During the lesson, I noticed that there were various aspects that proved to be challenging for some teams. I would attribute most of these difficulties to lack of needed input and modeling prior to lesson activities. Nevertheless, the lesson was designed to be at the end of a unit where the necessary input would have been taught over a 1-2 week period in a real 4th grade classroom.
During the lesson itself, we simply reviewed. Subsequently, there were several questions and much needed help for many teams. Had this been the outcome of a real 4th grade classroom (even after the 1-2 week unit), certainly there would be cause for much concern because all the students wouldn't have gotten it. The modification to the instruction came in the form of guidance, assistance, and answers for those teams who needed the help as Mindea and I facilitated the activities.
For example, we did not anticipate that Google Earth would not be loaded on the technology lab computers. When students asked if they were supposed to download the program, we weren't sure if that would be permitted, so we modified instruction by routing students to another resource to located information. Some teams took the initiative, and just downloaded the program. Both ways provided answers to the scavenger hunt questions.
The Internet resources handout that was included in the "bag 3" also was slightly modified. Instead of referring to the handout (some teams did), we directed students to specific websites verbally.
Artifact 1: Internet resources handout
Another "during instruction" modification was the use of the KWL chart. Its original intent was to understand what the class knew about maps so we could clarify anything prior to the activities; however, it did not really fit the whole lesson because the lesson was an end-of-unit and the KWL chart seems more like something to use the first day of the unit. Therefore, we nix going back to the chart to complete it at the end of the lesson because it was out-of-place and didn't serve its intended purpose.
Artifact 2: Partially completed KWL chart
Assessment of Learning:
We used two forms of assessment 1) the scavenger hunt worksheet 2) technology/team work rubric. In regards to the scavenger hunt worksheet, there was one question (question # 5) that caused a lot of confusion for the majority of the teams. The question was: What Arizona city's latitude and longitude is 33.10 N/ 115.00 W. When students entered the latitude and longitude they ended up in a mountainous region. The immediate picture did not show a city. Since only two out of six teams got the answer correct. We decided to remove the question from the assessment and not deduct points for getting it incorrect.
Artifact 1: Google Earth Link
We considered giving the bonus points to the two teams who got it correct, but decided against it because it was an after thought and not presented to the students before hand. It seemed unfair.
The technology/team work rubric was a little more difficult to grade....well yes and no. It was difficult in the sense that some teams did not score as high as we would have liked, and we had to put the lower grade on the rubric...that was the hard part. We would have liked all students to score 100%. All students got a score of either an A or B on the combined assessments. The majority of the B's came from the technology/team work rubric.
Artifact 2: Grade book scores with student names removed
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