My Technology Lesson Plan & Supplemental Materials

For my final project in Educational Technology, I designed a standards-based, 9th grade English Language Arts lesson called "Finding Your Fairytale." I'll include the complete plan and some supplementary materials in this post. 

Lesson Plan

This lesson applies the knowledge students learned about fairy tales into an online, interactive project. Students will analyze how fairy tales change over time and through different mediums by exploring the website, Finding Your Fairytale. They will evaluate which fairy tale characters resonate with them and why, will create an online profile on which they upload an avatar of themselves in character-appropriate costume that puts their own spin on the character, and will write about connections between the character's story and their own life. Finally, the class will review each other's work and will review each other's work and leave affirmative comments. 

The purpose of this project is for students to see themselves in the cultural stories that resonate with them. They will consider how fairy tales teach problem-solving, resilience, courage, and independence, and are not just about the "happily ever after." They will connect their lives to a fairy tale that matters to them and reflect on how the tale teaches a life skill that they struggle with or have recently learned. Finally, this project teaches empathy and community-building by asking students to share their profiles with the class and respond to each other's projects in writing with compassion and humor.

EDUC2220-LessonPlan-MarlaineBrowning by Anonymous tOLHHCbnR2 on Scribd

Supplemental Materials

My 3-part "Finding Your Fairytale: My So-Called Fairytale Life" project prompts: 

Finding Your Fairytale, Part 1: Website Analysis
Finding Your Fairytale, Part 2: Create a Profile for My So-Called Fairytale Life
Finding Your Fairytale, Part 3: Share & Respond to Classmate's Profiles

My pre-assessment review game and quiz:
KAHOOT! REVIEW GAME: "Once Upon a Time: Fairytale History"
QUIZ: "Once Upon a Time: Fairytale History"

One sample journal prompt from SeeSaw:
SEESAW JOURNAL ENTRY: "Pixar's Boundin' & Fairytales"

I'm including the 3-part project prompts because these are the core of the lesson. I was originally inspired to design this lesson based on the incredible work done by Angie Kupper to create the site Finding Your Fairytale. The purpose of this site is for adults to see themselves in story, and to create a map for themselves to overcome a particular life challenge. The site has garnered lots of well-deserved attention and I hope others continue to peruse its magical pages. For me, I wanted to bring a project like this to kids, and make it something that connects mental health, story, and community-building.

My Kahoot! game is a fun way to review fairy tale history using one of my favorite ed tech apps. It's a great way to engage kids in teams using technology. But it's also just a wonderful old-fashioned way to teach them content! Sure, students come for the game element, but they stay for the learning. Or rather, the learning stays with them. I follow the game with an online quiz using Google Forms which automatically curates and grades this low-stakes assessment. Sure, I will review the answers for partial credit or misspellings, but it's also nice to give students feedback and not grade All The Things when my time can be better spent in other ways.

Finally, I recently discovered SeeSaw in an Adolescent Literature class. It's a good resource for journal entries and activities. Student responses can be shared with the class on a "whiteboard" space, or kept private so only the teacher sees it. The mechanics are a little clunky, but it works for now and I'm willing to use it until I find another product I prefer.

Overall, this lesson is a personal project combining many of my loves -- fairy tales, writing, empowering student voices, creativity, and building self-efficacy. I hope you enjoy!

Reflections on My Future Tech-rich Classroom

This week, my Educational Technology assignment is to reflect on some question prompts and respond here. This is a great way to put together what I've learned this semester and consider how I might apply it in the future.

How do I envision a technology-rich classroom?

I envision a blended classroom. While my priority is in-person learning for the plethora of social skills we can learn from each other, I imagine using technology every day in and out of the classroom. As a future English-Language Arts (ELA) teacher, my priority is teaching reading, writing, communication, and language-oriented critical thinking skills.

While literature is a big part of ELA, I can also teach it through many tech-rich mediums such as audiobooks, films, apps, and website research. I intend to incorporate technology in presentation tools such as Google Slides or Prezi; reading tools for differentiated learners; collaborative tools such as book groups with other schools using video chats; gaming and testing systems like Kahoots or Quizlet; and virtual reality tools like Google Expedition.


What age group will I teach and what unique issues will this age range face regarding integrating technology in their education? 

When I graduate, I will be qualified to teach grades 7-12 ELA. I'm most interested in public or free laboratory schools as this was my school experience. One benefit to teaching adolescents is that they typically have their first phone or tablet and are very socially-oriented, so there are many options available to teachers who want to maximize the technology experience.

Some of the challenges would involve keeping students on task and dealing with budgeting issues in the school system or personal lives of my students. I do not assume that every student has regular access to WiFi or a personal device to use outside the classroom.

To offset these challenges, I imagine assigning specific roles to each student for group work or other social experiences. I will also try to not assign homework that requires technology unless I'm sure every student has consistent access to the tech tools they would need.

What technology have I learned about that I believe enhances learning? What tech am I still wary of? What excites me and frustrates me about the technology?

While I use technology every day for my education and personal use, I still believe there are some limitations. Access is always an issue, and I want to keep this in mind when choosing tech for my classroom. Also, I haven't yet seen technology that masterfully walks students to the highest learning levels of Bloom's technology. I don't expect tech to do this -- after all, this is what I'm trained for -- but as a tool it's important to realize that technology doesn't replace the teacher or classroom experience for the highest order thinking skills.

I suppose I should say tech doesn't replace the teacher YET, but honestly I don't believe tech will fully replace human relationships in education. The more we learn about human development and psychology, the more we realize about the complex interactions happening between people on a subconscious or micro-level, and I see this as valuable for our development, even as artificial intelligence and virtual reality become increasingly sophisticated.

I will end with what excites me about technology, which is just about everything! Technology is an excellent tool for enhancing student engagement, motivation, the elaboration of learning, deepening understanding, and to explore parts of the world inaccessible to students given the reality of field-trip budgets. Technology builds bridges across disciplines and allows students to work on group projects asynchronously. I'm especially excited about developments in cloud computing, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and the varied options for differentiated learning. I look forward to my teaching adventures with technology!

Classroom Design

This week's task asks us to use Classroom Architect to design a technology-rich classroom in our subject area. For my design, I focused on design principles recommended by the article, "Four Key Elements of 21st Century Classroom Design" that we read for class.

First, I want flexibility in my classroom. Therefore, I focused on moveable workstation tables. I imagine every day utilizing the whiteboard and media screen (with ceiling-attached projector) and small group work. To meet this need, I organized the tables and seating so every student can easily see the screen and are already in small groups. Students will work on laptops/tablets at their tables so there's no need for additional computer stations. When we have a Socratic Seminar or a large-group conversation we can move the tables into a central "conference table" configuration. Or, if all students should be facing forward for an extended length of time, such as if they are watching a film, we can push tables into two long rows facing the screen.

Another quality of 21st century classroom design is furniture designed for differentiated needs. The white squares represent chairs but an exercise ball, wheelchair, or other seating option could just as easily replace a few traditional chairs. I also added two beanbag chairs in case students want to have a different seating option under the window. Moreover, student tables are more functional than rigid, individual desk-chair combinations. As a lefty, I always hated the right-oriented desks and always had to fight the other left-handed students for the single left-oriented desk or drag a second right-oriented desk up to my left side. Now we acknowledge so much additional student learning needs and should accommodate these needs in classroom design.

Technology integration and flexibility is essential. Tech in the classroom is here to stay, but the delivery method changes every decade. While computer stations were cutting edge 20 years ago, now most students have laptops or tablets and there's no need to leave space for bulky desktop stations. I already mentioned I imagine using a projector and screen and want to leave room for this. However, I want the screen to double as my whiteboard or smartboard.

Finally, a 21st century classroom should be light-filled. Many schools have a wall of windows built in to their design but it's not in every classroom. I designed a classroom with windows for natural light and put my desk, beanbag chairs, and a student table near the window for this benefit. Why put my desk under the window? Why not put a second student table? Because I'm highly responsive to natural sunlight and need to "recharge" at different times during the day when I'm not teaching. If I'm at my best in terms of mental health, then I can be my best self as a teacher. For classrooms that don't have much (or any) natural lighting, schools are utilizing more natural-ish lighting with lamps versus the harsh overhead fluorescents.


Overall, the key principle in my classroom design is flexibility. I want to have the ability to change as new research about student learning needs changes.