Reflecting on my teaching through the SAMR lens.

This week, due to a workshop being held on the SAMR model at Jakarta International School, I had the opportunity to reflect on how I am trying to transform learning through technology. Although I had heard of the SAMR model before online and at a recent conference, I had never really taken the time to reflect on my own practice through the SAMR lens. 

Here is a brief introduction to the SAMR model from a fellow MSU Ed Tech alumni Candace Marcotte:

First of all, I tried to work out what SAMR meant to me and I tried to brainstorm some of the learning engagements I had used in the past and see where they lay on the SAMR continuum. 

For the past 6 years I have been teaching a unit related to Landforms and Natural Disasters. Some were earth science based whilst others were social studies and some a mixture of both. With the SAMR model in mind I reflected on how I have, and still am trying to ensure that my learning engagements are moving from the enhancement stage to the transformational stage. In this table I have shown learning engagements I have previously used when teaching these units and then how I have tried to step IT up to the transformational stage by using more creative and collaborative engagements to enhance student motivation, engagement and success. 

 For me some of the key ideas for transforming learning seem to be creating, collaborating and publishing to a global audience. Obviously, for elementary students we have to take privacy laws in to account even more so, they are not legally supposed to be posting on social media sites so this does restrict access to a global audience and to global collaboration. With that said though, elementary students can still strive to create products that can reach a global audience. They can, under teacher supervision, collaborate globally and thus  transform their own learning making it more meaningful and engaging for them. One example of this was when my class produced a one minute peace video for a global peace project. This impressed my students so much that this could be done, that sitting in Accra, Ghana we could create a video with schools all over the world. Equally engaging for my students was when we were able to Skype the author Cornelia Funke. Although this wasn't redefining learning it is definitely something that was not possible before, Skyping an author in L.A. whose book we are reading in Jakarta, Indonesia.

  One of the most exciting ways I think for elementary students is to create e-books using Book Creator or iBooks Author. My students have found the idea of publishing e-books highly motivating and really makes them really think about the quality of their work, and are a lot more engaged as they realise they really do have to act like writers,  proofreaders and publishers.

I'm going to keep the SAMR model at the forefront of my planning as I get to grips with the opportunities that my new 1:1 laptop class avail to me, and how I and the students can transform learning in my class.  

Here is an excellent graphic that was shared during the workshop at JIS which can help see how different apps can help in leading us all to transform our learning as we move from substitution and augmentation and users of content , rather than modification and redefinition of learning and become creators of content for a global audience. 

http://edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/padagogy-version2.png

Our Writing Process in Grade 4

In Grade 4 we have just come to the end of their first writing unit, 'Launching the Writers' Workshop', following Lucy Calkins' Writers' Workshop model.  To begin our writing journey as 4th graders, we discussed what kinds of things writers write and the purposes of writing. We discussed how writers use tools like Writers Notebooks to help them jot down their ideas for stories. We set up our Writers Notebooks and personalised them. We then did a couple of brainstorming activities (see below) to help us get ideas for memorable topics to write personal narratives about. 

We shared a couple of published personal narratives, including Mr Entwhistle, by Jean Little, and I shared a couple I had written. After brainstorming the students picked one memorable event and wrote about it. 

Then repeated this for several stories and were asked to choose one story they would like to work on with an aim to publishing as an iBook. To help us organise our story and aid us in telling our story, we identified the 4 key point of the story. On a folded booklet we then drew a quick sketch of each of these 4 points. 

The students then used these booklets to tell each other their stories. In doing this they were orally working out the first draft of their story. I modelled the difference between summarising their story, "I went to the beach. We ate ice-cream." and telling a story," Mum, it's so hot," I groaned as I mopped even more sweat from my brow. We had gone on a day trip to the beach, just the three of us, mum, my brother Fred and me."

After they had told their story several times and received feedback on it, the students wrote long and hard getting their first written draft down. To help organise the story into paragraphs, one piece of A4 was used for each diagram they drew so they would have a clear, beginning, middle and end. 

Once they had finished the first draft it was time for editing and revising. 

The students used coloured pens to edit their work. they were encouraged to underline any words they were unsure they had spelt correctly and see if they could come up with alternative spellings. Students were also given writing partners who helped confer with them and helped give suggestions on how to edit and revise their stories.

Mini lessons were taught on how to include dialogue, how to punctuate speech correctly, use of apostrophes and showing not telling. 

Here is an example of how one student revised her work:

Once they had finished their first draft the students typed up their stories in Google Docs. 

 Using Google Docs allows the teacher and other classmates to highlight text and comment on the story and give constructive feedback. 

The revision history feature also means that the student and teacher can go back and clearly see what revisions and edits have been made and when.

Once they had finished editing and revising the students drew illustrations for their books. These were then photographed and emailed to them. They then copied and pasted their story and inserted their photos into iBooks Author to make a very professional looking and quick to make iBook.  

We then shared our stories on iPads with a Grade 3 class and shared the iBooks with our parents.