Digital School Solutions

Blog entry posted March 30th, 2010 by Rhys Daunic

During the 2009-2010 school year I have been consulting at Franklin K. Lane High School, where I've been helping teachers create units of study that integrate technology resources into their curriculum. Within that framework the administration and I established a long-term goal to help the English Language Learner (ELL) populuation develop "real-world" communication skills, and pass the New York State Regents Exams.

Recently, Dan Storchan, who is managing our team of consultants at DSS, came to visit me in action. When Dan saw students creating online tutorials for their integrated algebra regents exam using Voicethread, he discreetly pulled out his Flip video camera and started shooting.  What he captured lead us to develop the following video, where FKL students and their teacher, explain the benefits of this process in their own words.

Our Process

Ms. Fiorletta, a 11-12th grade Math teacher at FKL, was looking for ways to engage her students as they prepared for the NYS Integrated Alegbra Regents Exams.  She mentioned the difficulties in assessing whether some of her English Language Learners (ELLs) were understanding the Math concepts she was teaching because of their difficulty communicating their results and strategies verbally.  She also has a large class, and can't always hear from everyone during a given lesson.  To address these specific challenges, we developed a unit of study together where students practiced math and communication skills simultaneously as "tutorial designers" on Voicethread.

First, students were introduced to strategies for solving Integrated Algebra questions. The teacher uploaded a PDF of a past Regents exam to VoiceThread. Students working in pairs were then assigned a test question to record their solution, along with a description of the strategies they used to solve the problems.

With the laptops, students began the process by photographing solutions to the problems worked out by hand.  Then, through a combination of narration, and "video doodling" on the screen, students explained their strategies and steps for solving each problem. Once their initial solutions and strategies were recorded, students responded to and added to each others' comments, and asked and answered follow-up questions to clarify their thinking and explanations.

Benefits

Alan November describes tech-infused learning experiences where students assume the role of teacher, in his article Students as Contributors. This concept of the students "owning" the learning is a critical concept teachers should consider in developing curricula relevant to today's students.  When I asked students about what they were doing, I was blown away by how they spontaneously articulated concepts November described, and how, in a variety of ways, they found the activity valuable. 

The unit allowed each student to create test prep materials to help prepare them for the Integrated Algebra Regents while also emphasizing media literacy, communication, collaboration and digital citizenship aligned with the National Ed Tech Standards (NETS).  Additionally, the process produced a living digital text-book that is already being shared with other Math classes at Lane, and potentially can be connected with students anywhere.  Because this project lives on the web, students can also archive the project for future test prep activities.

This process also encourages metacognition.  When students share their thought process with an audience, they think about how they think, which can improve their retention of the strategies they are explaining, and how they might approach similar situations in the future.

Recording in Voicethread allowed Ms. Fiorletta to assess student comprehension without the time-crunch of the class period, and respond to student questions or missteps online.  Classmates not only participated as producers but also worked as assessors by providing "warm" and "cool" feedback to each other online.

Thanks to Dan encouraging us to take a closer look through video, Ms. Fiorletta, the students, and I discovered how clearly we were able to put in words what we were witnessing in the classroom -- a vibrant learning experience that brought the "real-world" into FKL High.