Carrying Out My GAME Plan: Resources & Tools

In my previous post, I discussed my initial GAME plan for strengthening my practice in the area of technology integration.  I decided to focus specifically on the area of “engaging students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources” and “promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative process” (ISTE, 2008).  At this stage, it is important to consider the resources and information I will need to carry out my GAME plan.

I have already begun to research viable website that would support my efforts to bring more real-world, authentic applications to the Literature of my curriculum.  One website that I believe would provide a direct link to a real world issue in connection with two of the texts we read is called MyHero.com.  This website is devoted to raising awareness of the heroes that walk or have walked among us in an effort to inspire every day citizens to rise up to meet the challenges presented in today’s world.  Both novels I read in the first marking period tackle this concept of what defines a hero and the challenges a hero faces on their journey.  This website houses a variety of multi-media tools that will allow me to facilitate this unit.  The website offers a plethora of sample webpages created by students that focus on a particular hero and their attributes.  The website contains tutorials on how to create a webpage, articles devoted to various topics around the main focus of heroes, and benchmark lessons that will help students to think more deeply about their selections and enhance their writing. 

Throughout the unit I am developing geared towards Heroes, I will need to provide opportunities for students to collaborate and reflect on their process.  Students will need regular access to both a computer and the internet to conduct the research on their hero, consult the MyHero.com website, construct the content of their webpage. Collaboration can be made possible using Turnitin.com which students are already familiar with to aid in discussion among peers.  Turnitin.com’s discussion board feature can be used as a forum for students to share their ideas, obstacles, and help each other to discover new ways to address the obstacles they are encountering.  I can also use Turnitin.com as a formative assessment tool where students submit evidence of certain checkpoints or benchmarks in their work progress.  This will allow me the opportunity to adjust instruction as needed depending on the outcome of the work submitted.  Finally, Turnitin.com can be used for Reflection both during the process and at the end of the process in order enhance metacognitive thinking opportunities.  Everything students submit through Turnitin.com can be initially developed using Google applications that allow for student choice in format including hyperlinks, images, tables, etc.  Google has a direct relationship with Turnitin.com which makes it easy for students to upload to Turnitin.com directly from their Google Drive. 

I am excited to explore this GAME plan authentically with my students in order to see who motivated they are to think about this real-world concept and tackle the technology learning opportunities I am setting before them. 

References:

Standards for Teachers. (2008).  Retrieved July 15, 2015, from

http:  http://www.iste.org/standards/ISTE-standards/standards-for-teachers.