Lesson Plan for TPACK Integration

Flipped Classroom – Fractions 2^nd Grade

Section 1 – Details regarding learners, learning outcomes, and assessment

            In a regular lesson plan, this activity will be planned 2^nd or 3^rd after students have been introduced to the concept or as a follow-up activity after being taught the material before. To understand this activity, let me briefly explain what would precede it. If the concept has not been taught before, the students would have been introduced to the concept of fractions through watching a video or two. I would use Khan Academy which does a really great job explaining and reaching students. I would also supplement the Khan Academy fractions video by introducing an interactive video, either though YouTube or a program such as Envision Math by Pearson, depending on what is available and which program the school uses. This would give the students more visual aid as well has hands-on experience before the next activity starts.

            Now that I have explained what preceded my planned activity, I can proceed to describe the activity that would follow it for the purpose of this essay. As mentioned before, this is a lesson over fractions and the activity is planned for 2^nd grade students. The students will be using a program called IXL Learning on desktop computers (https://www.ixl.com/math/grade-2). They will be working on 3 sections; equal parts, identifying the fraction, and halves, thirds, and fourths. Each section will last approximately 5 minutes. By the end of this activity, students should be able to identify equal parts, halves, thirds, fourths, and have a relatively good understanding of how fractions work, even if presented with larger numbers. After each section, students will stop and record their score that is located on the right side of the page by the timer. The students will be provided with a score sheet prior to the start of this activity. This will aid in assessment to give me an indication of their understanding of the concept. I will also be monitoring the students as they work and making note of their progress as they work. Furthermore, after all three sections have been completed, the students will log onto our classroom discussion board and under fractions, write which part they felt most confident about and which part they had most difficulty with. This further aids in assessment and gives the teacher a good indication of how to proceed in guided practice or following lessons involving this subject, for example, what to focus on and how to group students based on individual needs.

Section 2 – Planned events and procedures timeline for activity

            The following is a breakdown of this activity into a timeline of planned procedures:

• ·       This activity follows activity 1 in which the students were introduced to fractions through a video by Khan Academy. They will be seated at individual desktop computers.
• ·        The students will open IXL Learning for 2^nd grade which will already be saved on the desktop computers and should only take a couple of minutes.
• ·         The teacher will have the same website open on the Smart Board to direct the students to the fractions portion of the site. They will be working on W.1, W.2, and W.3. We will open W.1 at the same time and the teacher will leave the page open on the Smart Board to have a visual of the timer. *The teacher will be monitoring the students as they work and making notes of their progress when needed.
• ·         Students will have 5 minutes to work on W.1 (Equal parts). When the time is up, the teacher will inform the class to write down their score on the paper that is provided. When this is done, we will open W.2 (Halves, thirds, and fourths) together and the students will start on the next section. This should take about 6 minutes.
• ·         Students will work on W.2 (Halves, thirds, and fourths) while the teacher walks among them to monitor and make notes of their progress. After 5 minutes, they will stop and write down their score as before. This should take about 6 minutes.
• ·         Students will open W.3 (Identify the fraction) and work on this last section for another 5 minutes while the teacher walks among them to monitor and make notes of progress. After 5 minutes, they will record their score again. This should take about 6 minutes.
• ·        At this point the students will log onto the class discussion board and write under the fractions section, created by the teacher prior to class, which part they felt most confident about and which part they had most difficulty with. The teacher will go around collecting the score sheets while the students write. This should take about 5 minutes.

Section 3 – Reflection Part 1 – Pedagogical Content

            Strategies used to teach the content of this lesson, particularly this activity, includes analogies, demonstrations, illustrations, examples, drill-practice, and self-guided learning. The activity in itself provides every single one of these strategies, with or without teacher’s assistance. It provides analogies such as comparing fractions to pizza slices. This strategy is effective because it helps to connect content knowledge with the student’s every day life experiences. The Khan academy video provides demonstrations, illustrations, and examples that is enhanced by further explanation from the teacher. This strategy is effective because many students are visual learners and providing them with demonstrations, illustration, and visual examples will reach these students much more effectively than lecture alone.

This activity also provides drill-practice and self-guided learning that are both good strategies to use for mathematical concepts. These two strategies in combination is effective because the more students are exposed to fractions in all forms, the better they are able to recognize and calculate these concepts. Enabling the students to work in a self-guided, self-paced learning environment is effective because children learn at different rates and this ensures that every student learns at a pace that is most effective to their individual needs. Most students, especially youngers students, have this preconceived notion that fractions are hard, but these strategies make learning fractions easy and fun.

Section 3 (Continued) – Reflection Part 2 – Technological Pedagogical

            The technology used for this activity is an Internet program called IXL Learning that is preceded by an instructional video through Khan Academy. Since this is a flipped classroom lesson, the video serves as an instructional strategy in which the students receive instruction about the content of the lesson from an outside source that is both visual and auditory. Following the instructional video, the students do independent work, a drill-and-practice strategy, that is also done through the use of technology (IXL.com). Through this program, the students are constantly exposed to all three concepts covered in this lesson. Not only does it provide sufficient practice, but it also provides them with an explanation when they get a question wrong which, in turn, provides further instruction on the concept. The students are also provided with a method to give the teacher feedback on how they felt about each section – a survey of sorts that is immediately available to the teacher in order to plan accordingly for the guided practice that would follow this activity.

            Some of the implications for the classroom as well as the teacher’s instructional strategy that this technology provides include repeated exposure to the content, an immediate progress report, and immediate feedback to use in the guided practice. This allowed me to see right away where my students needed the most help with and I could provide guided practice based on individual needs without wasting time on parts of the content material that my students already know.

            Different classroom management strategies I might need to consider prior to using this technology in my activity are whether my students are computer literate enough to use the program, rules to asking for assistance such as raising their hands, and what to do when they run into technical difficulties.

Section 3 (Continued) – Reflection Part 3 – Technological Pedagogical Content

            The use of this technology enhances the way the content is represented in my activity by providing demonstrations, explanations, illustrations, and analogies of the concept taught. The content of this program demonstrates and illustrates fractions in different forms, what it looks like in picture form as well as written form. It uses analogies such as food and shapes to teach the concept in a way that connects the concept to students’ personal lives (food) and concepts they have learned before (shapes). It also provides them with examples and explanations when they answer incorrectly which gives my students immediate feedback and instruction on areas they experience difficulty with. For these reasons, I think my selection and the pedagogical use of this technology enhances the content of this lesson.

            The use of this technology offers my students practice, immediate feedback, and immediate additional instruction that would otherwise not be possible in a traditional classroom setting. It also provides me as the teacher with immediate feedback in order to adapt guided practice right away to meet individual needs before the lesson ends that would otherwise not be possible until after assessment, usually after a lesson is taught, in a traditional classroom setting.

3D Printing Integration

It is amazing to think how far we have come in the past few of decades. When I was in school, I never imagined something so revolutionary as 3D printing would ever be possible. We went from replicating things we like and creating new things out of scraps of wood, paper, plastic, etc., to the ability to replicate objects and creating new things with a 3D scanner and 3D printer and seeing it transform from nothing into something usable right before our very eyes - All due to the advances in technology. What's next? A printer that can duplicate food? Sounds impossible but 30 years ago 3D printing sounded pretty impossible to me too.

As a teacher, I cannot begin to imagine the possibilities this technology of 3D printing would provide for my students. I believe it would provide excellent opportunities to get students excited and engaged in a valuable, interdisciplinary education experience. As the Smithsonian website mentioned, it will spark student's curiosity and will enable them to build lifelong observation and critical thinking skills.

Thingiverse is a great website with so many ideas and possibilities to integrate 3D printing into the classroom. I had fun exploring some of the different subjects and lesson plans available on the site, especially in Math. I would love, for example, to teach measurement by having my students make their own ruler including the separate parts that represents 1/2 inch, 1/4 inch, and 1/8 inch. Also, creating their own manipulatives for representing ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands would be great! Younger students have a hard time grasping these concepts and I think integrating 3D printing and have them create their own learning tools, making it a personal, hands-on experience, would enhance their learning experience tremendously.

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK)

I was trying to think what my overall impression is about the 5 articles I read concerning the TPCK model. First impression in one word - Overwhelming, but the longer I thought about it and trying to fuse all the information together, I realized it's just and awful lot of words to describe a rather uncomplicated concept: Educate with technology compared to technology becoming the educator. An even better description might be - Effective technological integration.

After reading Mishra & Koehler's article, I understood the TPCK framework and the triad model of the concepts, but only after reading some of the other articles did it really start to make sense. The studies done throughout the articles really helped to see the implications of the TPCK model in practice. Simply introducing technology into the teaching process is not enough. More emphasis needs to be placed on the knowledge needed when integrating technology into what is already known about teaching and combining it into an effective and meaningful lesson. Baring in mind that technology is ever-changing at a much faster rate than subject matter taught in the classroom.

Articles Reflection

These were some pretty interesting reads. I especially enjoyed reading about the new inventions of 2015. I think we will be amazed by the coming inventions over the next 10-20 years. Looking at the statistics from the PBS article, I am amazed at how far we've come since I was in school. Back then, we didn't have computers in school and neither did I have one at home. One out of my 6 subjects in school was typing and this was done on an old fashioned typewriter. Most children today do not even know what that is. I didn't even have my first cellular phone until after I graduated from high school and it was one of those brick phones without a camera, internet access, or color screen. Imagine that! I started learning to work on computers when I got my first job out of high school and that was only the basics on Word and Excel.

Considering my elementary and secondary education, I can relate to much of Michael Apple's point of views and concerns in his article over teaching and technology since it was clearly written around the same time I was in school. At one point he says that "a number of countries, educational officials and policymakers, legislators, curriculum workers, and others have been subject to immense pressure to make the 'needs' of business and industry the primary goals of the school system." Like it's a bad thing. In hindsight, isn't that what education is primarily about? To create successful citizens that make the economy flow in order to create sustainable lives for themselves? One if his other concerns was that teachers will not receive adequate training in the use of computers to effectively use it in the classroom. I think we all know that is not true today. Most schools are doing a fairly great job towards professional development for their teachers which includes technology use in the classroom. When it comes to social literacy, Apple says that possible negative consequences of technology in the classroom includes deskilling and de-powering of teachers. Absolutely not in my opinion. With the emphasis on diversity in today's society, as a teacher, you have the world at your fingertips. With the technology we have available to us now, there is no end to the possibilities, creativity, and enriched education you can bring to your students. In my opinion, there is no deskilling or de-powering of teachers. Quite the opposite. We now have so much more opportunities and resources to become more skilled and empowered and not only does this benefit the teacher, but it leaves our students more skilled and empowered too.

One more thing that I would like to bring up before I quit my rambling is the study about the equivalency of paper versus tablet computer survey data. Although the study found that there is no significant difference between the two methods, I think it is still a very interesting concept. Perhaps a more effective study would have been over testing using the two methods. I think such a study would prove that computer testing is much less time consuming than pencil and paper. I type much faster than I write which leaves me with more time to think and make corrections. That's a plus in my book.

I don't see much drawback, if any, with technology in the classroom. If used correctly, it's an invaluable tool. One major drawback to technology in general includes social inadequacy, but that's a whole different conversation. Michael Apple ended his article with "It is more than a little important that [teachers] question whether the [technology] wagon we have been asked to ride on is going in the right direction [because] it's a long walk back." To this I say, if technology is to be completely eliminated today, teachers will still be teachers, but where would the rest of the world be?