lesson plan matched up with the NETS standards. Lastly, we wrote up a report together about what the results of our analysis were. Overall, the lesson plan assignment helped me to helped me to gain a better understanding of what a good lesson plan actually contains and sharpened my skills regarding what I believe should be included in a quality lesson plan.

This is a link to the lesson plan that we analyzed [].

=__**Artifact 2: Comic Life Description and Reflection**__=

The Comic Life project that I have created is about the dangers of smoking cigarettes. There are many illustrations that help to depict all of the drawbacks of smoking. This project could be of use in many areas. A teacher could use this project or create their own in a similar manner and use this to teach their students about this subject. This project could also be useful as a project for students from first grade to twelfth grade. This is made possible through Comic Life's diverse levels of functioning. One can create a very simple project in lower grade levels or a very advanced project using all of Comic Life's tools. I think that this would be a very useful tool for my own use in the classroom and the diversity of the tool is one of the main reasons. This is the type of project that helps a teacher to hold the interest of students and this makes it very pedagogically sound in my opinion. As an English teacher I could have my students make a comic strip displaying their understanding of a book that we have read in class, I could have them depict the life of an individual author or even have them illustrate an understanding of certain genre's of literature.

=__**Artifact 3: Digital Story**__= The digital story that I created is an illustration of a song that I wrote about my friend Ryan leaving for the army in relation to the people he is leaving behind. I chose this topic because I thought it would be interesting to include a different aspect of myself in to the project by using my own music and because this topic is something that has deep meaning to myself. I used Photo Story to create my digital story because this tool made it easy for me to include my own music and it is compatible with my PC. I thought that this was a very different and interesting way to tell a story and I enjoyed working on it. If I had more time I would have liked to put more effort into aligning the images better in relation to the music and I would have liked to replace some pictures with better ones. Overall, I am happy that I have learned to use this tool because I think it could be very useful in my teaching career. I think that it would be very interesting as an English teacher to have students act out scenes from a play in their own perspectives and turn them into digital stories.

Learning to use a digital camera is also a very good tool to become familiar with and could be useful in many ways in the classroom. As a teacher I could use it to video tape presentation or class projects and events. I could then show these videos to the students and give them feedback and precise advice on what is good and what can be improved on.

The only drawback that I may see in attempting to use digital storytelling in the classroom is that students may not want to put forth the effort that it takes to reach a final project. I think that this is more of a motivational problem and it is up to the teacher to show the students how exciting and productive a project like this can be. [|PhilipSerpdigital story.wmv] =**__Artifact 4: Public Service Announcement__**= The PSA project that my group and I decided to create was a video depicting a young man, played by myself, who was involved in a drunk driving car accident. We displays the dissapointment of the man and explained some of the negative consequences of this type of behavior. We chose the topic of drunk driving because we felt that this was a topic that everyone could relate to. We have all been witness to the hazards of drunk driving and this helped to motivate real interest and quality work.

I thought that this was a very productive assignment and enjoyed working on it thoroughly. I thought that it was very interesting that it could be so simple to create something like this and it was fun as well. I appreciated the fact that we students could choose our own topic and target the audience of our choice. I think if I were to create another PSA I would take much more time than is available to us as students and truly explore all possibilities. I think that with some experience this could be a very creative tool. I am glad that I learned of yet another quality technology that I could use in the classroom as a teacher. The collaborative learning experience promotes communication skills, group work skills (because this is essential to life), allows students to be decisive and creates a project with many perspectives.

As a high school english teacher, I could have my students do something along the lines of the project we di in class. I would have the students use peotry to exress their PSA project in an interesting and different way. They could also do a PSA about a moral issue that was disscussed in class in reaction to a book we read. The projects would have to be very well monitored to make sure students do not get off task when working on the computers. Students would also have to be monitored when video taping or video tape their projects outside of school. []

=__Artifact 5: Webquest__= Link: [|**http://sitebuilder.yola.com/ide/index.jsp?siteid=8a4986ca2573d1760125754f80f12bee**]

The webquest that I created is a lesson plan geared toward eighth grade english students that makes them analyze a major theme of the book "Tuesdays With Morrie" by Mitch Albom. The students must then interview one of their mentors, similar to the may that Mitch and Morrie met every tuesday and tape record the interview. Finally the students must write a short paper that discusses the book and their interview regarding the meaning of life, followed by their own point of view about what the meaning of life is.

Working on this project was not my favorite of everything we did this year but I do think that webquests could be useful in the classroom. I think next time I would try to make the webquest more visually enticing and try to excite the students further. This project did help me to find another great resource that could be very useful in the classroom. [|www.Yola.com] is a very interesting site that one can create a website on. I think it may be more interesting and engaging for students to start their own website on the Yola website. The most challenging part about this project, or should I say tedious, was that the different sections of the webquest required too much repetition of answers. I Think I would cut the sectrions down to around three or four next time as well.

As an eigth grade English teacher I am not sure I will be using webquests in the classroom. I think that it takes a lot of time to create a webquest, where I could pass out the guidelines for a project to my students and communicate my intentions much better in the classroom. It is not very likely that I will have computers available for all of my students in the classroom at once since I will be teaching in poverty stricken areas. When creating a webquest it is also very important to keep in mind that the websites you choose should be very credible and should not contain links to any material that students should not see.

=**__Enhancing 21st Century Literacy Skills Using Technology__**=

In my career I wish to teach English to high school students or seventh and eighth grade students. The tools that I have learned to use in Edm 300 and those that I was previously aware of can be very useful in helping to enhance literacy skills. The smartboard can be used present writing samples that the classroom as a whole can collaborate in editing and discuss the errors and positive aspects of the sample. Students can also use podcasts where they can read and listen to the reading of literature at the same time. The best way to use technology to enhance literacy skills may be to use interactive blogs. Through a blog, students can be prompted to respond to literature that was read in class and may then also discuss each others responses. This can help to get students actively involved in the material being studied and also gives the teacher a good idea of how the students are progressing and where they need help. It is also important that this type of exercise allows a teacher to see what individual students need more help and which ones are grasping the material better. Lastly, a blog helps a teacher to keep a log of the students progress and the teacher is then able to have a better understanding of how far students have progressed from where they were at the beginning of a semester or year.